Flagship Studios — which was responsible for Diablo 2— has brought us a futuristic role-playing game set in London. This game feels a bit like Diablo 2 and Guild Wars with its online component, but we'll get a little more in-depth with that in a bit. The setting is London, circa 2038, when the world is a vastly different place than we know today. Rifts from Hell have opened, and demons have invaded Earth with the intent of wiping mankind from the face of the planet. Humans don't have a place of safety but, rather, occupy former subway and train stations and hold them as positions of safety.
The game can play out like a standard RPG in which you feel that a die roll controls your actions, and this is especially apparent when playing a melee-style class. However, ranged combat classes exist, and they play much like a first-person shooter, which is an extremely ambitious goal for the Flagship folks, and it works pretty well.
At this time, it's difficult to do a review of Hellgate: London simply because one half of the game — the online half — is still ridden with bugs. This isn't anything new for an MMO-style game, and the bugs seem readily fixable. It's things like warping back to the starting point of an area or not being able to see a group member when in an instance that are noticeable. These things do detract from the overall enjoyment of the game, and I have yet to see tremendous improvement from late beta up to the time of this writing with the issues.
In fact, I've actually seen the bugs more often; although, I suspect that is because now I'm playing with three others on a regular basis, and during beta, I was primarily playing with only one friend. I think any review should be followed up on in a few months — as the Flagship team will undoubtedly have the time to make changes — so don't let what I've told you dissuade you from playing the game ever. Beneath these somewhat annoying bugs (and they are only annoying, not game-breaking), there really is an enjoyable game to be played.
There are three main archetypes to choose from: the melee fighter, the ranged combatant and the magic user. All three provide different experiences. The melee fighter is either the Guardian or the Blademaster. The former's skills make him feel like a tank-type class. He is adept at using a shield and has defensive-minded skills. The Blademaster is a two-handed weapon-wielding, dervish of DPS. Both of these classes are derived from the Knights Templar of legend and myth, combined with some futuristic gear.
The ranged classes are the Marksman and the Engineer. The Marksman — of which I'm most familiar because this is the class I enjoy playing most — has an endless choice weapons and weapon combinations at his disposal. As you'd expect, he does the most damage at range, but the variety of ways he can do said damage is fairly impressive. Though the Engineer possesses the same abilities he does less damage than a Marksman; however, he can call robots to his aid. These drones take on the roles of tanks, added DPS, or act as leashes and slow down monsters.
The final group members, the casters, enjoy an array of weapons, but both the Summoner and the Evoker use magic as the heart of their attacks. There is enough variety of the archetypes to give the player a feeling of choice when picking a class and playing it, and rarely does it seem when multiple archetypes have the same utilities — although I think that the Summoner and the Engineer are very similar; what one does with robots, the other can do with summoned pets.
Players begin in London, and by using the subway system, they gradually unlock new areas within which to adventure. Both the single-player game and the online game use cutscenes to advance the story. You'll travel on solid ground and beneath it for the entirety of the game. When playing online, the stations are common areas where you can meet other players. However, the mission areas are instanced, so you'll only be able to see and play with members of your own party. This is less immersive than a traditional MMO, but it does allow each instance to be tailored to the difficulty level of your party and for you to not worry about someone else "kill-stealing" your mobs.
One of the truly cool things about Hellgate: London is the manner in which loot is handled. No longer is there a question of how to split loot in a party, rather everyone gets loot for themselves. Killing a demon will give loot to each individual player. Granted, it may not be for your class, but everyone receives an equal portion, and there's no squabbling over who gets the next piece.
Travel is one of the features Hellgate got right from the start. I've played other games where travel is a chore. If I could only remove the memories of nights spent where it took 40 minutes to travel to a dungeon or 40 minutes waiting for one group member to slog his way there. The point remains, Hellgate makes it easy to jump right into the action. Instances are a few seconds away from the station, and if you join a group, you can portal directly to them.
With this instanced manner of storytelling, the game is extremely linear, and everyone will be doing the same quests at roughly the same levels. I tend to have a hard time with that, because in an MMO, I have a tendency to explore regions far above my level — because I have some obscure need to either frustrate myself or to see what's over the next hill. It is, however, a fairly good way to advance this story, and it allows you to attempt only what you can actually accomplish without undue frustration.
Crafting is a fairly large part of my MMO experience, because I enjoy making new items or equipping myself and my friends with custom crafted gear, so a deep crafting system is usually my preference. Flagship Studios took a different path and one that isn't very deep but still is enjoyable. Instead of crafting items from scratch, you modify your weapons in a few ways. The easiest is by taking apart loot that you've acquired and using those components to upgrade other items. Most upgrades will be specific according to slots available, so guns might require a battery, ammo or a rocket, and you'll add different ones that add an effect. For instance, you might have a machine gun that you can add an effect so that it will set someone on fire or ricochet after a critical hit, damaging surrounding enemies. Or you may upgrade via the Augmentrix 2000, which is a fairly expensive way to add an effect that doesn't take up a slot. Use this at your own discretion — or at your pocketbook's discretion!
Perhaps the most talked about subject regarding Hellgate: London is its subscription game. Guild Wars more or less set the bar for this instanced style of MMO, and Hellgate seems to be going in a different direction. There is no mandatory subscription fee to play Hellgate; however, if you choose to pay $9.99 a month, you receive extra character slots in addition to the base three, content downloads and new items to discover. This has been a fairly polarizing issue among the faithful. I personally have no real feelings, because I see both sides of the argument, but the longer I stay with Hellgate, the longer the subscription becomes a real temptation for me.
Admittedly, I've had a very hard time with Hellgate: London. I enjoy the single-player game quite a bit, but I purchased it to play with friends. Despite the frequent patches, we still have some of the same issues. For example, we spent the better part of one night when I was only visible to my friends by my name above my head, my character was not visible on their screens and they had no idea that I was in the same instance as them. Repeatedly zoning in and out never solved the issue. Class balance seems like it needs some work as well. I play a Marksman, and if I'm playing solo, it feels just about right. But in a group with some melee fighters, I feel vastly underpowered. Even the Guardian can deliver quick damage and kill some mobs faster than I can. That's not so much a gear issue, either, as we've compared gear, and in many ways, I have superior equipment.
Right now the game has its fair share of bugs, which has made it a bit of a struggle to play. But I've stuck with it, simply because when things have worked, they've worked very well for me, and I've enjoyed that. There really is a good and enjoyable game under all those bugs. If someone was looking for a good single-player RPG, I'd recommend Hellgate: London in a heartbeat. But if someone was looking for an MMO-lite or heavily instanced online game, I'd definitely give pause. What is there is fun, but in its current condition, it's definitely not for everyone. That being said, I look forward to still spending some time there and coming back in a few months to review the progress that is being made with the game.
