Techland has seen great success with its open world zombie survival horror title Dying Light, racking up an impressive 4.5 million unique users since launch. However, one of its more anticipated projects Hellraid has been put on hold following a long development period. Have we seen the last of it?

According to CEO Pawel Marchewka in an interview with Eurogamer, we certainly haven’t. As it turns out, Techland wants to focus on Dying Light and has outright denied that Hellraid has been cancelled.

“Right now we want to concentrate on Dying Light. We wanted to be fair with the fans so we wanted to send a clear message, especially as a lot of the people were expecting new things coming from Hellraid at E3 and Gamescom. We decided to take the pressure away.

“Once we deliver everything we want [for Dying Light], probably by the – I don’t know – end of the third quarter this year, we will then maybe start to send some new [Hellraid] materials or informations or thinking about what’s the release date, something like that. There is nothing concrete about this timing.

“But putting on hold means we want some of the resources to concentrate on Dying Light, and once they do what needs to be done we will come back to Hellraid.”

So there you have it. Enjoy Dying Light in the meantime and wait till the end of the year, folks.

Dying Light and the original Dead Island developer Techland announced today that it has kept the development of Hellraid on hold. The horror adventure game had been slated to be released later this year originally, but the studio decided to keep it on the back burner once Techland decided the title wasn’t living up to internal expectations.

To be fair, it seems as if Hellraid wasn’t exactly living up to external expectations either. Late last year, the company gave a live stream of the game during it’s development and we weren’t all that impressed. Still, Techland did a pretty good job putting a different spin on the zombie genre with Dying Light so we were willing to give it a shot. It appears the developers decided it wasn’t really worth that shot anymore.

The company released an official statement about why they were scrapping the project saying:

“Dear Hellraid fans, we would like to officially announce that our dark fantasy FPP game Hellraid will not be released this year as previously planned, and the development of the game has been put on hold. In the recent months we conducted an internal analysis and came to the conclusion that Hellraid, in its current shape and form, is not meeting our own expectations for this project.”

“Therefore, we decided the best course of action would be to send it back to the drawing board and invent our dark fantasy title anew. In the meantime, we will consolidate our development resources and focus on further expansion of our Dying Light franchise.We wish to thank all our fans for your support – you’re the best!”

Hellraid was intended to be released on the PS4, Xbox One and PC.

I’m not going to pretend that I’m particularly interested or enthusiastic regarding Hellraid. To me it seems like an antiquated gameplay model (and not the good kind of antiquated, see: Legends of Grimrock) in an industry that is trying its best to make everything as innovative as possible at the moment.

But my personal complaints aside, gamers can finally look forward to seeing the “New Incarnation” of Hellraid by tuning into a Live Stream tomorrow that will be hosted on the Techland twitch channel. Those who are that way inclined, can find it here. It starts September 16th at 10:00AM PDT.

This is going to be the first time that Hellraid has been shown to the masses in a (kinda) public setting following the games next gen reveal behind closed doors in Cologne Germany this year at Gamescm. The games transition to the proprietary Techland engine, the Chrome Engine 6, is what should hopefully bring it into the next generation with aplomb. The Chrome Engine 6 is also powering the much more anticipated Dying Light.

Hellraid is slated for release on PC, PS4 and Xbox One in 2015, though the game is expected to come to Steam Early Access in Fall of this year.

Techland, the guys who brought us the first Dead Island game, and who are also working on bringing us Dying Light with Warner Bros., are also actually working on bringing us a hack and slash action game of their own. Called Hellraid, the title debuted at E3, and actually was pretty well received. Now, the first gameplay footage of the game ever will be broadcast on Twitch by them on Sunday, August 3, 2014, at midnight UTC (so 8PM Eastern/5PM Pacific on Saturday in the US).

This presentation will showcase gameplay from the E3 press demo- 20 minutes of it, complete with developer’s commentary. During and after the stream the developers will be answering questions about Hellraid using the Twitch chat.

Hellraid is due out on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC in 2015; PC players will get to play it a little early, if they decide they like it, because it also launches on Steam Early Access this Fall.

GamingBolt caught up with Game Producer Marcin Kruczkiewicz to talk about the inspiration behind bringing the game to the new consoles and the various gameplay/graphical changes this will bring to the title. Marcin’s response is below.

Rashid Sayed: Last July, you stated to us that one of the big reasons why Hellraid will be skipping the PS4 and Xbox One is the lack of install base. Given that the install based of PS4 and Xbox One is not that big when compared to the PS3 and Xbox 360, why did you guys decided to ditch last gen consoles all together? Was there no way Hellraid could have been cross generation especially after the long development time it has seen?

