Hellgate: London Previews

WorthPlaying and Next Generation have both put together new hands-on previews of Flagship’s Hellgate: London. A snip from WorthPlaying’s article:

Your two important stats in battle are your health and will, which is a mana equivalent pool of points used for executing special skill-based attacks and enhancements. Much like Diablo, you run around clearing out dungeons systematically through mouse button abuse, and occasionally running into rare, large and formidable foes who will require extra abuse and will drop more loot than your inventory could possibly hold. It’s especially fun to inspect the level of detail in game items, from statistics to apt descriptive quotations. Long before it all becomes too overwhelming, a well-designed inventory system helps you organize and keep track of what goes where and how it compares to what you already have.

There is an immense variety of weapons, clothing, armor and modifications to be picked off the dead corpses of ghouls or purchased at tube station vendors. This means that each character has plenty of opportunities to create a uniquely tailored appearance, which you can inspect up close using the vanity-cam feature. Beyond looks, the different weapons and armor affect gameplay in significant ways that fans of role playing games are likely to enjoy. For example, the hand grappler is useful for melee fighters who are vulnerable to long-range attacks. It can be equipped in one hand and is used to pull distant demons closer for killing.

And a snip from Next Generation’s article:

Heading through Whitehall you might find yourself either below or above ground in any of 50 to 60 different types of location Victorian sewers, the disused Tube network, back alleys, deserted streets and so on. These will be made further distinct by ‘˜rarity’ the example that Roper gives is that you might in one instance find that the sky is red and that all of the daemons are on fire. Then there are randomised mission encounters; you might come across a wounded man who begs you to find and help his friends. It seems that Flagship Studios has attempted to use randomization to its best effect, creating an intense and idiosyncratic experience.

With around 200 quests available to the player, Hellgate promises between 30 and 45 hours of roleplaying out of the box. On top of this is the opportunity to take the game online, at no extra cost, interacting co-operatively with thousands of other players. An additional subscription model is available for £7 per month which gives access to extra content armor, classes, skills, quests and extra character slots. It’s certainly an interesting payment model, taking advantage of the attractive immediacy and permanence of a single upfront fee, but then allowing for a smoother approach to the additional content pipeline releasing material as and when.