Hellgate: London

Brief Description of Hellgate: London

Map of the Underground

The year is 2038. The city was once London, but demons came through a rift and have destroyed much of that city. Along with every other one.

This review is based on playing the game in single player mode. The experience of someone in the multiplayer environment may be very different.

Game play and hints

A New Quest

You start the game by creating a character. Two classes specialise in swords, two classes specialise in magic, and the final two classes specialise in long range weapons. You may choose male or female, and set the appearance of your new character.

Another quest, I'll bet he needs me to go kill something. That pretty much sums up the game. And while this basic premise wouldn't worry me for an Action game, I expect more of a proper RPG.

As you perform the tasks set, you'll gain in experience and in your standing with people in the area. I haven't noticed any advantages with an increased standing at this point in time. Gain enough experience and you can level up. You'll get 5 points for attributes, which seems generous. But you'll only get one point to use on skills and that means you have to select skills wisely.

Inventory and equipment

Typical street

The inventory is a fixed size, you'll have to remove stuff fairly regularly. You can take it back to a shop to sell. Or other options are to break it down to components or discard it altogether. Or use some of the mods you have to make the equipment better. You have three weapons/shield configurations and weapons in a configuration do not use inventory space.

Each station has three machines for equipment enhancement. One can upgrade equipment in exchange for money. One can remove mods you added to enhance equipment. The third can upgrade equipment by using components you've created by breaking down unwanted equipment.

There are two items you should always have in your inventory. The first is healing kits, you never know when that will come in handy. The second is at least one personal relocation device. It creates a portal for you to return to the station, and you'll be able to return to that location when your station business is done.

Gripes about Hellgate: London

To me, this game seriously lacks personality. It feels like a shooter with a nod in the general direction of a proper role playing game. The world is dull and lifeless. The quests are mostly the same, the Underground areas that serve as bases are very much the same. The streets above are very much the same.

Interacting with the NPCs of the world is dull as well. They may actually say something when you first approach, but the rest of the 'dialogue' must be read. They don't do anything else either.

Conclusion for Hellgate: London

Underground activities

If you are looking for a new and interesting RPG - try The Witcher instead of this. If you mainly love to run around and kill things with no interruption of other plot elements, this game may well be for you.

Overall rating 3 of 5 stars. The game is fine for what it is. But it doesn't get me involved enough in either the story or the main character to push onward.

Additional Thoughts About Hellgate: London

Be prepared for pain if you do log into a server. It takes ages for any updates to get installed, then when it's finally done, you have to log back into the server again to play. Or worse, I had it download a lot of updates, then it sent me to a website to install another patch.