Marcin Kruczkiewicz: The install base of Xbox One and PlayStation 4 is growing rapidly and I’m sure it will be even bigger in 2015 when the game is released. On the other hand, there are still rather few games for these platforms, especially games like Hellraid,so we see a perfect niche for us over there.

Yet, it wasn’t just a business decision. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions would mean too many compromises in terms of graphics and gameplay. Compromises we weren’t willing to make, because they were against our top principle: making a game we would like to play ourselves. The time needed for scaling down and optimizing past-gen versions was also a factor. We have around 30 people in our team and prefer to use these resources to polish up the final product.

"Another major change was dividing the game into three game modes: Story, Mission, and Arena. The last one is a completely new concept in our game,featuring a set of smaller levels designed with a survival gameplay and repelling growing hordes of enemies in mind."

Rashid Sayed: Can you tell us about the plot of Hellraid? Who is the main character and what is he doing here?

Marcin Kruczkiewicz: Hellraid takes players to a dangerous world where magic took dominance over religion. This caused the boundary between dimensions to fade away, which demons used to invade Earth. In Hellraid, you are the last descendant of a cursed kin and only person that can help an old archmage halt the infernal forces and stop evil rituals before they open a passage for the lord of Hell.

We will be talking more about the plot and the main hero at a later date, closer to the full game’s release.

Rashid Sayed: There has been hardly any news about Hellraid until today. Can you tell us what kind of gameplay changes have you implemented in these past few months and what can fans expect when the game hits retail next year?

Marcin Kruczkiewicz: Basically, we’ve developed our melee combat system from scratch using actual medieval fencing techniques as a reference. We’ve also added new attacks for different types of weapons, improved blocking and parrying, as well as added the dashing ability, which allows you to move quicker on the battlefield. And that’s just talking about the melee combat, while we also have magic and ranged weapons available for use against enemies.

Another major change was dividing the game into three game modes: Story, Mission, and Arena. The last one is a completely new concept in our game,featuring a set of smaller levels designed with a survival gameplay and repelling growing hordes of enemies in mind.

On top of that,we’removing the game from Chrome Engine 5 to Chrome Engine 6, which will allow us to publish the game on the next-gen platforms. So, as you can see, we’ve been pretty busy the last few months 🙂

Rashid Sayed: Hellraid seems to integrate certain role playing elements like a skill tree, character customization and an in-depth combat system. Can you please explain the changes in each of them?

Marcin Kruczkiewicz: We’ve decided to abandon the idea of four character classes and instead offer one class-free skill tree with various paths of specialization, which can be unlockedin whatever order the player pleases. This way,they will have necessary means to create a hero suited for their playstyle. It will also make co-op gameplay more varied and fun.

As for character customization, at the beginning of the game players will create their heroes and choose their appearance, which later they’ll be able to modify by equippingvarious types of armors, clothes, and special items like talismans and pendants.

Rashid Sayed: The original title was supposed to have “Game Master”. Is this still present in Hellraid?

Marcin Kruczkiewicz: As we played and tested the game, we decided that we want to have a bigger impact on the final experience players have, instead of leaving it only to random parameters.

Still, parts of this system – such aspartial randomness in terms of enemy types, numbers, and spawning places – arestill present in the Mission Mode. In this mode, players will revisit levels unlocked in the Story Mode with the objective to achieve highest possible scores.For example,to create longest combos against enemies, score most points in a mission, and take highest positions in leaderboards.

"We’re designing the Mission Mode and the Arena Mode in a way that players will enjoy replaying them over and over again. That’s one of the reasons why we decided to do a Steam Early Access: so players can have a say in polishing the gameplay that should entertain them for tens of hours."

Rashid Sayed: Tell us about the co-op elements. How do you plan to make it a more rewarding experience? Furthermore, are there plans to have offline co-op?

Marcin Kruczkiewicz: We believe that pairing up with other players and their custom characters will always deliver a nice thrill to the game.We’ve also introduced a co-op combo that promotes working together instead of running away in different directions. The higher a combo, the more points you get in the Mission and the Arena modes.  On the other hand, we wanted to avoid excessive competition between teammates, so we’ve decided loot will be dropped locally for each player.

Rashid Sayed: What kind of improvements have you done to the AI system of Hellraid? In this regard how has the Chrome Engine 6 helped matters?

