Tom Clancy’s The Division: What you need to know

Tom Clancy’s The Division is one of the hottest multiplayer titles that are set to arrive late next year after Bungie’s Destiny makes a similar appearance later this year. The game is currently in development under Ubisoft Massive under the Tom Clancy brand and was announced during Ubisoft's E3 2013 press conference, alongside a seven minute gameplay demo for the game.

The Division is said to make use of the Snowdrop engine, and will be offering an open world, multiplayer RPG gameplay that’s set in a world devastated by a lethal pathogen. Players will look to fight enemy factions, loot deserted buildings and level up their player as they continue to explore a ravaged New York city.

The game is expected to move away from the usual concepts related to RPGs, and players will be looking to get acquire objectives via a full map of New York which they can choose to do at any time as they wish, instead of asking other NPCs in the game for the objective or attaining them via several in-game acts.

David Polfeldt, managing director at Massive, earlier stated: “We wanted a lighter game than World of Warcraft. I’m not calling [The Division] an MMO. We allow you to progress through the skill tree as you prefer.” While the Division will not feature any classes, players will have the option to endlessly go through their set skill tree progress at any time and switch to custom-built classes.

The game, although an RPG, also seems to be inspired from the likes of State of Decay and Day Z, as far as ultimate survivalism (at any cost) is concerned. The player gets to start off his journey with just three days of food, water, and supplies, and must scour for more resources like ammo and weapons in his journey. Basically, the devs just want you to head out and explore as much as possible.

There are a number of in-game factions with some of them being helpful, while others are harmful. Moreover, interestingly enough, the lethal virus that nearly wiped out the population will still be active and more details on that are yet to arrive.

As far as a story or setting is concerned, the game will start off with you being a part of The Division, an organization developed around Operation Dark Winter. For those who are not aware as to what Dark Winter is, it was just a simulation that took place in 2001. However, the game has adopted the situation for real in its alternate universe.

Nearly three weeks ago, before the start of the game, many sleeper cell agents released a weaponized and deadly virus in the United States. While The Division tried to stop the outbreak, its ultimate failure resulted in what’s known as the Black Friday. With the entire population nearly wiped out in the process, The Division's goal is to save whatever that remains of humanity and also restore the society.

The Division is also said to arrive with a companion app that will be as important as the game itself, guiding the player through different phases in the game. IGN wrote: “Once the app-user joined up with the players on the ground, the tablet displayed an aerial view of the block which they were exploring. The tablet allows a player to become a drone in the environment, and they are privy to a suite of skills each with its own specific cool-downs.”

“Tapping a skill loaded it up, and then tapping somewhere on the screen engaged the ability in that area. Many of these were classic MMO staples, such as an armor buff that boosted the stats of your party, and a healing spell…err…whatever drones are capable of that revived injured allies.”

On the role of in-game open world PvP features, Ubisoft's senior community developer Antoine Emond wrote on Ubisoft’s blog: “Player vs. Player combat will play a very big role in our game. The choices you make as a Division agent can either spur a recovery or plunge the city further into chaos. The people you meet in certain areas of the game can either be your best friends or your worst enemies. So you’ll constantly be making decisions that will impact the world around you.”

Tom Clancy's The Division is currently set for a 2014 release for PS4 and Xbox One.