Hellgate: London Preview

1Up has published an extensive four-page preview of Hellgate: London, which includes quite a bit of commentary from former Blizzard developer Bill Roper. A snip for those of you who are worried this might turn into more of an FPS than an RPG:

While Flagship still had nine or 10 months of setup time to put the company together in front of them, the central idea of a Diablo-style RPG in first-person stuck throughout the process. Roper is careful to note, however, that just because the game takes place in first-person, that doesn’t mean it is a shooter dependent on accuracy. “Since we’re building an RPG, even though it’s primarily played from the first-person perspective, we don’t want it to be a twitch-fest,” he says. “We’re doing things that have soft-targeting, or area effects, or auto-locking, to make it where your success in the game isn’t determined on your physical reflexes, or the dexterity of a fourteen year old. It’s all about building up a character: your level, your stats, your skills, your equipment, your items — it’s the classic RPG in that sense.”