The Division has been one of the biggest hits of the year so far and one of the things that stand out the most from the game is its setting. The game takes place in New York during the winter months and is recreated in stunning and beautiful detail. Ubisoft have done a terrific job visualizing what a major city would look like if a virus were to be unleashed and the devastation and the collapse of society that would follow. But how closely does The Division’s New York resemble the real thing?
It’s clear from looking at videos and images of the game, as well as playing it that The Division’s New York looks pretty accurate. It includes all of the cities major landmarks including Madison Square Garden, Time Square and even the Empire State Building.
However one Reddit user, Feanauro, decided to see just how accurate the virtual New York is to its real life counterpart by overlaying a number of the game’s important locations and missions via Google Maps. On Google Maps, Feanauro has also added the locations of safe houses as well as outlining the Dark Zone, although he notes that he couldn’t recreate the Dark Zone border due to some inconsistencies or visual anomalies such as the aspect ratio of some DZ landmarks seeming unnatural.
Still, he’s done a pretty great job of adding all of the in-game locations. Feanauro also noted that Ubisoft have simplified parts of New York in The Division, for example some streets in the real New York don’t exist in the game.
There’s a possibility that Feanauro will add neighbourhoods as well as resource locations such as weapon parts, tools, fabric and electronics to the map at a later date however he has ruled out adding boss locations as there are already several good maps to use. He also won’t be adding side missions as they show up in game at different stages for everyone depending on their progress within the game.
From looking at the map that has been created, it’s clear that Ubisoft have done a great job of making an accurate recreation of New York City. It’s great to be able to see how closely our in-game versions of certain real-life locations match up and in this case they are pretty close. It’s not until you get to see the map though that you realise what a small part of New York we are actually playing in although there are several locked locations which players can access through glitches which look like they will be used for DLC, so expect the playable area of New York to increase in the future.
Click here to visit Feanauro’s map of The Division compared to the real life version.
