Hellgate: London
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| Hellgate: London | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Flagship Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Namco / HanbitSoft / EA / IAH |
| Engine | Proprietary game engine |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date |  October 31, 2007[1] November 2, 2007[1] October 31, 2007[2] November 1, 2007[2] |
| Genre(s) | Action-RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: M USK: 18 (cut) PEGI: 18+ BBFC: 15 GRB: 18 |
| Media | DVD |
| System requirements | Windows XP or Windows Vista, 1.8 GHz(XP) or 2.4 GHz (Vista) processor, 1 GB RAM (XP) or 2 GB RAM (Vista), NVIDIA GeForce 6200/ATI Radeon 9000 chipset or greater, 6 GB free hard drive space, DirectX 9.0c compatible sound, Internet connection required for multiplayer[3] |
| Input methods | Keyboard and mouse |
Hellgate: London is a dark fantasy-themed action role-playing game developed by Flagship Studios and released on October 31, 2007. This game is made by the same group of people that created the Diablo series who used to work for Blizzard Entertainment, but had separated from them. One major update, The Stonehenge Chronicles, has been released since game launch.
Set in a post-apocalyptic London in the year 2038, Hellgate: London features both single-player and multiplayer components. This allows the player to team up with other players online to battle demons, or to fight alone in single player mode. The online component features many MMORPG-like elements such as subscription plans, player versus player combat, and guild formation.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Hellgate: London takes place in 2038, post-apocalyptic London. London has been invaded by demons. Until recently, humans had many champions holding back the invasion. Various real-world events are referenced in the background of the Hellgate story as averted crossover attempts. The Crusades were actually undertaken to fight back the minions of Hell, as was the charring of London in the Great Fire to wipe out the Plague. According to the storyline, the famous Knights Templar were the keepers of knowledge on how to battle demonic forces. Unfortunately, these heroes underwent a charring of their own at the hands of a jealous King Phillip IV, who hated the power they held in the world at large. While the Knights Templar survived as an organization, their numbers were severely diminished and were forced to remain in hiding to stay alive.
As time passed and technology progressed, the old ways began to fade from memory and the secrets of the arcane were lost. When the demons attacked again, they found their enemies unprepared. Ordinary weapons were no use against the demons, who could shrug off an RPG round. The Templars offered their special services to the military, but the leaders balked, refusing to believe in the old truths. Hellgate quickly took the victory in the battle for Earth. The Burn, a decades-long process of "hellforming", has begun.
However all is not lost, as various groups have been preparing for just such an eventuality. Freemasons built the London Underground to be demon resistant, and as such the stations now act as bases, "safe zones" for would-be defenders. These defenders are armed with a fusion of modern weaponry and arcane magic such as flamethrowers that throw Greek fire or swords covered in locusts. In the game, players are one of these defenders.
[edit] Gameplay
Hellgate: London is an action role-playing game that builds upon the core design of roguelikes by using random generation of maps, monsters, and loot to allow for replayability.[4] The game can be played in either third person perspective or first person perspective. Melee classes are set to a third-person view and cannot select first-person perspective, whereas ranged classes default to a first-person view but can switch to third-person if so desired. Precision aiming is not required to use most weapons; which track their targets, “lock-on”, or carpet an area with explosives. The game contains sniper rifles and other weapons that require accurate manual aiming, most are exclusive to the Hunter faction. Hellgate: London can be played offline or online without a fee. Players can pay a monthly fee to gain additional content over time, including new areas, weapons, monsters, classes, quests, events, titles, game modes and other content.[5] The game consists of five acts to unify the areas a player travels through on a greater scale. All acts account for approximately 40 hours of single-player gameplay.[6]
