After giving a brief taste of The Division in Ubisoft's closed beta for pre-order players only, the March release is set for another, much more public test this month.
From Feb. 19-21, Ubi will host an open beta for any interested players on PC, PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. Just like the closed beta, Xbox users enjoy an extra 24 hours of playtime, with their beta starting on Feb. 18.
The open beta features mostly the same content that was in the closed beta, including a story mission, an assortment of random activities in a small piece of the game's open world and a limited sampling of the game's unique player-versus-player "Dark Zone."
The open beta also adds a second story mission (presumably one set right after the first mission). Additionally, all participants will receive a special in-game reward -- as-yet-unidentified -- that will unlock in the eventual final release.
The Division deposits players in a grim future vision of midtown Manhattan, after a smallpox pandemic has left the city quarantined and much of the population dead. You play the role of a soldier in the Division, a network of sleeper agents that are activated to restore order when government fails.
The open beta -- which you can pre-load on your platform of choice starting Feb. 16 -- concludes slightly more than two weeks before The Division launches on March 8.