Hellgate: London Preview

This year's E3 was hectic to say the least. With all the dust finally settling down, we gather our thoughts and look upon a few titles we simply weren't able to cover, partially because of our tight schedule and also on account of the fact that the show itself was poorly organized - as 2lions mentioned a gazillion times by now.

This is what happens when Death does it with a squid.

This is what the inside of someone's brain looks like?

Anyhow, EA definitely had plenty to showcase at the event this year and we already managed to brief you on most of their top projects. This time we come around for a closer look at Hellgate: London, a new Action RPG coming from the creators of Diablo 2. Amongst other cool new features, Flagship Studios, the development team behind the title, at long last decided to unveil new segments from Hellgate: London, as well as a portion of the single-player. By the way, we should warn you that parts of the following text contain a few spoilers related to the storyline.

Although the game has already undergone a lengthy development cycle, there's still plenty of work to be done. Right now, the team is putting most of their effort into tuning the game technically. But one of their greatest tasks is to create an imaginative concept for each and every quest that awaits players as they battle their way through the apocalyptic remnants of London. Flagship's recent presentation of the single-player segment largely focused on the engineer character class; one of the six classes that will be available in the full version of the game.

During the main campaign, there's a set of interesting tasks to complete. One of these missions, entitled The Mind of 314, centers on a particular character referred to as 314 (actually, his real name is Lucius Aldin). In any case, your job is to get into the mind of 314 to deal with the character's ego. At the outset, your avatar must make his way via the synapses of the brain, most of which is heavily guarded by numerous spectral creatures. The goal is to reach the center of the brain. Of course, the task ahead won't be simple. First you have to defeat the ego of 314, after which it splits into three smaller egos. These three new enemies actually represent the spectral versions of the game's three primary classes - the Templar, the Hunter and the Cabalist. Challenging each of these denotes a different line of tactics.

Another level that was showcased was the Millennium Battle, referring, of course, to the Millennium Bridge. Since the London's Thames River has dried up, players are required to explore and fight on the riverbed itself. What ensues is a bloody battle, involving a lot of action and mighty opponents to tackle. For one, you're going to face huge creatures, the design of which largely resembles the colossal alien tripods from Spielberg's War of the Worlds (we'll probably never see the end of that one). Anyhow, it's your job to take these monsters out. What makes things even more challenging is the fact that the sewer and riverbed are crammed with lesser minions and demons that will just keep coming. The good news is you'll have some assistance yourself. NPCs are scattered throughout the level and can easily be called upon as support. What's even cooler is that there are plenty of defense turrets around the area, which may be activated to help keep those nasty monstrosities at bay. Naturally, the course of battle also depends greatly on the type of class you happen to be playing.

The engineer, for instance, is one of the Hunter faction classes, which means he has several unique abilities, such as creating bots that stick by his side at all times - kind of like pets. Mind you, don't expect this pet to go around looking for fire hydrants to pee on. In most cases, these bots are quite adept at seeking out enemies and attacking them to protect your character. There are many different types of bots thrown in and some of them have the ability to spot cloaked foes, while others use laser sight to discern enemies around corners. They also have a cool side-ability to slow your opponents down, which comes in very handy in certain situations.