Gamestar.it featured on the May 2005 Edition of the Gamestar Magazine cover, the premier of the Templar 3D render image from the RPG game in development, Hellgate: London. The 8-pages article highlights different aspects of the game. Flagship Studios Team comments that Hellgate: London won’t just reach the height of quality of their previous games. It will revolutionize the way PC Gaming is developed in various aspects. Hellgate: London is set in year 2030, where the British capital face the invasion of demons—via a teleporting gate, reducing the city to a shadow of itself. The scene becomes into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, leaving most structures reduced to ruins.
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Four years later, it is up to the Templars to take it upon themselves to free humanity from this menace. The Templar Knights are getting a special care in textures and special effects. Their weapons range between half-tech and religious(sacred). The Templars offer a courageous resistance without a real possibility of survival. The army no longer exists, and the only organization in a position to act swiftly is the secret society of templars—descendants of an ancient organization historically tied to the mystery of the Holy Grail, who are gathering as many resources as possible such as sacred relics or military-manufactured gadgets, to teach humanity how to fight for their own freedom by sharing the secrets of their until now secret ancestral society.
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Flagship Studios is taking advantage to the maximum of the mystical history and legends that surround British culture to spice the atmosphere in which you will move, with official historical sources in a futuristic-apocalyptic vision.
The gameplay has an interesting innovation in regards to the fact that the adventure will be carried out in a random generated surroundings, ensuring that the experience, from the point of view of each player, will not be equal. Each player will be facing the same adventure and quests with different and unique experiences to tell their friends.
This represents an innovation in the field of RPG and FPS-games, comparable to the Dungeon instances put in effect in MMORPGs(Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games).
There will be fixed points of reference in particular locations. Zones where you can buy or sell objects, to upgrade skills, spells and abilities. The translation from Italian mentions Medical Attendance, which might be interpreted as buying items that increases your health bar(Healing) or could be interpreted as zones where you will receive Medical attendance by Medical Unit NPCs.
Bill Roper commented that when starting a videogame concept in its first stage, the concepts are inspired from different sources like books and films. In the case of Hellgate: London, Flagship Studios was inspired by books and films that use underground London settings; the rule of the Templars in the medevil times(12th Century)—in reference to the Holy Grail Order; and articles describing the job and inventions of real-life genious and ex-partner and nemesis of Thomas Edison … Nikola Tesla. Among other films that inspired the concept of Hellgate: London—says Roper, are:
Clockwork Orange
?
?28 days later?
?Aliens?
Bill Roper commented to Gamestar Magazine(Italia) that Flagship Studios has the same passion and the same aim to create a product of quality—like when they were in Blizzard Entertainment. But they want to make games a different way. Flagship Studios wants to concentrate their focus with the fans, creating one game at a time giving a sense of union and a common objective.
When Bill Roper entered Blizzard as a programmer, he was employee number 17. Today, Blizzard has grown to an outcrying 700 employees. Flagship Studios wants to remain a small team, and hire people as needed, but focusing their energy into delivering to the players a game in a timely fashion with a good quality.
Hellgate: London promises to offer a great dosage of adrenaline in this dark athmosphere of a post-holocaust. The game won?t be just hack and slash or fray and attack. It will have weaponry that will have a wide range of special effects with fire, electricity, water, and magic that the player will need to choose smartly for different scenarios or challenges found throughout the game, which is part of a sense of RPG. You have to roleplay and think when it is wise to use certain type of weapons or spells in order to succeed in your missions and quests.
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The main implication of this formula regards the strategy of combat of the player that will have to be always alert and ready to adapt themselves to every type of demon and monsters you find. Hellgate: London players will be forced to use their brain and think before pulling the trigger.
Gamestar Magazine( Gamestar.it
) comments that very rarely they have seen an RPG at this point of development that has reached a position where it already competes and rivals with the best present FPS-games on the market. Where other Game Developers usually acquire third-party 3D Engines like Quake; Flagship determined to create in-house their own 3D Engine to manage the demanding creation of random scenes and content—guaranteeing the highest quality, fluidity and respect in the Hellgate: London game, which in the end fills the requirements that Flagship Studios expected. None of the 3D engines out there in the market were capable of creating the random factor they required, forcing them to create their own 3D Engine. It makes the textures and the particle effects of the outbreaks and the crews more bizzarre.
The lighting system of this 3D Engine is also a strong random factor that will be totally dynamic, calculated therefore in real time.
The sound in Hellgate: London is receiving a particular treatment. Flagship counts with a sound designer with experience in the world of films and publishing. Flagship has the pleasure to see the results of their Sound Designer and hope that it makes a good impression on you.
The creed in game design that Flagship Studios wishes to offer with the arrival of the end product is something revolutionary . . . the multiplayer aspect.
The multiplayer aspect in Hellgate: London promises to be innovative. What Bill Roper and the developers are trying to put in practice is a level of game design that succeeds to fuse the best of the experience found in games such as Diablo and MMORPG titles like World of Warcraft. The reasoning is simple: the Mmorpg genre is optimal for the Multiplayer concept of Hellgate: London.
There are factors that are being considered, like groups of players camping spawning of monsters, groups killing other players that do not wish to engage in combat (such as in PvE and PvP concepts), continuos violations of etiquette, or simple rules of good education with other players.
Hellgate: London Multiplayer will have instances or zones of game (often known as Dungeons) where single players or preconstituted groups will enter a unique “location” created specifically for them. Remember, the scenario is randomly generated.
Merging the RPG of Diablo and the MMORPG aspects of World of Warcraft in Hellgate: London Multiplayer will offer a game experience calibrated to the requirements of players.
Players will have socializing places where to meet other players, such as the buy/sell locations(NOTE: The translation is vague and makes me wonder if it means NPC vendors or Auction House) and we will have the multiplayer experience of an enormous instance subdivided in other small instances random generated and spaced out from some location in which the socialization with the other players is guaranteed online.
On paper it sounds and it seems an optimal and extremely way to take the best from various genres, flavored all with a continuous support, with the possibility of new quests added every day, new objects and rendered monsters available in Multiplayer at regular intervals. This certainly adds a new spectrum to the plan Flagship Studios envisions for their multiplayer mode in Hellgate: London.
Namco wants to enter the PC market in America, Europe and Asia, and no doubt Flagship Studios will deliver in kind when the hellgate opens and unleashes Hellgate: London in 2006. In the meantime, Bill Roper invites fans to stay tuned to hold true to the community till then. There will be constant interviews and articles releasing new info, screenshots and video.
Our apologies in advance in case the translation from Italian of some segments from the magazine are incorrect. Special thanks to
Gamestar.it for authorizing Blizzplanet to translate some of the info from the Magazine. If you can read Italian and live nearby, feel free to visit Gamestar Italia website and subscribe to Gamestar Magazine to satisfy your favorite Games previews, reviews and interviews craving.
