Hellgate: London Review

Game Revolution adds its $.02 to the Hellgate: Pile of dirty coins, giving the game a B-. They certainly are far more forgiving of the unfinished state HG:L was released in than most.

What makes Hellgate fun is not so much the loot as the story and dialog. Despite the fact that zombies are cavorting about town, the plot almost feels like a light-hearted romp at times. One character needs your help on his batch of homebrew, others clamor for the eradication of specific monsters, and one soldier is working his way up in the world by handing all of his assignments off to you. My favorite by far, though, is the weird story of how an insane man’s assistant gets a font of wisdom (in the form of a screechy demon) stuck on his head. It’s great to be able to crack up when facing the end of the world.

London looks good, even if it has become the spawn point for all the evil in the world. There are plenty of crates and barrels to smash, sending pieces flying all over the place. Unfortunately, the creepy tunnels and gray above-ground environments do tend to get a little old. Stepping through a Hell rift is always refreshing, with fire burning in the sky and weird statues standing guard, but even that tends to look somewhat the same each trip. Characters are decent looking, if a little pasty and undertextured at times, but you kind of have to expect a bit of give to get everything running decently online….which…

Yeah. How do you score something that is so hellish (in more than one way) one second and so awesome the next? Hellgate: London probably just needed some extra time in Beta. Maybe pushing for Halloween was too much. I’m in the camp that would rather have a game delayed than have it get over-looked due to technical issues that could’ve been worked out beforehand. Crazy fellow Lucius at one point says something like, (I never failed anyone I didn’t inadvertently kill.) I really hope Hellgate: London hasn’t been done in, because that would be a shame.