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| Hellgate London; Preview | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 18 2005, 01:11 PM (133 Views) | |
| Maplassie GTR | Oct 18 2005, 01:11 PM Post #1 |
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MR GTR
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Hellgate: London is an example of a studio doing what it does best. In this case, it's Flagship delivering what appears to be a first-rate action RPG. Sure, it doesn't look like Diablo, but once you see it in action, you'll know you're in familiar territory. The appeal of randomized dungeons, percentage-based item drops, and skill-tree driven character development is apparently far from expiring. We recently got to see a new build of the game, with none other than Flagship co-founder Bill Roper was behind the reins. For the purposes of the demo, Roper controlled a Templar character. The only cl@ss in Hellgate that's been thus far revealed, Templars seem like they're going to be well suited to mixing it up with creatures up close. Throughout the demo, Roper's newly-minted female Templar (the fair sex had just gotten its version of the cl@ss modeled, incidentally) wielded a wide variety of weapons, both melee and ranged, which gave us a pretty clear idea as to how combat would work in the final game. Despite the fact that you'll be playing from a first-person perspective a lot of the time (particularly when you're wielding firearms), the game rarely calls for your aiming to be especially precise. Rather, most of the firearms' output will be area-of-effect style; simply point your gun in the general direction of a group of enemies -- groups that tend to be large, from what we've seen -- and fire away. Chances are, you'll damage anything you can see. If you've played the Diablo games, then you'll likely be familiar with the dynamic. When the forces are Hell are aligned against you, there's nothing like a gun that shoots poison to make you feel safe. Posted Image Roper cycled through a bunch of devastating weapons throughout his demo. Since Templars as a cl@ss can dual-wield any combination of melee weapons and firearms, there didn't seem to be any shortage of methods to cause havoc. Most impressive, perhaps, was a weapon called the Firebrand. Basically, it fired a cluster of guided missiles that basically annihilated everything in their path. They would seek out multiple targets when appropriate, often times simultaneously going after enemies crawling on the ground, as well as flying ones. The Arc Jumper was pretty neat as well; it popped off orbs of electrified plasma that bounced frantically from enemy-to-enemy, like an unstable molecule. The Firefly, meanwhile, whose name Roper mentioned is an overt reference to eponymous (but sadly short-lived) sci-fi TV series, was essentially a portable volcano. It spewed thick chunks of magma that, logically, burned things up real quick. Firearms are only one half of the equation, though. Templars, judging from the demo, will be just as capable of getting close and personal, through the use of melee weapons. For much of Roper's demonstration, his character was armed with a sword on her off-hand, which she alternated with her gun when the sizable hordes of enemies got too close. Things changed when she picked up the Grappler, however. The Grappler is a secondary ranged weapon that does no damage by itself, but instead is used to draw enemies close to your person, so that you can hack away at them with your melee weapon. "Fishing for monsters," as Roper put it, kind of like Scorpion in Mortal Kombat. Perhaps to compensate for the devastating effects of ranged weapons, there will be a sort of "combo" system in effect for melee attacks. As you progress through the levels and gain access to more powerful combat skills, you'll be able to link some into more powerful, chained combo attacks. No word on how this will work specifically, though The Templar cl@ss, much like the Paladins in World of Warcraft and Diablo 2, will have access to powerful abilities called "auras." These are, essentially, "buff"-type abilities that emanate from the Templar herself, and whose effects can be felt throughout a set radius around her. Some of them are buffs, anyway, and bolster the abilities of the Templar, and all her party members. Others can have detrimental effects on enemies caught within their area of effect; one example that Roper gave in our demo was an aura that reduced enemies' resistance towards specific types of attack. Yes, it is very like that Templars will pwn faces. At the very least, they'll look the part. Posted Image You can be sure that there's a system in place to prohibit players from having every aura that they've acquired in effect -- it's called your "concentration" attribute. The higher your concentration, the more auras you can have active (among other things -- certain powerful weapons, for instance, also have concentration costs). Higher level versions of certain auras will cost more activate than their lower level counterparts, which serves a dual purpose. First, it guarantees that higher level players can't "twink" their friends with super-powerful abilities, due to the prohibitive activation cost. Secondly, it guarantees that lower-level versions of abilities remain viable throughout the life of your character. You may not want to, say, equip your highest fire-resistance aura, but one a few notches down will be significantly cheaper, while still affording a satisfactory degree of protection. To be honest, it's almost unfair to see Hellgate so early. The game is certainly starting to take shape, but that isn't the issue. It's more a matter of our appet1tes being whet with no hope of satiation on the horizon. The game is due out only as soon as Flagship deems it worthy of primetime, and if the studio's Blizzard-based roots are anything to go by, we may have some time to wait. |
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| DrHeidi | Oct 18 2005, 01:28 PM Post #2 |
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Experimenter
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Ooh, thank you. Next to Oblivion, this is the game I'm most looking forward to. |
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| Maplassie GTR | Oct 18 2005, 01:31 PM Post #3 |
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MR GTR
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yeah dude.I wanna check out this "randomness factor" they all keep bragging about! BUt it does indeed look like a superb game! |
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| someoneelse | Oct 18 2005, 01:40 PM Post #4 |
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Through the looking glass
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I agree with the end statement. I hate reading about this game... Lets wager when it arrives. I say mid-2007. |
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| Maplassie GTR | Oct 18 2005, 02:05 PM Post #5 |
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MR GTR
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I say December 2006! |
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| Elyaradine | Oct 18 2005, 02:50 PM Post #6 |
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Add to the Beauty
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The movies and previews for this game are absolutely stunning! *drool!* |
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