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An archived Hellgate: London feature. See the Hellgate Archives for more.

Feature: IGN Preview with Hunter Skills
Date: December 8, 2006
Source: IGN.

IGN Preview

December 8, 2006 - Hellgate: London is one of those "when it's done" games. Who knows when it'll be out? There was some speculation on sometime in 2006 earlier in the year but it was clear that release possibility was shot pretty early on. Now it's a matter of 2007. Many of the game's overarching features are implemented including the randomly generated items and levels that make the game infinitely replayable. That said, there are still a lot of things to be included. In all there will be nine character classes over three factions. The three factions have been announced: Templar, Cabalist, and the recently announced Hunter. The invitation to visit Flagship Studios shot out after information on the Hunter faction was announced. We had a chance to see some of the progress that's been made and get a chance to jump behind the controls of the newest class to get a glimpse at the class that most closely resembles a first-person shooter.

As with most of the gameplay sessions we've had to date, we started the experience by selecting a faction and picking some visual traits like facial features, skin tone, hair style, height, and girth. The selections are limited at the moment, but we're promised there will be a much wider selection when all is said and done. While players will still be able to choose their appearance at the beginning of the game, the start of the experience will be a bit different when the retail product is released. Players will actually begin as civilians in the final experience. Through the tutorial and beginning of the game, players will find themselves attacked while foraging on the streets of London only to escape and come in contact with representatives from one of the three factions. After getting a chance to see what sort of options each faction has to provide, players will be able to choose one, do some short beginning quests, and then start the game in earnest.

At this point, classes haven't actually be implemented in the game. The skills available for all of the characters are actually spread among the three different classes for each faction. In the final product, players will have to gain a few levels before even getting the chance to choose a specialty and stick with it.

For that reason, we were able to check out a few of the abilities of the Hunter during our gameplay session. Not all of them were active at this point and will eventually be doled out between the different classes in the Hunter faction. The Hunter in general is a long-range fighter so the skills back his use of ranged weaponry.

Rapid Fire
Because Hunters are all about the use of ranged weaponry, it's no surprise that it's good to be able to fire them faster for a bit. This ability taps into their heightended reflexes to fire their weapon at a greater speed. Once used, whatever weapon is being used will fire very fast even if a little more inaccurately. Combined with a spread weapon with high damage, it can make a mess of a large group of enemies. This ability can not be used while crouching.

Light Assault Drone
This ability allows Hunters to construct mobile turrets that run around the battlefield shooting everything in sight. At the moment they're the size of large dogs and can be equipped with any one-handed gun as a weapon. When creating a drone the weapon chosen is used up. This should allow players to use weapons normally reserved for other classes.

Napalm Strike
This skill was a little hard to aim and use effectively at the moment but the potential for an exciting attack is certainly there. This ability shoots out a target marker that will call in a napalm strike from afar. The attack damages enemies and potentially lights them on fire causing damage over time. It's an awesome attack to use from afar on a clumped group of enemies.

Escape
When things get a little scary or stealth is more important than strength, this ability allows Hunters to cloak and become virtually invisible. Considering the non-existent melee skills, it's especially important when getting mobbed by large groups of melee enemies. Initiating an attack will turn the cloak off.

Crouch
Hunters get the ability to crouch down which steadies aim for the ranged weapons and decreases his or her profile allowing for better defense.

Medical Drone
Along with the Light Assault Drone, Hunters can construct a medical drone that will hustle around the battlefield healing the Hunter and any nearby allies.

As mentioned before, we didn't get the chance to check out all of the skills with a limited amount of skill points and the fact that some weren't opened up for use, but these skills were also shown in the Hunter skill menu.

Beacon
Finding and exploiting holes in enemy defense makes a good hunter. Beacon will paint an enemy with infared light which will highlight their weaknesses.

Combat Drone
Another Hunter construct, this drone can be given any melee weapon to use against enemies.

Ricochet
Sometimes, luck is better than skill. After Hunters manage to crack in a critical hit, there's a chance that the following shots will ricochet off of any hard surface and cause some additional damage.

Sharpshooter
A better version of crouch, this allows Hunters to drop into a more stable firing position and increase the chance for a critical hit and do more damage at the same time.

Exploit Vulnerability
This allows the Hunter to become an expert in finding and exploiting the weaknesses of enemies.

Targeted Bounce
When the Hunter scores a critical hit, there's a chance that following shots that hit an enemy will retarget additional enemies.

Supply Drone
This little friend helps with a handy buff .The Supply Drone is a small robot that uses nanotechnology and adrenal boosters to help shorten cool down times of weapons and skills of nearby allies.

Heavy Assault Drone
This last constructible drone acts as another mobile turret. The main difference is that this turret can use any two-handed rifle or heavy weapon as it's main offensive weapon.

Makeshift Mod
Anyone that's been following Hellgate: London will know about the mods that can attach to weapons to grant new damage stats. This ability allows Hunters to construct a mod out of salvaged parts. The main difference between this and other mods is that it will be destroyed when removed.

Playing a Hunter wasn't completely different than the experiences we've had with the other factions at this point. But as we mentioned earlier, we've only played the beginning portions of the game with any of the factions before many of the skills and weapons begin to differentiate the factions and classes. Once nice thing about the early Hunter game is that one of the possible weapon combinations in place at the moment can dispatch enemies from a pretty decent distance. The second weapon we had the chance to check out was a flame shotgun type of weapon without the same range but incredible power to destroy groups of enemies in one or two shots.

There's still a lot to see in Hellgate: London that hasn't even been implemented yet. Hopefully they'll get some of the classes into the game before too long so that we can sit down and play through a bit more of the game and get a glimpse at new environments and some different missions.

Keep your eyes open for more info on Hellgate: London in the future on the pages of IGN PC.