Hellgate: London Preview

GameSpot has put together an updated preview of Hellgate: London, after spending some more firsthand time with Flagship Studios’ action RPG. A little something to get you started:

Our mission itself went well enough, and was marked by the utter waste of many, many hellish monsters, such as zombie-like flesh eaters and fire-breathing, four-legged stalkers. The game seems extremely fast-paced and, at first, a bit like an arcade-style first-person shooter, because you’re dashing about so quickly and blasting away at everything that moves. However, we realized quickly that our manual aim wasn’t as important as dodging incoming enemy attacks or managing our character’s health and magic power levels, similar to Diablo, and soon, we were laying waste to enemies, picking up their loot, and moving on to the next challenge, like the classic action RPGs of old. And like those games, Hellgate: London will offer plenty of pleasant surprises in terms of randomized content–not only in items, but enemies (that are appropriate in strength to your character’s level and to the environment, but may not always be the same every time you visit), and even environmental fixtures, like magical shrines, which offer temporary power bonuses to your character, just like in the Diablo games. We were able to keep track of our position and our active quests using our character’s PDA–the game’s all-in-one interface that keeps track of all information and also acts as a minimap.