When Ubisoft first revealed that Tom Clancy’s The Division Resurgence would be strictly a mobile game, many fans of the franchise felt betrayed. For years, Ubisoft promised that a phone companion app would be coming to work alongside The Division and The Division 2.

Sadly, Ubisoft never followed through with that promise. Instead, it seems they have taken their time developing a standalone Division title for mobile devices.

Now, almost a year since the initial announcement, Ubisoft has revealed more information about Tom Clancy’s The Division Resurgence and given select gamers the chance to play it. We have been called into action. Here is our time with The Division Resurgence.

While attending the Ubisoft Forward during Summer Game Fest, I had the opportunity to preview The Crew Motorfest, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and what was arguably the one I was most curious about, Tom Clancy’s The Division Resurgence.

Going in, I was very skeptical about the overall gameplay experience of playing a shooter on a mobile device. After trying Gears of War 5, Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG Mobile, and APEX Legends Mobile, I have become fairly pessimistic about playing shooters on mobile devices.

In all these cases with mobile spinoffs of popular franchises, whether on Wifi or mobile data, either there was significant lag, awkward controls, or low-quality graphics.

How It Played

Going into Tom Clancy’s The Division Resurgence, I was expecting similar issues. Shockingly, we did not deal with that many issues. The only issue we did deal with was lag at the beginning while trying to set up, otherwise, it was seamless gameplay.

The biggest issue we faced was actually the depth of view. Aiming down sights felt more like a challenge rather than a helpful tool. So for the majority of my time with the game, I used the crosshairs to aim. This could be due to playing on a phone when I usually play on at least a 19-inch monitor. This is something that needs more fine-tuned before the game’s release.

For the demo, we had the choice to play with either the phone’s tap controls or use a controller. Everyone else in the group chose to use the tap features, but I stuck with a controller. Now, using the controller could very easily be what caused the difficulty with seeing the enemies on screen at times, but it could have been the game itself.

With the controller, the game was still responsive to commands and allowed us to do what we were trying to do. In the footage, you can see the button commands on the screen as well as the controller layout.

On mobile, the game ran consistently at 30 FPS on high settings. For a beta, the game looked pretty well polished but could use some finishing touches like cell shaders to make certain objects look more realistic.

Ultimately, when the game comes out, I will most likely be broadcasting it to my TV to play rather than playing on a mobile device. It is expected that slightly after the game launches, an APK of it will end up on PC for PC players to enjoy.

The Demo

For the Tom Clancy’s The Division Resurgence demo, we were sent off to meet Moss at the Water Distribution Facility in New York. In order to show off the game, the Ubisoft team gave us level 16 characters with already strong equipment.

Once at the water facility, we set out to see what was wrong with the water supply and discovered that there was an issue with the valves. Turns out, the valve issue was not a natural one but instead was a forced one. Turns out, the cleaners were making Napalm. Sadly, we had to take out a Kowalski in order to save the water distribution facility.

Lena Kowalski (not Leann Kowalski) was no slouch covered in armor and wielding a flame thrower. While one of us distracted the boss, the others shot at the fuel tanks from behind. All the core gameplay mechanics from the two games were present in the mobile version.

For the second part of our time with the game, we were able to run around New York and see how much detail was put into the game. The mobile version of the game was still fun to play like its PC and console counterparts.

We look forward to seeing how Tom Clancy’s The Division Resurgence does once it is fully released. At the moment, there is no official release date for the game but it is scheduled for Fall of 2023. The game will be available through Google Play and the Apple Store.

You can register now for it. With almost everyone having smartphones, it makes sense that Ubisoft would want to appeal to as big of a market as possible. We can see why the core fan base is upset though, since it is almost forsaking them.