Hellgate: London Interview

Flagship Studios is currently working around the clock to wrap up their project, Hellgate: London. I'm sure most of you are aware that Flagship was founded by former execs from Blizzard North - a company widely acknowledged for the legendary Diablo franchise.

London is not what it used to be.

Excuse me kind sir, could I trouble you for directions?

Hellgate: London is Flagship's first effort and, so far, it has generated a lot of attention, given its imaginative setting and unique gameplay. Despite all the work and a seriously busy schedule, Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship, was eager to discuss the progress of the long-expected action RPG. We broach many interesting topics; from AI, level design and combat, to character development, soundtrack and more.

ActionTrip: Flagship has been involved with Hellgate:London for quite some time. What has been the greatest challenge for you throughout the development process?

Bill Roper: Juggling the creation of the best game we can possibly make with starting up a brand-new company has been a huge amount of work. It is so gratifying to be able to create a place where people want to work, to build a team and see them be so successful at crafting an amazing gaming experience. It is also stressful to do all of the other, more "mundane" aspects of running a business, knowing that they are just as important to the overall fortunes of everyone involved. Making the game has been a lot of work, but it is the kind of work we all love.

ActionTrip: Reminiscent to the action-RPG classic, Diablo, Hellgate will feature randomly generated levels. Does this apply to all levels in the game?

Bill Roper: The only areas that are static in design are the Underground stations that act as hubs of economic and community activity. Obviously, we want you to know where to go to buy and sell items, meet up with friends, get quests and so forth. Whenever you go out to adventure, though, every area is both dynamically generated and instanced.

ActionTrip: Just how much character customization will we see in Hellgate: London?

Bill Roper: We have put a great deal of customization into the game, both from a character class development standpoint (skills and spells) to items (weapon and armor functionality) and purely cosmetic (faces, color themes for armor, mods for weapons). We want players to feel as unique as they can to perpetuate their status as a hero in our world. They can find items that have unique properties and appearances that in turn give them a story to tell.

ActionTrip: If I got this right, the Hellgate:London comic serves as a prequel to the game itself. Will we perhaps witness any characters or locations from the comic as we play the game?

Bill Roper: The first edition was mainly a prologue to the game, but the following three issues take place in the same timeline as the game itself. Some of the characters from the comic will definitely be in Hellgate: London as NPCs, or will be mentioned by the characters in the game as they are a part of the world's history.

ActionTrip: Combining melee and ranged weapons appears to be the core of gameplay. Give us a few examples you've come up with, when it comes to various weapon combos.

Bill Roper: The combination of ranged and melee weapons isn't really the core gameplay, but I can see why it would look that way based on some of the public shows we've done. Every faction (Templar / Hunter / Cabalist) has very different play mechanics. The Templar are chiefly melee specialists and, while they can use some supporting ranged weapons, these tend to be short-ranged devices that don't stand on their own as main armaments. The Hunters layer an FPS mechanic over the core action-RPGness of Hellgate: London, using aiming and range to deal their damage. The Cabalist are spellcasters that do everything from blast away to summon demons to fight in their stead. There is really something for everyone in terms of play style!

ActionTrip: For the most part, it looks as though the enemy relies on sheer numbers rather than intelligence. What are your plans in terms of AI?

Bill Roper: Numbers tend to be the earliest tactics you see in the game, and since we haven't really let people play the higher level content, they haven't seen some of the more advanced states. We view monster AI as being sets of specific behaviors rather than trying to create artificial intelligence. Every demon should have something unique about how it interacts with the world, the player or other demons that makes it different and interesting. Early on, we definitely have enemies that are much easier to fight than later in the game because we know players will still be getting used to the controls, the world, learning their character's class and so forth. Later, when they have gained some expertise, we can unleash nastier critters.