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The Working Man's MMORPG

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 12, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Every RPG fan remembers Diablo and D2 with great fondness. It had a very fresh feel and addictive gameplay, coupled with crazy loot, to make a very good RPG. That was 12 years ago, now in 2008 we are presented with the rebirth of the Diablo era. However this is no Diablo. That being said it is a working man's game. A game you don't have to spend countless hours to try and get where everyone else is. It's a game for people who have to get up early in the morning, ad don't wan to explain to their boss that they stayed up all night trying to finish all the quests in Stranglethorn Vale. It's a game that almost has a take me or leave me feel. It won't grab you with its enormity like WoW does, but it does keep
that loot fiend inside of you happy. Nothing is cooler than killing a Legendary Goblin and watching it drop lots of loot.

The gameplay and overall feel of the game is very similar to that of its grandfather game. The skill tree is new along with character classes, but for the most part Diablo fans will feel right at home. Now when talking about the gameplay let me say first and foremost, singleplayer is a waste of time. There is no point and no reason to play on singleplayer, it doesn't give you any advantage or change of pace different then that of the mutiplayer. The only thing you will feel like is completely alone almost like a private server feels on games like WoW. This will in fact take away from the positives of the game. That being said multiplayer is as good as any others. Thats right I said it, it is just as good as WoW, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Everquest, or EVE to name a few. This game does what it set out to do and it does it well. Because what Hellgate offers is unlike anything it's competetors can offer, fast and furious questing with great party features. I have leveled faster on Hellgate than any other game. Another aspect that I really like is the great party functionality. With great features such as Party Portal, you can teleport to any member of your party at anytime, even to places that are too high for your character. You also have online features that are standard in MMO's like PvP, Trading, Selling, Guilds, and parties.

I wont talk about actual gameplay much because others have posted in depth reviews of that. But what I will say again that one of it's strongest points is that you won't waste time getting from point A-B. That to me was one of the most frustrating aspects of WoW. It makes you waste time on things unrelated to character developement. Hellgate is exactly 180 of WoW's speed. From the start to finish you will always be doing something.

Now to the negatives, and there are like any game negatives. First and foremost it is not a game, unless you are determined to meet an objective, that you can play for long periods of time. For someone like myself with a family and a demanding job this is actually a plus. In WoW I found myself over-extending myself. But for hardcore fans it will get old after an extended period of time. So you will want to put it down, but it will always call you back. Another minus is the setting in which Hellgate is located. In today's MMO's you can see some amazing settings, however Hellgate (as of now) has no truly amazing settings. A lot of your time is spent traveling through recycled level layouts and destroyed gloomy environments. This adds to the weariness of playing it for extended amounts of time. Also the NPC's in the game are generally bland and unengaging, butt there are some that will make you chuckle. And the last thing I should note is the abundance of loot. This is the staple of the game but I can't tell if it's good or bad. Sure everyone loves getting stuff all the time, but after awhile it seems almost excessive.

All in all Hellgate is truly one of the best MMO's I have played. It may never be as strong as WoW ( who can?) but it should hold its own ground. As new content has been released and new environments (Stonehenge) prove to make it more diverse, this game should be around for a long long time.

Interesting Game: A little buggy and repetitive

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

As mentioned in my title the game can get repetitive. The game also lacks common features many games of this type have. The subscription model is ill conceived imo.

What a waste...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 01, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Avoid it as if it were the Plague. IMHO, it was a bad and rushed release, that had bad support. Such wasted potential for what could've been a great game...sad, really.
I was actually excited for this game, as the beta seemed ok, but that bubble burst when I got the final product in my hands. So-so packaging for a collector's ed. box, so-so extras. That's ok, I think.
Then I get to the game: some games stay on my hard drive for over a year (Dawn of War, Company of Heroes and Hearts of Iron 2. Call of Duty 4 will probably stay for a while. The Witcher is still on my drive after being finished once...), this one didn't even last a week.
So I set it aside, thinking that I'll give it a few months. I mean, Neverwinter Nights got better after several months. Not Hellgate: London, IMHO. After getting the latest patches, and struggling with the horrible auto-updater, I gave up. Maybe I'll give it another go in a year's time or so, as I'm sure I'll get really bored again.
Also, when the beta seemed (and probably, was) more stable than the actual, released, game, that should say something, too.
Ultimately, it was, IMHO, a waste of my money and time.
So don't buy it, please, lest you know what it means to be 'flagshipped'.
There are better CRPGs out there. Get The Witcher, or NWN2 and it's expansion, or play Baldur's Gate again...just not this one.

