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Pre Launch:Weapons
From Hellgatewiki.com
There will be more than 100 base weapon types in Hellgate: London, and that's only the beginning. See all weapon types listed on the appropriate category pages.
All 100+ types of weapons will be found in two or three qualities (roughly corresponding to Normal, Exceptional, and Elite items, as in Diablo II), and most weapons you find will have various random magical properties on them. We don't have anything approaching a comprehensive listing of modifiers yet, but expect to find a blizzard of stats, comparable to those in other RPGs.
Besides the magical modifiers, there are mods to insert into your weapons and up their stats, legendary weapons of various types, weapons to use in concert with other special equipment for bigger bonuses, and much, much more. Read on for the details.
Contents |
Wither Armor?
While weapons are a big part of Hellgate: London, let's not forget about Armor. Weapons get most of the hype, and they're shiny and all, but if your character dies every time you get into trouble, it won't matter how big your guns and swords are. We cover weapons in more detail because at this point, we know a lot more about them. Flagship has released far more info about weapons than armor, and weapons are what grab your eye in a screenshot. The armor is just being worn, while the weapons are shooting fireballs, or slicing purple trails through the air.
This weapons over armor bias holds true even for most people who have gotten some play time. They notice and remember their weaponry, while putting on any type of armor they find. It's understandable; at game shows or press demos fans and the media only have a few minutes to play, and that gun that turned the screen into a giant fireball is more interesting and memorable than the armor that raised your defense 50 points.
So it's fine to focus on weapons in advance, but just remember that in the actual game, outfitting your character completely and wisely will be essential. Just running around with some big guns won't get the job done.
Not Just Another FPS
At first glance, Hellgate: London reminded many players of a First Person Shooter. Hellgate: London can be played in the first person mode, but it also plays in 3rd person/overhead view, and it doesn't play like a shooter, no matter what perspective you use.
Even when you're in good old 1st person mode though, it's still not an FPS. Those aren't guns you're firing, for one thing. As the Flagship guys have said many a time, the weapons in Hellgate: London are more like "spell delivery systems" than conventional weapons. You're fighting demons, and you need magic for that, whether it comes from your weapon, your character's special powers, or both.
Though the game takes place approximately 25 to 30 years from now, the developers have steered away from creating conventional firearms and weapons -- the kind you'd expect to see in a shooter. Hellgate remains very much a role-playing game, and the exotic weapons, most of which can be modified and enhanced, can also be thought of as "spell delivery systems."
--Gamespot Preview, June 21, 2005
"Our equipment is usually a blend of technology and arcane magic, much like spell-delivery systems."
--Max Schaefer, Game Banshee Interview, October 14, 2005
The different weapons aren't just a fetish. As the game's storyline relates, you're not fighting terrorists here; you're battling demons, creatures that were able to overrun the Earth because they were largely immune to conventional human weaponry. Bullets and bombs didn't work on them; magic was required, and because humanity had grown too dependent upon technology and there were too few Templars left to battle with the old sorcery, the demons triumphed. Fortunately for the continued survival of our species, magic has been rediscovered and magical weapons have been mass-produced, and you'll find no shortage of them during your adventures in Hellgate: London.
As "spell delivery systems," the weapons in Hellgate: London are varied and creative. Flagship has promised more than 100 types of base weapons, and while some of those are melee weapons (mostly swords), the majority are guns, of various types. There are five types of damage in Hellgate: London; physical, fire, electrical, spectral, and toxic, and you'll find weapons that emit all five types, though never at the same time. Weapons are further differentiated by their firing rate, effective range, type of projectile or beam they fire, the requirements that must be met to use them, and the mods you insert into special slots on the weapons, making for nearly infinite weapon possibilities.
One size will not fit all, either. You will not find one supergun and use it always; you'll need to carry a variety of weapons, and switch between them and your custom character skills, as circumstances warrant.
Flagship is putting a large importance on weapons working together in concert with other weapons for those that choose to wield two (like the grappling gun that can reel enemies in for slicing and dicing for melee players) or even in larger groups where some players specialize in support weapons while others attack.