Marcin Kruczkiewicz: The AI will constantly analyze player’s movements. It will combine the data with an analysis of immediate environment to plan out the best combat strategy: frontal attack, flanking, or perhaps “wearing down” the player with weaker units until a stronger group or a boss can strike with full force.

Chrome Engine 6 helps us with many new tools supporting the AI on a development level, as well as with more complex algorithms that players will be able to see in action during the game.

Rashid Sayed: Roughly speaking, how many hours gameplay are we looking at in Hellraid?

Marcin Kruczkiewicz: The Story Mode will offer about 8hours of gameplay but that’s only one of three game modes in Hellraid.

We’re designing the Mission Mode and the Arena Mode in a way that players will enjoy replaying them over and over again. That’s one of the reasons why we decided to do a Steam Early Access: so players can have a say in polishing the gameplay that should entertain them for tens of hours.

"Without the constraints of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, we can offer PC gamers a better looking game, while the complexity of our combat system should give them a lot of fun on a gamepad or keyboard and mouse alike."

Rashid Sayed: I wanted to shift the interview focus on new consoles now. How long have you been working on them for Hellraid?

Marcin Kruczkiewicz: Right now, we’re in the middle of transferring the code and content from our previous engine to the Chrome Engine 6. For example, the game already runs on PlayStation 4, but there’s still a long road of optimization and bug fixing ahead of us.

The transition itself should take us about three more months and after that we’ll be on a simple way to launching our Early Access.

Rashid Sayed: In our interview with the development team working on Dying Light, we were told that Dying Light will be targeting 1080p/60fps on PS4 and Xbox One. Given that you share the same technology, is Hellraid targeting to run 1080p/60fps on both the consoles?

Marcin Kruczkiewicz: Both games are using the same engine now, so this is the goal for both development teams as well as the engine team.

Rashid Sayed: I am eager to know how will the PC version of the game is shaping up. How will you satisfy the hardcore PC gamer?

Marcin Kruczkiewicz: Without the constraints of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, we can offer PC gamers a better looking game, while the complexity of our combat system should give them a lot of fun on a gamepad or keyboard and mouse alike.

Rashid Sayed: With the game out in 2015, what any plans to support DirectX12 for the PC and Xbox One versions? Furthermore, how do you think DirectX12 could potentially help the game development scene?

Marcin Kruczkiewicz: This is a question to our engine team, which is a separate division of Techland. We as developers always welcome new technologies that we can utilize to make more advanced gameplay and better graphics.

Rashid Sayed: Are you guys at E3? What can we expect?

Marcin Kruczkiewicz: We will be meeting with the press at E3 to show the game but I don’t want to spoil the surprise 🙂

Techland’s Hellraid had a slight lull in the past few months but a new gameplay trailer has been revealed which showcases the different spells, combat, enemies and so much more. All of it takes place from the first person perspective. Check it out above.

Hellraid features both a single-player campaign and online play. Three team-mates will fight together while the online component will have the Game Master mode. This allows a fourth player to lay out areas like a dungeon master to thwart the other three players. Content in the game is randomly generated so this will potentially mean assorted loot and new dungeons with each playthrough.

Hellraid was originally mean to release in 2014, but has now been moved forward to 2015. It will be out on PS4, Xbox One and PC. What are your thoughts on the gameplay above? Is it more like Skyrim or Dark Messiah of Might and Magic? Let us know in the comments.

What is Hellraid, you ask? It’s an upcoming four player co-op first person shooter being developed by Techland for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC of course. But just because it’s a shooter doesn’t mean guns are all you use. No, in fact, there is a pretty heavy emphasis on close range melee and sword combat.

This developer diary that you see above takes us a bit more in depth on that subject, walking us through all the development process and ideals that went into the development of the combat. Check it out for yourself above.

This game will be self published by Techland, and it will be available on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC some time later this year. Described as a spiritual successor to some 90s games such as Hexen, Witchhaven, and The Elder Scrolls, the game should look immediately appealing to anyone with an interest in classic old school PC gaming.

Stay tuned for more coverage.

In an update on the official Hellraid blog, game producer Marcin Kruczkiewicz stated that, “Since we started developing Hellraid we have had a clear goal to create a game that we all would love to play. We wanted to pay tribute to the best aspects of classic titles we grew up on and enhance them with new ideas, modern technology and extensive co-op that would provide players with dozens or even hundreds of hours of pure and bloody fun.

