The Division's Last Stand expansion comes out tomorrow

Ubisoft has announced that the Last Stand expansion for its end-of-New York shooter The Division will be available for download tomorrow, as either the third and final part of the game's season pass, or a standalone DLC purchase. The 1.6 update, which will be free for all players, will be rolled out at the same time, as will a new trial mode that will give undecided gamers full access to the action for either six hours of play, or until they hit level 8. 

In Last Stand, the situation in the Dark Zone has spun so far out of control that the Joint Task Force was forced to withdraw from the affected areas. But they left behind "tactical terminals" filled with important information that rogue agents are now moving to capture. Your job, as we talked about last month, is to join a team of eight and go to war over those terminals in "instanced competitive" combat against another team, while still dealing with normal PvE enemies on the map. 

"Last Stand introduces players to a new way of experiencing the Dark Zone through a session-based adversarial game mode featuring clear objectives and win conditions while incorporating key elements of the Dark Zone such as PvE enemies and landmarks," Ubisoft said. "Players will be on a team of eight Division agents fighting against a team of Rogue agents as they attempt to capture the tactical terminals. Last Stand will also include a new incursion, Stolen Signal." 

The new expansion sounds like it could be a fun competitive mode for experienced players, but James opined shortly after it was announced that it's "the last thing The Division needs right now." Be that as it may (and he'll no doubt have some follow-up thoughts on that after Last Stand is live), the 1.6 update will be welcome: It promises to nearly double the size of the Dark Zone, with fast travel between Dark Zone checkpoints, new "Contamination" events, and a new Legendary difficulty level. Full patch notes are available at ubisoft.com.