--IGN Preview, October 13, 2005
Also differentiating Hellgate: London from FPS titles are the huge variety of weapons, and the magical modifiers found on them. In most shooters, if you find one sniper rifle, shotgun, pistol, etc, you've found them all. Every pulse rifle does the same damage, holds the same number of rounds, has the same range, etc. Hellgate: London is not an FPS, though. It's an RPG, and in Hellgate: London, as was the case in Diablo II, item collecting is king. Hellgate: London is set to boast over 100 base weapon types, and when you factor in the hundreds of different weapon modifiers, and thousands of combinations of mods, the number of possible weapons quickly climbs towards infinity.
Another Hellgate: London difference from your average shooter; no bullets to run out of.
"Since we're making an RPG and not an FPS, we do not have the concept of limited ammunition. We will have limitations such as cool-down and reload times, but you won't be searching for ammo packs while your gun sits worthlessly empty.
We do have Ammo as a mod for weapons, but it acts to modify damage, range, rate-of-fire and so on, as opposed to limiting shots. If there was one big thing we learned from Diablo II, it was that as soon as you put charges on something, no one used it. They were always waiting for just the right time and were never sure if this was it."
--Bill Roper, Fansite Interview, January 2, 2006
Bullets would be hard to work in Hellgate: London anyway, since so many of the guns fire such different and odd things. Lots of guns shoot forms of energy; fireballs, plasma orbs, lightning bolts, and so on, and perhaps those could use ammo that was some kind of gun power recharge, but what about all the other weapons? Ones that fire electrified eels, or explosive darts, or mechanical locusts, for instance. Offering 50 different kinds of bullets would be an unworkable complexity, and having one basic reloading bullet that worked in every type of gun would seem stupid.
"The locust weapon is quite slow-acting, so it's good to use that to drop a demon's defences and team it with a rapid fire weapon that will finish them off. I think we'll see much more weapon swapping than is the norm in our games. Our weapons are essentially spells, so players will use them in the same way. In other games you might open up on enemies with a spell that slows them down, and then follow it with a fireball spell. We want players to use similar tactics with our weapons."
--Bill Roper, PC Zone Interview, June 9, 2005
On a more basic level, firing weapons in Hellgate: London isn't about picking up more bullets. It's about using the appropriate weapon at the appropriate time, in conjunction with your character's unique skills. Weapons have different ranges, firing speeds, damage types, cool down times, and requirements, and using them well requires far more skill than simply remembering to click on a box of shotgun shells.
Mods
In addition to the properties you find on weapons, you should plan to make extensive use of mods, since they plan to make extensive use of you.
"Mods are smaller items such as fuel cells, batteries, relics, ammo, runes, gems, and so forth that modify the abilities of the weapon. Everything from increased range to different damage types to affecting rate of fire and on and on and on can be achieved through adding mods to a weapon. Not every weapon has mod slots, and not every kind of mod fits on a weapon. It is a very simple, but very deep metagame that players can dissect for hours and hours, looking for the perfect combination of weapon and mod effect."
--Bill Roper, etoychest Preview, Jan 11, 2006
Most weapons will be found with mod slots, and since you can insert and remove mods without penalty, and use the same mods over and over again, you should stick them into the first things you find, and upgrade from there. Don't just use the weapon you find, while saving mods for later; the game is balanced for weapons with mods in them, and you'll be playing underpowered if you don't take advantage of this feature.
Learn much more about Item Mods on our Mods page.
Targeting
While Hellgate: London looks like a shooter, when played from the first person viewpoint (you can zoom up to a 3rd person/overhead view at any time), it won't play like one, since Hellgate: London isn't about pixel-point accuracy. Aiming near your target is required, but perfect aim isn't, and it doesn't guarantee a hit. As an RPG, Hellgate: London places more importance on your character's equipment, stats, and spells than it does on mouse control.
When you play Hellgate: London with a gun in your hands, you will immediately notice a targeting square you control with your mouse. When you sight a monster, the crosshair locks in on it, and follows it around the screen as the monster moves. Thanks to this locked in, soft-guiding feature, it's possible to shoot at a monster that's not right in front of you, once you've acquired a target lock, and so long as the monster is in range.
