Hellgate London

Brought to us by the same guys that made Diablo 2 Hellgate gives hack and slash fans something to drool over. Based in London after portals opened up and demons took over the world the game lets us fight to take the city back. The game can be played in first or third person with a wild range of skill sets. Swords, guns and magic will be all at your disposal to send the demons back to hell. I played along with the help of Tyler Thompson the director of Technology at flagship studios. I was told the version of the game I was playing “only” featured 30 weapons and the final number has yet to be decided. In my short time playing I got to use quite a few swords and some very unique guns. Each weapon had its own style and stand out quite well from each other. When using guns two fisted worked with each hand using mouse 1 and 2.  Swords on the other hand used mostly mouse 1 with 2 being set aside for a special move. As you level you can assign skill points and new attributes to improve your character.

The level of detail on the models were very impressive and caught my eye right away. When you have twenty or more zombies on the screen you do not expect them to look as good in first person up close. You could almost count the bones sticking through the skin. The over all graphics were very sharp it is on par with the latest generation of games coming out this year.

I was told the netcode was built by the same guys that got Diablo 2 to run on BattleNet so we should expect it to play well online. The developer team wants to give the community better support the Diablo series and are still working out how they are going to handle pricing if any for online play. The game is mostly Co Op with PvP play still being talked about. The game is going to be built for large group play and there is talk of having missions that require sizable parties to complete.

No release date has been planned as of yet. For more info check out www.hellgatelondon.com