The game world of Hellgate: London is a set of demon-infested dungeons and city streets, featuring safe zones such as disused Underground stations. The safe zones scattered across the world act as havens, where players can purchase and upgrade items at NPC merchants, interact with other players in the game world, and commence or complete quests. The journey between zones is randomly generated, levels are fully 3D, rendered with the game's own proprietary graphics engine. Included in these environments are randomly generated enemies, bosses and items. The game features historical London areas and buildings, St. Paul's Cathedral was featured in an early concept art drawing. Another building that has been brought up in an interview is the Clock Tower which houses Big Ben.[citation needed]
[edit] Multiplayer
Hellgate: London was designed to be primarily focused on solo and cooperative PvE combat, but players can duel and there is a free-for-all PvP Mode for subscribers. Dueling can only take place outside of Underground hubs. Players can also choose to enter into PvP mode, which means they can be attacked and harmed outside of Underground hubs by anyone else that has chosen to enter PvP mode. That is, those in PvP mode, must always be ready for PvP. This is a way to have wide-ranging free-for-alls, or create a “friendly-fire” way of playing the game.[7] In multiplayer mode, players can meet and organize for team play and quests in safe zones - the old Underground stations, protected by the Freemasons' wards. The world will not be split in "shards" or servers, but rather play like a massively multiplayer online game with heavy instancing, such as Guild Wars. Every character is capable of soloing the entire game. Grouping with other players is optional, though grouping will bring benefits in terms of experience gain and items. As the number of players within an instance increase, the difficulty of the instance increases. The game does not feature LAN support.[8]
[edit] Servers and regional support
Ping0 manages the American (US) and European (EU) regional servers for Hellgate: London while IAHgames manages the Southeast Asia (SEA) regional server along with the game support and user forums for SEA region players.
[edit] Weapons
The weapons base their power on character stats more than a player's aiming skills, being more of an RPG than an FPS in this regard. For example, a player can place points in an Accuracy statistic that determines the precision of the rounds they fire.
There are five types of damage. When a target takes damage, there is a chance that it will suffer a special effect (or "debuff") based on the type of damage taken. The table below summarizes these types and effects:
| Type | Debuff | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Physical | Stun | Prevents enemies from moving, attacking or using skills for the duration of the effect. |
| Fire | Ignite | Target takes damage equal to 5% of their maximum life every second for the duration. |
| Spectral | Phase | Phased targets deal 50% less damage and take 50% more damage. |
| Toxic | Poison | Poisoned targets take damage over time and cannot be healed until the poison wears off. |
| Electrical | Shock | Shocked targets cannot use skills for the duration of the debuff |
Each weapon has a Strength value for the special effect of each type of damage it does (e.g. Ignite Strength for Fire weapons), comparing to the corresponding Defense stat of the target (e.g. Ignite Defense) in order to calculate the chance that a target will suffer the corresponding debuff. Items, mods, skills, buffs and equipment enhancements can alter Strength and Defense stats.
All weapons deliver their damage in one of three different modes:
- Direct - only the enemy under the crosshairs will receive the damage
- Splash - The damage effect will cause damage in an area centered on the target or location the player is aiming at.
- Field - An area of terrain is targeted to inflict damage on enemies who enter it.
There are a number of other effects, which can cause projectiles to bounce, spawn novas of splash damage, and spawn more projectiles, which may or may not ricochet around the environment or pass through multiple enemies. These are typically the result of passive skills or special abilities of enhanced, rare and legendary weapons. They are not usually under the direct control of the player, instead relying on a random percentage chance for the effect to occur.
[edit] Items
Hellgate: London uses a heavily randomized item system of at least a hundred base weapon types and many armor types, with a pool of random special properties and bonuses (magical affixes) applied to them to achieve re-playability and promote item collection.
Furthermore, unwanted weapons and armor can be freely disassembled to save space in one's inventory, often yielding standard or rare crafting materials. These components can be exchanged for special crafted weapons at an NPC vendor, or used to upgrade existing weapons or armor at the Nanoforge device in most safe zones. Additionally, random special properties can be added to weapons or armor at a similar device. Lastly, blueprints are available by which one can craft one's own armor, weapons and mods, given the raw materials.