"Weapons do have preset ranges. Right now our game displays when an opponent is in range by changing the color of a targeting indicator from red to green.
If you fire at an enemy within range while aiming within its bounding box -- meaning you have a green light, which the game will indicate -- you will score a hit unless said enemy flies out of the way, which is rare. So basically you have to look at a thing to hit it. Even then, most weapons provide splash damage and lots of leeway. And accuracy does determine chance for critical hits, BTW.
We don't have headshots or railguns or sniper weapons. Most of our guns do have area of effect or opponent seeking abilities, too. Soft aiming is basically a way to say our game is not reflex intensive. It isn't a hardcore, demanding skill-based shooter like Quake 3. It's an action RPG with a third and first-person perspective."
--Ivan Sulic, March 2006 forum post
"Our targeting mechanism is based on both distance and exact positioning, with distance taking precedence. That is, if I'm aiming precisely at some dude's face, but there's something else standing just in front of him, only slightly off to the left, there's a good chance I'll be shooting at Lefty Mc Stand In Front instead of over-the-shoulder dude."
--Ivan Sulic, April 2006
It is not possible to turn off this soft-aiming feature, but through their own ideas and player feedback, the third faction to be announced, the Hunter, does not have soft aim. He has hard targeting, like you see in most FPS titles, where his aiming reticle is tied to his mouse movement, and his bullets go right where he points them.
"We chose a simplified aiming system to make the game much more accessible to a wider range of players, and more like what RPG players are used to experiencing. You don't have to aim, per se, in an RPG -- you hit or miss based on your statistics, your equipment, and the comparative levels of your character and the monster you're fighting. The various methods we use to achieve this (auto-aim, area-effect, explosions, homing, etc.) achieve this distinction.
That being said, we've heard the feedback from a section of players who would like to have their personal skills tested. We've talked a great deal about having one set of skills for one of the character classes be dependent upon the player's aiming skills to offer something for the FPS players that are definitely interested in Hellgate: London."
--Bill Roper, Fansite Interview, January 3, 2006
Soft vs. Hard Targeting
Flux of the Unofficial HGL Site reported on targeting and combat after getting some HGL play time at Community Day 2007. (Forum registration required to read the full report.)
This was my first time playing Hellgate: London since the Hunter and his FPS-style targeting went in, and I made my first character a Marksman so I could try it out. It's not that big of a deal, really. Hellgate: London has no damage matrix on the body; headshots don't do more damage than toe shots, and you can't shoot an arm and blow it off, though you might see arms fall off as part of a monster's varied and random damage/death animation. So as long as you hit the target anywhere, you're doing the same damage as a perfectly aimed bullet to the temple. Furthermore, the weapons in Hellgate: London aren't that precise. There are some guns that fire single shots, but the vast majority use beams that lock onto the target, or issue clouds of poisonous gas, or throw flames or explosives, or shoot sprays of high speed darts.
...As for 1st vs. 3rd person, the Marksman is playable in both... Aiming a gun is more natural in 1st person, but it can be done in 3rd as well. You still see the aiming reticle while in 3rd person, and you have to use it know where your shots are going to go. Throwing grenades is a bit tougher, since you need to throw them up with an arc to clear obstacles. It can be done, it just takes a bit of guesstimation and practice to get used to it, compared to the almost instant ease of throwing them in 1st person view. In earlier builds it was impossible to aim up at flying targets while in 3rd person mode, but this has been adjusted. You need to lower your angle of view a bit, but you can shoot flyers while in 3rd person. Third person view is helpful to let you see what's around you; especially when demons like fellbores pop up right behind or to the side. I generally preferred 1st while using guns, since that's what I'm used to from FPS games, but that's just a personal choice and it might change with more play time.
See the Hunter page for more on the Hunter's unique targeting mechanism.
1st vs. 3rd Person POV
Another aspect of using weapons in Hellgate: London is the viewpoint you play the game in.
