Hellgate: London

"Oh my god, is this what hell would be like?"

Is this truly hell?

I've been waiting for Hellgate: London for quite a while now. The story seemed gripping enough and the premise of the game seem unique and fresh enough that it would break the monotony of many of the traditional click and point MMORPGs. What I got instead of an epic grind and loot fest, demons of hell knocking on my very doorstep, and fighting the good fight, was an epic fight versus crashing and freezing, so many bugs that I began to lose count after my third character, and wondering in every fight if I was going to have to redo it because of number of problems that plague this failure of a game.

-Graphics-

This is probably the only highlight of the game.

The characters look very nice and most of the appearances you will find find yourself with many piercings and have a very punk look to them. You will begin to realize it really doesn't matter what you look like because it will be covered up and unlike most games where less armor on female characters equates to more protection, as your progress further into the game the armor actually covers everything for most classes. I don't know what is with magic and less clothes.

Most weapons models will have a very unique flair to them.The few weapon models are then rehashed as you gain levels and progress further to get better weapons. From sniper pistols to an a streaming electric rifle the game delivers on what it shoots like.

The world is basically the same, besides the very few alterations like being inside a rift, you will basically find yourself in a sewer, a riverbed, or an underground train station. Each have their own unique color theme, You have the sewer which is more green then anything, then you got the riverbed which is more blue then anything, then you got the underground train station which is more green then blue. The colors really don't vary very much. The scenery isn't really worth a mention but what is inside the scenery is. In every level there are many destructible items such as crates and paper boxes. The king of these items to me at least which gave me some moments of joy are exploding barrels. These exploding barrels are everywhere, like if I went to London right now I would be greeted by these things as soon as I stepped off the plane. All the items that can be destroyed do get destroyed in a nice colorful fashion, but winner here is that when barrels explode they will probably kill everything within a 5 meter radius depending on how many barrels/canisters of gas there are. You will if you decide to pick up this game more then once lure an epic mob over to a bunch of barrels and destroy them for that easy kill.

Graphically this game is not incredible but it does look excellent for an MMORPG.

-Gameplay-

This is probably the only factor in a game that matters to me.

Hellgate: London's introduction CG movie will more then excite you about the game. The quality shown in the animated feature should have been the testimony of developers effort to create us a truly spectacular game that would bring us lasting enjoyment. Unfortunately as the movie draws to and end and you remember the call to fight for the living, you enter hell.

When a game is released, one is to logically expect a finished product. Maybe a graphical issue here and a bug there, but not something you begin to realize was released half a year too early.

I will tell you my story as I played my marksman through the game a few days after release. Crash during when an enemy hits me, crash during when I am selling items, crash during when I am identifying items, crash when I am opening my stash, wait an eternity for a load screen before realizing I was stuck in hell and I needed to reboot my computer, try to quit but the game wouldn't let me so I had to reboot my computer.

Through all this I kept my pushing towards that goal of beating back the demons of hell. Through the crashes something even more insidious appeared. I have 2 friends whom I began to play with. Both of them were around my level before I began to out level them. We partied up for an entire day only to be riddled with problems. Sometimes when you zone with your party, one member of the party is taken to a different instance which means you need to warp to a town then open up a party portal to your party member to fix the situation. Sometimes this happens in a town also. Basically you aren't playing the game, you are trying to find your party members. Another problem was that sometimes you both would be in the same instance but were invisible to each other. Hilarity insued but the problem was that my friend was killing monsters in front of my eyes but I could not see him and even if I opened a portal to him he would still be invisible. Another problem is that sometimes when your party member goes to another zone, they would still be in the zone you are in, then slowly it sets in that your friend is another zone away and you are just staring at this horrific ghostly apparition that was once your friend that tricked you into just thinking you were waiting for your friend.

We never partied again after that day.

As I continued my solo quest, more problems arose. Quest items that should have been removed after you finished the quest still remained in my inventory. I understood that some quest items serve a purpose such as the gun that destroyed boils and the laser goggles, but these were quest items I had to return but that would permanently be in my inventory taking up space. Any fan of any RPG game knows you should not have wasted space in your inventory. It takes up precious loot space and that to me is unforgivable.

