Hellgate: London preview

Diablo. The name of this hallowed game series still sends shivers down the spines of tens of thousands of gamers, even though it’s been five years since the release of the last game. Since then, many Blizzard employees, including the masterminds behind Diablo, have established their own company, by the name of Flagship Studios. And now, the studio is hard at work on a game that will send shockwaves rippling far beyond the Diablo community. Say hello to Hellgate: London.

Don't be misled by the above to think that Hellgate is a simple Diablo clone. This is a 3D RPG that easily lives up to the graphical standards of the very latest FPS games, and which is an entirely new hybrid between single-player RPGs and MMORPGs.

No more tea time

We’re in the year 2030 – or something like that. Nobody really cares about dates anymore, because an army of demons has invaded our dear old Earth, causing what’s left of humanity to seek refuge underground, in a desperate struggle to survive. Amidst all the chaos and wanton destruction, a secret sect still exists in London. It goes by the name of The Templar, and it actually predicted the demonic invasion hundreds of years in advance.

The sect possesses both occult knowledge and advanced technology from the future (clever guys, these Templars), which it combines to create demon-slaying weapons. You are a member of the Templar and the job definitely means long hours, bad-tempered customers and sore trigger fingers.

Hellgate: London is a hybrid between single-player- and MMO RPGs, but it also manages to be a hybrid between RPGs and First Person Shooters. The game can be viewed both from a first-person and third-person perspective, and it’s very action-oriented – the Diablo influence is certainly there.

But it’s not about having the best aim. The developer does not want you to be dominated by the kid next door each and every time, just because he has time for 50 hours of gaming every week. Hellgate: London does what most RPGs do: it aims for you. Twitch reactions are prioritised lower than your ability to actually play the game. When you run around shooting all the nasty critters that appear in the streets, you will realise that building your character’s skills and selecting the right weapons are the most important things in this world.

More than a hundred types of weapons

In contrast to many other RPGs, the battle system in Hellgate does not have a hit/miss factor. If you fire a missile at an opponent, it will always hit. There is, however, a chance of scoring critical hits that inflict more damage. Some of the 21 weapons planned for the game will also deal DoT (Damage over Time). 21 weapons may not sound like much for an RPG, but the number actually comes close to a hundred if you count all of the sub-types.

For instance, there will be rare or magical versions of the weapons, which are stronger than the regular ones. Hellgate: London is also geared towards co-op and groups, so some of the weapons also have cooperative uses. You could hold a demon with one weapon, while one of your teammates takes him down without being in danger.

In true John Woo style, you will also be able to wield two weapons at once and precisely coordinate your attacks to exploit the weaknesses of your opponents. If you use a melee weapon such as a sword or a cricket bat (finally, a proper use for that sport –Ed.), you should change to the third-person perspective to get a better view of the action.

No missions are the same

Hellgate: London has been in development for 18 months now, and the game runs on a proprietary graphics engine. The engine had to be capable of creating randomly generated missions, which none of the traditional engines are. In Hellgate: London, no missions are the same – the game will generate random areas, events and objects for them.

The development team has taken thousands of pictures of London to make the game look realistic, so in practice, you will be able so recognise, say, the Covent Garden area, but every time you receive a mission, the streets, houses and monsters will be in different places.

Between the missions, you will use the London Underground as your base. It does not only serve as a place to get missions, you can also form parties and groups, shop, or get healed. Additionally, the game will have several different character classes to choose from, but these have not been finalised yet.

Two separate games

Now it’s about time to tell you how the game can be a hybrid between a single-player and a multiplayer RPG. First and foremost, you must know that the two parts of the game are sharply separated. There is a client-based single-player part, and a server side multiplayer part.

This is done to make the game totally secure, when playing online. A client-based multiplayer game, that is a game that has all of its data installed on your local machine, is far too susceptible to cheating in various shapes. But as your single-player character won’t be connected with your multiplayer character, you must play with them separately. The problem is that you have to start over when you want to try the other part of the game, but it’s a plus for players without broadband connections, because they still get a full game, even though they can’t play it online.

As in a typical MMORPG, you will meet other players in the Underground, but then you will be able to embark on instanced missions. This means that your missions will be unique to you, and you won’t have the experience ruined by other players stealing XP or items.

I couldn’t quite get to know if the online part will have the same missions as the single-player part, as well as random missions, because the developer hasn’t planned that far yet. But you can bet anything that the online concept will deliver an experience similar to the Diablo games, because the developer “wanted to make a game that looked like an FPS, but felt like the Diablo-games. We spent 10 years making the Diablo series, and it would me stupid not to integrate the best ideas and the experience we got during that time.”

Hellgate: London is out for the PC sometime next year. Remember to check out this trailer, to get a feel for its tense atmosphere.

Source: Boomtown DK
English version by: Jonatan A. Allin (neonwolf)