Hellgate: London E3 Previews

Several different websites are offering up previews of Flagship Studios’ Hellgate: London, after seeing the RPG firsthand during this year’s E3. The first article is at GameSpy:

By consulting the map, I was able to learn a bit about the visual language Flagship is using in its map interface, as well how some of the instanced zones will be laid out. To some degree, all the zones will be randomized; it’s their level of randomness that varies. If a point on the map is marked by a solid square with rounded edges, it means you will always encounter certain key landmarks when you visit it (the British Museum is a good example). If the name of the area is surrounding by a dotted circular line, however, then all bets are off. This connotes that an area is completely random when you enter. Sometimes, you’ll travel through subway tunnels; other times you may be completely above ground. This is supposed to reflect the fact that, when under attack by the legions of hell, the world tends to be unstable, and parties interested in traveling safely will tend to take the less demon-infested path.

The second is at GameSpot:

We created a cabalist character by adjusting the height, build, face, hair, and features, then played through one of the game’s early levels, which began inside a station in London’s world-famous Tube underground train network (now abandoned and fallen into ruin, since the game takes place in the wake of a near-future demonic invasion). Several characters stood around the station, some willing to speak with us, others claiming they didn’t know us well enough to talk. One character who was glad to speak with us was “L’il Joey,” a disabled child with a glimmer of hope in his eye and a World of Warcraft-esque yellow exclamation point hovering over his head (this marking indicates that a character has a quest available to give).

The third is at IGN PC:

Our tour started out topside, and a nearby Flagship employee explained the hotkey groupings — F1, F2, and F3 — that allow a player to rapidly switch between projectile weapons, 2-handed melee, and one-handed melee (melee naturally doesn’t work so well against the flying and floating beasties). We also got to see some interesting additions to the interface in regards to loot. Like in World of Warcraft, mousing over an item will bring up a quick comparison chart between the item in your inventory and the item you have equipped. If your slot for that item is empty, you automatically equip it, as per usual. You’ll also be able to modify everything, as long as those items have mod slots. If there’s a mod already installed, you can remove it and transfer it to something else, or sell it to a vendor.

The fourth is at FiringSquad:

For those not familiar with the game, Hellgate London mixes sci-fi with fantasy as the UK capital of the near future deals with a massive demon invasion. The destruction they cause makes the London Blitz of WWII look like a picnic. The human race fights to stay alive and even take on the beasts in their own demonic dimension. In the demo on Tuesday, Roper was busy blasting away at various sundry beasts with a variety of weapons selected from an easy to use inventory screen. Blasters, rocket launchers, and rapid fire pistols made short work of the demons, that is until the hero went into one of the “hellgates” of the game’s title to set off a charge that would close this particular doorway to our world. The problem is that the atmosphere is deadly to humans so he could only stay in the demon dimension for a short period of time. Meanwhile creatures great and small were trying to prevent this shutdown of the gate from happening.

The fifth is at Games Radar:

The dungeons are randomly designed, and in fact, what lays between two points on your map may change entirely – you’ll take a route through a sewer one time, and caverns the next. You can warp back to a safe spot any time you want, so you can build your character as much as you like before venturing safely onward. If you choose to move online and adventure with others, Hellgate, being a more controlled experience, is not like MMOs where every area is crawling with players. Each dungeon is a private experience for a chosen few players – known as an instance. You can lock out unwanted players so you never have to wait for others to get done before starting your adventure. You can also let people in and out as the need arises, so you’re not screwed if a couple of your friends lose their connection to the net.

And the sixth is at Gamers With Jobs:

I did learn some new info about the multiplayer info, namely that it will have built in voice chat that’s channel and group based. Meaning you can chat with your guildmates in voice chat, or your party mates, or people you meet in one of the hubs. The underground hubs will be where you get quests, buy/sell items, and group up with people to go into the instanced “dungeons”. When you group or party with someone, they will all exist in the same instanced world. So if you party with 2 other people, and each goes through another portal, you can enter either portal and meet up with your groupmates. All characters will be server side when playing over the internet, like the Diablo 2 realm, though the Direct IP and LAN options will still be available with local characters. All in all I’m definitely excited about this game, it’s shaping up and is looking very nice.