GB Feature: Hellgate: London E3 Preview

Our E3 2006: The RPGs editorial continues to expand, this time with a hands-on preview of Flagship Studios' Hellgate: London. A little something to start you off:
Moving further into the demo, our character receives a video transmission on their PDA-like device that another soldier is holed up nearby and needs help. It's here that Erich and Max point out that the most important words in any dialogue will always be displayed in bold so that the player can understand what they need to do for the next task simply by skimming through the bolded text. Additionally, I'm told that any event like this will always show up on the automap so that you can easily navigate to the next destination, though that feature hasn't been implemented into the game yet. Erich leads the character through a nearly pitch black level, fighting hordes of demons the whole way. It's at this point that I realize how well the game seems to work in both first-person and third-person view. In a game like Oblivion, I've always felt more comfortable playing from a first-person viewpoint, but I'm not so sure that will be the case in Hellgate: London. With the ability to zoom out a considerable distance and lock on to monsters simply by firing in their general direction, the game's third-person view actually looks a little easier to handle and will most likely be the camera view of choice for veteran action RPG players. As we approach the area where the soldier is holed up, Erich decides to switch to a HARP Pistol capable of freezing enemies while the weapon in his offhand lays waste to them. He tells me that there are at least 100 base weapon types, with a large number of legendary, unique, mutant, and broken versions of each. To make a weapon more powerful, you can also add different modifications to them, including relics, rockets, fuel mods, and tech mods. These mods are interchangeable at any time, so you won't lose a valuable mod if you decide to change weapons.