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DIABLO - THE AWAKENING

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 33 / 39
Date: November 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

UNREAL was one of these games that mark an era. Huge, gorgeous scenery, atmospheric and fast - there was nothing like it for many years. When UNREAL II: THE AWAKENING came out I could not wait to get my hands on it - only to be hugely disappointed. The new game had been graphically improved yet the UNREAL character was replaced by a bland and generic FPS feeling.

The DIABLO series enjoyed a similar, well deserved, success. HELLGATE: LONDON was released by the creators of DIABLO - leaving a similar unsatisfied aftertaste I am afraid.

Don't get me wrong, this is a good game. However, a slight disappointment is inevitable for a game that tries to do everything: provide a 40-hour single-player FPS; double as an action-cRPG; and serve as a subscription-MMORPG (with at least two pay-grade classes: First & Standard) at the same time. Trying to please everybody, well, ends up falling short. They did put in a solid effort; however, in the end, both FPS and action-RPG fans will find the game lacking.

FPS-wise HELLGATE:LONDON is slow (by the way, the perspective is adjustable from FP to TP and back) and the character movement feels forced. The weapons are inventive and impressive. Monsters and demons appear all over (popping from places that surprise you) and are dynamically-generated - as are the maps, every time a new game is started (adding to the game's replayability). Yet the rhythms are nowhere near those of a true FPS. There are tight moments but no high-speed tension.
I guess that is the price of creating a single player game and aiming at the MMORPG market at the same time (trying to avoid lag-time).

As a cRPG, HELLGATE: LONDON fares somewhat better. It is not the first time, of course, to come upon a First Person cRPG (the classic ULTIMA series introduced this). Nevertheless, HELLGATE: LONDON manages to convey the DIABLO feeling from the FP perspective beautifully! The multitude of sold or looted items alone is staggering! Everything seems to be customizable and appears on the character. A nice touch is that unwanted items can be broken down to their raw materials - which can then be used in either crafting new items or enhancing existing items at a vendor. Thus, an item well beyond the one you are currently using can yield material capable of enhancing it. Similar to TITAN QUEST, creating unique items using a mold is also possible.
There are three factions: Templars (aka: Knights), Cabalists (aka: Mages) & Hunters (aka: Rogues), with numerous subclasses, all capped at level 50.

Graphically the game is crisp and clear but not cutting edge. The graphics are comparable to HL2 and QUAKE4 (3 year old games). The surfaces, the textures, the reflections and the weather effects are beautiful, and they are designed for BOTH DX9 and DX10! I cannot comment on DX10 (as I am running WinXP) however, for DX9 I have no complains - I encountered only some stuttering and the system demands are reasonable.

What is concerning is EA/FLAGSHIP's emerging intentions to charge for this game piece-meal. Since this is a heavily OnLine-oriented game, having the latest "installment" will be a necessity in order to survive and compete effectively.
The multiplayer offers a number of choices: free (with limited gameplay capabilities, such as leading a guild), Standard monthly fee (for additional content such as new areas, more classes, weapons,quests, and game modes) and First Class monthly fee (premium content). It may seem a good decision on boardroom papers, however, I doubt that this...cast system will sit good with the MMORPG crowd. Imagine building a character exactly as you want him for, say, six months, only to have him wiped by a rich n00by with premium weapons...Yeah, that will work miracles in building your fan-base...
So, for someone buying the game mostly for its multiplayer, be warned: $50 is NOT all you will have to pay (yes, even if you opt not to subscribe for the unrestricted gameplay).

All in all, A GOOD GAME, a solid effort to mix-and-match different genre that falls just short of its raised expectations.

PS:
There is a major storyline objection: presenting Templar Knights and Freemasons as the saviors of humanity is as absurd as describing Nazis as "cosmetic products manufacturers". Some things cannot be spinned I am afraid. Now, I did not take this into account in rating this game since no one is taught history by video games...is he?

