Recently, Flagship’s latest creation opened its multiplayer gates to the general public. In a time where genre-hybridization is becoming increasingly popular, Hellgate’s FPS-RPG combination does not particularly break new ground, but has proven to be an effective formula – as long as the minor creases are ironed out before its Halloween release.

Although Hellgate can be played through as a single player RPG, its multiplayer mode is where its defining content truly lies. As soon as we created an account and connected to the beta servers, we learned that the actual gameplay and questing areas where you engage in combat are instanced (ala GuildWars), however these are connected via hubs where other human players loiter. Here players can chat with each other and form roaming parties for whatever quest takes their fancy.

But to avoid getting ahead of ourselves, we should start with the initial stages of the game – characters. Broadly speaking, there are three classes to choose from – Templars: which are powerful knights, Cabalists; the spellcasters, or Hunters; who specialize in guns. And as you would expect, your choice of class will ultimately determine the distinct manner in which you play the game – Choose a Templar and you’ll be hack-and-slashing Diablo style, or choose a Cabalist and you’ll be keeping your distance and working on your magic skills. But choosing a character from the Hunter class will allow you to fully embrace the FPS elements of the game, using ranged high-tech weaponry to blow your way through mobs. And while you’re tossing up between characters there’s a decent amount of character customization to cater for your vanity needs.

It’s worth noting that each of these classes represent the three factions that have come together during the demon invasion of London. So while havoc reigns in the gloomy streets above, Templars, Cabalists and Hunters have been surviving in the London Undeground for the past 18 years. And it’s precisely here where you’ll find the ‘safe zones’ and hubs where you can take refuge and take stock of your arsenal and belongings.

Once you’re up and running, you’ll notice that the game controls are simple and intuitive. There are only a few menu keys to remember, and hotkeys can be mapped to quickly access spells and items on the fly. It’s possible to create presets for different situations, swapping weapons, armor and spell bindings with the touch of the F1, F2 or F3 keys.

Interacting with NPC’s is straightforward and is also necessary to bring up quests, which roughly drive your progress. Sure, there is plenty of opportunity to run amok and harvest loot and XP, but the unique quests draw you into the storyline and take you to the darkest corners of demon-infested London.

Just to reiterate, every time you embark on a quest, the questing area is dynamically generated, making for infinite replayability. What’s more, the loot contained within each instance is subtly randomized – so on one occasion you might find a particular weapon after killing an NPC, but on another it might be a slightly more powerful weapon. The net result is you are always left guessing – and constantly feeling more inclined to chase down more NPC’s because they may yield better loot.

While combat in Hellgate is smooth and pretty easy to manage, at times it can be overly repetitive. There’s no reloading nor need for ammo management – so perhaps the only times you may feel challenged is when you fight a gnarly NPC boss. Here a modest degree of skills and spell management can be useful. Nonetheless, being hounded by mobs of lower-classed opponents; such as zombies, beasts and varieties of demon, can give you a chance to satisfyingly unleash the power of whatever arsenal you might be carrying around at the time.

And the style in which baddies are dispatched is going to be a big drawcard for this game. Thus the range of weapons is quite impressive, and combined with an even bigger range of armor, miscellaneous items and mods you will pick up after successfully dropping a mob, there are infinite directions in which to take your character. Management of all these items is taken care of by a Diablo-esque inventory system. Each item comes in varying shapes and sizes which can be arranged in the limited grid which represents your backpack. However, due to the insane amounts of items you regularly come across, inventory management can become a bit of a bore.

Nearly all item and weapon types will come with or can be upgraded to accommodate mod slots. These slots serve as holsters for weapons upgrades including different damage types and effects. For instance, a battery might fit to provide electric damage while fuel could add that needed fire kick to an otherwise spectral damage based weapon.

In terms of overall presentation, Hellgate provides a consistently dark and gloomy atmosphere, with plenty of wicked-looking enemies to boot. There was, however somewhat of a lack in variety to the dark gloominess, but that could be due to the limited amount of time we spent playing this beta.

And it did distinctly feel like we were playing a beta– within the first 10 minutes, my character had slipped a couple of feet into the ground and was stuck for good. We did experience a few server connection problems, and there have been reports of some players completely losing their characters’ progress when caught in load-screen limbo. But apart from these, we were treated to a smooth online experience with little noticeable lag.

There is talk of Flagship providing raid content for guilds to attack. While players will be able to complete the critical single-player path on their own, there will be some amount of content that will require large groups to complete. Such new content may be rolled out by Flagship on a regular basis.

The winning formula of Hellgate: London lies in its capturing a depth you would expect from current RPG’s, but blending it nicely with plenty of hands-on action. Consequently, pure RPG-heads will get their fix, but they will also be joined by a host of others who simply enjoy some good old fashioned monster-killing.

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This entry was posted by Justin Arulnathan on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 at 6:16 am and is filed under Previews, PC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.