This is my first and possibly last review, I don't profess to be a good reviewer or particularly great with grammar, but I do try very hard not to bring personal bias or pre-conceptions into it. So here goes.
Hellgate:London (HG:L) launched on October 30th with a virtual sea of problems. Not little problems either - huge glaring ones like client-side memory leaks, server disconnections, random client crashes, terrible DX10 performance, and a chat system that just didn't work at all. Sounds like fun huh?
Luckily (for Flagship Studios, the developers) the core hack&slash gameplay was solid enough to keep enthusiasts playing until slowly but surely over the past 3 months, most of the major launch glitches were resolved. Except DX10 performance but I daresay that's not Flagship Studios entire fault, we could point fingers in many directions for that one really. Suffice to say just play with the DX9 engine even if you use Vista, your frames will be +100%.
So, reading many reviews of HG:L published in November you would probably see an average rating of 7.0 or so due heavily to many of these glitches. And possibly many people didn't buy it due to this. However, now that most bugs are resolved, we best ignore them and focus on a review of the game for what it is.
HG:L is at it's core a hack&slash dungeon crawler with light RPG elements. By light I mean you level your character up and can assign points to improve existing abilities or gain new ones, and also assign points to core attributes such as Stamina or Willpower. That's about it for roleplaying though - it's simple but effective and does give you a reason to get moderately excited when you 'level up'.
HG:L offers 3 main characters classes - the Templars, the Cabalists, and the Marksman. In short Templars melee, Cabalists weave magic, and a Marksman surprisingly....shoots.... There's enough variety in the classes to warrant repeated play-throughs on ALTS, it is rather fun to do so.
So what about HG:L's level design? That much-touted random-level-engine we all heard so much about in the pre-release overhype? In short, it sucks. It really sucks. Maybe it saved the Flagship studio some dollars in requiring less artists, but it really drags the game down. Most levels have a similar look&feel to them, with very little variety. You are either in an underground tunnel or train structure, or above ground in a messy street area, or above ground in a dilapilated park. In rare moments you will get to enter Techbot's Brain or a Museum. The slight variety of this gives you a momentary boost similar to taking a Berocca after a hang-over, but it's very short lived as you soon find yourself entering the same looking environment at level 30 that you did at level 5.
If you genuinely enjoy the core gameplay you may forgive such monotonous level design, but if, like me, you enjoy the journey in these sorts of games, and enjoy exploration to even a mild degree, you'll probably fall asleep at your keyboard by about level 20. The same goes for monsters now that I think of it. The monsters all tend to look similar, even the bosses aren't that unique. There are just basic variations like size and color to mix it up, which makes the player feel a bit cheated really.
Oh by the way, HG:L tries to insert a plot too. By insert, I mean insert as in giving an Enema to a person who really hates their butt being touched. It's uncomfortable from start to finish. As I said prior about level design, if you play HG:L for the core hack/slash and nothing more, this won't matter much. But if, like me, you enjoy some form of story, you'll probably end up preferring to go to your local GP for a real Enema instead of playing.
The big strength of HG:L is prolific LOOT. It virtually rains down on you from the moment you start. You'll be unlucky to have a play session where you don't have several MAJOR upgrades - they come thick and fast, and yes it feels addictive to constantly be putting new shinies on your character. This is where the similarity to Diablo gives those who enjoy that style of game a big reason to play the game. Having played WoW regularly over the years, I actually laughed out loud when a LEGENDARY item dropped from a level 5 boss. I thought 'how lucky am I', before I realised by level 10 as I strutted proudly around a station decked out in 5 Legendary items that the rate of 'rare' drops in HG:L is anything but rare.
A big question mark over HG:L is - is it an MMO? Well if you ask me, no. You can group with friends, but in a similar way to a LAN-Party. There is little to no interaction with the online community at large, and a big factor in this is probably that most of the content is fully soloable. You don't need to group, so if you don't have any friends online why punish yourself by pugging with some unknown pimply teenager from the Ukraine?
Graphically, ignoring the level design issue, the environment is rendered nicely with decent fire effects and above-average spell/ability effects. The character animations are a bit clunky, but the combat ones are fairly solid. Character models look highly detailed, with particularly good attention to detail paid to weapons and armor - which after all is the sole reason you would play this game - to constantly upgrade them.
So, in the end, swiping all the technical issues aside, there are still many negatives in this game that made me stop playing cold recently. In fact, I stopped playing to play Resident Evil 4 AGAIN on my Wii. That's pretty sad when I think about it. I figured 3 months was long enough to give it to improve, but aside from technical fixes, the negatives of the core game that I've elaborated on here just sucked the fun out of it.
In conclusion, I will recommend as follows:
GET IT IF:
* You don't care about level design
* You don't care about story
* You like killing the same things over and over and over again
* You enjoy playing with friends
* You enjoy soloing
* You don't like to think much about what you're doing
DON'T GET IT IF:
* You like a game with environmental variety
* You like a good story
* You expect an MMO experience with branching social networks
* You want to use your brain
* You don't like killing the same things over and over and over again
* You intend to play in DX10 mode
* You want to Raid
My personal rating: 6.5 / 10
Hellgate:London (HG:L) launched on October 30th with a virtual sea of problems. Not little problems either - huge glaring ones like client-side memory leaks, server disconnections, random client crashes, terrible DX10 performance, and a chat system that just didn't work at all. Sounds like fun huh?
