Who knew a quick trip to Boots could cause the downfall of civilization? To get you in the mood for The Division, Ubisoft have released Collapse, a simulator that aims to show you the fragility of society. Fun.
Collapse is free to play in your browser, and you can check it out here. You play as patient zero, afflicted with a nasty disease. You can use your own address and local area to show you how quickly you can fuck the world up by walking to your doctors or pharmacy, and the game delights in telling you how many people you infected on your way.
It’s a nice (if slightly terrifying) touch being told to go to familiar locations from your own neighborhood to avoid looters and rioting – although that’s really just another day in Nottingham for me.
Ubisoft said:
Based on Open Street Map, NASA open source data and IATA Flight routes, with input from emergency risk specialists and public service employees, Collapse features more than 3800 cities worldwide, home of 95% of the population. The user can compare different scenarios by choosing another epicenter or by making different choices in the simulator, and find the most vulnerable and the safest cities.
The simulator is of course based on the story of The Division, which takes place in a mid-crisis New York that’s been devastated by a deadly fictional virus named Variola Chimera.
If Collapse manages to whet your appetite for some viral shenanigins, you can pick up The Division from March 8 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.