Go Straight to Hell, Boys
It will only take a couple hours for a player to solo through all the bosses in the Stonehenge Chronicles, but The Wild should provide for some hours of entertainment as well. It's the first group-oriented area in the game, and quite a challenge even for experienced parties. The creatures here are tougher and more numerous than in other zones, and we were quickly decimated after a few over-confident expeditions into the zone.
We weren't able to get subscriber figures from Flagship or EA, but the game does feel well-populated, and the new party formation system seems to be getting people to play together more often. This addresses an issue we had with the game during launch, as it felt more like a single-player game with multi-player lobbies, rather than a true online RPG. Questing in groups is now more rewarding, with increased experience and drops for group play. Now's a good time for Hellgate: London players to expand beyond the single-player mentality.
Since release, Hellgate: London has steadily rolled out expanded content for its subscribers, and made changes to the original game to address the issues it had with what can't be called anything but a premature release. In its current state, the game can be great fun, but it still suffers from a handful of bugs and network issues that impede what would otherwise be one of the more entertaining role-playing experiences around. The concept is brilliantly original, and the gameplay can be great fun. But the frequent disconnects and lag are troubling, as is the completely broken state of the nightmare-level endgame. We're hoping that there are enough subscribers out there to keep the game improving. Until then, you can find us in the London underground, fighting the good fight.
