All talking aside, it was time to fire this sucker up (no pun intended) and experience the carnage firsthand. The first thing we noticed once we sat down with the game is that the controls are intuitive to anyone who's played first-person games on the PC: running, strafing, jumping, firing... it all felt natural. And the game engine had a great framerate, even at this relatively early stage in development, despite the hordes of creatures on the screen or the massive explosions we were dishing out.

The only playable character class at this point is the Templar, an armored modern-day knight descended from the Knights Templar of old. Templar characters are built for close-quarters combat. They have lots of abilities for moving quickly and jumping in or out of a fight. Their main source of power is something called "vengeance," which builds up as you take physical damage at close quarters. You could expend vengeance doing special moves.

I quickly discovered that my favorite weapons were a pair of explosive handguns that quickly shot fireballs in a wide spread. I tucked one in each hand and before long was able to outfit them with fuel that increased their damage. I set up my left mouse button to fire both at once. In Hellgate you don't have to worry about running out of ammo, so I could run rampant through the city ushering forth a stream of fiery death.​