Tom Clancy's The Division was shown for the first time back at E3 2014 this year. It was received with enormous praise and the feeling of anticipation has been heavy in the air since. While initially featuring an unspecific 2014 release date, the title has since been pushed back to somewhere in 2015. All of this anonymity has us reeling, but we know it is all for the greater good of The Division and its development.

Rodrigo Cortes, senior brand art director for The Division, recently spoke to VG247. Cortes first discussed what type of game The Division really is and how it will be changing up their usual formula. This will be the first tried and true RPG that the teams developing the game have made.

“The biggest thing is it’s a Tom Clancy RPG – it’s mixing realistic, tactical, possible scenarios with online play and RPG mechanics.”

“You’re starting to see similar mixing of genres in other games. Before a game was either a shooter, or a third-person game, or a driving game. But now more and more there’s a blend of genres into a bigger game. It can make the game hard to define – it has shooter elements, RPG mechanics, it’s cover-based, online and a seamless open-world.

“It has all of that, yes. But we took it to heart. It’s a proper RPG.”

Cortes then talked about some of the trials and tribulations they have faced developing The Division, many of which have been the result of such a different desisgn philosophy.

“It was our biggest challenge from the very beginning,” admits Cortes. “We weren’t sure if it was even possible but after a couple of years to get things running it became the game’s strength.

“There’s nothing like it out there so we can do things surprisingly well that nobody has done before. We don’t have dragons or weird spell effects, we have technology and we have weaponry.”

We are very excited to get our hands on The Division, as it looks to mix things up in the same way Destiny did. While Bungie's MMO-shooter may be caught up in controversy, here's to hoping that The Division does well and avoids such negative attention.