Luckily (for Flagship Studios, the developers) the core hack&slash gameplay was solid enough to keep enthusiasts playing until slowly but surely over the past 3 months, most of the major launch glitches were resolved. Except DX10 performance but I daresay that's not Flagship Studios entire fault, we could point fingers in many directions for that one really. Suffice to say just play with the DX9 engine even if you use Vista, your frames will be +100%.
So, reading many reviews of HG:L published in November you would probably see an average rating of 7.0 or so due heavily to many of these glitches. And possibly many people didn't buy it due to this. However, now that most bugs are resolved, we best ignore them and focus on a review of the game for what it is.
HG:L is at it's core a hack&slash dungeon crawler with light RPG elements. By light I mean you level your character up and can assign points to improve existing abilities or gain new ones, and also assign points to core attributes such as Stamina or Willpower. That's about it for roleplaying though - it's simple but effective and does give you a reason to get moderately excited when you 'level up'.
HG:L offers 3 main characters classes - the Templars, the Cabalists, and the Marksman. In short Templars melee, Cabalists weave magic, and a Marksman surprisingly....shoots.... There's enough variety in the classes to warrant repeated play-throughs on ALTS, it is rather fun to do so.
So what about HG:L's level design? That much-touted random-level-engine we all heard so much about in the pre-release overhype? In short, it sucks. It really sucks. Maybe it saved the Flagship studio some dollars in requiring less artists, but it really drags the game down. Most levels have a similar look&feel to them, with very little variety. You are either in an underground tunnel or train structure, or above ground in a messy street area, or above ground in a dilapilated park. In rare moments you will get to enter Techbot's Brain or a Museum. The slight variety of this gives you a momentary boost similar to taking a Berocca after a hang-over, but it's very short lived as you soon find yourself entering the same looking environment at level 30 that you did at level 5.
If you genuinely enjoy the core gameplay you may forgive such monotonous level design, but if, like me, you enjoy the journey in these sorts of games, and enjoy exploration to even a mild degree, you'll probably fall asleep at your keyboard by about level 20. The same goes for monsters now that I think of it. The monsters all tend to look similar, even the bosses aren't that unique. There are just basic variations like size and color to mix it up, which makes the player feel a bit cheated really.
Oh by the way, HG:L tries to insert a plot too. By insert, I mean insert as in giving an Enema to a person who really hates their butt being touched. It's uncomfortable from start to finish. As I said prior about level design, if you play HG:L for the core hack/slash and nothing more, this won't matter much. But if, like me, you enjoy some form of story, you'll probably end up preferring to go to your local GP for a real Enema instead of playing.
The big strength of HG:L is prolific LOOT. It virtually rains down on you from the moment you start. You'll be unlucky to have a play session where you don't have several MAJOR upgrades - they come thick and fast, and yes it feels addictive to constantly be putting new shinies on your character. This is where the similarity to Diablo gives those who enjoy that style of game a big reason to play the game. Having played WoW regularly over the years, I actually laughed out loud when a LEGENDARY item dropped from a level 5 boss. I thought 'how lucky am I', before I realised by level 10 as I strutted proudly around a station decked out in 5 Legendary items that the rate of 'rare' drops in HG:L is anything but rare.
A big question mark over HG:L is - is it an MMO? Well if you ask me, no. You can group with friends, but in a similar way to a LAN-Party. There is little to no interaction with the online community at large, and a big factor in this is probably that most of the content is fully soloable. You don't need to group, so if you don't have any friends online why punish yourself by pugging with some unknown pimply teenager from the Ukraine?
Graphically, ignoring the level design issue, the environment is rendered nicely with decent fire effects and above-average spell/ability effects. The character animations are a bit clunky, but the combat ones are fairly solid. Character models look highly detailed, with particularly good attention to detail paid to weapons and armor - which after all is the sole reason you would play this game - to constantly upgrade them.
So, in the end, swiping all the technical issues aside, there are still many negatives in this game that made me stop playing cold recently. In fact, I stopped playing to play Resident Evil 4 AGAIN on my Wii. That's pretty sad when I think about it. I figured 3 months was long enough to give it to improve, but aside from technical fixes, the negatives of the core game that I've elaborated on here just sucked the fun out of it.
In conclusion, I will recommend as follows:
GET IT IF:
* You don't care about level design
* You don't care about story
* You like killing the same things over and over and over again
* You enjoy playing with friends
* You enjoy soloing
* You don't like to think much about what you're doing
DON'T GET IT IF:
* You like a game with environmental variety
* You like a good story
* You expect an MMO experience with branching social networks
* You want to use your brain
* You don't like killing the same things over and over and over again
* You intend to play in DX10 mode
* You want to Raid
My personal rating: 6.5 / 10
