Hellgate : London

phg_cronus

Hello All,

I thought I'd stop by to announce a fresh game that is being unvieled at E3 this year. The game is called Hellgate: Lonon, and it is being developed by Flagship Studios. FS was founded by four Ex-Blizzard executives who has primary roles in the development of the Diablo and Warcraft series - namly Bill Roper. This game got me so fired up that I created a fansite www.projecthellgate.com . While I'd love for you to stop by and check it out, I thought I'd post a general synopsis of the game here as well.

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BACKGROUND:

Hellgate: London (HG:L) is set twenty-five years in the future and five years after a successful demon invasion. The residents of London have found shelter below ground while the demons continue their rampage throughout the city and surrounding suburbs. As a last chance of survival, the Templar (of the Knights Templar in the early thirteenth century) make an attept to re-activate The Sigil after a failed attempt to stop the demon invasion. There are not enough Templar to make a full-frontal attack, but instead will use their knowledge of the Arcane magics and guerilla tactical warfare to wage war upon Hell itself.

GAMEPLAY:

The game is being designed to take place approximately fifty-percent below the city of London with settings including WWII bomb shelters, Roman aqueducts, train stations and Victorian hospitals. The other fifty-percent will be played on the surface among the destroyed London cityscape. Many side-quests will be available apart from the main story-line, but not required to get through the game. (Although the side-quests are bound to offer some items thay may not be available otherwise).

The majority of the game will take place from a first-person perspective with weapons becoming more of "spell delivery systems" as Bill Roper puts it. Some weapons effects that were mentioned are poison gas clouds, handheld flamethrowers and electricity charges.

Allthough the primary view is going to be first person, a players success will not be dependant on thier relexes with a keyboard and mouse like most shooters; Hellgate: London will stick to the traditional RPG elements where vicotry lies in a charaters developed stats, aquired equipment, and using you class attributes in a thought-out strategy.

Also of note is the randomization schemes that have been implemented into the creatures, level design, and particle effects. At the time of development, there was no engine that could support the amount of randomization that Hellgate: London required, and thus Flagship Studios built their own engine in-house.

MULTIPLAYER

Here is where any MMO fan might get really excited. While Hellgate:London is primarily a single player game - it will have a very robust multiplayer network that works much like the mechanics of the instanced zones we see in games like World of Warcraft and Guildwars. There will be persistant online 'safezones' that serve as social gathering places for forming groups and trading. The safezones also serve as portals to do missions after you have a group together. There will be PvP maps as well, but not much info has been released on that aspect.

As the E3 event comes and goes - a large amount of new information will be released and I will be updating my site accordingly, so if you do decide to visit - please check in for updates. At present I have 130+ images and will be adding more shortly.

If anyone has questions, feel free to post them here - or at the forums on my site.

Blizzagen

Thanks for the info.
You might want to fix that link by the way.
It goes to www.mmorpg.com/www.projecthellgate.com

I look forward to more info about it.

phg_cronus

Thanks ..

oddly, the ' link ' feature doesn't seem to be working for me. I even typed it in manually and when I actually submit - the links does as you said ; adds www.mmorpg.com /.... in front. I'm not sure if this is a product of using FIREFOX or not, so I just bolded it. Either way it is allright, I'm more focused on informing communities vs. advertising the site.

Blizzagen

Ok

Would I be right in saying that the games closest comparison would be Neverwinter Nights or Diablo?

Single-player, but with multiplayer elements.

phg_cronus

Exactly.

The team has noted in several interviews that they are not trying to get away from thier previous success with the Diablo and Warcraft series.

So note - the ' never play the same mission layout twice ' randomization - Hell taking over the earth - TONS of loot - the weapons can be customized - and as you pointed out .... primarily single player, but has multiplayer content as well.

Just judging by the screenshots which you can see at www.projecthellgate.com/gallery - and from what I take from all the interviews - is that this game is Action-RPG+ FPS + MMO all in one as various aspects of each are woven into the game.

hmm.....the long answer to a short question....