As for 1st vs. 3rd person, the Marksman is playable in both. The only hard rule about POV in Hellgate: London has been that you can not go into 1st person while using a melee weapon; and yet the recent Hunter Gameplay movie showed a hunter using the weed whacker in 1st person. That might be a one weapon exception though, since it's not swung, but held straight out in front of the character. In any event, I experimented with the POV during my play time with the Guardian, and could not enter 1st person while using a sword/shield. You can scroll the view right down behind your head, or move it far up above, and you can also change the angle of view quite a bit. You can even move the camera all around using the vanity cam option, which is how the Flagship guys take all of those shots that appear to be watching the action from the side or from the monster's point of view. It's hard to aim like that, of course.
Aiming a gun is more natural in 1st person, but it can be done in 3rd as well. You still see the aiming reticle while in 3rd person, and you have to use it know where your shots are going to go. Throwing grendes is a bit tougher, since you need to throw them up with an arc to clear obstacles. It can be done, it just takes a bit of guesstimation and practice to get used to it, compared to the almost instant ease of throwing them in 1st person view. In earlier builds it was impossible to aim up at flying targets while in 3rd person mode, but this has been adjusted. You need to lower your angle of view a bit, but you can shoot flyers while in 3rd person. Third person view is helpful to let you see what's around you; especially when demons like fellbores pop up right behind or to the side. I generally preferred 1st while using guns, since that's what I'm used to from FPS games, but that's just a personal choice and it might change with more play time.
--Flux, Mega Community Day Report, May 2007 (Forum registration required to read full report.)
Weapon Variety
Most of the weapons in Hellgate: London are guns and swords. See the category listings for pistols, rifles, and melee weapons for a full list of each type of weapon.
"We will have a few other weapons sneak in, but swords and guns comprise the vast majority of what characters be wielding. Of course, our guns are amazingly varied in the kind of damage they deals and how they deliver it, so we hope players are going to be drooling over the amazing variety of choices they'll have."
--Bill Roper, Fansite Interview, September 3, 2005
So yes, guns and swords, but they're not like any guns or swords you've seen before. The Hellgate: London guns fire grappling hooks, fireballs, spectral orbs, lightning bolts that jump from target to target, clusters of rockets, and even swarms of insects.
"We've also got these weird genetically engineered locusts that swarm on monsters and eat away at them. The locusts have a life cycle, so they'll home onto a monster, kill it, move to the next monster, and keep going until they die."
--Bill Roper, Computer and Video Games Interview, June 9, 2005
In addition to the aforementioned Locust Rifle, a recent gameplay movie featured the Scarab Gun, which vomits forth thousands of busy little insects (think of the flesh-devouring scarabs in the Mummy movies) that seek out and devour your enemies. There's also a Dragonfly Gun and an Electric Eel Launcher. No really! Want more? In an homage to the star's weapon of choice in Shaun of the Dead, you can use a Cricket Bat to batter your enemies. There were hopes for other similar homages to funny weapons in zombie movies, but apparently those aren't going to make the final cut.
"I don't think there will be any other pieces of household weaponry beyond the cricket bat. I'd personally love to see Templar enhanced chainsaws and circular saws and hedge trimmers and leaf blowers and golf clubs and mannequin arms, but that's just me."
--Ivan Sulic, March 2006
How can they not have chainsaws? It's been done too often, perhaps, in Doom and elsewhere, though we did get a recent screenshot revealing the Weed Whacker melee weapon. There are other odd objects in the game, at least.
"Right now we have a Holy Grilled Cheese Sandwich you can stick into your gun for a powerup. I kid you not."
--Ivan Sulic, March 2006
Flagship wasn't initially planning to include class-specific weapons:
"We aren't planning on any class-specific weapons, although the skills of each class may push players towards using certain types of weapons. We may have some items that are designed for the different classes, but we are trying to very conscious of not having lots of things drop that players can't use. There's nothing more frustrating than having an incredible piece of armor drop that you CAN'T use instead of choosing not to use it."
--Bill Roper, Fansite Interview, September 3, 2005
But that changed radically during development and by May 2006 when Flux played Hellgate: London at E3, there were lots and lots of class-specific weapons. Every sword in the game was Templar only, and quite a few of the pistols were too. For the Cabalist there were focal devices, and many of the heavy guns. Now that the Hunter has been added to the mix, weapons are divided up further, but swords still remain Templar only, and more new guns have been added that only the Hunter can use.