“If we released our game this year we would have to make too many compromises and the final product probably wouldn’t meet all our promises and players’ expectations. For example we want to redesign the magic system to make it even more powerful and diverse, add new ways of casting spells and a set of new, more visually stunning spells,

Hellraid is slated to release on Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3.

The game will feature both single player and multiplayer game modes that will enable cooperative and competitive game modes.

• 1. Development
• 2. Gameplay
• 3. Story
• 4. Weapons

Development

Before Hellraid was planned and being developed as a unique IP (intellectual property), it was originally going to be a mod for Techland’s popular first person zombie survival action game, “Dead Island”.  Since then the game has become its own entity and was first being developed under the title “Project Hell”.

Being described by the developers as an amalgam of the best gameplay mechanics of The Elder Scrolls and Dead Island, the game takes place in a fixed first person perspective.  It is also said to be the spiritual successor to the 1990’s cult classic hits, Hexen (id Software & Raven Software) and Witchaven video games, which are both also first person fantasy action games. The game is being built on Chrome Engine 5, which has already been used in the previous Techland games, Dead Island and Dead Island Riptide.

Gameplay

Hellraid will be played from a first person hack and slash perspective, similar to that of Torn Banner Studios Chivalry Medieval Warfare. The player must make use of a parry and blocking system built around player skill and reaction times to fend off and ultimately do combat with enemies from hell’s legions.

The games content will be randomly generated, but not much information regarding exactly what this means is currently available. The game features an online multiplayer component as well as three player cooperative play. Players will have access to sword and axe wielding barbarians, the defensive magics of the Paladin, the power arcane arts of the Mage and the quiet precision of the Rogue.

While playing through the game, the player can expect to encounter many carious types of NPCS (non player characters), so far we’ve been made aware of a mysterious Archmage, a somewhat reclusive and close to nature Herbalist and finally a blacksmith. In between your quests and mission objectives you can trade with the Blacksmith for goods, he can also presumably craft you new supplies, gear and pieces of equipment.

Although none of these characters have been mentioned in regards to altering the plot, it is expected that they are to send the player (or players) on side missions and side quests, both to extend the gameplay and to introduce the player to new “loot”. (Pieces of equipment or currency etc dropped by an opponent upon their death.)

The game also boasts a wealth of enemies for the player to combat. Thus far we have been introduced to:

The Necromancer – Necromancers are powerful dark warlocks, bound by dark mystical energies , whilst playing the game the necromancer can attack the player with various dark spells, revive fallen comrades and summon more monsters into the fray.

Blinded – The blinded is a ginormous enemy clad in a suit of plate armour to help ward of attackers attempts at killing him, he wields a massive two handed axe and focuses on closing with the player to best bring his axe into play.  His axe attack can leave a dark mark on the ground as well as destroy all objects in his way; this attack deals particularly heavy damage.

Minotaur – The Minotaur is a creature that was locked in stocks and imprisoned in one of the hells, having successfully freed itself of its servitude, the Minotaur now only wants one thing, which is to kill humans. It will charge through corridors hoping to pin and crush the players with the stocks it is still caught in. Even if the player can dodge his charge, they must remain wary of his follow up attack. A mighty kick with nail studded boots.

Bloodhunter – The bloodhunter is a fast and agile, very nimble character. Bloodhunters can attack the player by jumping at, and latching onto the characters face. The creature will then proceed to rip and tear at the players face with long sharp claws until being dispatched. The Bloodhunter also employs a “Dire Scream”, although this hasn’t been elaborated on by developers, it is expected to induce some sort of status ailment upon the player’s character.

Story

In the world of Hellraid, a few select individuals are chosen as defenders. They must wage war and do battle against hell’s armies and legions. To accomplish this you must stride into battle, through horrid swamps and prions of squalor, wielding both magic and sword for the forces of good. You must battle the demons of hell and explore this now destroyed world.

Weapons

Players will have access to the following type of weapons:

• Melee Weapons
• Magical Weapons
• Ranged Weapons
• Throwables
• Shields

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Apparently, Edyn’s Escape takes place two weeks before the events of Hellraid which sees players taking on the forces of Hell. As a cooperative game, Hellraid will see up to four players team up to not only fight against various demons and armies of the damned but to also compete with each other to see how much loot they can collect. Hellraid will take advantage of procedurally generated content, not to mention random dungeon arrangements.

Hellraid is currently scheduled to release this year for PC,Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Stay tuned for more details on a concrete release date. In the mean time, comment below and let us know what you think of “Edyn’s Escape”.