HellGate London

[shamus21]

i see this has dropped down in price at game/pcworld £14.99 . Was lookng to buy this one but not so sure now, seem to have a lot of Bugs which some say makes it unplayable. Anybody Hexus got this let me know what you think.

[CaseyV9]

Yeah, I got this.

So, I bought this last christmas. I can only comment on the sngle player game as my internet is too slow for gaming.

I install the game. On Vista it directed me to install something from Microsoft to get it to work.
There was an issue with slow down on it, you won't notice it untill later in the game.
I install the first patch. I won't bloody start up. I think It wasn't until I installed the Multiplayer patch that it started working. It seemed okay after that.

So, the game itself. The leveling up is really good I found. As a Cabalist Summoner you soon find yourself building up an army. I really like that I could get quite a bit of emjoyment from it. In that sense it can be quite addictive.

The problem is that the single player game you have payed for seemed like something they just tacked together on the side. It's like more for multiplayer but you still haven't payed for that. The cool Intro seems to show a decent story which has nothing to do with the game at all.
There are a few bits of amusing dialouge from the main Quest character, The sarcastic Tech guy but would it have killed them to add voice actors instead of loads of text to read through?

Also there is the wierd thing about all these exploding barrels being left around. Everywhere.
The levels themselves are pretty much the same. It's just rendered in a different order. And the places do not resemble the real life places in London. And the enviroments are really static feeling.
I have heard from people that enjoyed Diablo that one of their favorite levels are the rainforest level, you couldn't pick out anything like that from Hellgate.
And the weapons are pretty bad too. They have no real kick to them. On some you fire a jelly or spegetti type beam out of it. And playing in First person isn't that good either. It just feels dated.
It feels older that some games released 3 years ago.

It has a nice morbid atmosphere and I found it very addictive. This game is probaly better played online. If you are thinking of it for single player, I wouldn't bother. You could do better.

[Hicks12]

Originally Posted by shamus21

i see this has dropped down in price at game/pcworld £14.99 . Was lookng to buy this one but not so sure now, seem to have a lot of Bugs which some say makes it unplayable. Anybody Hexus got this let me know what you think.

Its not to bad but its not as good as say the witcher or mass effect, depending if are not going for online then these too are probably better as i found HG got boring quickly, the areas seem so similar(well tunnels are identicle except some doors etc). Graphicly its good and you can change your character alot but they failed big on the multiplayer by adding a members fee, think of it like runescape where it is optional, but i think it adds tomuch to others who buy it even though you paid for the game from the store.

If you have some mates to play with its pretty good for a bit, i found the witcher was the best rpg imo as it has lasted ages(i havent even finished it cos my saves were lost while backing it up ).

[poozle]

If you are buying it now don't count on the multiplayer surviving, the company is going through major problems atm (ditched most of the development team). Namco Bandai have taken on the game now but noone really knows whats going on. There have been no major announcements in the last week or so now.

Game wise, its a great game IMHO, a lot of the bugs in it have now been fixed and it seems to work well for me.

[shamus21]

i can see why they have dropped the price now.

[axis09]

its ok, can be a little dull,
game had mass effect for 19 quid, now thats a better way to go

[shamus21]

I see they have put out a free expansion for mass effect (bring down the sky). http://masseffect.bioware.com/galact...thesky_pc.html
looking for a bit of summer gameplay i think i will pick MassEffect and get HellGate London when its in the £5.00 Sale Box. Just per ordered STALKER Clear Sky 17.99, GamePlay.com

[Whiternoise]

Originally Posted by CaseyV9

I have heard from people that enjoyed Diablo that one of their favorite levels are the rainforest level, you couldn't pick out anything like that from Hellgate.

Haha i wouldn't agree with that sentiment. The rainforest level was annoying as hell. All those tiny dart firing demons. But i know where they're coming from. For all the Diablo fans complaining that D3 doesn't have any dinginess like D2, D2 did have a LOT of varied environments, a lot of it was reasonably bright too.

Hellgate on the other hand is, perhaps intrinsically, dingy. The lightning isn't really good enough to show it off so it just looks very dark.

And i would definitely agree that single player feels a bit tacked on. It's mostly pretty good fun, but there isn't really much variety in the gameplay, and it doesn't have that sort of addiction that other games have. I mean, most of the missions are "find me X of these things" - come on, for an action RPG and they have item running missions? That said, the dialogue takes a while to get used to - there's little to no voice acting, so you have to read through a fair bit to get the gist of what's going on - which is quite cumbersome if you don't realise.

Other than that, the item system is good, nice and random - even if the majority of things you pick up can't be used by you there's always crafting.

There was a thread about Diablo 2 clones, might be worth a read.

[CaseyV9]

Originally Posted by axis09

its ok, can be a little dull,
game had mass effect for 19 quid, now thats a better way to go

Isn't that a slightly different type of game? Hellgate is more a Hack N Slash RPG.
Titan Quest is good if you are after Hack N Slash. And Space Siege, which is due out soon looks like it might be worth a look. Also, Dungeon Siege 2 may be worth a look. Both feel more polished and more well made compared to Hellgate. I still reckon Diablo 3 will be the one to wait for though.