The way weapons work in this game is a bit different than Diablo fans will be used to. That game's weapons dealt predominately physical damage at the base level. Hellgate: Londonis actually going to break that mold in a way encourages the use of several different weapons. In the build we saw, each weapon begins with a base damage type. The Vulcan Bolter, for instance, will provide a base of 4-8 fire damage.
--IGN Preview, April 26, 2005
Flagship has said they want to encourage much wider weapon use than they saw in Diablo II, and that they want lower level weapons to remain useful. In any event, since player spells and skill do not change the type of damage very much, players will need a variety of weapons, and wise mod use, to kill effectively on the higher levels, when demons become resistant and immune to various types of damage.
Damage types and Associated Status Effects
Each damage type in HGL has a chance to inflict a different status effect to its victims like such:
- Physical Damage -> Stuns Target
- Fire Damage -> Ignites target (reducing a set % of target's health over time)
- Spectral Damage -> Phases Target (phased target deals less damage and recieves more)
- Toxic Damage -> Poisons Target
- Electric Damage -> Shocks Target
Uniques, Sets, Rares, and More
At the end of Beta, magical items found are tagged by three things: # of stars, rarity tag, and color of the item name. The catagories are broken down as below:
- 1-Star/Enhanced/Green
- 2-Star/Rare/Blue
- 3-Star/Legendary/Orange
- 5-Star/Unique/Gold/Yellow
Notice that 4-Star items have not yet been found and could be reserved for set items.
Higher Level Weaponry
Not all weapons are created equal, of course. You'll find low damage weapons early on, and bigger and better stuff later. Not much is known at this point about higher level weapons; Flagship has said they want to include at least 100 base weapon types, but how they'll be organized and slotted into a hierarchy is unknown. They have also said that they'll be including something equivalent to the Normal/Exceptional/Elite base item types we saw in Diablo II.
Example: In Diablo II there were eight base types of bows, of increasing damage and varying firing rate. Later in the game these eight types repeated as Exceptional bows, with new names and higher stats, and then in the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion, Elite weapon types were added, which brought us the same eight bows, with a third round of names and even higher stats. There were even class-specific bows, also in Normal, Exceptional, and Elite.
As a result, every high level character had a high level bow, since the bigger damage was required for higher level monsters, and no one used anything but the best Exceptional or Elite bows, once they reached the higher levels. None of the lower level weapons, regardless of their magical stats, were of any use later in the game (magic-user items aside, since those weren't valued for damage, but for spell modifiers).
Since weapons follow this hierarchy in Hellgate: London, we figure the same natural progression to the higher level items will occur. We do hope that the Hellgate Team makes more of the highest level items roughly-equivalent in stats, so there's more variety in what players use.
Melee vs. Ranged Weapons
Swords are in the game, and not just to look cool. They need to be viable weapons, and worth the trade off of being close enough for the monsters to hit back while you are chopping them up. This requires a lot of play balancing, both on Flagship's end and ours (a character using a lot of melee weapons would obviously need better armor and more hit points than one who stayed back out of range and picked off the demons from a safe distance). It's hard to judge how this process is going, but trust that they're working on it.
"Ranged combat and melee combat will be balanced in a manner similar to conventional fantasy RPGs. Melee characters will be subject to more damage, and thus will have both natural toughness and resilience and equipment that enhances those characteristics. Ranged players will emphasize movement, speed and accuracy. Balancing these two mechanics is a process that goes on throughout development. Because there are so many ways of dealing both melee and ranged damage, there are not set equations or theories that cover everything. A lot of it is trial and error. We play our game constantly, and make adjustments on the fly, and will for the duration of development and beyond."
--Max Schaefer, Game Banshee Interview, October 14, 2005
Furthermore, it seems that swords are pretty much intended for the Templar, and he/she for them. In fact, as of March 2007, swords and shields have always been and remain class-specific, and may only be equipped by Templars.
"The Templar is our equivalent of the melee oriented Tank class. While Templars are certainly capable of wielding some weapons, and have even been known to combine pistols with swords for killer akimbo combinations, they excel at cutting bloody swathes through the hordes of the underworld with nasty swords and bludgeons."