Great fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: January 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game requires two-three patches/downloads to work on Vista...younger gamers might need a helping hand: You will likely need to download a Vista patch or two from Microsoft as well as a single-player update from the game company itself. It's all pretty straightforward for an adult. The game itself seems to have plenty of quests and cartoony violence.

What more could you want?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

For some reason, a lot of gamers want each and every game to take huge steps foward,to inovate the way we play and percieve games. Of course that is impossible,but Hellgate london does manages to bring in some new and interseting ideas although there not gigantic steps foward that many gamers expected from the game.Hell-gate, combines the customization and skill sets of MMO's with the exictment and fast paced action of first person shooters.This is the game's strongest feature, because the two types of gameplay combined are extremly fun. On the MMO section,the custimazation of your weapons and armor is incredible, you can add attachments to your gun such as:Sniper scopes,larger magazines,additional barrels,etc and implement your armor with special items to improve your defense.The skill sets use a special feature were you have a base skill set of about ten spells and all of the other spells add and improve them,while adding a twist for example: if one of your abilities was a sniper mode the following skill would be add a shield that covered you while you were in the sniper mode.This way skills never become obsolete.On the fps section, the game requires fairly quick reflexces and aim so it dosen't all depend on your stats which is nice.Each enemie you face has certain weaknesses and ablities so there is a bit of strategy but if your a run and gun player you will still be able to get through the game.All in all, Hellgate London isn't extremly innovative but it has good gameplay(which is even better online),a variety of enemies(with some epic boss battles),and a wealth of custimazation.So what more could you want?

I want a refund.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I wish I could tell you just how much I loved playing Diablo. The gameplay was fresh, addictive and entertaining, while the setting was made even more enthralling by the graphics which were, at the time, gorgeous. It was simple, it was easy and it was very accessible. I wasn't as much of a fan of Diablo II, but at least that was fun to play at LAN parties.

Hellgate: London is the worst of the series without the best. The click happy gameplay hasn't much changed, but the setting is not nearly as interesting and the graphics are INCREDIBLY dull. Now, dull graphics would be ok, except there are times when it still reduces my system to a drooling moron at parts. The dialog is fairly well written, but it's lacking the sort of voice acting that made the lore and story of Diablo so interesting to learn about. At the very least, they could have recorded dialog for the main characters, but instead all they have are NPC greetings which, after hearing for the 20th time in one night, you'll wish had not been included in the game.

All of this would be acceptable were it not for the lame skill trees, random level generator that seems anything but, weak story and nothing but recycled quest goals. On top of that, they no longer allow LAN only multiplay. If you love playing slot machines, get this game. Otherwise, save yourself the RSI and get a game that'll be addictive AND fun.

Great Game. No future-history lesson.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 10, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is a great all-around game that aims to please as many people as possible without sacrificing all the aspects of playability to the "game critic" gods like some of these reviews. At least with this game, I could imagine a sibling or other family member coming up to tell me about how they enjoyed it, rather than telling me how esoteric and therefore uninteresting it is.
I would have enjoyed a bit more complexity, but as the first version of what is sure to be an expanded game, this does well enough with simple, enjoyable quests. I did not buy this game for riddles from the Sphinx, or the Oracle at Delphi. That is what "Myst" is for.....

I recommend this game for most people. If you have better than average hardware, and some free time you want to enjoy with a game, get it. If you are a "video game snob" running out of sight hardware and no sense of reality, don't buy it. You would be much happier with Crysis. There are some glitches, like enemies traipsing through walls and such, and fighting dumb, but over all, nothing unfamiliar. Some of the enemies use tactics, albeit shallow, that provide a better challenge, and the higher I go, the harder they have fought.

BTW, I am running the game on a laptop, 1900x1440, 2.4 Ghz Core 2, nVidia 8700 GT with 4GB RAM with Vista Ultimate(64 bit). While I have to run it at DirectX 9 (due solely to the need, it seems, for more GPU memory even though I have 512mb), I set the parameters high, and it runs nearly flawless.