As such, the gamut for item collection and customization includes:
- Weapon mods (ammo, batteries, and so on, which can be removed for a price and swapped)
- Upgradeable damage or armor values at the Nanoforge (using spare parts and Nanoshards)
- The addition of random special properties to weapons and armor (for a price - properties can be Common, Rare or Legendary)
- Crafted weapons, armor and mods (using spare parts and blueprints or at an NPC "maker")
Items may have slots that a player can insert "mods" in to enhance their power. Mods can be technology that improves items, but also demonic artifacts and holy items, known as relics. Technology mods are more aimed at specific weaponry upgrades, while relics are more general in what bonuses they give, such as giving fire damage enhancements regardless of the wielded weapon; if the player adds a mod to their weapon, this change is shown in-game (if a scope is added, then the weapon will render with a scope.) Mods can be removed at special devices in the quest-area hubs. Example types of mods are listed below:
- Ammo Magazines - Modify the amount, type, range, or accuracy of weapons. Magazines can be magical or technological in nature.
- Battery Packs - Battery packs charge weapons with different types of damage, such as spectral, shock (lightning), fire, poison, or physical.
- Fuel Tanks - Confer different damage types onto weapons.
- Relics - Often considered holy, relics may be part of a greater item or an item previously owned by someone of great ability.
- Rockets - Like ammo magazines rockets change the type of ammo a weapon uses while adding an explosive element, often making it more powerful.
[edit] Factions and classes
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HG:L has three main archetypes, or Factions as they are referred to in game. Each Faction consist of two professions, allowing for a total of six different professions to be played. Each faction and its available professions are listed below.
[edit] Templar
The Templar faction is an underground society leftover from the original Knights Templar. They combine futuristic technology with magic and ancient artifacts to create armor and weapons for melee and short-ranged combat. Templar classes are the only classes able to wield melee weapons, shields and use self-affecting auras, but have a limited ranged weapon selection.
- Blademaster - An offensively-focused melee class, the only profession that can dual-wield swords.
- Guardian - A defensively-focused melee class.
[edit] Cabalist
The Cabalists are students of the dark arts and fringe science. This often leaves them standing right on the line between good and evil. These powerful arcane casters seek knowledge about the demons, as well as how to achieve mastery over them. As spell casters, they are suited for mid-range combat.
Cabalist classes use ranged weapons that have many unique effects.
- Evoker - An Evoker's skills include an extensive array of elemental attacks and curses. Evokers can equip two focus devices at the same time if they purchase the dual wield skill.
- Summoner - A Summoner's skills include offensive abilities and many summoning abilities. Summoners can summon a main minion that can be enhanced over time and smaller minions for specialized use. Summoners cannot equip more than one focus device.
[edit] Hunter
The Hunters are mysterious, highly-trained ex-military operatives who lay waste to their foes with advanced weapons blending arcane magics with the latest in technology. They are able to hit their targets from long distances.[9]
Hunter classes rely on high-powered rifles and cannons. Their armor relies more heavily on the regenerating shield element, rather than the damage absorbing armor element. This is suited for long range attacks but weak when overrun by many opponents.
- Marksman - The Marksman is a ranged weapon specialist with many skills to enhance his or her weaponry. Example: Sniper locks the character in place but provides a range and damage bonus at the cost of rate of fire (in patch 1.2 the player receives a 50% movement speed reduction in sniper stance).
- Engineer - A minion class similar to the Summoner, with expendable minions as well as combat drones that can wield weapons. Example: Assault Drone summons a hovering bot that can use weapons and torso armor, it is the "main" pet of the Engineer.
[edit] Subscription
There are two types of multiplayer accounts: free and subscription accounts. Subscribers have access to ongoing content updates, expected to be released every two or three months.[citation needed] The initial content updates will include more monsters, more weapons, additional item sets and special quests for ultimate items.
The US subscription plan costs $9.95 (USD) a month and an offer to pay a one-time fee of $149.99 for a lifetime subscription was available for up to 100,000 people who pre-ordered the game and ended on January 31, 2008.[10] The UK subscription is £6.99 and EU subscription is €9.99.[11]
Additionally, subscribers have access to a Hardcore mode, special PvP arenas and a PvP ladder (once implemented), the ability to bypass server queues, a shared storage space with room for 40 items instead of 20, the ability to create guilds, the ability to achieve officer status in guilds, and 24-hour customer support.[12] Subscribers and non-subscribers will be able to interact in all ways in the game. Non-subscribers can join guilds, but not create them.[13] The level cap is set to 50 and up to 24 character slots are available for all players.[14]
[edit] Development history
Flagship Studios has proposed regular additions to Hellgate: London throughout the life of the game.[15]
- Monthly Events - All Hallow's Eve in October/November and Guy Fawkes Week in November.
