Hellgate: London is the
latest title from the creators of Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo who not
only re-work on their original ideas but create a unique and interesting
twist to 21st century RPG "gaming" with its first person title that is
set in the not so distant future which has the realm of man overrun by
demons. Your goals are simple, prevent these nefarious hoards from
destroying the last bloodline of humanity by melding science with
sorcery.
Features
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Combining the depth
and customizability of Role-Playing Games with the immersive
experience of a first-person perspective, gameplay is fast-paced
without requiring lightning-fast FPS reflexes, making it accessible
to a broad audience of RPG fans.
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Experience the
ominous setting of post-apocalyptic London. From ancient ruins
buried beneath city streets to shattered cathedrals to the last
remnants of humanity bunkered in the Underground, the boundary
between fact and myth are blurred as a few glorious heroes fight for
their very souls.
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Fight against the
demons of the underworld as one of several unique character classes.
Like the Templar, each class has a unique visual and game play style
based on their particular history and heritage. Randomly generated
and modifiable items ensure that heroes are distinct and
individualized.
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Battle against a
wide variety of demonic enemies, each with their own unique
attributes, abilities, and vulnerabilities.
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With dynamically-
generated levels, massive quantities of randomly- created items,
chance events and story- driven quests, no two gaming experiences
are ever the same.
While Hellgate: London
stands on its own as a single-player game, it also provides a compelling
cooperative multiplayer experience through a dedicated online gaming
destination. By creating unique and individualized game play “instances”
within a vast online community, gamers get all the best parts of
traditional massive multiplayer games without the common downsides.
In Hellgate: London, the
gamer has access to three different character types, each with their own
unique set of powers and skills that are broken up again into different
archetypes. For instance, the Sword swinging Templar make up the front
line of melee fighters while Hunters hang back and shoot from afar.
Cabalists on the other hand have decided to embrace dark powers and hurl
spells or summon demonic pets to do their bidding.
These fighters traverse
through London's vast tunnel system and even above ground, looking for a
way to send the creatures back to hell. As characters level, they can
either select new powers from the skill tree or improve on ones already
acquired. All classes are extremely powerful and more than capable of
soloing through the entire campaign. In fact, they can be too powerful,
especially when a Hunter uses a sniper rifle to shoot half the monsters
down or calls for a massive area attack before the Templar reach them.
The great thing about
Hellgate is that players of virtually any skill level can pick up and
play it. Even though the camera can be set to a first-person
perspective, the game isn't much of a shooter. Aiming plays a
surprisingly small role. Players just need to point their weapons in the
general direction of the bad guys and press fire, healing or casting
spells when necessary. Ammunition isn't a factor and the monsters aren't
very smart.
They march forward in a
giant mass in an effort to overwhelm players. Apart from the "Hard Mode"
available only to paid subscribers (more on that later) and "Elite Mode"
made accessible after beating the campaign, there's no difficulty
setting. Though the game does get more challenging as players progress
through the campaign, as expected. Monster levels and group sizes scale
according to how many players enter the zone, but there's no way to
manually adjust the difficulty. When playing solo, areas and quests are
exceptionally easy until a giant boss arrives to mix things up.
Even though Hellgate includes a dedicated single-player mode, its
strength is in the multiplayer. This is where the game suffers from a
major identity crisis. It's stuck in between being a single-player game
with strong multiplayer options (like Diablo II) and being a kind of
massively-multiplayer online game, and doesn't quite fit the role of
either one.
In conclusion, Hellgate:
London is an entertaining RPG first person shooter that is a mixture of
Diablo meets Doom in this world gone crazy with good gameplay,
especially in the multiplayer mode. The graphics are amazing as if the
musical score and Hellgate: London is one of those games you can keep
coming back for more entertainment. Great stuff!