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Dont waste your money!! Play the demo first!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 62
Date: October 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was excited about this game until I played the demo. The graphics are good but overall game play is boring. Those of you that love Diablo 2 you will find this game lacking the intensity. Overall don't waste your money, or try looking at Call of Duty 4 demo or TimeShift Demo. Those games are better FPS.

Diablo Done Better

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 24 / 36
Date: October 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is very much a sequel to diablo 2 but there are some obvious breaks from the diablo series.

The most salient break is that the entire game is in a true 3d world where you can play from the first or third person perspective. This makes for a pretty fun experience but for some rather different gameplay mechanics. You have to combat flying creatures that, as oppposed to the diablo series, actually are above your head! The general style of attacking is also quite different for all charachters in the 3d world; the game plays much more like half life than like a diablo gone 3d. The "hack and slash" of diablo is made much more robust.

There are alot of other less notable differences so ill run through them quickly. Spell damage is based on the items you are holding; this prevents early spells from becoming useless (infact the early spells are normally the most frequently used at later levels). You can imbue items with magical properties at a cost in gold. You can "upgrade" items to enhance the base damage or defence, this eliminates the problem of finding a good magic item early in the game and having it become obsolete towards the end. Gold is actually important. There are many skills designed to heal and assist party members.

There are, of course, many similarities. The random (and unique) item system is still nearly identical to diablo. The skill tree and general skill aquisition system is nearly identical to diablo. The levels are random, though not quite as random as diablo. And what is really wonderful is that the charachter classes play like the charachter classes from diablo 2; the similarity is just incredible.

The other reviewer noted a lack of intensity. There is a certian lack of creatures to kill in comparison to diablo; you will still be killing hordes of monsters but not at the same scale as you would in a diablo game. I find this a welcome change though it was obviously implemented because of the new constraints placed on the game by its 3d world. There is also a certian sense i get that charachters move more slowly, but im not sure i can make this judgement any more precise than that. If this is what the reviewer means by a lack of intensity than i see exactly what they mean (and say its all for the good); but if something else is meant, like a lack of excitment, a lack near death experiences, or a lack of difficult fights that suck you into the game then that reviewer just didnt get enough play time from the demo.

Don't base opinion on the demo

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 18
Date: October 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The demo isn't that cool. I played beta for like 2 weeks with the Multiplayer option. The game is awesome. Graphics are intense, fights are fast paced, instant gratification with gear is there too. I have played WoW for 2 years and I'm thinking of switching to HG:L. I can't wait for release tomorrow!

Great Game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 21
Date: October 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I played beta version last week.

I don't need many words, just Great Game! Must BUY!

In-game advantages for paid subscribers

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 19
Date: October 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

They definitely neglect to mention in the Amazon description of this product the details as they are known of its multiplayer mode. They also leave off all mention of this system from their website, hiding their forums behind an account system which you have to have bought the game to access.

The game's multiplayer mode is Internet only. It offers two types of
online accounts, a free and a paid (Elite) account.

Apparently, paid accounts recieve real in-game benefits over non-paid accounts. More access to content, more character slots, different equipment, faster transportation, among other things.

At least...check out http://hellgate.wikia.com/wiki/Hellgate:_London#Pricing to determine whether this is something you would like before dropping $50 on this.

This Is One Of The Funnest Games I Have Ever Played!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 20
Date: November 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I started playing Hellgate: London and I couldn't stop. This game is very addictive. The replay value of this game is just amazing. Everytime you play the game, the game will play out differently.

The game takes place in London, England in the year 2038. Demons from Hell have taken over London and they live above ground. The last remmants of humanity live underground in subway stations. The levels you go through are always different and the monsters and creatures you fight against are always different.

Right now, I'm playing a character called Blademaster and I'm having so much fun playing that character. You can play six different characters in the game. You actually give your character a name and you make your character look the way you want it to look before you start playing the game. Blademaster is an expert using different swords and shields. You can also use one sword in each hand or a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other hand. You can also use a grappling hook to bring a demon next to you with one hand and kill the creature with a sword with the other hand. You make the choice of how to fight the demons throughout the game.

It was so cool to fight against demons called Blood Zombies and I actually used my sword to cut one Blood Zombie right in half. Well the bottom half of the Blood Zombie's body kept coming at me. It was just the hips and the legs coming after me. I couldn't believe it. Another time I chopped off the head to a Blood Zombie and the body kept coming after me with no head attached. There are these jumping demons that look like mean looking dogs and they will try to land on top of you. Well I actually use my sword to kill them while they are up in the air above me. It so cool to see them fall down dead around you.

The graphics in this game are really good. I don't why people are saying the graphics aren't very good in other reviews because I think they're great. Also the demo to the game is only 5% of the full game. The different levels and demons in the demo are nothing compared to what is in the full version game. The full version game is huge. The game reminds me a lot of Diablo and Diablo II. I loved those games and I love this game. This game is definitely a five star game. I highly recommend getting this game. Hellgate: London is so much fun to play.

