Massive spoilers ahoy.
With The Division 2 heading to New York City in the upcoming expansion, I figured it was as good a time as any to go back and get up to speed on the story of The Division and where we are now. This is comprehensive and probably misses a few minor beats. Otherwise everything important should be here.
The Division
The Division takes place in New York City following the events of a biological terrorist attack involving a strain of smallpox being spread using cash on Black Friday in 2015. Emergency responders attempted to quarantine the virus to Manhattan Island which received the brunt of the viral outbreak, and failed. Higher emergency powers were brought in to contain the virus and deal with the panic and increasing crime rates, and failed. Finally the government brought in the Strategic Homeland Division, a secret ops organization of trained citizens who live normal lives until activated. The Division is meant to be a last ditch answer.
They failed.
This is where the game starts. The players take the role of the second wave of Division agents brought in to clean up the mess. In addition to your bog standard rioters, New York City is now the battleground for the kind of factions you might expect to see on a Saturday morning cartoon.
The Rikers are a group of convicts from (where else?) Rikers Island that escaped during the panic and have set their sights back on Manhattan to gain power by taking over the city. Division agents successfully recaptured territory held by the Rikers, ultimately ending in the death of Rikers leader LaRae Barret. On the other end of the spectrum you have the Cleaners. The Cleaners want to get rid of the virus, and they are going to burn anything and everything suspected of carrying it with their big flamethrowers.
Finally we have the Last Man Battalion, a private military contractor led by Charles Bliss. The LMB were brought in to Manhattan to protect Wall Street Assets during the outbreak, but when things really went south they were abandoned in the city and basically left for dead. Convinced that the virus will be the end of the civilized country, the LMB decides that the best course of action is to take over Manhattan themselves. Allying with rogue agents from the first Division wave, the LMB does just that. For a while, until the second wave Division agents kill Charles Bliss with the organization falling apart shortly after.
Those seeking punishment for the ultimate baddy were sorely out of luck, as the trail of “who created the virus” led to Dr. Gordon Amherst, who is dead by the time we see him. While all this is going on, the Division agents are clued in to a new threat: Agent Aaron Keener, a member of the first Division wave who went rogue.
Second wave Division agents are tasked with rescuing Dr. Vitaly Tchernenko, an operation that fails when Keener kidnaps Tchernenko and escapes with him to an unknown location. The Division ends with Keener still at large and Tchernenko out of Division hands.
The Division 2
The Division 2 takes place seven months after the outbreak in New York City, with the virus spreading to Washington D.C. and you won’t believe it but everything has fallen into chaos there as well.
Washington D.C. has been taken over by three factions. The Hyenas are composed of various gangs, the Outcasts are a group hell-bent on revenge after they were quarantined to Roosevelt Island and became infected with the Dollar Flu, and the True Sons who are a group of traitors that turned on their former employment by the government. Oh and the President has gone missing in a plane crash and is probably dead. Oh and the Division’s network was routed through D.C. and is now offline nationwide.
The gist of The Division 2 revolves around working to bring the Division network back online, restoring communications. Through capturing territory and completing missions, the Division learns that the President survived the crash of Air Force One and was taken hostage by the Hyenas. The President is eventually rescued and divulges that a vaccine for the Dollar Flu exists and is in D.C., but is in the hands of the True Sons. Agents eventually take down the leaders of the three factions and bring some semblance of organization back to the chaos.
And that’s when the fire nation attacked.
Well something. Just as the player liberates the map and drives the various major factions into hiding, the entirety of D.C. is invaded by a new threat; the military contractor Black Tusk. D.C. is seized in almost no time at all and President Ellis goes missing. Again. Player agents go through and slowly liberate Washington D.C. once again, now from the heavily armed and well-fortified Black Tusk.
Along the way we learn that President Ellis handed over the antivirals to the Black Tusk and is a traitor. The antivirals are recovered in an assault on the Black Tusk headquarters, but the President escapes and is still at large.
Where Are We Now?
The latest episodic update to The Division 2 has players traveling to Coney Island and rescuing Dr. Tchernenko from The Division. At the end of the mission we see none other than Aaron Keener himself who has returned to New York City and has taken over Lower Manhattan with his squad of rogue agents.
This sets the stage for The Division 2’s upcoming expansion: Warlords of New York. Set for launch in March, Warlords of New York will take Division agents back to New York City where they will presumably take out his lieutenants one by one. Hopefully this time around we will be able to take care of Keener once and for all. Only time will tell.
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