I finished my game with my marksman to begin the same story with my guardian. As the same problems that plagued my marksman appeared I pushed on past them until a defining moment that finally drove me over the edge. In order to fight a boss whom I will not name, you will need to man a turret. This boss sometimes shoots out these giant eyes that shoot you with electricity. These are flying units so my guardian could not hit them normally. Thankfully there is a skill called challenge which basically taunts these creatures to impale themselves on your blade. Imagine my horror and disgust when these monsters knock me off my turret and I prepare to challenge them that it says I need points in that skill. The disgust I felt was unimaginable. Here I am with 3 points in challenge and 2 points in the skill denounce which you need 3 skills in challenge for. My challenge skill is unusable and the reason is that the game believes that I have no points in it but I can use denounce. I could not use the turret shoot these guys out of the sky, because as soon I as got in one I would be forcefully ejected out because I was under attack and the skill I needed to take to kill these creatures were 5 levels away. I could have restarted, waste another hour getting to the boss and brave many crashes and freezings along the way, and smite him for the good of mankind, but I didn't. I wept. I began to cry.

The community isn't bad but it isn't good. I realize the game has only been out for a short time, but you would think the community would be alive and electric since they are excited about the release of this game. Perhaps many of them can't see the keyboard because their eyes are welled up with tears like me and can't see the keyboard. Every now and then you will have someone ask a question over the general chat. You could constantly ask for a group but it seems you are destined to be alone in this game until you get to the mid parts of nightmare. You might as well play single player because online the only person truly alive is you.

Underneath the layers of filth that is caked onto this game, truly lies sometimes wonderful. Somethings worth salvaging.

The guns in this game are truly fun to play. Every different type of gun seem to do something unique. you have your standard assault rifle that fires basic rounds, then you switch over to your dual sniper pistols, then your cluster heavy rifle that seems to shoot out several rockets into the vicinity. From laying down mines to laying down a blanket of literally fire into an area the guns are are all refreshing and fun to use. The only part that was iffy was that marksman who were all ex-military operatives could not use certain guns. I could understand some classes not being able to use many of the guns, but to have class restrictions for marksman for the guns so that they can't use them seemed kind of silly.

The swords are different and the same at the same time. You can fulfill your samurai fantasies by wielding an katana or your dreams of being a knight by wielding very intricately designed long swords which funny names. The weapons differ in elements but they all serve the basic function of single enemy damage or splash damage. You will more then likely opt over the splash damage sword over the single damage sword.

The enemies are pretty much what you can expect from an MMORPG. They will make a beeline to you and will try to kill in whatever manner possible. The ranged enemies begin to carry different ranged weapons which is a surprise sometimes. You will be slaughtering these suckers by the hundreds. 10 hours into the game I realized I have slain over 5000 enemies.

The loot monsters drop are not really worth to sell. This game instead of grind, loot, and sell, it changes it into grind, breakdown, and craft. This game offers NPCs who can craft you items that would be sometimes better to far superior to what you are wearing. This creates the need to break down your items into basic components so you can afford these items. You also need components to upgrade your weapon so your gear is always fresh.

There is a very refreshing outlook on elements so that each one of them serve a key, and crucial function so no matter at what level they will always be useful. You have fire, which when you are ignited you lose 5% health per second. You have phase, which when you are phased move slower and take 50% more damage. You have poison, which prevents any healing items from being used. You have shock, which when shocked you can not use any skills.

This game has potential. A great deal of it. It seems like the developers of this game rode on the coattails of a masterpiece of they created long ago believing that would insure then success. You can see some of the innovation and the unique approach in mere glimpses when you play the game but flawed craftsmanship eclipses any true enjoyment to be had.

I am not saying you should not buy the game. You should, down the road once they fix and patch up things, but currently if you are on the edge, I suggest you not buy this game. Besides the numerous problems I mentioned there are hundreds more that have been found and I had the fortune not to encounter.

This game can only get better is something I would love to say, but the problems I encountered happened after a patch that was supposed to fix problems such as memory leaks.

Who knows what the future holds for Hellgate: London.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 11/08/07

Game Release: Hellgate: London (US, 10/31/07)