Amazing Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 27
Date: October 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have to say this is one of the best games I have played in quite awhile and has some very addictive gameplay. I played the beta version for four weeks getting up to lvl 20+ multiple times with different classes and then hopped on last night once the servers came up and it is still the same great game I played before. Patch 0 looks like it is working fairly well although I did crash once for an unknown reason. The graphics are excellent albeit a little dull as you go through tunnel after tunnel (the game mainly takes place in sewer systems and subway tunnels from what I have seen so far although there are city/park areas as well as a museum) but the controls and response is very good. You can play in FPS mode or the more traditional RPG/MMO third person mode depending on which class you choose. Some classes do both views, some only do third person. Both views work well although I tend to use third person because I can see what is going on around me more and I hate it when demons sneak up on me. There are three game play options, offline, free online and then the subscription online. I feel the subscription will be worth it since I am not playing any other MMOs currently. There are some added benefits you get with the monthly fee: content updates, more character slots, bigger inventory, access to elite items, new missions and quests, holiday events...and more. However, it is not critical to pay right now for the monthly access, I believe. You still get to play with those that do pay so you all get to experience the current game content together but when the content updates start to come other players that pay will get to go to those and you will not.

Excellant Potential

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: October 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is a lot of fun right away. You pick your class, and you start casting fireballs or shooting zombies in first person with aiming, just like Oblivion! Or, if you pick melee, you run around and slash the zombies, performing special moves. The game is made by the Lead Designer of Diablo I & II, and a lot of that excitement transfers over into Hellgate.

Also, the game is free to play *but* you can subscribe to get special benefits, too. The subscription is like a beautiful mix of WoW and Guildwars.

I was only in the beta for a week, and only got to level 20, but I'm hooked. If you think you like the "Cthulu" environment, enjoy RPGS, FPS, Action Games or MMOs, you should definately try out the demo and/or buy the game!

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

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 13
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.

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.

A bit, well, "meh"

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Hellgate: London was one of the most highly-anticipated games of 2007. Developed by the same people responsible for Diablo and Diablo II, it promised something that games in the similar genre could not: randomized levels in an online environment and instanced play where players could bring in a teammate after the group had already entered the instance. At the same time, the game's business model was never clearly defined. Always billed as "free," about a year ago, the developers mentioned that the high quality of service they would provide was normally associated with some sort of monthly fee. When pressed on the issue, the developers reiterated the game would be free for online play. The same kind of murky cloud surrounded key issues like guild support and the multiplayer experience.

Fast forward to release. Hellgate: London is a fine single-player game. The storyline is fairly basic and in fact is also predictable. This isn't a detraction, though, as the Diablo series also offered a very basic story that served as a framework for the real fun of killing things and gaining loot. In HGL, the London Underground serves as an extended dungeon crawl. The visceral experience of the fps is not to be underestimated. It's fun to shoot stuff. It's fun to blow up barrels. The game is filled with a lot of quests, and items are plentiful and interesting. In particular, the ability to salvage components useful for upgrading and crafting better weapons will appeal to people who want to make bigger and better guns.

The multiplayer aspect is problematic. The free version of the multiplayer game is very much like D2 in that it is merely a multiplayer version of the single player game. The subscription version does offer additional features, more quests, and the ability to create guilds (non-subscribers can join guilds). However, the multiplayer version is still buggy, even though nearly 3 months have passed since release. A broken chat system (since improved), poor guild support, a memory leak that produces game crashes, and significant lag in crowded outposts--all combine to undermine the social experiences that are the backbone of online gameplay.

Gameplay is often compared to that of Diablo II. This is both the strength and weakness of HGL. D2 fans will be familiar with the look of the interface and the inventory management. Health injectors are the HGL techie version of health potions. Components are the new rune words. Fighting monsters is little more complicated than a click-fest, though HGL monster AI is a bit smarter than that of D2's. For players who really love D2, still play it, and yearn for something like D2, this is a great game.

However, for those who remember D2 fondly but have moved to games like World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, EVE, RF Online, or are looking forward to Warhammer Online, Hellgate will seem, well, dated. The random level generation, which sounds so cool on paper, ends up disappointing. Yes, the levels are randomly generated, but they still look the same. Items are fun, but the inventory management shows none of the improvements in design made over the past 10 years. The game lacks the innovation, the fresh spin on the genre that the Diablo series achieved.

Overall, if you like and play Diablo II, you'll very much enjoy Hellgate: London. If you once had a D2 addiction, but moved on to play other games, you'll probably get the sense that you've been there, done that, and you expect more.

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_.

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.

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.

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