Nach unserem Probespiel in Tokyo sind wir jedoch wieder richtig guter Dinge, was das Spiel angeht. Das Gegnerdesign ist klasse, die Atmosphäre stimmt, die Story scheint interessant zu werden, die Cutscenes sehen phantastisch aus, und das Gameplay greift schon bei einer Demo. Insofern sagen wir vorerst mal: „Roper wird’s schon richten“. Toi, toi, toi.

The first portion of the zone was outdoors in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Riddled with enemies, we fought our way through to the subway entrance, hacking and slashing various flavors of demon (left click to shield bash and stun, right click for swordplay). We quickly got up to level 3, which presented the basic stat and skill point system. After throwing a few stat points in the stamina column and learning faster melee attacks as the first skill, we felt confident enough to enter the next portion of the Underground, now absolutely swarming with enemies.

That confidence was misplaced, as our Templar was promptly murderized by the approximately 3,000 demon goons who were assigned to guard randomly-generated doorway #37B. It's a pretty safe bet that, like Diablo, Hellgate: London will be one of those "it's fun to play together" games. And also like Diablo, the addiction level will be "unsatiable," for as we all know, the quest for phat lewt is one that never ends.

Hervorgehoben wird vor allem der dem Klassiker Diablo 2 ähnliche Suchtfaktor, der schon nach kurzer Spielzeit eintrat. Den gesamten Artikel findet ihr unter dieser News verlinkt. Ein weiterer interessanter Artikel bei den Kollegen beschäftigt sich mit den Zivilklagen gegen Mitarbeiter von Massive Black, einem Partner der Flagship Studios bei der Entwicklung von Hellgate: London. Zwei Mitarbeiter sollen versucht haben, die Firma und alles Eigentum, inklusive der Verträge und allem, was diese beinhalten, in ihren eigenen Besitz über zu führen. Offenkundig, und gut für alle wartenden Fans, ist das Vorhaben jedoch gescheitert - Die Klagen liegen den zuständigen Gerichten vor:

Chen and others who are presently under investigation, formed a conspiracy to transfer Massive Black's business (including inter alia, clients, employees, intellectual property and revenues) to a new business owned by them.

From Oct. 2005-June 30, 2006, Zhang, Chen and their coconspirators removed more than $100,000 in cash from Massive Black and placed it in a secret account.

Hätte das Vorhaben Erfolg gehabt, hätte es sicherlich negative Auswirkungen auf die Entwicklung von Hellgate: London gehabt.

The potential for grand vistas of weirdness within games are obvious, but technology is nevertheless subject to tight constraints, usually so that we dumb humans can cope with it. But it is not always so truncated – Hellgate London’s promise of randomly generated levels made me think of a JG Ballard short story in which a group of galactic surveyors found themselves aboard an endless space station. Although it’s not likely to be explicitly described as such, Hellgate players are going to find themselves exploring an infinite London.

These kind of ideas usually remain undeveloped within games, which is a trend that I find disappointing. It would be enormously exciting if, instead of films, games regarded dreams as their natural competitors. Trying to outdo a flying dream or other absurdist hypnagogic reveries seems to me to be an admirable ideal.