Hellgate: London

"Some things are good, some things are bad, but it COULD have been amazing."

Hellgate: London COULD have been an amazing game..it has ALL the workings of a truly unique and impressive game. I just believe it was rushed because they wanted to capitalize on the fact that they where the ones who created Diablo.

NOTE--Having played only the Markmans and Evoker only those will be covered in the Gameplay section

Graphics-7/10
On max settings the graphics to not look bad at all. The detail is quite impressive, and the character models are very well designed. And the enemy design is some of the most unique I've seen in any game in ALONG time. From large floating women with purple tentacles to small toad like demons who if not killed quick enough turn into large hulking abominations...they are all really nice. I really like the work put into the zombies. Most often in games the zombies are simply just bloody looking people with maybe a few missing limbs. In this game the zombies might actually scare you at times when you're in FPS mode. Some of them called "Blood Zombies" look quite grotesque...they are skinny skinless zombies who explode into chunks when you kill them. They obviously but ALOT of work into the look of the game and it really shows with the enemy models.

As good as the graphics are...one HUGE flaw stops them from getting a 10/10....it doesn't happen all the time..but it happens enough. That flaw is...texture delay. You'll walk into town, a ruined building, or into a street and you'll be standing in a field of solid black....it's weird, annoying, and could have been easily fixed had they had more time to work with it. If you played the game for 6 straight hours you might see it 25-30 times...that's alittle to often in my book...but I suppose one good thing is when it happens it usually fixes it's self quickly.....usually.


Sound-4/10
The sound is definitly the worst part of the game..I'll break this into sections.

Gunfire-
It's just "kaboon" "pew pew pew" "fizzle" and "pop" they did a terrible job on creating the weapon sounds. How hard could it have been to just use some prerecorded sounds so guns actually sound like guns and not ninety nine cent toy guns.

Music-
When it's there it's not bad..the problem is..it comes and goes so randomly it's hard to listen to. I'll be playing for a few hours and the music will just suddenly come on during a battle and stay on for maybe 15-20 seconds. I don't understand how this happens...I wish it didn't. But when it does come on...it sounds decent.

Monsters-
As good as they look they sound terrible. They're the most basic roars, howls, grunts, screams, and growls you'll ever here. They obviously were told "they've gotto make noise...just use these sounds..sure they've been in 40,000 other games but it'll do...we've got a time limit people!!!" The zombies moan and scream...the demons growl, roar, or scream, the beasts growl or roar...that's..about..it...

Voice Acting-
It's there in the form of classic Diablo style were you hear it when you first click the NPC....it's cool to hear the different British accents depending on where you are. Aside from that..it's not really around.

Gameplay-
Like sound I'll break this into sections.

Gunplay-
You've got the rather cool option of choosing 1st person or 3rd person when you choose any of the gun based classes.. I prefer 1st person when using the Marksman because you get the precise aiming when using a sniper rifle..but if you choose the Evoker DO NOT..I repeat..DO NOT use 1st person mode. The guns are SO big you literally lose 3/4 of the screen to HUGE funky living gun things.

Speaking of the guns..this game has a really well designed selection of guns. The Markman gets the usual sniper rifles, rocket launchers, machine pistols/ rifles, and some other unique weapons who I cannot begin to describe past..lighting rifle? They are all well designed and all function well in 1rst person or 3rd.

With the Evoker the weapons take on a nature meets machine type look. They are literally alive on your arm or hand. E yes blink, horns sway back and forth etc etc and some of them are just plain weird looking. One in particular is the Swarm Rifle...it fires a HUGE swarm of ?dragon flies? that kill the enemy..why dragon flies I don't know but it's rather cool.

Customization-
You can customize your character quite a bit...while not as much as in Oblivion or other games it's still pretty good. You can change the basic things like Hair color/length/style, facial features/structure/accessory's, height/weight.

Skills-
Having only played the Evoker and Marksman for quite a bit I can say they are quite good. You have some interesting ability's for both. The Marksman gets ability's that improve his aiming and damage as well as skills that create large amount of destruction. Such as the skills that give you ability to call in air strikes of fire, lighting, a small nuke to destroy LARGE groups of enemys. Or the grenade skill tree that gives you various types of grenades from frag, fire, or flash..all of which are really helpful.

The Evoker gets more DoT (Damage of Time) spells like types of poisons, burning spells, chain lighting spells and such. They are alot of fun to use because you can throw a small ball into a crowd and just watch as they attempt to run after you only to run into the cloud and die from the poison.

Quests-
Your basic quest style...go here collect X number of these....go here kill X number of these...go here talk to this person. The quests are nothing new or exciting but they're not boring.

Story-
The story is pretty good if not a tad used up...hell has broken free into our world..it's your job as a member of one of the guilds of fighters to stop the onslaught of terror. There is also a fair amount of humor to be had in the game..and when it IS being funny it's being really damn funny.

Multiplayer-
Not to bad..when the game first launched it had a fair amount of people who were looking for "Diablo 3" which they obviously didn't find. Like Guild Wars the games towns (which are actually subway stations) are more like fully 3D in game chat rooms. That's where you get party's, trades, and people asking to duel. If you go out into the world you will see no one..but if you get into a party you can all party together and loot together.

Only problem now is the online community has gone down drastically since ALOT more glitches appear online then off such as, HORRID lag even on fast computers and strong machines, texture delay, sound issues, enemy's getting stuck or there AI just doing what seems like quiting and a whole host of others.

Now my favorite and easily the most impressive aspect of this game and of ANY game I've ever seen is how this game does what Diablo1-2 did in 2D is create randomly generated levels...only this does it in full 3D glory. How this game is able to do it I don't know...but that's quite a feat to throw at ANY game.



All in all I'd say if you find this game at some point in a bargain bin for $10 buy it...don't expect anything amazing but it IS fun despite what some people say. You'll playing something that's actually quite unique and enjoyable. If you can..look past the glitches and enjoy this game. The graphics are nice..usually...the story isn't bad, and the gameplay is decent.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/28/08

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