- Content Patches - Released quarterly for subscribers. Content or quarterly updates contain new content such has new monsters, new items, new areas, new quests, and possibly new subscriber only features.
- Broad Content - Broad content includes new features, rebalancing, and bug fixes. New features like auction houses and a mail system will be added to the game as soon as they are finished and will not go into the standard patch cycle. Broad content will be available to everyone.[citation needed]
[edit] Monthly events
Monthly events add several items to the game that require many different levels of involvement to obtain. Some of these events reoccur and some of them happen only once.
- All Hallow's Eve - Takes place on the week of Halloween. Included in All Hallow's Eve is candy with random effects, both cosmetic and beneficial, a buildable cyborg made from various parts, and a rare visage mask that gives its wearer a flaming skull for a head.
- Guy Fawkes Week - Guy Fawkes week begins on the 5th of November. Included in Guy Fawkes Week is items with flaming abilities and new instances that have a fiery theme, collectible candy is expanded upon from All Hallow's Eve, and many new recipes are added.
- The Bloodmoon - A rare level type rumoured to only be available during October.
No new events have been announced or planned since.
[edit] Stonehenge Chronicles patch
The Stonehenge Chronicles - Patch, scheduled for release on January 21, 2008, was postponed until January 22, 2008 due to bugs[16], and includes an additional hub (entitled Stonehenge), three open environments, multiple class and game changes/tweaks, added demons, and additional weaponry and armor.[17].
[edit] Financial assistance
In March 26, 2008, it was announced that Comerica Bank would provide game funding assistance, using Hellgate: London as collateral, for Flagship Studios so that they would not "rely upon a publisher's investment" to support ongoing development of their games. [18]
[edit] Southeast Asia Server
Players who purchased the game in Southeast Asia had patch support dropped shortly after release, the publishing companies involved Inforcomm Asian Holdings and Hanbitsoft have yet to give an official response to the matter, after several requests from the community to do so.
Flagship Studios's Ivan Sullic commented briefly in a disclosed email to an American player's request to acknowledge the Southeast Asia community's hardship over the patch support being dropped.[citation needed]
[edit] Reception
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This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can (November 2007). |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| 1Up.com | 40%[19] |
| Bit-tech.net | 7/10[20] |
| EGC Games | 74/100[20] |
| Eurogamer | 7/10[21] |
| GameDaily | 7/10[22] |
| GamePro | 60% |
| GameSpot | 7/10[23] |
| GameSpy | 3/5[24] |
| GameTap | 70% |
| IGN | 6.8/10[25] |
| PC Gamer (US) | 89/100 |
| PC Gamer (UK) | 73% |
| X-Play | 2/5 |
Metacritic Critics Rating: 70 out of 100 composed of 21 reviews. [26]
The US edition of PC Gamer gave Hellgate: London a 89 out of 100 in an exclusive review. Its cited reasons for the score were its solid and fresh take on the Diablo gameplay style. The review also pointed out the lack of a solid single player or story and the murky future of the subscription service.[27]
The UK edition of PC Gamer gave the game 73% citing unsatisfying combat and stilted movement as the main reasons for the lower mark. However, it did point out the surprising level of depth in the game's loot, equipment customization and character development.
GameSpot gave Hellgate: London a 7 out of 10 ranking, and concluded in its review: "Hellgate: London has plenty of neat ideas, but many of them aren't executed as well as you'd like."[23]
NZGamer.com stated that "Hellgate: London presents a wonderful story set against an artfully designed world but never goes that extra mile to separate it from the masses." scoring it 8.6/10.
