I ran up to the Washington Monument, hunched over, clambering behind waist high cover and toting a shotgun. The gun was decorated with an American filigree, a white pattern with red stars and blue stripes. The monument was still lit; in a violence-ridden city full of militia and violent “Hyenas” the lights stayed on.

The Division 2 prides itself on a lifelike recreation of Washington D.C. It painstakingly represents a square mile of the United States Capitol. In a developer diary, the team detailed how they created the world, citing GIS data and extensive research into the city’s disaster response plans.

The recreation of the city isn’t of a shiny, clean pinnacle of Americana. The buildings are dirty, the streets littered with trash. Cars sit siphoned on the side of the road. Air Force 1 has been shot down and The White House is under attack.

A promotional image for The Division 2 | Ubisoft

The world of Ubisoft’s game is objectively political, it deals with the center of American politics. A militia, the “True Sons”, attempts to wrest control of the remaining government powers. The president wields an assault rifle.

All of this would be valuable to discuss. There could be conversations about whether decaying monuments are a societally helpful representation or not, or how the meanings behind these various symbols affect specific types of players, or even if the story itself is worth paying attention to.

But instead, the game wants players to ignore the encroaching flames, to put aside any real sense of turmoil, to focus exclusively on the relentless and all-consuming pursuit of gamified progression.

A number of missions throughout the game feature fictional political figures, namely the President of the United States. After rescuing him on a mission, this is the introduction to the character.