Finally a good effort

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 92 / 133
Date: November 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you don't want to read this long review, let me simply say that Hellgate London is a good game, and definitely worth the money.

But if you want to know a little more...

Let me start off by just saying it... Diablo 2.
There are few games out there that are of such a high quality that they become the standard that others have to beat, that they become the thing that is used to compare. Diablo 2 is such a game. It is the game of which it is said with other games; `Diablo also had that' or `unlike Diablo.'

So, here we are, Hellgate London; the game that wants to take over from Diablo. Can it? Well, yes and no. Yes in the fact that over the years there have been many Diablo clones, and none came close to `the real stuff.' Hellgate does. Hellgate comes close and even surpasses in some areas, like graphics. But then again, what would you would expect from a new game that is trying to beat a, what, ten year old game?

Also, one very interesting this is that I wouldn't actually call Hellgate a clone of Diablo. A clone is a copy; more of the same. While Hellgate is more of the next step. Yes, it has all the things you expect and know from Diablo. Health potions have become health injections, the identification scrolls have become single use identifier units. Items are still color coded, and there are even mods and weapons that can be compared to the weapons with sockets from Diablo. But simply the fact that you are actually in a 3D world already makes you surpass the 2D world. In Diablo you could see everything in a circle around you. In Hellgate you only see what you look at. And if you want to see what happens behind, or above you, you have to actually turn around, or look up. While Hellgate is not the kind of game where someone suddenly jumps out at you (save from the few monsters that appear out of nothing, but do so with a very convenient warning sound,) you actually have to walk to a corridor and look in to see what's happening there and if there are monsters to be found.

I have only tried one class until now, but in that class (the guardian) one thing I really like is that you don't have to target every single enemy. In Diablo you had to click on one enemy at a time to attack it (save for some abilities like the strife shot for the Amazon, or the throwing starts for the assassin.) In Hellgate you can simply click (doesn't even have to be on an enemy) and hold down the mouse key and as long as the enemies are inside your range you automatically attack the next one when the first one dies. Note, the enemy has to be inside your sword range, so you won't go running across the map automatically just because you hit the attack key.

Hellgate also comes with Randomly generated maps (apart from some key locations), so it does have a high replay value and it's not that once you played the game you know every map there is in the game.

In short Hellgate is a fun game that makes you want to play just that little bit more.

Now, I did say that there was a `no' part to it being able to replace Diablo. So here come the more negative comments.

First, it is indeed a great game that you want to keep playing. But with Diablo you wanted to play for hours, and then some more. You could easily play it 8 hours straight. (At least I could.) With Hellgate you play for an hour, maybe two, and then you get bored. It is yet another zombie, yet another Imp, that you kill. While that was pretty much the same with Diablo, there still is that `something' missing that prevents you from getting bored. With Hellgate you do get bored... but then again the game is still good enough that a few hours later you find yourself restarting the game to play a little more.

Missions are boring to the extreme, and some are down to the stupid even. Mind you, there is some line in the main... eh... plot. But the secondary missions. It really is all the same. Go there and kill 5 of those. Go there and kill that monster. Go there and get me that. In Diablo most of the missions were a continuation of the main mission, and even the sub missions (the ones you could skip and still end the game) had some tie to the main story. In Hellgate the only tie is that the monsters are your enemy and you go and kills some more monsters. Boring. Basically, the secondary missions have no value other then to get you some rewards that you are (mostly) going to sell anyway, and they get you to hack and slash some more and gain more experience. On itself that extra hack and slash isn't bad, since basically that's what you are playing the game for anyway. But the fact that there is no true story behind that hack and slash does tie to what I said about getting bored with it after some time. (Until you want to hack and slash some more.)

The maps. (The kind that lets you know where you are, not the kind you play on.)
The mini map that shows what's in your direct vicinity is good enough, but I truly hate the world map. The world map is laid out like a metro/subway map. Now, there is a reason for that, since a lot of the game plays there and you get from one place to the other in subway tunnels. But still. When you bring up the world map it basically only tells you where you are at the moment, and from it you can't really see if you have to go north or south since just like in a real subway map a place that is located to the north on the map might be very well to your south depending on how you are standing (and no, there is no compass.) While that is not a bad thing in the tunnels, on a bigger area that is larger than what you see on your mini map you can actually get lost because the world map only shows that you are in `that' location. Thanks, I know that I'm at Piccadilly Circus, now please tell me if I'm on the north or south side of it, and just where the exit I came from is again. No, I much rather have the map you had in Diablo, the one that you could have on constant as a semi-transparent overlay. But even that you can't do with the world map. Well, you can leave the world map on while you play, or you can put the mini-map as an overlay, but both are not really transparent, and it still is only a subway style map or limited range. Either way, overlay is not doable really because it obstructs your view.

