The Division 2: Washington, D.C. in Collapse

Washington is lawless seven months after the Green Poison outbreak, and the White House is the one fixed point of order. The Joint Task Force, a mix of police, fire and rescue, National Guard and volunteers, is based here and tries to protect civilians and re-establish order. Late in the story the building is under threat again, when the Agent stops a Black Tusk missile strike on the White House. In real life it is the president's home and office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

Visitor guidance: The White House is a working residence; view it from outside.

In the game, this Potomac island is where citizens were quarantined after the outbreak. The effort failed, and those held here radicalised into the Outcasts, fanatical survivors of severe quarantines who want revenge on those they blame for their imprisonment and infection. The real island is far calmer: an 88.5-acre national memorial to Theodore Roosevelt in the Potomac River, with wooded trails and no cars or bicycles allowed.

Visitor guidance: No cars or bicycles are permitted on the island.

Washington Union Station is one of the game's three Dark Zones, alongside the D.C. waterfront and Georgetown. Loot taken from a Dark Zone always requires helicopter extraction. The real station was designed by Daniel Burnham and opened in 1907, and today it is a hub for commuter rail, the Washington Metro and buses.

Visitor guidance: A working station and shopping hall; open to the public.

The True Sons, ruthless mutineers from the JTF and military, hold the Capitol. President Ellis says he can only reach the broad-spectrum antivirals with a special briefcase kept there, so the Agent, the JTF and the Civilian Militia assault the strongholds of the Hyenas, True Sons and Outcasts and recover Ellis' briefcase. The real Capitol is easy to spot from across the Mall, marked by its central dome above a rotunda.

Visitor guidance: The dome is visible from across the National Mall.

The developers placed main missions in iconic places and at major monuments, naming the White House, the Lincoln Memorial and the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. Showing national monuments in ruins was a deliberate way to signal a complete collapse of society. The real memorial was dedicated on May 30, 1922, and stands at the western end of the National Mall.

Visitor guidance: Stands at the western end of the National Mall.

In the endgame a technologically advanced private military company, Black Tusk, invades the city. In the final push the Agent raids Black Tusk's stronghold at Tidal Basin, retrieving the antivirals and preventing a missile strike on the White House. The real basin lies near the National Mall, is overlooked by the Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr. and Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorials, and is a focal point of the National Cherry Blossom Festival each spring.

Location precision: The game does not map the stronghold to a precise spot; the pin marks the Tidal Basin as a whole.

Visitor guidance: The Cherry Blossom Festival takes place each spring.