Hellgate Guru

GameSpy has posted up a preview of their experience of the Beta test from the views of three of their editors.

Sluggo: To start, it’s worth noting that what we’re testing is a multiplayer beta. You’ll be able to play Hellgate as a single-player RPG, but in this format, it’s more like an MMO: you create an account and connect to the beta servers; the actual gameplay and questing areas are instanced, but connected via hubs where you can see tons of other players walking around, interacting with NPCs, chatting with each other or forming parties.

They test various classes and describe what they are like.

Delsyn: So far at least, Hellgate is playing out like a weird combination of Diablo and Guild Wars (note that this is not a criticism). Your rationale for the instanced zones is exactly the same design philosophy that Guild Wars uses for the choices it made — instanced areas connected by multiplayer hubs where players can get together. I like the randomness aspect of the instanced zones also. That’s something that can’t be done in a classic MMO setting. The sacrifice is that the game loses out on some of the social opportunities of a true MMO (something Guild Wars deals with also).

They also talk about how diverse the experience is for all of them and how varied Hellgate London can be.

Sluggo: There’s no doubt that a lot of Hellgate players will have had some experience with World of Warcraft and other Blizzard games, so the loot hierarchy should be easily identifiable: white items are basically trash, green items are a little more rare and of higher quality, and then there are blue, orange and other “epic” and “legendary” items to be found. I’m not sure if it’s because this is a beta, or if this will be indicative of the final game, but I’ve already had numerous blue and orange drops.

Delsyn: Actually the loot system is a little more complicated than that. Every weapon and piece of armor does different types of damage and has a variety of secondary effects and can be enhanced with found items. A green sword that does corruption damage and boost shield overload may hold a much different value than a similarly priced green sword that does physical damage and boosts strength depending on the type of class the player is playing and what sorts of enemies they’ll be fighting.

One of the things I like so far is that there are three differed “hotkey” loadouts that a player can use to switch between weapon combos on the fly. The problem is that there’s simply not enough storage space for all the junk you have to haul around. The colossal amount of loot and the need to manage it was one of those “love it or hate it” features in Diablo I have the feeling it’ll be the same here.

There is also the inevitable talk of lag and crashing, however we know that it’s a beta test which is there to iron all these kinks out.

Delsyn: My technical experience has been horrendous. I’ve experienced insane lag that has monsters reacting two to three seconds after I shoot them. I’ve been dropped out to the menu more than once and had my password not be recognized to get in. Loading times have been ridiculously long. Worst of all, though, was the fate of my poor Blademaster. I had reached level six in the Covent Garden trainyard and jumped through the portal to back to the hub. Boom, crash and when I restarted, my character was back to level one. Worse, when I try to load her up, the game seems to hang forever, my poor Ilyana trapped forever between load screens. We’ll have to see how this improves in the next few weeks.

PLEASE NOTE: There is still an NDA in effect, and it’s only game companies that can talk about this stuff, not the rest of us in beta. Thanks.

Thanks to kallenai for the link.

Enjoy