Hellgate: London, the (not so offical) review!

First off, what is hellgate:london you may ask? Well it is the new game by Flagship Studios, in which it is their first project. Many of the members of their team have worked on Diablo and Diablo II and their basis of inspiration for Hellgate was the Diablo Series.

From the main website:

 

According to legend, when the ravens depart the Tower of London, it will crumble to rubble and disaster will befall England. As man became more dependent on science, believing only in what he could define or create, ancient knowledge and rituals were lost to the antiquity of time.

Hellgate London is set in, surprise surprise, London in 2038. The storyline is mostly told through in game, and the game follows acts much like Diablo II.

But, alas, on to the review:

First Impressions (beta):

When I played the demo game, I'm not going to lie, I wasn't as impressed as I could have been. Sadly FSS did a fairly poor job on a real entertaining demo and I would not recommend anyone base a purchase around it. However a day later I was accepeted into the US beta and my adventure began.

I started in the gameworld as an Engineer. The games classes are split into three different 'factions' or for lack of a better word base classes. The class distribution goes something like this:

Templar-

-Guardian

-Blade Master

Cabalist-

-Evoker

-Summoner

Hunter-

-Marksman

-Engineer

The classes are fairly standard for a game. The Guardian is a tank type of character, wielding a sword and a shield. Likewise the blade master is efficiently the melee DPS user, using two swords at once in a style very reminiscent of the barbarian (they even have whirlwind!). The Templars mainly use melee weapons.

Under Cabalist's we had the Evoker and Summoner. The Evoker is the basic nuker of the six. Meanwhile the Summoner is a pet class, able to control many minions at once. Both of these classes use 'focus' items which look suprisingly like guns -- and because of this you can play them in first person view like you would the Hunter classes.

Finally the hunter classes. The marksman is your typical 'archer', except in this game you trade off a bow for a nice gun. I haven't had much experience playing a marksman but playing one is nearly like playing part of an FPS, I'm sure some skilled players will do well with one.

And, we get to my class -- Engineer. The engineer can build robots and packs a gun like the marksman does. His robots can do all amounts of thing, such as slow his enemies, shoot rockets at them or even attack with whatever weapon you give it.

But back onto the story. So I load in the game and am immediately introduced with some quest text. Apparently I have to talk to some guy named 'Murmur' which is surprisingly similar in nature to Cane from Diablo and Diablo II. He has me go on what is a basic tutorial run through of the game. Thankfully it doesn't really go into explaining stuff over and over, however it gives you a chance to kill some easy zombies and get on your way. After slaughtering my way through the horde I found a wounded templar, who than pointed me over to the station.

Stations are a lot like towns in Guild Wars, as Hellgate takes the same instanced style that GW does. That means that inside the stations are where you can do all your business such as trading, partying, ect. while outside are instances for only you and your party. Stations also serve as hubs to move you along, and feed you with various quests and side quests.

After playing through a bit I stumbled upon my first 'boss' mob. His large, golden name and gigantic size frightened me but with some kiting around he was dead. :P Most of the 'bosses' you will find are instead but unique mobs, however lets just say they have some phat lewt on them.

Looting my rewards I went back to town to turn in quests and continued forward. Now to spare my life story of the game I'm going to just talk about some key points here I noticed (in beta).

The first, which I'm sure a lot are wondering about, is the graphics. How does the game look? run? Well artistically wise they did the devastated city look quite well. I know that many people were disappointed that (at least in the first 22 levels offered in beta) most of the game takes place in the city, sewers, train stations, ect. With some trips into hell gates. However you have to consider that the game is based in a city and likewise you will see a lot of city elements.

Monsters and character models look nice, at least on DX9 they do. The game was obviously not built up to compete with the likes of crysis because at many times you will have as much as 20-30 mobs on your screen, and a lot can go on. However my computer handles it just fine, and really the only slow parts I had in beta were random slow downs in town.

Stability wise beta had a few problems, mostly with memory leaks. This would cause the game to crash every so often -- however the retail client has (I assure you) fixed most of the crash errors and are working on it.

