PC impressions: Hellgate London
If there's anything more prolific than booth babes on the E3 show floor, it's large men equipped with ludicrously powerful weapons and equally devastating chins, all of them hailing from post-apocalyptic wastelands. Naturally, we were delighted to see that Namco's Hellgate: London featured not only the prerequisite one-man army, but a crumbling London overrun by snarling monsters and hostile punks. Though you're welcome to create a more effeminate avatar via the game's character creation utility, there's nothing about the game's setting that's particularly interesting. In-between the dilapidated buildings and freakishly deformed mutants, I kept awaiting the next cliche' to slither out from the world's wreckage and remind me that a cliche' in its natural habitat is a very ugly thing indeed.
The game's combat proved to be more interesting, featuring a combination of third-person and first-person shooting with more traditional RPG elements. Success isn't determined by accuracy and reflex as much as it is by your character's skills, equipment and magical . Essentially, the game's real-time action is running on top a set of rules and character statistics which determine things like how much damage an attack does and how accurate a shot is. Equipment plays an important role and this can be purchased in a central town hub, often populated by NPCs and other online players. The idea is to have all the players meet up in these areas and then venture out into the dangerous world together.
The levels in the world outside are randomly generated--one of those design choices that often sound better than they actually are. It's difficult to tell how well the level generator works (all these post-apocalyptic streets look the same to me), but the combat isn't nearly intricate enough to sustain potentially confusing or linear level layouts. The game really puts FPS players and RPG fans in an odd position, since the shooting doesn't really rely on speed and accuracy, and the game's story doesn't seem like a major focus at all. Keep a cautious eye on this one.
