Likes

• Lots of action — Fighting is satisfying.
• Great graphics — Despite my hardware’s age what I see of the graphics does not detract from my game experience.

Dislikes

• Storyline was not compelling enough — This the deal breaker for me. The sense of urgency in Hellgate: London felt contrived. Players are dropped into the story. I didn’t feel any affinity for my character or for the London that Flagship studios created.
• Inflexible skill trees — You can’t even pay money to re-allocate your Skill points. I understand that this is the same as it was in Diablo, but you know I’ve never played Diablo. Am I spoiled by Guild Wars’s flexibility in this respect? Probably.

Conclusion

If you enjoy action, Hellgate: London is probably worth investigating. Hellgate: London is great for those who want FPS-lite, since the gun-wielding Classes are less demanding to play than in full-on FPS games. Anyone who loved Diablo will probably find Hellgate: London enjoyable. If you don’t need to feel strongly attached to your characters, to the story, or to the location, Hellgate: London is probably worth a look, too.

I stress that I played the beta version for a total of about five hours. There were no cinematic cut scenes in the beta. Flagship Studios reports that they will be adding a lot of content on the October 31 release date, so take the information in this post with a grain of salt. It’s possible that the added content in the full version may make the game more immersive for me, but what I’ve played of it isn’t enough to convince me to buy it.

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