Hellgate London - Review @ PALGN

magerette

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Australian site PALGN brings us their review of Flagship's Hellgate:London, which falls in line with the majority of opinions seen so far, scoring it 6.5/10:
Despite the interesting premise and a cool opening cutscene, the rest of Hellgate: London is decidedly light on plot and heavy on the action. It’s not like Diablo II, where the quests you undertook had a direct effect on the story; in Hellgate: London, quests often seem closer to an MMORPG grindfest – fetch this, kill x number of these beasts and so on. It’s really disappointing, and makes you feel like someone decided at some point in the game’s development that they wanted it to be an MMORPG, but didn’t quite get there. The game also uses randomised instances for its levels, which is kind of confusing given the London setting. It’s okay for multiplayer games, but proves to be a bit of an annoyance in single player – particularly in the fetch quests, where an item you could be looking for may end up just being in the first room, without any fighting required to get it. After a couple of hours of grinding through the same monsters, these levels become really monotonous.
...Hellgate: London showed an awful lot of promise but has really failed to deliver. There’s plenty of content in the game, but it fails to remain interesting beyond the five hour mark. The developer then has the audacity to lock away parts of the multiplayer game with a subscription fee that nobody will think is worthwhile. Melee combat feels clunky, while the first person shooter component just lacks the oomph of other games on the market. The graphics look dated and the audio has been really neglected. Worst of all, the game is really buggy – players who buy the game will have to sit through at least an hour of downloading updates before they can even hop online. Flagship has brought all of the right elements of an RPG to the table, but they’ve failed to put them together in an exciting way. Some RPG fans will cherish Hellgate: London, but the rest of us will look at it with sad eyes and wonder what could have been.
More information.
 
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I just got Hellgat:London and have to strongly disagree with this person review. It wanted to be a MMORPG?? If anything it feels like it wants to be the next Diablo. I've only played through the first couple of levels but so far I'm like what they have done with the game.

The only big problem I have is that I can't play MP right now. I ordered the English version and it might have problems with the servers over here in Asia which are geared for the Chinese version. So if they fix that then I'll be a happy camper but until then I'll play The Witcher or the single player campaign of Hellgate.

There are some people who are getting really upset by the subscription thing but I look at it this way, I can play the game without subscribing and if I want the coolest stuff and monsters then I'll dish out the 9.95 a month so I can have it, but for right now I don't think it's worth it to get. Maybe later when they have had time to iron out the problems and really get started on expanding the Hellgate world.
 
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Review averige is 7.4 currently:

PC Gamer 89 / 100 Dec 1, 2007
PC Gamer UK 73 / 100 Dec 1, 2007
PALGN AU 6.5 / 10 Nov 10, 2007
ActionTrip 75 / 100 Nov 8, 2007
UGO B- Nov 6, 2007
GameTap 7 / 10 Nov 6, 2007
Cheat Code Central 3.8 / 5 Nov 6, 2007
IGN 6.8 / 10 Nov 5, 2007
AtomicGamer 79 / 100 Nov 5, 2007
PC Zone UK 74 / 100 Nov 2, 2007
Eurogamer 7 / 10 Nov 2, 2007
GameSpy 3 / 5 Nov 2, 2007
Pelit (Finland) 84 / 100 Nov 1, 2007
GamePro 3 / 5 Oct 30, 2007
NZGamer 8.6 / 10 Oct 30, 2007

My guess is this is yet again one of those games you either like or hate. The scale goes from 64 - 89% which is pretty wide. Bugs are propably one reason for the wide range of score - som penalize less som more.
 
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A lot of it is expectations, I think. People just expected this to be a Game of the Year, and it's having to live up to the reputation of a polished game (Diablo2) produced by a major studio(Blizzard) when it's really the first effort of a new company.

The buggy state and the subscription model aren't helping matters. You have to admit that only being able to play one character build online, no hardcore, no extra content, etc. without paying is a far cry from Battlenet.

Still, nobody has said the game isn't addictive, so it's clear Flagship hasn't lost their touch completely. I think the thing this game may need is time.

@zakhal: Thanks for the statistics. This review actually falls at the lower end of the scale, then.
 
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Review averige is 7.4 currently:



My guess is this is yet again one of those games you either like or hate. The scale goes from 64 - 89% which is pretty wide. Bugs are propably one reason for the wide range of score - som penalize less som more.

Yeah, 7.4 isn't a bad score at all. I have the game and play it. Its fun, and I would score it at around a 7.4. Basically nothing special, but fun to play if you like that type of game.
 
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Its more diablo than MMO (which is why I personally like it). I doubt I will ever have the sort of time an MMO commands in my life ever again (unless I get really sick or really rich)
 
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I have been playing it non-stop lately. Once you get a character past level 10, you really start getting the old Diablo must-get-more-levels-and-loot feeling. Now I've got a character of every class, my highest being a lvl 24 Engineer (very cool class).

As a hack'n slash it definetly delivers. Expect more and you'll be dissappointed, but if you want a true hack'n slash it's a game I can recommend.

The only real downside as a hack'n slash is that the melee classes feel slightly gimped. Some of the bosses in the game are extremely hard if you go near them, and Templars are pretty bad at ranged combat.
 
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