My overall impressions of the beta were strong. The skill tree of the game is much like Diablo II, except all located on one page. Generally there are at least 3 major 'branches' of skills for each class that allows for a various amount of builds to spring up. (max level is 50). The big thing is to beware because there are no build respecs, which I agree on with FSS because your build -- too, is a large part of your character.

Gameplay wise its still a lot of hack and slash. I didn't get a chance to group much in beta but the game proved to be enjoyable both solo and in a party, and will certainly feed the appetite of many vet Diablo and Diablo II players.

I left beta feeling good about the game, which than leads us up to today.

Retail release thoughts:

So now retail is upon us. I make it my liberty this time to create a Blade master. As much as I liked the idea of Engineer I just thought I could do better as a Blade Master and it was something new.

Most of it was the same from beta, except a bit more polished in areas (they fixed slowdown issues and many technical issues). This time I played through with my roomate, who was making a guardian.

So, what do I think of the party system? Well in a lot of ways it is (again) close to Diablo II's method. Pretty much the difficulty of the instance is based off of how many members in the party you have. The more members the more xp and health the monsters have. Looting, in fact, was the single largest difference. Now remember in Diablo II we always had to 'race' for the loot and it sucked --hard. Losing a chance to get an incredibly powerful weapon or armor piece you needed because someone clicked faster than you, it sucked.

Hellgate simply divides up loot between players and only shows it on your screen. So for example if I find a blue sword my roomate couldn't even see it on the ground. Fear not, however, as you both still got what a normal amount of loot would be if you were to go in solo. I think that this method of loot is probably one of the smartest for its kind, and it will extinguish the times where someone leaves a group after not getting an item they wanted. If you like the players than you can simply tell them, hey, I found a great item you want it once we get back to town?

I had a complaint about the UI however. For one, the chat box is large , cumbersome and unsightly. Most of the time, in fact, I don't even have it open. Other than that there really aren't any other large complaints about the UI.

Stepping back for a quick moment however I want to talk about loot in the game. The loot is split into (what we've came to recognize) white, green, blue and gold loot or normal, uncommon, rare, legendary loot.

Many items allow themselves to be customized, and there are a slew of various item mods available. You can get mod pieces such as batteries or relics and put them into items that have the available slot open, or you can customize you weapon by augmenting it. Through augmentation you can add a common, rare or legendary property to an item for a fee which helps those who are rich, but unlucky. After adding a rare property to my blue mainhand its stats increased and it had a new, extra mod on it -- very handy.

So what do I think of the game so far, overall? Well in its current state I would give it about an

86%.

Pros: Tons of loot to choose from, good ole fun hack and slash that is remicent of diablo II. Skill tree is nice.

Cons: Stability issues on some machines, perhaps too few classes. (getting more in patches to come however for subscribers). Enviroments may seem a little repetitive. Chat box size is annoyingly huge

Also feel free to post your character names and what server. I'm on the US server (starts with an S) and name is Nadril.

Level 14 now on my Blade master, having a good time. Difficulty is really ramped up now from beta.

Requirements?

Feeling lazy.

Good review, sounds ok. Do all characters except those with guns play in a third person format?

Plus how does fighting with a sword work? Do you kinda just click and it will swing or is it an auto attack like WoW?

Lastly, is it pay to play?

Good review, sounds ok. Do all characters except those with guns play in a third person format?

 

 

 

yes. People with guns can play third person too.

 

 

 

Plus how does fighting with a sword work? Do you kinda just click and it will swing or is it an auto attack like WoW?

 

 

 

you click to swing like a hack and slash.

 

 

 

Lastly, is it pay to play?

 

 

 

you can pay $10 a month to get subscriber bonuses. This includes updates, more character slots, ect.

 

Requirements?

 

 

 

Feeling lazy.

