Hellgate: London (prerelease)

Hellgate: London is a merged Action RPG / FPS game with MMO features, developed by Flagship Studios and played in a post-apocalyptic setting in London, 2038.

A number of features have been confirmed to be in the game through interviews and demos, however note that even these can change until the game is completed.

Factions

There are three factions, further divided into three subclasses with special properties and skills.
The Templar faction function as an up close holy Warrior, and similar to the Paladin character in Diablo II.
The Hunter faction put their faith in advanced weaponry, robotics and traps, reminiscent of the Ghost character in Starcraft.
The Cabalist faction experiments with demons, summons, and their unholy magic, a bit like a the Necromancer in Diablo II, but dealing with demons instead.

Game modes

Free offline single player, akin to Diablo II.
Free online multiplayer.
Paid online multiplayer.

Community support

Guild support.
Friend list support.

The online experience

Focus is on primarly on PvE, but some forms of PvP will likely be in, and more focus put on this if there's an "outcry" about it.

"We know that players want to test their characters against each other." – Bill Roper [1]

Multiplayer will add several features to the gameplay; guilds, community features like chat, auction houses, economy based on stations, and more items, areas, and game modes.

"Multiplayer has many, many things that are not present in the single-player version of the game. Aside form the customer support and secured client / server structure, there are guilds and groups for community, the auction house and Station structure for economy, additional weapons, armor, demons, modes of play, areas to adventure within..." – IGN Hellgate: London Peek #8 [2]

There will be a live team providing continous updates.

"We've dedicated ourselves to providing a lot of ongoing content after the game ships, and this means when you're online, you'll be getting more and more." – Bill Roper [3]

Time-related events and competitions are likely to be added over time.

"We're also planning to have a lot of little differences in the world when you're in multiplayer. Contests and events that follow the real-world calendar are good examples. As well, we may have items you can only get at certain times of the year, or if you complete specific tasks or tests that only happen every so often." – Bill Roper [4]

Parties

As a party is made, it can be given a name, maximum members, and possibly other settings.

"You can make your group and give it a name, a description, a maximum number of characters, so it's all set up for what you want to do." – Bill Roper [5]

Out-of-party characters can search for adventuring parties to join from town terminals.

"People who are looking for a group can go to a terminal and see you're doing what they want to do." – Bill Roper [6]

Members can join parties already in battle at a later point, if the party is advertising itself.

"The big difference there is that if you've got eight people in your group and four guys have to drop out for some reason, you're not screwed. Your game isn't over. You don't have to restart, you can advertise your group." – Bill Roper [7]

Monster difficulty is adapting to the number of party members and adjusted as members come and go.

"... in which case the game will scale down the number of enemies in the instance proportionally to correspond to your new party's size." – SchackNews [8]

Monster levels set to the average party level. Not adjusted if members will later leave.

"However, it will not scale the enemies' actual levels to match your party's new average level." – ShackNews [9]

Hardcore

The popular Hardcore mode seen in e.g. Diablo II will be both supported and improved upon with special recognition of Hardcore characters.

"Hardcore players get loads of recognition within the world for taking this risk... different armor and item looks, color themes, effects, titles, auras and so on. When a level 40 Hardcore player enters a station, other players will take notice." – Bill Roper [10]

Quests

To do...

Items

Crafting to create items is not as emphasized as in some MMO's due to the diversity and focus on monster drops, but may be in to some extent.

"It's not something that's heavily configured into the game like some MMOs." – Bill Roper [11]

References

For tracking which articles can be ignored, the following articles have already been covered in this Wikipedia article:

IGN / RPG Vault's Hellgate: London Peek #8
ShackNews' Bill Roper on Hellgate: London Online

Please add articles above as you cover them to help avoid double work.

External links