Hellgate: London
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This article or section contains information about an unreleased video game. It is likely to contain information of a speculative nature, and the content may change dramatically as more information becomes available. |
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| Developer(s) | Flagship Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Namco / EA |
| Engine | In-house developed |
| Release date(s) | Summer 2007 according to official site [1] |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter/Action-RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: M (speculation) |
| Platform(s) | PC (Windows) |
Hellgate: London is a computer game under development by Flagship Studios. The direction of the game is similar in spirit in a number of ways to the Diablo series, due to the co-founders of this video game developer. These are ex-Blizzard employees, including Diablo series creators Erich Schaefer and former Blizzard North President David Brevik. The other founders are Erich's brother Max Schaefer, former Blizzard North Vice President Bill Roper, and Diablo II producer Kenneth Williams. [2]
Hellgate: London is a FPS/RPG combination in a post-apocalyptic setting, and as such features a number of elements related to the Diablo series. The game is played in both first and third person perspectives, and the gameplay is based heavily on the character's stats, as per role-playing games, as opposed to the player's personal skill in a first-person shooter. Some weapons do require aiming, but most do not.
The game, like its spiritual predecessor Diablo, builds heavily upon the core design of classical Roguelikes and the game design philosophy of the utility of random generation, which allows for a high degree of replayability and countless unique gameplay experiences.
A comic book adaptation of Hellgate: London has also been released. Spanning a series of four issues, it is written by Ian Edginton, illustrated by Steve Pugh, and published by Dark Horse Comics.
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[edit] Pricing
During CES 2007, it was announced that the game will support a single player mode as well as some form of free online gaming, but also a paid online mode, where it is still to be decided exactly which method of payment that will be used. [3] Bill Roper, founder and CEO of Flagship Studios, confirmed this in later interviews.[4][5]
It should be noted that Hellgate London was initially discussed as being extremely similar to both Diablo and Guild Wars, another of Diablo's spiritual descendants. This was especially thought to be true of the expansion based pricing model that involved no monthly fees. When Flagship hinted at monthly fees in January, 2007, many fans expressed their shock and discontent,[6] with some who planned to pre-order the game claiming they would no longer purchase it at all. [7]
Finally, this pricing decision moves the game into more direct competition with World of Warcraft, which dominates the monthly fee MMORPG genre.
[edit] Setting
Hellgate: London takes place in 2038, 18 years after start of the war. London has been invaded by demons from Hell. These particular hellions are a tireless lot, and have been looking for a way into our universe for a long time. Up until recently, humans have had many champions looking to hold back the flood. Various real-world events are referenced in the background of the Hellgate story as averted crossover attempts. The Crusades were actually undertaken to fight back the minions of Hell, as was the charring of London in the great fire to wipe out the Plague. According to the fiction, the famous Knights Templar were the keepers of knowledge on how to battle these demonic forces. Unfortunately, these heroes underwent a charring of their own at the hands of a jealous King Phillip IV, who hated the power they held in the world at large. While the Knights Templar survived as an organization, their numbers were severely diminished and were forced to remain in hiding to stay alive.
As time passed and technology progressed, the old ways began to fade from memory and the secrets of the arcane were lost. When the demons attacked again, they found their enemies unprepared. Ordinary weapons were no use against the demons, who could shrug off a RPG round. The Templars offered their special services to the military, but the leaders balked, refusing to believe in the new truths. Hell quickly took the victory in the battle for Earth. The Burn, a decades-long process of "hellaforming" or turning our world into theirs, has begun.
However all is not lost, as various groups have been preparing for just such an eventuality. Freemasons built the London Underground to be demon resistant, and as such the stations now act as bases, "safe zones" for would-be defenders. These defenders are armed with a fusion of modern weaponry and arcane magic such as flamethrowers that throw Greek fire. In the game, you play one of these defenders.
[edit] Gameplay
Hellgate: London combines the depth of role-playing games with the action of first-person titles, while attempting to offer high replayability and an individualized gaming experience through dynamically created levels, monsters, items, and events. Players create a hero and then battle, with or without other players, through innumerable hordes of demons while completing quests and advancing through experience levels and branching skill paths. The developers have revealed the game will employ an advanced skill and spell system. It will also be highly item based, with customizable and randomly generated items for replayability and unique characters. Multiplayer will concentrate mostly on cooperative play.