* OS: Windows XP with SP2 or Windows Vista

* Processor: 1 .8GHz or faster (2.4GHz for Vista)

* RAM: 1GB or more (2GB for Vista)

* Video: DirectX 9.0c/10 compatible device w/ 128MB RAM or better and Pixel Shader 2.0 support; requires NVIDIA GeForce 6200/ATI Radeon 9000 chipset or greater

* Audio: DirectX 9.0c compatible device

* Disc drive: 8x DVD or faster

* Hard drive: 6 GB or more free space

* Input: Keyboard and mouse

* Internet: Connection required for multiplayer

So I can't play it unless I reinstall XP.

Bah.

So I can't play it unless I reinstall XP.

 

 

 

Bah.

Why are you using vista in the first place....

So I can't play it unless I reinstall XP.

 

 

 

Bah.

You shouldn't be running vista with a gig of ram anyways mate.

I am thinking of revamping my PC for this, played at a local computer store and was great, even if I only played for 10 minutes, been waiting for a title like this to come out for a long time, graphics rock as well :D

So I can't play it unless I reinstall XP.

 

 

 

Bah.

 

 

 

Why are you using vista in the first place....

It came with the laptop and I haven't gotten around to fishing XP out of the storage boxes.

aw, common, more people must be interested in this game than just a few.

I rerolled a marksman after some frustrations with my blade master, its level 16 now.

aw, common, more people must be interested in this game than just a few.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I rerolled a marksman after some frustrations with my blade master, its level 16 now.

Lastly, is it pay to play?

 

 

 

you can pay $10 a month to get subscriber bonuses. This includes updates, more character slots, ect.

Has put me off a bit...also so has the reqs i don't want to buy it and not be able to use.

What is your opinion on the quests? A Belgian game magazine I buy called them poor. They also wrote it got pretty repetitive after a while. They still gave it a 82 though :P

What is your opinion on the quests? A Belgian game magazine I buy called them poor. They also wrote it got pretty repetitive after a while. They still gave it a 82 though :P

Quests are your standard RPG affair. Go here, kill a boss or go there and kill some mobs, ect. They're not annoying at all (quest givers are in the town hub where the quest area is at) and are overall just fine.

They don't break any kind of bounderies but yeah.

sounds like a gw of the near future with zombies and things from hell? With fps elements? Hmmm, may need to check it out. I like fps's... Strategy and groups with swords and robots make it sound even better, knifes aren't cutting it anymore on Battlefield 2142 when I kill people, I perfer now to just stand behind them and and kill them with a machine gun. So this sounds like the perfect happy medium for my violent tendicies online...

so to sum it up this is the game:

hell monsters+robots, swords, guns, and strongholds in England to fight them both solo and online= some good fun.

I'm defenitly at least checking it out next time I find it at the store or at a friends house if they get it.

so to sum it up this is the game:

 

hell monsters+robots, swords, guns, and strongholds in England to fight them both solo and online= some good fun.

 

I'm defenitly at least checking it out next time I find it at the store or at a friends house if they get it.

Yup pretty much sums it up. :P Its a lot of fun.

btw once the various bugs are fixed I'd easily rate the game a 95%.

May get it. My brother's birthday is coming up, and he said he loved the demo....

BTW, what is the level cap?

May get it. My brother's birthday is coming up, and he said he loved the demo....

 

 

 

BTW, what is the level cap?

50.

This review is worthy of gamespot.

Sounds awesome, but I only have a Mac here at my college. At home I have a PC, but I don't go home enough to make it worth it.. Can you still get a good amount of gameplay without getting the 10$/month thing?

This review is worthy of gamespot.

I don't think the purpose of this thread was to review his review, but I'm sure he appreciates it

I'm just saying he does it as good if not better than they do.

Sounds awesome, but I only have a Mac here at my college. At home I have a PC, but I don't go home enough to make it worth it.. Can you still get a good amount of gameplay without getting the 10$/month thing?

Oh deffinitly, yeah. The main game is still large and theres a lot to do. I also think they'll treat the non-sub players pretty fairly as well.

Also thanks sycosis, means a lot.

No problem :D

I really wanted to play but don't feel like spendnig 150$ + to upgrade my computer atm.

Only have a nVIDIA 6100 and I need more RAM and stuff. Not to mention I don't know alot about computers so that prolly isn't the only thing.

Looks epic.

1 word

darkfall.