--Ivan Sulic, April 2006
Dual Wielding
One of the cooler options for some characters in Diablo II was dual wielding. Why use just one sword when you can use two? And as everyone who has ever seen a John Woo movie knows, that goes double for guns. Flagship isn't dumb, and they've expanded dual wielding in Hellgate: London to work with every one-handed gun. (It seems that you will not be able to dual wield rifles, though there may be exceptions.) You can even dual wield a gun with a sword, and in some cases it's almost required, such as when using the Grappler, a gun that doesn't deal damage, but fires a hook that catches monsters and drags them into your chopping range.
"Dual wielding is actually fairly simple. Anything that is one-handed can be duel-wielded. Players can set their mouse buttons to either fire/swing both weapons together, or use them individually. It's really fun in practice!"
--Max Schaefer, Game Banshee Interview, October 14, 2005
All swords are one-handed as of March 2007, and more and more two-handed guns have been reworked to fit in one hand, while remaining two-handed guns are being improved to keep them worthwhile. Compare the Harp Rifle to the Harp Pistol, for example.
"You can dual wield all one-handed weapons, period. That means you can dual wield any combination of swords and guns, so long as they are one-handed. We do still have two-handed weapons, though. But it seems like that list is getting shorter and shorter."
--Ivan Sulic, forum post, March 2006
There was initially some doubt as to whether or not the other characters could dual wield, and some speculation that only Templars had that gift. In retrospect, that was an absurd fear. Dual wielding is the way of the gun in Hellgate: London, and there are far more screenshots of characters with two weapons than with just one.
Weapon Appearance
Flagship is taking pains to make sure the weapons look good too. Since you see your character's hand holding the weapon whenever you are in the first person view mode, they've spent a lot of time making the non-business end of their pistols and rifles look interesting. You can see a few examples of that here, and can see dozens more in our screenshot gallery. Just don't think they're done with that process yet. When asked about the Templar's hands not accurately reflecting his/her overall outfit, Bill Roper said:
"We always concentrate first on getting art into the game that makes a substantive difference to the experience and the game play. This means weapons, particle effects, monsters, armor, mods and so forth all come first. We will accurately reflect the armor your character is wearing on his/her arms and hands when in first person view -- we just have not put a priority on it yet."
--Bill Roper, Fansite Interview, February 22, 2006
Something you can't see in these screenshots is the animation. Lots of guns have moving parts, and as you fire you'll see hammers cock, gears spin (those wheels on the back of the Plague Thrower on the left, for instance), knobs turn, tesla coils rotate, shotguns load via pump action, and much more. None of it essential; all of it nice eye candy.
Weapons Not in the Game
Hellgate: London is wild with variety in the guns department, and they've got a fair number of intersting melee weapons too, but that's apparently about it. They're not throwing in a bunch of weird weapon types just for variety. There aren't any bows, for one thing.
"We have made a conscious decision to not have bows and crossbows in Hellgate: London because in our near-future setting, we use our ranged weapons as platforms for basically casting spells or creating spell-like effects. Bows-style weapons seemed out of place in the world we're creating, and given a choice, I know I'd certainly rather have a Tempest Rifle to dispatch an angry mob of Flesh Eaters!"
--Bill Roper, Fansite Interview, January 1, 2006
I guess Bill's got a point, I mean they've got rifles and pistols that fire hundreds of enchanted missiles a minute. Why on earth would they need a primitive weapon with much less power, a far slower firing rate, and that requires two hands to use? I mean besides it being really cool, that is.
Seriously though; why not some super high tech futuristic bow? The Amazon in Diablo II could fire as quickly as most guns, and while that wouldn't be realistic in the Hellgate: London world, especially in the heavy armor most characters are going to be wearing, why not include a few bows or crossbows? They could be used like sniper rifles with explosive heads to the arrows, and as more weapon cooldown delays have crept in during development, firing actual arrows looks more and more viable.
Some other weapons we're not going to see?
"Right now there's a Katana, but there aren't any claws or daggers."
--Ivan Sulic, March 2006
We'll update this list if they rule any more out.
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