The game will play in a single unified world, where players can meet and organize for team play and quests in safe zones. The world will not be split in "shards" or servers, but rather play like a MMOG with heavy instancing, such as Guild Wars. The game doesn't exclude solo gaming, and this will be possible as well if the player choose so. Difficulty will be balanced much like it is in Diablo II, where the opposition grows stronger as more players play in the instanced areas.
While it has been stated on the PC Gamer magazine that Hellgate: London will support Windows Vista and DirectX 10, Flagship Studios has made repeated statements that the game will run perfectly well on Windows XP and DirectX 9 based systems. The game is said to be capable of running just as easily on computers as old as 5 or 6 years with some of the settings turned down.
[edit] Factions and Classes
There are three factions, or archetypes that have been defined so far. The first is a melee-combat oriented faction referred to as the "Templar". Characters belonging to this faction are a combination of both the "Paladin" and "Barbarian" character types in Diablo 2. The second is the "Cabalist", similar to the "Necromancer" and, to a lesser extent, the "Druid" character types in Diablo 2. The third is the "Hunter", similar to the "Amazon" character in Diablo 2, which is played similarly to an FPS game, without auto aiming and with powerful ranged weaponry.
Each faction includes distinct character classes. Both the faction and class are selected when a character is created. The Templar faction includes two classes, the Blademaster, a offensive based class, and the Guardian, a defensive class. It was announced in the May 2007 issue of PC Gamer that the two classes for the Cabalist faction will be the Evoker, a ranged spellcaster with mystical "Focus" items instead of guns, and the Summoner, which focuses on summoning several major and minor "pets" and improving said pets. Also, the Hunter Faction classes will be the Marksman, a ranged fighter similar to the evoker (but with guns instead of Focus items), and the Engineer, which focuses on the construction and upgrading of drones and other devices.
[edit] Areas
As a defender, you move from one safe zone to the next. The journey between zones will be randomly generated, as in Diablo, but unlike Diablo the levels will be fully 3D. Randomly generating convincing 3D levels is technically fairly difficult; it was attempted in Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix to mixed critical response.
The game is believed to feature London areas and buildings of interest, and indeed St Paul's Cathedral was featured in an early concept art drawing, hinting further at this. Another building that has been brought up in an interview is Big Ben. However, the developers are still keeping these details, and which role such buildings may play in the game, mostly for themselves and a surprise for the gamers.
The game has been revealed to consist of five acts to unify the areas a player travel through on a greater scale. This act system is also used in other games of the action-RPG genre, not to mention the five acts of Diablo II.
The safe zones scattered across the world will act like safe havens to purchase and upgrade items at NPC merchants, interact with other people in the game world, and gather and complete quests.
[edit] Quests
The game will offer three different quest classes:
- Storyline - Special "scripted" quests following the storyline tightly and moving it forward. Key quests will be shared here, but the journey between those quests is different for each player.
- Class-specific - Quests designed for specific character classes. May require that a player has a sufficiently high enough reputation before they're revealed. These quests are likely to be rewarding, due to the effort one has to put in to get enough reputation before starting them.
- Task - Generic quests believed to have more random objectives, given by NPCs out in the game world. Completing these quests increases one's reputation to unlock class-specific quests, as well as revealing new items and giving experience for new levels.
[edit] Combat
Hellgate: London can be played in a first person perspective for guns and a third person perspective for both guns and mêlée weapons. Third person perspective is usually regarded as better for mêlée combat, where wider peripheral vision is more important than precise, long-distance aiming.
[edit] Items
Hellgate: London will heavily use a randomized item system of at least a hundred base items, with a pool of random special properties applied to them to achieve replayability and promote item collection. As in Diablo, the items will have a prefix and suffix.
[edit] Weapons
The weapons will base their power on character stats more than a player's aiming skills, being more of an RPG than an FPS in this regard. For example, a player can place points in an Accuracy statistic that determines the randomness of the rounds they fire. Therefore, the weapons will function more like spell delivery devices than common weapons, and they will be designed to usually deliver splash damage, use homing projectiles, or be auto-targeting within reasonable limits.
