Hellgate: London (PC)

There’s a gateway to Hell in London, seriously, no joke. It’s probably somewhere just off Trafalgar Square and I’m sure some of the drivers would say it’s one of the many toll roads. All jesting aside we fast forwards to the future and the world, not just Merry Olde England has been swamped by demonic forces from the darkest depths of the pit itself.

Thus begins Hellgate London kicking off with a pretty impressive cinematic and promising to be an interesting, part-MMO style romp through the demon infested city streets and sewers that make up the London of the future, where mankind uses subway terminals as safe havens from the satanic hordes that attempt to corrode the very fabric of society…well…they also eat people too.

It comes from industry veterans that cut their teeth on the likes of Battle.net and Diablo, and well, it’s almost an unofficial sequel to Diablo/Diablo II. It can be played single player offline, online with others in a very Guild Wars style and if you’re willing to pay for the service you can unlock more MMO content and so forth. My problem is that I’m mined out with MMOs, they’re coming out of the woodwork and none of them really do anything original.

Granted, Hellgate London has some very nifty features and it’s got the kinds of things you’d expect from an MMO, it’s just not quite there yet. The developers put out regular patches and content, both for paying customers and non-paying customers, obviously those who are paying a monthly fee get the best deal and gear for their money.

So, the gameplay of Hellgate London brings with it nothing truly fresh. The character design is good, you have a fair amount of control over the initial look of your character and the game allows you to play several decent classes.

Each of the classes is broken down into 3 sub groups.

The Hunters: Marksman (long range killer), Engineer (builds tech robots and so on)

The Cabalists: Evoker (magic user), Summoner (summons demons and so on)

The Templar: Guardians (tank style warriors, do lots of close in fighting), Blademaster (warriors, showy, wield two weapons and do a lot of high damage attacks)

There are a few game modes, normal and elite (open to non-subscribers), elite being unlocked when you complete the game. Hardcore mode is open to paying customers only and gives you one life, once you die, that’s it. Your character is wiped so to speak, end of story, everything you had is gone.

It’s a fun game if you want to waste some time here and there, it’s not as deep as some of the other MMO’s I could mention, nor is it as engaging and since it uses a hub system like Guild Wars, there’s no real feeling of connection with any of the other players. In fact, most of the players in HGL are so elitist that the only hope I had of getting any kind of mp to review it came when a couple of my friends bought the game and I played with them.