Hellgate: London First Impressions

IGN has put together some first impressions of Hellgate: London, offering their own take on Flagship’s newly launched action MMORPG.

The levels are generated dynamically so you won’t ever really know what you’re facing when you enter an area and this greatly adds to the replayability of the game. Unfortunately, the location types are too monotonous, with more than half of the levels made up either of repetitive subway tunnels or bombed out city streets. Even in the streets, there are only two types of buildings you can enter, the rubble-strewn basement or the roofless three-story apartment. The areas that are used a little less often — like the Hellrifts — are substantially the same each time you visit them which also makes the game feel a bit too predictable, particularly after several hours of play.

The range of loot that you get is definitely impressive and you’re even given the option to use cash or discovered relics to add more specific properties to your weapons. This means you can really start to craft a weapon that has whatever specific effect you desire, from increasing the range of your rocket launcher to imbuing your sword with a greater chance to score critical hits against certain enemy types. We found that some of the items that you gain in the early part of the game can still be useful later on if you’re careful how you upgrade them. While I want to feel invested in the weapons I’ve crafted, I also want to avoid the feeling of using the same weapon for 15 levels in a row just because nothing better has come up.