Besides the behavior, the weapons, close and ranged combat alike, can do several different kinds of damage:
- Physical - Can cause enemies to get knocked down.
- Fire - Can set targets on fire.
- Spectral - Pierces armor.
- Toxic - Poisons the targets, making them suffer negative effects over time.
- Electrical - Can stun a target.
The weapons system also borrows from Diablo, with a number of base weapon types that can be upgraded with different types of fuel, batteries, or ammunition to increase damage. Weapons can also be dual wielded, with combinations such as a mêlée weapon in one hand and a pistol in another. Analogous to the over a hundred Diablo II base items, Hellgate: London will come with over a hundred weapons.
[edit] Mods
The items may have slots that a player can insert "mods" in to enhance their power. Mods can be technology that improves items, but also demonic artifacts and holy items, currently known as relics. Technology mods are more aimed at specific weaponry or armor upgrades, whilst relics are more general in what bonuses they give, such as giving fire damage enhancements regardless of the wielded weapon. It is also believed that game characters may have their own physical slots for similar purposes, and that mods will be removable, unlike in Diablo. Some types are listed below:
- Ammo Clips - Modify the amount, type, range, or accuracy of weapons. Clips can be magical or technological in nature.
- Battery Packs - Battery packs charge weapons with different types of damage, such as ice, fire, or physical.
- Fuel Tanks - Convey different damage types onto weapons.
- Relics - Often considered holy, relics may be part of a greater item or an item previously owned by someone of great ability.
- Rockets - Like ammo clips rockets change the type of ammo a weapon uses while adding an explosive element.
[edit] Skills
Little is known about the skill system, but it has been revealed that it will be possible to find character skills much like regular items, and like the items in Hellgate: London, they will have various levels of rarity as well, with some skills harder to acquire than others. There are also attempts at making skills random to achieve increased replayability and character build variety, causing a character's abilities be more individual and not simply one of a limited range of common archetypes. The skills will be designed so that the skills one gains early on are not necessarily worse than skills one may find later in the game, as long as the player focuses in the skill by putting points in its related attributes.
A few examples of revealed Templar skills are: Grudge, Focused Rage, Grand Aura, Aura of Renewal, Physical/Fire/Electric/Toxic Aura, and Armor Boost. These skills involve both aggressive and defensive "aura" skills, which should clearly remind Diablo II veterans of the Paladin class.
Examples of Cabalist skills may include: Evoker Skills: Swarm, Arc Legion, Tempest. Summoner Skills: Summon Ember, Enrage, Dominate.
Examples of Hunter Skills may include: Marksman Skills: Pinpoint, Rapid Fire, Tactical Stance. Engineer Skills: Construct Drone, Drone Attachment/Encasement, Rocket Bots.
[edit] Monsters
There are a number of monster classes, the most common one by far being demons, although zombies have also been seen in released media. The monsters belong to one of these classes:
- Necros - The creators of undead and masters of necromatic powers.
- Examples: Flesh Eater, Grotesque
- Beasts - The least cunning demons with the most animal-like behavior.
- Examples: Carnagor, Stalker
- Spectrals - Mysterious ghost-like beings only partially existing in our world.
- Example: Orbile
- Primus - The intelligent and fearsome dukes of hell, often more organised then most other demons. Able to build and use custom equipment.
- Example: Shulgoth
[edit] Recent
In the April 2007 edition of PC Gamer, the disc included an intro video to Hellgate: London. The sequence shows an intense battle but no gameplay. The video did, however, give a good look at some of the potential monsters that will be in the game. It also introduced the story's main character and explains why she is fighting.
[edit] References
- Hellgate Guru's Factsheet
- Hellgate Guru's compiled facts and details by Northrop of Hellgate Guru, citing Flagship Studios community manager Ivan Sulic as a source.
- Interview
- GameSpot News EA added as new partner.
[edit] External links
- Official sites
- Official Hellgate: London site
- Flagship Studios
- Hellgate: London / Flagship Studios community & fansites
- Reviews & Coverage