Not quite what I expected

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I bought this with rather high hopes, having known about the game for a long time. But it didn't live up to my expectations.
It was made by the same people who made Diablo 2, so you would think it would have the same feel. Unfortunately not. It feels more tedious than D2, with so many NPCs giving a "joke" greeting when you start up a conversation, it kills the immersion. The gameplay is repetitive, and it doesn't feel like it goes anywhere.
As far as the collector's edition goes, same story different chapter. The game aside, in the collector's edition(Which I bought) it says it includes the soundtrack, making of, etc. Well the soundtrack is on a DVD, so I can't even listen to it in my stereo, which is what I wanted to do. I can't seem to take the music off with my software either. So I have to run the DVD in order to listen to music. Just doesn't fly for me.
The graphics are next gen as they say, but at times it seems to demand a little bit more than most. Crashes aside, my computer could run Bioshock decently with pretty high settings. Hellgate won't let me put the shaders on high without tacking on four minutes to each loading screen. (Not sure why this is)
Multiplayer(Which is the real reason I fallowed this game) isn't as I thought either. In D2, on B.net, you could start up a room, and up to 7 other people could join. It felt personal, and more user friendly to me. In Hellgate, you join one of two servers, and then just get tossed into one of many random instances. It feels more like an MMO, which I hate quite frankly.
It had great potential. But I'm not even playing it anymore.
I'll say it could be fun for some people. But it lost my interest pretty quick.

Did I miss something?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 40
Date: November 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I don't usually play demos, which is where I went wrong here. That's my own fault, and with that in mind, I strongly suggest that anyone curious about this game do so.

I do, however, read reviews and I tend to watch game play trailers and the like, so I do research my purchases. I also think I am fairly easy to please. That said, its been a long time since I have disliked something this much, and so quickly.

The graphics are some of the worst I have ever seen, and I have everything cranked all the way up. Return to Castle Wolfenstien looked better than this.... years ago. Not only are the environments utterly boring, but they are rendered at a quality that is easily being surpassed by even the least graphic-intensive games of the last two or three years.

Graphics are not everything though, and were that my sole complaint, I'd not bother with a review.

There is apparently no such thing as enemy AI. Get in front of the completely random assortment of "demons," most of which look like rubber toys with teeth, and _sometimes_, if they aren't too buy roaming aimlessly back and forth, they might attack. They can also apparently walk through any obstacle in their path should they choose to engage you, including buildings- and by walk through them, I mean "as if they are not there". Not that it matters. I played for a couple of hours and fought dozens and dozens of utterly random monsters and never came anywhere near getting killed.

The dialog is unbelievably juvenile and utterly silly, and the character animations during said dialog are about 2 seconds long, endlessly repetitious, and look like they were choreographed by a two year old. If there is a "story" to this game, I have yet to figure out what it is.

The quests, so far, are also ridiculous, extremely simple, and highly unimaginative. I have heard people complain about the "fetch this, get that" quests in other RPG style games like Oblivion, but this game is nowhere near the quality of Oblivion in any way whatsoever.

Seriously, I almost never post negative reviews, but this is ridiculous. Maybe I am missing something... perhaps if I was nostalgiac for Diablo I would get the joke, but as it stands, as a game on any level, I cannot find a single good thing to say about this title.

Definitely play the demo first. If it turns out to be your kind of thing, that's great. I just don't get it _at all_.

Hellgate London: A Review

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Pros: Hellgate nails what was so fun about Diablo and Diablo II, including one of the reasons that they are still played to this day. There is a feeling of almost infinite combinations and and how do I level this character. There is always the chance to find that next piece of assume loot just waiting on the next monster. It is the addictive nature of the collector in me that keeps me playing...

The other great thing about this game is that my wife and I can play for about 30 minutes, complete the quest and walk away from the online play or we can play after the kids go to bed until they get up the next morning (oops!). As older gameres w/ a family, we really appreciate the ability to be able to just stop after a short point of play.

Cons: A few missions leave the level building and put you into a couple of different type of games. While interesting in there own right (I did not mind them), they can be a WTF moment (my wife hates them). Among the ones we encountered was a Turret defense game and tactical squad based scenario.

Even at patch level .06 there are still some CTD (Crash To Desktop) issues that need be looked into, although the .06 patch has greatly improve the stability of the game. I understand that deadlines need to be met, but stability needs to be a priority especially when you have price model for premium content. This is my reason for a 4/5 rating.

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