Hellgate: London details erupt

Flagship Studios has poured out more details about what you will get for your money in the subscription-based Hellgate: London multiplayer mode.

For a start, you will be able to challenge yourself with two extra difficulties: Elite Mode and Hardcore Mode. The first of these makes all nasties stronger, cleverer, and more likely to hunt in larger packs; the latter disables resurrection, meaning you will stay on the floor if your head gets bitten off or your arms go missing.

Subscribers will also get exclusive ongoing content, which will begin with Halloween-themed events and items. Those of you willing to participate can create a mixture of meat and metal called a Zombot, get hold of a unique helmet named the All Hallow's Visage, enjoy treats that have stat-boosting properties and venture off on some unique quests. Further down the line you will be treated to new areas, items, raid content and much more.

Shelling out GBP 6.99 a month will also give you certain perks. You can create a guild rather than just join one, make 24 characters rather than three, have a storage locker twice as big as normal, and work towards Achievements that will reward you with anything from reputation to pieces of armour.

But you don't have to pay to play with your friends online. You can still use buddy lists or join guilds to chat to and organise your chums, or try out Nightmare mode with bigger areas that will take longer to clear.

Flagship also lifted the wraps on how it will handle player-versus-player combat in Hellgate. It will work by either challenging another player to a duel or by turning on a PvP flag. Both of these can only be done outside Underground Station hubs and should give you a level of control over how much you want to participate.

Hellgate: London is due out here on 2nd November, and will come complete with support for DirectX 9 and 10 video cards. Currently the frame rate on the DX10 version is a little wobbly due to the new and fancy features, although Flagship is confident it will be as high if not higher than its counterpart by launch.

Head over to the official website to see what other bits and pieces Patch 0 will be tweaking, or for more information on how the beta test works. You can also try out the recent demo there.

Or pop into our Hellgate: London gamepage for all of our considerable coverage to date.