Hellgate: London Preview

GameSpy brings us a new two-page preview of Hellgate: London, after seeing the game in action during a demo with Flagship Studios’ Bill Roper. A snippet:

Firearms are only one half of the equation, though. Templars, judging from the demo, will be just as capable of getting close and personal, through the use of melee weapons. For much of Roper’s demonstration, his character was armed with a sword on her off-hand, which she alternated with her gun when the sizable hordes of enemies got too close. Things changed when she picked up the Grappler, however. The Grappler is a secondary ranged weapon that does no damage by itself, but instead is used to draw enemies close to your person, so that you can hack away at them with your melee weapon. “Fishing for monsters,” as Roper put it, kind of like Scorpion in Mortal Kombat. Perhaps to compensate for the devastating effects of ranged weapons, there will be a sort of “combo” system in effect for melee attacks. As you progress through the levels and gain access to more powerful combat skills, you’ll be able to link some into more powerful, chained combo attacks. No word on how this will work specifically, though.