The Division's Virus Simulator Infecting A City Near You
Time to die
Hey there, chum! Need something new to fuel your paranoid survivalist fantasies, a new excuse to buy a machete and 300 cans of beans or to see other people as mere obstacles on your path to a long and miserable life? I've got just the thing for you.
Inspired by the doomsday scenario of The Division [official site], Ubisoft have released a wee simulator that'll let you see your very own city fall into chaos as a virus spreads and death tolls mount. For me, it does look like a grim Edinburgh Festival Simulator as bodies start piling up in The Stand Comedy Club.
Collapse is a browser-based thingamy which'll show the spread of a hypothetical virus through a city you love (or hate). If it's in the database. Give Collapse an address and it'll pull up real street maps and other data sources to show how things will fall apart there - and how your decisions could affect it. Events will play out in real shops, hospitals, streets, and comedy clubs. By which I mean orange dots will appear and numbers will go up. Then it spreads to other cities and... I'll not spoil the sunny ending.
Why not celebrate the launch of a game with a nice bit of doom and gloom? Share your best times with your pals! Oh, it's just so dramatic. Everyone you know and love will die one day, you know. But possibly not as orange dots, and possibly not all within a few days.
Just think of the damage one Festival flyerer on the Royal Mile could do in 24 hours. None, is how much, as crowds part around them as if repelled by magnetism, and even hands begrudgingly outstretched to accept flyers for improv comedy shows about the novels of Jane Austen as recreated by Picard and pals on a Star Trek holodeck will somehow fail to close around the paper, letting it fall harmlessly to the floor.
Anyway, The Division is due out on March 8th. Adam played the shooter RPG recently and told us all about it.
Collapse has reminded me of ReRoll - created by some former Ubisoft folks, actually - and its plan to scan the world with drones and turn it into a survival action-RPG. We haven't heard from that wild dream in a while. The latest dev update is from December 2014, and they have since made a different game.