Hellgate: London was certainly one of the most impressive games we saw at E3â??05 with a fabulous blend of RPG and action that oozed real style and packed plenty of substance. TotalVideoGames continues the second part of an exclusive interview with Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios who went into great detail about the makeup and focus of Hellgate: London.

To read the first part of our exclusive interview with Bill Roper CEO Flagship Studios click here.

Can you tell our readers about the character classes/character development system within the game and one or two new ideas that will especially please role-player fans?

While all characters in Hellgate: London are humans struggling to survive in a world overrun by the minions of darkness, players can choose between male and female and will have all the basics of defining their individual looks, such as hair colour, faces and skin tone. As we get further into the development process, we will define the various options open to newly created characters.

Of course, as players progress through experience levels and areas within the game, the possibilities are endless for finding and modifying a gigantic number of different items, weapons and accessories, all of which help to create truly unique characters.

Character development will be based on classic RPG precepts, meaning as you gain more experience in the world, you gain more skills or spells, as well as increasing your basic physical and mental statistics. Each class will have their own set of abilities, either mundane or magical in nature, and players will be able to choose a skill path to take their character down. We are looking at ways to introduce some new dynamic elements into the skill/spell system that should make even the most experienced role-player sit up and take notice.

Could you also tell our readers about the combat system on offer, what provides the central focus?

Hellgate: London combines the best elements of Role-Playing games and First-Person action games. The player creates a heroic character, completes quests and battles through innumerable hordes of Demons to advance through experience levels and branching skill paths. A robust, flexible skill and spell system, highly customizable appearances and a massive variety of randomly generated equipment and levels allow players to create their own unique hero.

Hellgate: London offers infinite playability with randomly created levels, items, and events. While the game has real-time, first-person based action elements, it is an RPG through and through. Aiming and high reflex â??twitchâ?? skills are de-emphasized through elements such as area effect, homing, automatic lock-on and soft-targeting weapons and spells. Success in the game will depend on classic RPG goals such as character level, skills, attributes and equipment.

The story is fascinating so please tell us about it and what some of the earlier tasks will offer ; do you see randomisation of the many elements in the game a real gamer pleaser and how do you tie this into the structure? (What elements will be random?)

London, 2032.

The once great city lies in ruins. A massive, sinister gash in the fabric of our reality swirls and churns, dominating the horizon as it blend into a permanently darkened sky. The Invasion, the unspeakable cataclysm that befell London, eventually engulfed humanity as it came.

For centuries the veil between the demonic and earthly realms has grown weaker and weaker as man has lost his belief in the supernatural and embraced the ways of science. This caused both a lack of faith in the darkness that dwelt beyond the light, as well as a lack of vigilance against the agents of chaos. As man believed less and less in what was beyond his natural sight and trusted more and more in only what could be dissected, studied and proven, the demons sought ways to become manifest and pierce the veil.

Although there had been minor, short lived successes before, the demons could never truly sustain a physical presence in the realm of man. Relegated to appearing in spectral forms, the demons sought to remake this world â?“ lush in XXlad and souls on which they could feast â?“ into a new spawning ground. The dark realms that lay far beneath the surface were teeming with those abominations cast down from the realm that rested so temptingly above. The demonic host required room, and topside was their chosen destination.

The demons marshalled their powers to give corporeal form to the Harbingers. These small, secretive demons pushed their way through the cracks in mankindâ??s belief and vigilance that had kept them at bay for centuries. Hundreds of these fiends made their way into the material realm and moved slowly, quietly to points of ancient power across the face of the Earth. Once there, they invoked blood rituals that served to plant a foothold in the world of mankind, a seed if you will, that would grow into the gateways through which the demons could make their way into the realm of man. The veil would finally be pulled away.

When the Demons emerged in full force through the massive Hellgate that they had created, they overwhelmed humanityâ??s defences quickly and systematically. Any organized resistance drew the immediate attention of these powerful creatures that were seemingly immune to mankindâ??s weapons. The nature of their attack presented little in the way of strategic military targets. With no apparent headquarters to bombard, supply lines to cut or generals to assassinate, the war was over within mere weeks. The powerful nations of man were eradicated, and The Burn â?“ the transformation of our world into theirs â?“ was begun.

Yet mankind is a race of survivors. Men and women hide in the shadows of their former dominance, struggling to survive, yearning to strike back at their conquerors. Small pockets of resistance have formed, and they are learningâ?¦

Learning how to travel undetectedâ?¦

Learning how to forge ancient, forgotten weaponsâ?¦

Learning how to harness the arcane powers of magicâ?¦

Learning how to kill Demonsâ?¦

In terms of directed adventuring, we have a few ideas on how to give players different goals in the game. Some of these deal with how they interact with the world of Hellgate: London and the people that live there.

