Ubisoft's upcoming Tom Clancy action RPG, The Division, will allow players to forage for food and water - though it won't be needed to survive. What it can be used for is a valuable trading resource, used to extract more useful items from fellow survivors in an America decimated by disease.
"Consider that our game is a lot about the fall of society, and things that we take for granted in our everyday life such as clean water and food, they suddenly become scarce resources in the game," design director Axel Rydby told Official Xbox Magazine. "Not only do you actually have to go out and look for food and water, but [they] become very valuable and rare resources that can be used to trade and stuff like that. But when it comes to having to drink water and eat food to be able to survive, that's not really what we want from it. Food and water will be a very important part of the game, but players will not need to eat and drink to stay alive."
Instead, players will start the game with very limited resources, and its then up to them to explore the game's open world to find more useful items. "When we start the game, the player's character only has his go-bag with him, right?" explains Rydby. "That's the only thing he can really bring with him. In that go-bag he roughly has 72 hours of supplies, he's got his weapons and his gear, and that's what he starts with. Then when moving throughout the world, it's going to be a lot about looting and acquiring new gear as you progress. We're focusing a lot on the RPG aspects of the game since we are very much an RPG, so acquiring loot and gearing up your character is going to be a very big part of the game."
The Division is due at the end of 2014 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.