Nov 20 2007
The year is 2038 and London has been reduced to rubble by hideous demons that came through the Hellgate. Humans have taken refuge in the city's Underground stations, where they do their best to fight back against the unholy invaders using all the high-tech weaponry at their disposal. Hellgate: London is the first game from Flagship Studios, a company whose staff includes former members of the team that created the Diablo series.
Naturally, a lot of Diablo fans have been looking forward to this title, but Hellgate isn't just Diablo with sci-fi clothes on. For one thing, the games are generations apart, and graphics technology has come a long way since Diablo. Hellgate is a 3D game that borrows liberally from first-person shooters, which is a big change from Diablo's fixed isometric perspective. There are some similarities in the gameplay and the online components, but I'm not sure it will be enough to win over people who wanted Diablo 3.
Graphics and Interface
Hellgate's graphics don't disappoint, even if they're not quite as spectacular as what the latest crop of shooters have to offer. I played on a couple different systems using DX9, and I noticed that the game scales down to older computers quite well. The character and demon models are particularly fetching, and there are plenty of dazzling weapon effects that get better with almost every upgrade.
Shooter fans will slide into Hellgate: London's controls without much hesitation, moving WASD style, targetting with mouselook, and firing with the mouse buttons. You have a shortcut bar, but it's really just a convenient way to map keys. For some reason shield bash would only work with my Guardian's first weapon set, which didn't seem right.
The game also offers context sensitive shortcuts, which are so clever they're bound to start showing up in other titles if they haven't already. Depending on what you're doing at the time, certain keys have multiple functions. For example, when you're running, the shift key may cause you to sprint, but when you're fighting the shift key will instead trigger a power attack. These functions are displayed unobtrusively in the HUD, and they're really an ingenious way to give you access to a wide range of actions without requiring a huge array of keys.
London 2038
Hellgate tries to portray a future London devasted by demons, and you will come across a few familiar landmarks in your journey. Play areas are partly randomized to add variety, so although it does vaguely have the appearance of London, you rarely come across scenes that you actually might recognize from the real city. The limited number of tilesets grow old fast, and juggling them around a bit each run doesn't do much to make them more interesting.
While randomized play areas do make some games a little more replayable, I'm not particularly fond of them. I'd rather fight through a really thoughtfully designed area once or twice than fight through a mediocre randomly-generated map several times.
There is a detailed story in place, complete with humorous moments and pop culture references which prove that Hellgate doesn't take itself too seriously. It's odd that you only get one sentence at a time when talking to NPCs, so it takes an excessive amount of clicking to actually read it all. I suspect most people will simply hit "Accept Quest" and get on with it.
Blasting Demons
Like several other recent RPGs, Hellgate uses a shooter-like control scheme, but the underlying game mechanics are stats-based. The cross-hairs aren't there so you can score a head shot, but merely to select a target. Still, the game manages to retain a lot of that shooter feel, particularly when playing one of the ranged classes, which allow you to get right into the first-person perspective if you so desire.
The gameplay varies considerably depending on what class you play. Guardians and Blademasters get in close with swords and shields, Summoners use pets in battle, Rangers and Engineers fight from a distance, and Evokers are not unlike casters adapted to the game's sci-fi theme. After trying several classes, I was torn over which one was more fun, because they all seemed to bring something special to the battle.
The AI isn't outstanding, but there are enough demons, and their behaviors vary enough, to keep you on your toes. Some of them swoop down from the skies, then circle around for repeat attacks, while others run away and use ranged weapons. You're bound to have edgy moments when a quick fix from your health injector is the only thing between survival and death.
Altogether, Hellgate's combat is fast-paced, addictive, and truly delightful in a button-mashing, hack-and-slash sort of way. Cutting through tons of demons and collecting heaps of loot is central to the game, and Flagship has done a masterful job of it.
Weapons, Items, and Skills
True to the RPG designation, each class in Hellgate has a skill tree that you progress through as you gain levels. It's not very elaborate, as they've tried to stick with skills that are genuinely useful. Skills have ranks which can be increased with skill points, so you get to decide whether you want to add skills to your arsenal or improve skills you already have. There's no way to move skill points around after allocating them, which would be appreciated, even at a price.
