From Flagship Studios – creators of the award-winning Diablo series and the fathers of the action role playing genre – comes Hellgate: London, a first-person role-playing game.
Combining the depth of traditional RPGs with the frenetic, visceral feel of first-person shooters, Hellgate: London offers infinite replayability with dynamically created levels, monsters, items and events that gives each player their own unique hack-and-slash experience.
System: PC
Genre: Action-RPG
Release dates: October 31st 2007 (USA), November 1sth 2007 (AUS), November 2nd 2007 (EURO)
Players: 1-2 (2-8 online)
Developer: Flagship Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Origin: America
A post-apocalyptic London has been overrun by hordes of terrifying demons, leaving the city desolate and scorched by hellfire. Those who were unlucky enough to survive now gather in the only sanctuary left, the Underground, banding together in order to gain a foothold against the minions of darkness and ultimately save the bloodline of humanity.
It is no surprise that these sole survivors come from three of society’s most elite factions, each of whom are masters of a robust number of skills and weapons essential to demon-thrashing.
The Templar, a secret society preserving the rites of the original Knights Templar, mix futuristic technology with ancient artifacts to create powerful weapons and armor perfect for short-ranged and melee attacks.
The Cabalists are students of the dark arts and edges of science which often leaves them standing right on the line between good and evil. Their mystifying spells make them suited for mid-range combat.
The Hunters are mysterious, highly trained ex-military operatives who lay waste to their foes with hyper-advanced weapons that blend theoretical science and the latest in technology – and their bullets can come from almost any distance.
Hellgate: London delivers an amazing gaming experience to PC gamers of all types – delivering the eye-popping DX10 visuals demanded by the hardcore, and scaling to ensure the masses of casual RPG players can still get the best performance on older PCs.
Watch the Hellgate: London boss battles trailer.
So what are Hellgate: London’s main features?
* The RPG Authority – Flagship Studios was founded by the core creators of Diablo, one of the biggest PC gaming franchises in history– they are the first, last and only voice in the world of action RPGs.
* Beyond RPG – Experience new layers to the traditional hack-and-slash formula by experiencing the action RPG from the first-person perspective and through nontraditional character classes and play styles.
* Have it Your Way – Three unique factions with their own visual and gameplay style, offering something for every type of gamer, whether they prefer the longer-range blasts of the Hunter or want to get up close and personal with the Templar. Melee classes default to a third-person view, whereas ranged classes default to a first-person view.
* Infinite Replayability – Dynamically generated levels, chance events and massive quantities of randomly created items makes for infinite replayability — no two experiences will ever be the same and every game will be it’s own unique event.
* Mad Skills – Each faction has three character classes that contain a wide variety of skills and spells that are fully customizable.
* London Calling – Explore post-apocalyptic London, even darker and gloomier than usual. From shattered cathedrals and landmarks to the ancient ruins buried beneath the shell of a once-great city, players will need to
* Misery Loves Company – Don’t be a glory hog – fight online. Gather with friends or recruit strangers in Underground stations and venture out into mean streets of London together to erase the Demonic threat. Includes voice support.
* Online Subscription – Hellgate: London can be played offline or online without a fee. Players can pay a monthly fee to gain additional content over time, including new areas, weapons, monsters, classes, quests, events, titles, game modes, and other perks.
* Hell Never Looked Better – Hellgate: London features all of the latest next-generation technology to deliver a true, DX10 experience, while being fully scalable for optimal performance on older PCs.
Watch some co-op Hellgate: London gameplay.
Minimum system requirements:
Windows XP or Windows Vista,
1.8 GHz(XP) or 2.4 GHz(Vista) Processor,
1GB RAM(XP) or 2GB RAM(Vista),
NVIDIA GeForce 6200/ATI Radeon 9000 chipset or greater,
7GB Free Hard Drive space,
DirectX 9.0c compatible sound,
Internet Connection required for multiplayer
As a conclusion let’s rate this game on its fun-basis.
FUN FACTOR – 6.5
The class variety is interesting. Unfortunately there’s too much samey action and not enough story in Hellgate. You’ll find yourself left-clicking your mouse and beating all the zombies and other hell spawn while you wandering from level to level doing the simple quest instructions you’re given. The randomly generated levels should provide a fresh new level every time, but the rooms will repeat themselves (only two types?) and sometimes an exit appears near the start or you can’t get to the exit due to a bug in the game. That said, there’s a big loot system to keep Diablo fans going, but you might get tired of it after a few hours in what’s basically an FPS-RPG where the stats additions are welcome but its core isn’t that good. Outside of the likable dark humor, there’s potential if they fix all the bugs.
Graphics – 7.0
The game’s artwork and cinematics look great, however, the overall feeling in-game leaves you with a lack of atmosphere. The combat animations seem underdeveloped too.
Audio – 7.0
The voice actors do a great job. The weapon sound effects don’t pack a punch.
Ingenuity – 6.0
The loot and upgrade system work well and make you feel like there’s progress. But then there’s the repetitive gameplay and a lack of depth. Multiplayer doesn’t seem finished and since all the classes can work well on their own, you don’t need your MMO party outside of the extra monsters. The game is filled with bugs like slowdown, clipping and crashes, which is the biggest downer here and makes you feel like you’re playing a beta version.
Replay Value – 6.0
A lot of bugs that include game crashes, lag, or system hangs, will cut your playtime short. Hopefully there will be more patches in the future that fix these issues. Since the initial extras (the ability to make 24 characters) are free for everyone playing the game, to make up for all the bugs, so right now there’s no reason to pay the $10/month subscription fee.