I've played a lot of the Division with some GB Destiny people last weekend and it seems like we (and the internet at large) has mastered the gameplay loop of the dark zone in a couple of days.

In the dark zone you run around from landmark to landmark looking for mobs. The mobs and named mobs spawn in fixed locations but aren't there at least half the time you go to any one of those locations. That might be due to random spawning or some other player(s) already having cleared that spot recently. When you get enough loot you extract it.

If you want DZ money to buy some good gear(the best in the beta) you kill mobs and hope for the around 40% 30-60DZ$ drop. You can also kill other players (rogue or not) and get a lot of money that way. It's kinda risky but not really. The penalty for dying, even as a rogue, is minor in the grand scheme of things.

Finally, named mobs drop keys you can open loot chests with. Those chests spawn in fixed locations and were bugged in the beta. All that stuff is way more game-y and standard MMO than the promised tense and dangerous experience of this obscure part of the city.

Can anyone point me to an interview at least eluding to there being more to this mode or the end game in general? I feel like the consensus is that the DZ is the only end game content and if that's true and the mode is just the same gameplay loop as in the beta but in a bigger map I could see this thing getting very old, very fast.

The map sections had recommended levels so i assume the DZ will be used through out the game, but I agree i hope there is some kind of questing/structure around the DZ rather than just farming.

I think (and I'm probably wrong on this), but I think the beta Dark Zone was focused primarily on showing how the PvP and that area will generally work in the full (base) game. I don't know if there's more to it, but I remember them saying that they heavily restricted many elements of the beta just to show off the basics.

Haven't read anything concrete, but it seems more than likely the game will have some repeatable "dungeony" areas with mandatory coop against harder mobs.

@indure: That seems cool. I hope all of it has matchmaking. One of the things I enjoyed about the beta is that Everything had matchmaking.

I would hope all the end game content isn't PVP stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di_3u0B11pA talks about mutli group activities/raids, info culled from multiple sources. But nothing official yet.

@mosdl: That kind of wild speculation only sets you up for disappointment. I guess we'll know for sure when the reviews hit but if they had that kind of content, they would be talking about it.

Surprises are fine but hiding a major feature and selling point of their game is not what publishers do.

The Gold Edition of the game is $100 USD, so that looks like a $40 season pass. Ubisoft briefly outlined their DLC plans for a year's worth of content during the recent closed beta, and most of it mentioned co-op content. Most people will be at the level 30 cap when the first batch of DLC is out, so I'm assuming that post-release content will be endgame focused. There could also be more leveling content if they decide to raise the level cap.

The devs said the DZ as it was in the beta is not the DZ you'll find in the final release. There will basically way more stuff in there, like roaming elite groups and actual missions. When you reach the max level, the DZ zones will change to 'end game' mode.

I don't care about 'end game' at all to be honest. I would be totally fine with spending 30/40 hours to reach max level and then that be it and head on to the next game. People nowadays wanting an 'end game' out of every game, like they pay some subscription every month to play it (especially the case for Destiny).

Having said that I'm sure there will be some 'raid content' that I can't ever play, because you need 7 other people that play at the very same time and you need to coordinate every move with them. I'm too casual for that I'm afraid..

Right with you. "End Game Content" - aka a raid you have to coordinate with a large group for, to throw yourself at a super hard enemy that takes 5 hours and dozens of attempts to beat, is not fun.

I don't want or need this to be Destiny. The Division should be at its best when you're with a small group of friends and taking on some co-op challenges that don't require days of planning and the hive-mind of the internet to come up with a working strategy.

Those are already confirmed to be in the game. When you reach the level cap (30) and complete the main game you get access to lvl 30 version of all story missions with appropriate rewards. Those are your coop challenges for a small group.

Not sure why the inclusion of more involved raid like activities would detract from your experience. I think RPGs and action RPGs are at their best when you have something to work towards. When the loot, the upgrades and all that stuff are a mean to complete a very hard activity or kill a particularly hard optional boss. That stuff is there for those of us who want to master the game but it doesn't detract from anyone's experience because it's optional. The legendary ships in assassin's creed 4, the optional bosses in final fantasy games and the raids in destiny are all great examples of that concept.

@pyrodactyl: Well, because in the case of Destiny, they designed the game so that you work towards the raid content (getting the gear required to participate). But if you can't do raid content, then the game comes to a very early conclusion. Why should I invest more time in getting the gear for the raid when I can't do the raid to begin with?

I rather have them create more content that is just harder (in a fun way) for a normal sized group, instead of them creating 'raids' where suddenly everything is different because you need that many more people.

The 'elite Dark Zone' they talked about should cover my needs, though. So I'm fine with raid content whenever there is an alternative for us non-raiders : )