Initial Impressions

[BeefontheBone]

So far, so good. Got my pre-ordered box a day early thanks to Play, so was able to snag the two names I was bothered about. Apart from a glitch which left me walking half in the floor of Covent Garden until I reconnected and a bit of lag (noticeable with Ravagers jumping at me, but dying where they set off), I'm enjoying it. Slightly annoying getting asked to go back and explore somewhere I've been through twice for a quest, and for items which I have a pile of but which have to come from a specific locale (wuh?). Haven't tried melee yet, looks like it might get annoying Advertising's very unobtrusive, at least at this stage - I've seen worse (and would definitely resent it if I end up paying a subscription were it more noticeable). Oh, and some of the accents are a bit dicky :P

[Thecla]

So far, so good. Got my pre-ordered box a day early thanks to Play, so was able to snag the two names I was bothered about. Apart from a glitch which left me walking half in the floor of Covent Garden until I reconnected and a bit of lag (noticeable with Ravagers jumping at me, but dying where they set off), I'm enjoying it. Slightly annoying getting asked to go back and explore somewhere I've been through twice for a quest, and for items which I have a pile of but which have to come from a specific locale (wuh?). Haven't tried melee yet, looks like it might get annoying Advertising's very unobtrusive, at least at this stage - I've seen worse (and would definitely resent it if I end up paying a subscription were it more noticeable). Oh, and some of the accents are a bit dicky :P

The ravagers are still sort of buggy (I think of them as HG:L's equivalent of D2's vultures that could stun-lock you with melee-attacks from half way across the screen when it first came out). There definitely was more lag in the release version than in the beta, not surprising given that there's many more people on the server, but overall I though it was pretty smooth.

On quests, part of it is you just have to learn the "right" order to do them in, but even then you can't entirely avoid getting sent back to previous areas later on in the game. Melee was bad in the alpha, but they really ramped up melee power -- the Guardian is arguably the most powerful class now.

I actually like the tube ads in HG:L, and I say that as someone who hates ads. The accents may be dicky, but they're English after all -- I believe it was a French study which concluded that the English were the ugliest people in the world.

[Zed-F]

I've found that there are a host of annoyances and bugs with the game -- the chat/buddy system is downright primitive -- but that the overall gameplay is sufficiently good that the game is worth the box price, at least.

[Cyrene]

Bah!

*DESPITE* all the carping on forums about the game not being ready, *DESPITE* knowing full well that a couple of things that really piss me off (like bad, oversized UI's and menus) are present, *DESPITE* knowing my PC is a stretch to play--I bought the damn game.

Loading up now.

Going to try a Hunter "Bomber" first--Grenades, Strikes, Dual Pistols, maybe beacons. My logic is: I found the grenades a hoot in the demo and, if I have to endure first-weeks junk from a new online game, I want to have fun when it *is* playable, and, I have a sneaking suspicion they (grenades) aren't going to scale properly (yay old blizz employees ), and since a first char is going to be deleted anyway once I figure out the game, a hopeless gesture is in order .

So more first impressons coming if I can get the sucker to run, and the servers are up, etc. etc.

--Cy

[Roland]

I've found that there are a host of annoyances and bugs with the game -- the chat/buddy system is downright primitive -- but that the overall gameplay is sufficiently good that the game is worth the box price, at least.

Yep. Guild Wars has them beat mercilessly in those departments. It just completely lacks any sort of polish. However, what it lacks in UI and "systems", it makes up for in "fun factor" with plenty to spare, something Guild Wars simply can't claim on the same scale. The two, however, are VERY different beasts.

I look forward to future changes. For now, I'll just wait for my CE to show up (sometime this weekend would be nice!!!!), and continue playing the "Beta" until they cut me off on the 7th. I expect the game will evolve a great deal over time, so I'm willing to accept some minor issues for now.