1Up.com gave the game a low rating of 4.0 out of 10.0 with their review stating that Hellgate is "...not all bad. Underneath the frustrating instability, behind the graceless chat window, and beyond the procession of NPC dialog boxes, you tickled that deep primordial need to gather more stuff and get stronger. Loot and leveling are the essence of any RPG, and you're equipped to satisfy that jones. Now, if only you could straighten up the rest of your act, you might be more than a partner in whatever dysfunctional need you meet for those unfortunate players willing to put up with you. You might be an actual good game. But for now, get help. Patches, add-ons, reboots...whatever. If that happens, give me a call."[19]
GamePro gave Hellgate: London the following ratings: Graphics: 4/5; sound: 3/5; control: 3.5/5; fun factor: 3/5.
- Pros: "Class variety is interesting. Loot drops will keep obsessive gamers occupied."
- Cons: "Randomized levels, endless combat and quest repetition, locked progression choices, lack of atmosphere."
- Summary: "What's unfortunate about Hellgate is that it's neither as fun nor as memorable as its spiritual predecessor."
Bit-tech.net gave the game a 7 out of 10, citing poor graphics and uninspired gameplay as major faults, but praising the modification system and multi-player side of the game.[20]
GameSpy, gave the game 3 stars out of 5 possible and gave the "Multiplayer" a Fair Rating. GameSpy summarized Hellgate London in these words:[24]
- Pros: "Enjoyable combat; varied classes; tons of fun randomized loot; decent storyline; fun single-player campaign."
- Cons: "Badly implemented multiplayer component; bugs, slowdowns and crashes; randomized levels; boring quests."
- Summary: "If the development team had poured half the creativity and personality into the setting, character, content or story as they did into the fighting and looting, the game might have become a modern-day classic. Instead, what comes out of this Hellgate often feels a little underwhelming."
IGN recently assigned the game a 6.8 "Passable" rating.[25]
- Pros: The excessive amount of items and item customization were considered high points, as well as the overall "look" of the game.
- Cons: The game's primary weaknesses were criticized as being overly repetitive gameplay and lack of overall story/immersion, not to mention underdeveloped combat animations and abilities.
- Summary: The most common score given to Hellgate has been a 70, with repetitive gameplay and a lack of depth cited as the most common grievances.
[edit] Launch problems
Due to problems with the subscription service, the Halloween holiday subscription content was made available to all players, both fee-paying and free-playing.[28] In Southeast Asia, two weeks after the game was released, many players complained about a game patch, installed by Infocomm Asia Holdings(IAH), which supposedly would have deleted player's characters since game launch.[29] While the EU and US servers had received recent patches and additional content since launch, support and patching of the SEA server had been delayed. IAHGames, the distributor of Hellgate: London and the company providing the "Alliance" server for the SEA region, had promised patch 0 on launch day itself.[30] However, Patch 0 was delayed with no official date of implementation. On 14th November, a joint statement by the CEOs of IAHGames and Flagship Studios announced that the both Patch 0 and Patch 0.1 will be implemented on November 22nd and that they are considering some compensation for the early adopters.[31][29]
[edit] Other media
[edit] Comic
A comic book adaptation of Hellgate: London has also been released. Spanning a series of four issues, it is written by Ian Edginton, illustrated by Steve Pugh, and published by Dark Horse Comics. The issues are collected into a trade paperback published in June 2007 (ISBN 1-59307-681-9).[32] The collected comic was also included in the Collector's Edition of the game.
[edit] Novels
There is also a trilogy of novels based on Hellgate: London written by Mel Odom. The first novel, called Exodus was released on June 26, 2007.[33] The second novel, called Goetia was released on February 26, 2008.[34]. The third novel, Covenant is scheduled for release on August 26, 2008 [35].
Exodus is set 18 years before events of the game, and Goetia takes place 14 years before the events of the game. The novels focus primarily on the stories of three characters and their interactions with each other. Each character is from a different class from the game: Simon Cross is a Templar, Warren Schimmer becomes a Cabalist, and Leah Creasey is discovered to be a Hunter. The novels also feature references to and cameos by various characters from the game such as Jessica Sumerisle, Lyra Darius, and others. [36]
