Hellgate: London

Written by Jason Cisarano  on October 22, 2007

Hands-On Preview: Look kids! Big Ben... Parliament... and demon zombies!

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Burnt-out buildings and broken down cars. A subway car burst up through the ground into the street. Even without the flesh-eating minions of Hell, it's not your usual walk through Covent Garden. This is London in the year 2038, deep into a war that pits all of humanity against an otherworldy invasion force of pure evil. Set for release next week, Hellgate: London drops players into an RPG set in what's left of England's capital city. It will have both single- and multiplayer components, not to mention 250+ quests and side quests, hundreds of skills across six character classes in three factions and what looks like a rich crafting system. And all of this is put together by Flagship Studios, which can boast some core members of teams that made the classic Diablo games. For this preview, we've gotten our hands on the single-player demo, and we're taking it out for a spin to see if it lives up to all that promise.



As is often the case in these apocalyptic man-versus-pure-evil situations, it just so happens that this is not humanity's first such fight against the underworld, and there are plenty of folks out there trained to deal with the problem. The Templar and the Hunters are at the top of the list, and the demo includes one class from each of these factions. Blademasters are Templar who, appropriately enough, specialize in the use of swords and some magic. Hellgate: London offers a character sheet that'll be familiar to any RPG player: there are the usual stats like stamina and power, a basic inventory that can hold more items than a generous steamer trunk, and a skill tree that can be unlocked with points earned by leveling up. The Blademaster skill tree contains a couple of dozen items, including things like УSword of ReckoningФ and УSword of Justice.Ф They're improvable by levels, and some of them open up other skills as they progress down the tree. Most of them, though, feel very familiar. One is a simple extra-powerful attack that leaves the user temporarily vulnerable. Another allows for simultaneous attacks on multiple opponents. The coolest one might be the УCall of the ChosenФ which can cause enemies to flee at the mere sound of the Blademaster's voice.

The Marksman skill tree had different names, but a surprisingly similar list of skills. There were the same sort of attack improvements, they just focused on the rifle and pistols used by the class. There's the УReflected ShotФ skill, which is pretty much a magic bullet that can hit multiple targets. There are also other predictable skills like the homing shot and a rapid fire ability. If the skills differentiate more with higher levels, it isn't evident from the few quests of the demo. The Marksman does have a grenade skill that can be learned and upgraded. The grenade is a bit hard to control in-game, but when it lands in the right spot, it tears through the low-level beasties in the demo.

Playing as Blademaster and Marksman are two very different Hellgate experiences. The Blademaster can resort to a handgun, but relies primarily on swordsЧthough at one point, a prosthetic leg served as an effective substitute. Marksmen, on the other hand, can use various pistols and rifles, but no melee weapons. So combat as a Blademaster is a close-in affair, with plenty of traditional RPG hacking and slashing. At the early levels, there is no blocking and only a single attack, so the game ends up being a whole lot of clicking. Blademasters don't even need to be all that precise, since a sword swing will hit the first bad guy in range. Still, the melee is fun because it gets the Blademaster up close and personal with some truly evil looking bad guys and some detailed character models. The sword slashing is fun, even though it's not much more than a lot of button mashing.

While playing a Marksman character, the game gives players an FPS-style set of crosshairs that turn from red to green when a target enters the range of the currently equipped weapon. Since Marksmen have no good close-in defenses, it's a whole lot more successful strategy to pick the bad guys off from a distance. It's possible to zoom into a first-person view as either class, and doing so as a Marksman makes the game look a whole lot like an FPS. Players looking for a classic FPS experience might be disappointed, however: the controls are nowhere near as responsive as the average shooter. There is a good bit of satisfying sniping to be done, though. And the designers have been kind enough to place plenty of explosive tanks and barrels throughout the levels, which makes for some satisfying explosions, especially when there's a gang of bad guys gathered about.

There's a lot of talk going around about what the quests will be in this game, but unfortunately nothing in the demo actually lives up to the hype. As already mentioned, there will be plenty of quests included in the initial release with more to follow, although it's not been announced yet exactly how. The story quests are supposed to be interesting and imaginative, allowing the player to occasionally jump into different characters, occasionally slip into the demon realm, and even change the gametype for one of the missions. One mission will have more of an RTS setup as the player gets control of a group of units and puts them up against a similar enemy force. As good as this sounds, the demo quests were more of the usual kill/fetch/rescue fare that populates most mediocre RPGs or MMOs. There is a glimpse of one or two main storyline tidbits, but they weren't meaty enough to get a feel for the story. Like a lot of quest-based games, this one presents its missions in mostly text with just a few spoken lines mixed in here and there. What this ends up being is a lot of clicking to get through linear dialogЧthe player has no choice except to accept or reject the quest. If there's anything that saves this part of the demo, its that there's a bit of humor mixed in now and again. There's that prosthetic leg, which is the reward for an early mission. There's the occasional Woody Allen and Britney Spears quote. And there's a mechanic who has a crush on the player character regardless of gender and despite the fact that they never previously met.

If there's a star of the demo, it's probably the landscape. This small part of the game has the player moving through several environments, including the streets of London, some underground service areas, and a large chunk of a subway station that serves as a hub between different areas. The service areas look like they're going to stand in for dungeons, at least in this early part of the game. They've got the twisty passages with the monsters lurking about. They also have the crates that sometimes hide a little bit of extra loot or a power-up. They look really nice, though, with plenty of detail to make them feel dank and abandoned. But it's the above-ground stuff that truly wins out in the looks department. The streets of London really look like they've been under siege for some time, and the smashed buildings, dead trees, and scattered debris give an appropriately evil feel of a city with an inter-dimensional freeway straight to Hell. The strange thing about it, though, is that it feels a whole lot like a dungeon, too. The sections featured in the demo only have one path to followЧall significant side streets or alleys are blocked by debris or barricades. And most of the buildings are just pretty, closed faчades.

In fact the subway stations are part of the story: they're the only place in the city where humans can feel safe. What's left of society has left the above-ground city and moved into the stations. All the usual RPG needs are served in this hub area. A medic stands by to heal characters between mission. A vendor hawks the latest weaponry, armor, and sundries. Station lockers serve to store a player's excess inventory. NPCs hang around as quest givers and local color. And there's a crafting station there that can help guide players along by telling them what items are needed to build a given item. Like a lot of things in Hellgate, this setup feels very familiar, like it's all been done before in one way or another.