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First i want to mention I have not been all the way through this game. These are the views i have so far, but 1st heres a little developer history.. Hellgate London is a new game from a new developer called Flagship studios. Flagship are a few key people who had alot to do with the creation of the Diablo RPG series who decided to leave blizzard & start a new developer. So with that said you may gather a little bit of what to expect from Hellgate. UPDATE(Edit) Flagship studios has officialy closed!! The online servers have since been taken down, single player is the only option now. THE GOOD The game has 6 character Classes to choose from theres anything from dual wielding blade masters & gun using sharp shooters to summoners & spell casters. The gameplay here is the key, this is real time 3rd or 1st person rpg. Note only characters who use guns can be played in the 1st person view. The game is a long & unexpected blast to me so far(i use the sharp shooter character) The areas you fight in are good sized & have plenty to kill. Like in the diablo series monsters randomly drop items, like weapons, armors, helms, belts & much more. The items can be worn if they are for you character class & you have the required stats to equip them. You can sell them for $ or dismantle the items into basic supplies that you can build other items with. This makes everything useful to some degree. There are four basic class of items in the game including normal, enhanced, legendary & unique. Each having more and/or better stats than the class below it. This is a busy game unlike standard mmo style rpgs & can be played on or off line. There is a single player game for off line so you dont have to have a broadband connection to play. The combat areas are mostly all randomly generated so its not always the same layout. The monster selection in most areas are randomly generated so you never know what to expect when you enter a level. It could be undead zombies, bats , various demons & or beasts. Maybe flying at you or running & can be melee or rage attacking or any combination of. The monster A.I. ranges from little=running straight at you to fairly advanced=running all the way to the side or sides of the area to flank you. As an RPg the combat is ground breaking & as a FPS the game offers more customizing options than any shooter around. The game has had many patches since the game came out & runs smoothly most of the time. There have been rebalances of character skill powers & a new area added. THE BAD UPDATED ------- "As it stands" The servers for this game will be shut down permanently on 1/31/09. Thus that will be the end of the online & multi player style play. My numerical ratings so far, 1-10 higher is better. Game play 8 its an RPG over all so there leveling involved. Graphics 8 this is no quake4 engine game but with the graphic settings maxed it looks nice. Sound 8 good sound.. UPDATE It is confirmed that the online servers will be shut down permanently on 1/31/09 so after then its single player only. So if you want to give HG a spin online get a copy now theres only a little over a couple of months left. Once again I will mention you can play single player after the servers shut down, just be sure to get all the updates for the single player game at the hellgate site. Sorry for the bad news if there is a status change concerning servers i will post itRead full review
Hellgate: London Storyline- A great story that is interesting humorous and mysterious, but sadly this great story is presented in choppy segments that ruin the overall flow of the game, I have to say that this game had a great ending, in fact it’s the best ending I’ve seen since Vampire: Masquerade- Bloodlines. 14/20 Graphics – The graphics on this game are incredible, but as I played I noticed some small incongruence’s that ruined the effect of graphical realism. One example is when you poison certain enemies they become sharp and triangular, essentially eliminating their realistic look, and making them look like they were taken from a 1980s arcade game and stuck in the game. 5/10 Game play- The game play along with every other aspect of the game is wholly addictive and fun, but there are some errors, one is when I played in first person I was sometimes randomly pulled out into 3rd person, but beyond that the controls worked well and aside from occasionally being locked in an infinite shooting (or swinging) loop they worked well. 13/15 Enjoy ability- Haha, I have to say I enjoyed this game a lot, it was interesting and never got boring, I simply loved it. 20/20 Art direction- The architecture and level design seemed great at first, but you soon realized that randomly putting together 50 foot sections of maps, from a very limited pool, doesn’t make for good random level design, in fact it doesn’t make very good level design at all. Hell… was boring, not at all flashy and hell like, as it is in most games, especially Diablo, you only have occasional pillars of fire and it seems cave like, in essence HELL SUCKED in this game. 5/10 Sound &VA- The sounds were lackluster and boring, not a single sound really fit, but a huge issue is that by now ALL mission or quest givers should give quests vocally and not just typed for us to read. Sure it might cost a little more for voice actors but it takes in the player that written quests just can’t. 5/10 Length- This might be a first for me, but this game is just too damn long, frustratingly so, it didn’t get boring, but by the time your near the end your saying to yourself, shouldn’t this have ended 9 or 10 hours ago. 9/15 Total- 71/100 Bottom line- The simple fact of the matter is, aside from the errors this is one of the greatest games I’ve played, buy it you will be pleasantly surprised, and it’s so cheap now I would say it’s a must have, I mean I paid $18.43 for the game, collector’s edition, AND a 20 dollar strategy guide, if that’s not worth the price you’re a cheapskate, buy this game, you’ll love it! But I warn you of one MAJOR disappointment, after all this time there’s no way to play online…and there’s not even any LAN options.Read full review
Overall the only two things I could say i don't like are that A) no Linux support for Linux gamers B) If you want more storage you have to pay the monthly fee. Besides that, game play is great, slightly repetitive after a while but it does continue to get better as you progress in the game. Once you get used to the interface, upgrading armor and weapons becomes a breeze, making the killing of the demons easier but they will adapt so don't get too stuck on one weapon. If I were to grade the game, I'd give it a B+. Mainly because of the Linux issue and the having to pay. I cannot stand monthly fees. IMHO they make enough money off of the sales of the games alone and that should be sufficient.
My kind of game! Good story line for getting into the gaming changes that are coming up. Lots of weapons and mod's and combo's. Really good character choices & options. You can go thru this at a fast pace if you know how to manipulate all your equipment & items. Or like me you can do a methodical approach to discover everything the game has to offer! In some of the big battles if your system has a little trouble keeping up... Lower the settings in the options page till you get a smoother rate of play. But then 50 creatures attacking with 10 different tactics will bring most systems down!!!
Overall great game. Starts kind of slow but you get into it before you know it. Don't waste your time on the single player version. Play online for free and build up your characters there. You can trade with others and play throughout the game with your friends.
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