Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Destination: HellGate.
EDIT: Hellgate: London will come out on October 31st in Western countries. It is assumed to be the same date for us as we have a dedicated company managing the server and all other distribution matters of the game in SEA. For all who are curious, Elite status costs US$9.95. Tax & value exchange may or may not be carried over. Even if it does, it'll be S$15.92 => S$16. Elite status is a requirement for Officer status in guilds (probably sub-leaders).
+ minor changes at the veeery bottom regarding squad line-up. Added Justin.
Attention all Marauders. Our next group expedition will be for HellGate London.
It's the spiritual successor to Diablo, but it's not the same setting. Made by 75% of the people of the same studio who made Diablo. That said, it'll probably be a kickass game considering the people involved. Here are some brief details regarding the game. You can probably get more from sites like IGN or something. Or our LOCAL (singapore) distributor's site, which is awesome, since we'll actually be living on the same chunk of dirt as our customer support (THEY CAN'T ESCAPE ME NOW!!!).
IGN Main SiteIAHGames Site(You might wanna sign up and stuff at the IAHGames site. Get updates and stuff. Might be useful.)
The rundown: It's based in a post-apocalyptic setting, like, 20XX, in London obviously, where a massive crater exploded out of nowhere from the ground, spilling forth demons (literally) that quickly destroyed most of the human population (i'm not quite sure if it's just London or the entire world. I'm thinking it's the latter). Out of the shadows, a secret Templar order dating back to the Crusades, who alone have the knowledge to defeat the demons, emerge and are tasked with the defense of London. The demons have started "hell-forming" London, which is like their version of Terra-forming, making the land suitable for living for them by stuffing as much death and decay as demonly possible.
My thoughts: Totally original idea, so Freshness factor rates high for me. Graphically, it kicks ass too so that scores high as well. Also, they have some nice ideas like being a Single-Player game, but with MMORPG capabilities without trying to be, AND kicking ass at it. And the multi-player function is what we are focusing on.
The Classes:
Foreword: Officially, there are 2 subclasses for the each but there is an extra class for ALL 3 factions. Probably Elite (subscribers) only. All classes heal themselves and should be able to sufficiently deal damage. There is no hand-holding, support class that deals damage like blowing air or tanks that have high constitutions to withstand hits but are somehow mysteriously unable to dish out high damage even though they have musclezzzz. THIS IS HELLGATE. There are NO weak classes.
Templars - They are the melee classes of Hellgate.
Templar Blademaster - Main melee DPS of group. Primary function is to deal damage with their ability to use Dual Swords. Tradeoff for power however, is a lack of staying power (unable to tank well). Best against 1v1 PvE scenarios. Float like a butterfly, sting like a CANNON.
Templar Guardians - Main tanks obviously. Primary function: Be a meat shield. Their damage and abilities rack up in power the more enemies are around the player. The more, the better. This class is able to wade into a bunch of enemies and kill more enemies than you can count in one hand in one stroke and take the sh*t too. Weirdly, it does worse 1v1 than it does mass mob rushes.
Possible Elite-only Class: Crusader. Holds 2-handed swords??? (Lack of info released by studio)
Hunters - They are the ranged specialists of Hellgate.
Hunter Marksman - Sniper class. The official description sums it up nicely. I quote: "Marksmen are less of lone wolves than they are walking armouries." This class deals in guns, guns and more guns. Probably the main DPS for Ranged.
Hunter Engineer - This class is hard to explain. It's sorta like....a pet class. The engineer can deal damage on his own with rifles, and also build and deploy drones to damage, stop, stun, burn, shred, cut or blow up enemies with. It's like having a little hovering robot army at your control. Like R2D2 + Badass + Rockets - Annoying squealing = Drones. I dunno, but this class seems more support-ish than the rest.
Possible Elite-only Class: Hunter Recon. No additional known info. My guess? Stealth? Radar marking?
Cabalists - The mages of Hellgate.
Cabalist Evoker -
Main damage class for sure. This is the quintessential NUKER. Does a hell of a lot of damage. But, not suprisingly, they are glass cannons. Can dish it out the pwn but can't take it in. As with all Cabalists, they are highly dependant on Focus Drives (gloves that are the main casting weapon of Cabalists). Can dual wield Focus Drives (which is the main source of power).
Cabalist Summoner - Pet class. Like the name suggests, summons elementals and creatures and even demons to do their work for them. As with the Engineer, capable of doing damage on own.
Possible Elite-only Class: Cabalist Shapeshifter. Pretty self-explanatory. Maybe you get to morph your hand into a Reaper claw and smack something up nice.
Current Roster:
Me - Guardian/Crusader
Justin - Marksman
Gordo - Marksman
Alvin - Marksman/Engi
Edmund - Guardian
Josh - Evoker/Shaper
Sam - Evoker
Ian - Observer
[[*****Currently recruiting more members. Refer to bottom post for more details.]]
My plan until I can try out the game is to form squads. Based on dungeon size/in-game limitations, party size may vary from as little to 2-3 people per party or a large number. I plan to form 4 man squads consisting of as many variations in classes as possible. Preferably, I'd like to have 1Templar-2Hunter-1Cabalist formation. For now, it'll probably be formed into squads of Me-Gordo-Justin-Josh, Ed-Al-Sam-(member wanted).