Another thing, and eventually this too ties into the boring aspect, is that there is too much gray. Now, I know that you are running around in a destroyed city and cities tend to be gray. But still, I little more color would have been nice. Every street looks the game because wherever you look you see gray buildings and more gray buildings. It takes away variety and quickly turns the areas that aren't subway tunnels into a repetitive combination of gray buildings and boring monsters to kill.

And lastly, two things that I'm neutral about at the moment of me writing this.

First, the skills are set up very differently from Diablo. With Diablo you basically had to pick a few skills and stick to it; train them as high as possible. Otherwise you would end up being a weak mediocre jack of all trades that would get killed time and again. In Hellgate they turned that around 180 degrees. Here they actually want you to spread your skill points over many skills. And to make you do so you get a huge increase with the first skill point, but less with next skills points. For instance. With the defender there is a skill that you can use that makes you hit an enemy with 100% more damage (great against tough monsters only since reuse is time delayed and you can't use it al the time) The thing is, the first skill point gets you that 100% increase. But when you add a second skill point it only adds another 10%, making it a total of 110% extra damage.

While I do like this approach in general because it does allow you to use more skills, I have now (level 11 player at the moment of this writing btw) reached a point where I have noticed that in actual play I don't use several skills. Now it would be nice if I could use my skill points in the skills I do use and actually get a nice increase with it. Yet on the other side, as I said, I'm not `that' far into the game and I don't know yet what the increases will be. Maybe there are 20 levels, just like Diablo, and then 10% increases would still eventually turn out to be a massive 300% extra damage, if it keeps increasing in increments of 10%. Time will tell.

And lastly, a thing that I like and don't like at the same time. The monsters in the game don't level up with you. Monsters have been set to have a certain level in this or that part of the game. In playing that turns out to be still around a realistic level where monsters that are a little tougher do need a few more hits with the sword, while the base level zombies are by now little more than a nuisance and are cut down with the first sword swing. In a way I like that because it makes you truly feel that you are getting better. In the game Oblivion monsters do level up with you and at a point it just makes the game unbelievable. Here you are someone that has trained to be a master with the sword, cannot train any higher, yet still every robber you come across is just as skilled as you. Come on. With Hellgate that won't happen. Zombies that once needed 3 sword hits to be killed are now mowed down with a sweep of the sword while I don't even really slow down. Basically is shows me that I'm getting better, while at the same time there are slowly but surely popping up other, tougher, monsters that do keep me on my toes.

As I said, in general I like that. But I just wish that they would do something about those low level monsters. Streets are still filled with zombies, and now that I can kill them in one blow they are really nothing more than nuisances that distract me, at most. It would have been nice is they were replaced by different monsters that are a little higher up. Not enough that every monster is a master challenge, but enough to make you want to look out and not let them come too close.

So, where does that leave us?
Do I recommend to buy it? Yes. It IS a great game, and it by far surpasses any Diablo clone created to date. But at the same time it didn't succeed in replacing Diablo as `the game to beat.' It's not Diablo, but it is definitely the best attempt by far. I would give it a very close second place. And if you don't compare it to Diablo, and simply want to know if it's a good game, then I would even call Hellgate a great game.

H.W.

Full of bugs. Huge disappointment.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 22
Date: November 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is the buggiest piece of software I've ever dealt with. When it runs, the game is some fun, and the graphics are OK--not bad, but certainly nothing special, even with DX10 and all graphics options maxed. In terms of concept and gameplay, it is precisely Diablo 3. But it is virtually unplayable due to all the bugs. It crashes to desktop, randomly locks up, and many quests are bugged, making them impossible to complete. Before buying this, have a look at the official game support forums for an idea of the problems people are having.

Hellgate: London - Unfinished and Uninspired

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 17
Date: November 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I would STRONGLY recommend that anyone considering purchasing Hellgate first play the demo version. Unfortunately, I didn't and I was so incredibly disappointed by the actual game. Flagship Studios should be freaking embarrassed for trying to pass off this tripe as a complete game.

I don't even want to waste time going over all of its inadequacies (of which someone could probably write a book). But the whole game just feels so unfinished. The environments and characters all look flat and uninspired. The textures look like something out of Quake I. What an awesome game this COULD have been.

Try the Demo first

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 17
Date: November 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you want a lot of headaches then buy this game outright. If you want to be smart about it download and try the demo first. Different people like different things, so you may love this game or hate it, gameplay-wise. What is not in dispute though is that the game is definitely buggy. That point has come through in review after review, so do you're self a favor and install and play the demo first. I expect we'll see a patch and a re-release of the demo in the near future, due to these issues. But testing your system out with the free demo will give you the "heads-up" as to whether or not the game will be stable enough with your drivers/system specifications.

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