While there is lots of shooting and action in this game, Hellgate London is a true RPG. Players gain experience, collect items and take on both the main quest and side quests. Speaking of which, Roper told us that there will be quickie mini-quests that will be generated to get extra loot or temporary boosts in abilities. For example one mini-quest may instruct you to kill three specific monsters. Accomplish that and some extra loot may be dropped for you.

This is the first game I checked out when I got to the show this morning, and it was well worth it. What was a rough, barely functioning gameplay demo from last year has now fleshed out into a playable game. The basic elements are still there, the armor and loot, the melee/ranged combat, the underground hubs and the randomized combat areas and enemies. This year there are quests available from NPCs and the Cabalist class as playable along with many interface improvements. Along with the familar hotkey slots across the bottom of the screen, there are loadouts you can switch between with the F1-F3 keys. On top of that, there's a "shift skill" feature that's a context sensitive auto-skill popup. Basically, when you're doing something where a skill would apply, that skill pops up on the screen and can be activated with the shift key. So if you're walking down a hallway, "Run" will pop up and you can click shift. If you're fighting with a melee weapon, your best melee special move will pop up when it's available to use which can then be activated with the shift key. It's a very handy way to manage loads of skills.