Flagship Studios’ highly anticipated game Hellgate: London will hit stores’ shelves in the US on October 31, and two days later in Europe, as announced by Electronic Arts and Namco Bandai.

Dubbed “the next benchmark in action role playing games” or “the next leap in the evolution of the action RPG genre”, Hellgate: London is the brainchild of ex-Blizzard man Bill Roper and his team from Flagship Studios. Roper is one of the key figures in the development of the Diablo franchise (since he was Blizzard North’s vice president), and Hellgate is focused on the same hack’n’slash (plus shoot) gameplay, except the graphics in the latter is much better and the weapons system does not comprise the regular shotguns, railguns or rocket launchers we’ve all used in games like DOOM, Quake or F.E.A.R. Other high-profile names that have “defected” at Flagship Studios are Diablo-creators Max and Erich Schaefer and former Blizzard president David Brevik.

Unlike Diablo, Hellgate offers players the chance to take a first person shooter perspective when dealing with the plethora of post-apocalyptic foes that keep emerging from the depths of Hell, but the FPS mode will require advanced in-game skills and will only be a feature of the Hunter faction (apparently, extensive use of first-person view in the game would undermine the RPG side of the game).

EA and Namco Bandai have decided to release the game on October 31 in the US in order to create a link between the Halloween and the demon-infested London that is depicted in the game.

"We wanted to hit the sweet-spot for release in terms of the development schedule and delivering the highest-quality game to our players," said Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios. "Halloween was the perfect fit as it ensures that Hellgate: London will have an appropriate amount of beta testing, while also being an incredibly fun time to unleash the game." 

Other features of the game are also borrowed from Diablo and include infinite re-playability due to the dynamically generated levels, items, events and foes. The player creates a heroic character, completes quests, and battles through an innumerable amount of demons to advance through a deep, rich story-driven campaign. A robust, flexible skill and spell system, highly customizable appearances, and a massive variety of randomly generated equipment allow each player to create his or her own unique hero.

Following the trend of co-op play set by titles like Gears of War and the up-coming Halo 3, Hellgate: London players will also be able to team up with a friend and hack some monsters online, “in a secure, client-server environment and playing through the entire story-driven campaign for free.”

Moreover, for enthusiasts who can’t get enough even after replaying the game several times on God mode, Flagship will have some downloadable content ready, in the form of new quests, items, characters and even enemies, but a job-posting on the official site even suggests that you’ll be able to download some…particles. All this will be accessed through a monthly subscription (which will be optional). Flagship is thus blurring the line between MMO games like World of Warcraft and traditional, single-player RPGs.