Hellgate: London's original creator announces new Hellgate game

I've not played Hellgate: London, but I'm sure I must've passed it on the shelves in Gamestation (I'll never forget you, friend) way back when. Apparently, the original was a dark fantasy action RPG with roguelike elements and MMO subscription models before developer Flagship Studios shut down. Then it was re-released a bunch of times, with London giving way to Tokyo in one expansion. Now, Hellgate's original creator Bill Roper has announced he's working on a brand new Hellgate game under his new studio Lunacy Games.

Roper's new studio Lunacy Games signed a licensing agreement with HanbitSoft, a Korean publisher who published the 2018 re-release of Hellgate: London, to make a new "AAA" Hellgate game (thanks EIN News). Where is Roper taking us this time? Bristol? Swansea? North Macedonia? Nothing's confirmed yet, but Roper's new Hellgate game is codenamed Hellgate: Redemption, so I guess we're going to Hello Games in Cambridge. No but seriously, it's said to be "set in an as-of-yet undisclosed part of the alternate-history, demon-apocalypse world". So, the M6 motorway.

“I’ve dreamed of returning to the franchise we created back in 2007 for many, many years,” said Bill Roper, CEO and co-founder of Lunacy Games. “I’ve always felt I had unfinished business with the Hellgate IP, which is why our codename for the project is Hellgate: Redemption.”

Roper also mentions that it's being made in Unreal Engine 5, and that they're keeping "core gameplay and lore elements of Hellgate: London in our current design". Judging by the original Hellgate, we can probably expect some looting, some shooting, randomly generated levels, and who knows, perhaps a monthly fee of some kind.

Just watching some footage of the original Hellgate in action, I really dig the mash-up of genres it's got going on. Particularly the fact you can swing swords in third person, then switch to a laser pistol in first person, all in the middle of some grungy subway infested with demonic toads. None of it makes any cohesive sense, but it works? I hope Redemption brings some dark fantasy zing to an otherwise stale MMORPG genre.