Tasks/Missions

These are things that NPCs may need and will certainly make worth your while if you help them out. For example, Bodger, the local XXtinkerer and main weapon smith, has received a large order for fuel cells to modify some weapons for the Templar. He lets you know heâ??s paying five times the usual price for these mods, so if you find any, be sure to bring them by his workshop. This information is stored in your PDA so you can remember who is interested in what, as many of the NPCs will have their own interests. Also, these interests can change over time, so whenever you adventure in a specific area, it is a good idea to check in with the locals to see what tasks or missions they might have for you, and what the rewards are.

Events

Events are randomly placed occurrences in the world that you may or may not find. They take place in any adventuring area, either topside in the ruins of London, or beneath the city in the Underground areas. Just like the environments themselves, they are randomly generated so youâ??ll never know what youâ??re going to find. For example, one time when youâ??re running a patrol topside, you may find an abandoned truck that shakes when you get close. As you move to the rear of the vehicle, the back doors burst open and a horde of Flesh Eaters ramble from the enclosed bed, honing in on you! During a different adventure in the same region, you run across a Templar who is surrounded by vicious Ravagers. Save his life and he gives you his PDA Link so he can return the favour by acting as an adventuring partner later in the game. Of course, there is no guarantee as to what event youâ??ll run across!

Quests

Quests are part of the overall storyline of the game, and are treated differently than anything else in the game. You will always know when you are on a quest path because the game moves into â??movie modeâ?, showing the interaction between you and an NPC or otherwise setting the stage for something that has a direct relationship to a quest. Quests help tell the story of the world, can change the path of your character, alter the landscape and even affect NPCs based on your choices. We want to make quests memorable experiences and have them be much more than, â??go here and get this many of that item.â?

Hellgate: London features an unbelievable array of weapons and heavy customisation, could you please tell us more about some of these and how they work within the game?

A vital facet to the longevity of the game is the concept of collectable, rarity-based equipment. Players love goals and rewards that are spread out over the course of their game play experience. By continually providing random, rare, unique, named and quest-specific items, players keep coming back and having fun searching for the next great piece of loot.

In addition to randomization, Hellgate: London uses the concept of customization to increase game replayability and long-term personalized advancement for characters. In addition to the over 100 base weapon types, which all have randomized variations, weâ??re introducing a way for players to add a layer of customization to their items through modifications, or â??Mods.â?

Almost every type of item in Hellgate: London has a chance to have a slot on it where a specific type of Mod can fit. Some items have just one slot while others can have multiple possible places for Mods. Just as any item in the game, the potential power of Mods increases as the character finds them at higher and higher levels. The structure of modding means that while there are some restrictions on how many and what types can be attached to any item, the variations and level of customization is nearly limitless.

Hellgate: London features a robust single-player campaign, but perhaps you could tell us about some of the exciting multiplayer options and modes on offer please?

Multiplayer gaming is something thatâ??s in our blood, so you can be sure this has been a big part of our plans since the beginning of development. Weâ??re working with our partners to create a specific, dedicated online gaming destination for Hellgate: London that is designed to bring gamers together from around the world.

The game can be played entirely solo if that is what the player desires, but will easily support play for groups both small and large. Since all adventuring areas are completely randomized for each individual experience, we can create areas that can support groups of various sizes.

We do intend for there to be a lot of cooperative online play, so these areas need to be able to dynamically scale in difficulty to accommodate differing numbers of players. Weâ??re also creating areas that are specifically designed to accommodate large, â??raidâ? sized groups so that guilds can have events they can all do together. Fortunately, the self-balancing nature of a dynamically generated game makes this all very possible.

Hellgate: London avoids the common pitfalls and game balance issues that challenge many â??massively multiplayerâ? games. Players experience all the excitement of individually tailored adventuring areas while at the same time participating in a truly persistent online community. They also have the valuable option to play in their own solo or small-group adventures in a self-paced, non-competitive environment.

The issues of spawn camping, kill stealing, quest farming, game play griefing and unwanted player killing are avoided in Hellgate: London because players are never forced into the position to be affected by them. By creating unique and individualized game play â??instancesâ? within a huge online community, gamers get all of the best parts of traditional massive multiplayer games without the common downsides.

It is important to note that in the secured London Underground stations, large numbers of players will gather to form adventuring groups and guilds, buy, sell and trade items and experience all of the best that a massive online community and economy has to offer.

TVG would like to thank Bill Roper and the team at Flagship for providing us with this fascinating insight into one of 2006â??s most anticipated titles; weâ??ll have further coverage on Hellgate: London soon.