[Roland]

Bah!
I have a sneaking suspicion they (grenades) aren't going to scale properly (yay old blizz employees )
--Cy

Oh my God you couldn't be more wrong. Not only does the damage scale with Skill Points, it scales with level, automatically. I played a Marksman right up through 18 in the Beta, and despite everyone's bitching and whining about Grenades and Precision Strikes, I went for them hard. I loved every single moment of my gametime on that Marskman, almost entirely because of Grenades and Precision Strikes. THEY ARE INCREDIBLE. Powerful enough to suffice (although I hear some weapons outdo them in spades; I'm anti-cookie cutter and anti-power build, so I avoided such things, and stuck with more mundane items), scale with your level, and just SO MUCH FUN. You don't know fun until you've bounce an Explosive Grenade 30 ft. up a hill, only to have it explode RIGHT in the face of a Zombie, and watch as his body blows into flying, bloody, burning chunks of rotten flesh. I haven't spent this much time just plain LAUGHING during a game since Dungeon Runners, and even then it didn't compare.

Room FULL of monsters? Napalm Strike or Concussive Strike (forget the actual name - the physical Precision Strike), mop up the survivors with Explosive Grenades and rifle fire. Boss pack chasing you? Run away with Sprint, turn and fire a Precision Strike just in front of you, wait for the mobs to come at you and watch them die right in front of you while you pelt them with full-auto fire.

I'm serious. I'm going to be playing a Marksman almost exclusively, and it's precisely because of Grenades (and they're incredibly whacky physics, which EVERYONE but me hates) and Precision Strikes (think big AoE grenades with less distance, but way more damage). I would literally be running along, slinging grenades left and right, trying to kill as many baddies as I could usely solely Grenades and Precision Strikes. It was a game, and it was fun as hell doing tricks with those things. Oh, and Phase Grenades make all those stupid shelves with all the boxes on them a piece of cake - they stick, and explode shortly afterwards. :D

The game has its problems, but I assure you, they DID learn some lessons from Diablo. Skillpower scaling with level is definitely one of them, and as far as I got in the game, I never had a problem with damage with only 1-point investments. That may not hold up forever, but it sufficed for the early areas.

[BeefontheBone]

Heh, grenades sound like fun for my marksman. Finding an All Hallows' Visage unique just now (right before the end of act 1) was tasty, though I'm slightly below the required level. Evoker seems mildly complicated, I'm sure I'm not at all optimal at this point. but mostly fun. The enemies at the end of act 1 were a bit OTT though I thought - ended up blowing up the rift without killing the regenerating monster, which was a shame, then the things on the other side were ludicrous! Killed one, after being trapped irritatingly in a corner and killed once, then realised there were loads of them, so I decided to bugger off back to the station. Maybe that's the point, but their drops are good, just difficult to get on your own

[Zed-F]

Yeah, grenades are fun. Not uber by any means, but fun. I'll probably grab a point in phase grenade and/or smackdown (the physical calldown strike) on my slacker engineer... or maybe see if I can come across a weapon that has a point in those.

Came across a place called Ancient Blood today in a luck-found Hellgate. Got disconnected shortly thereafter. I am wondering if that's where I would find the Blood Moon, for the Blood Moon achievement...

[ShadowHM]

Initial impressions and notes:

1) I am still finding the wasd key set for movement frustrating. When you are clumsy to start with and have years of hitting the shift key to fire missiles, well......you die a lot in Hellgate. :mad:

2) The quests are buggy. I have missed / had to re-do some. The unlocking quest at the British Museum was particularly frustrating in that regard. And today, for an oddity, while partied with cb-13, he got credit for a quest that we did and I did not.

3) Loading times are slow for me, despite upgrading my RAM to 1 gb and my video card to 256 mb. Alt/tabbing in and out of the game is very slow too.

4) I really like the chat capability of X-fire. And that is despite the fact that I miss the first 'phone call' to be invited to one, because of the slow alt/tab.

5) Having to add each character of an account to the Buddy list is a minor annoyance. I hope that changes.

6) Despite all of the above, I think I will be playing this game for some time. The only real problem I forsee in the short run is having to fight off the sons, who are also really enjoying it. Until I can subscribe, we have worked out a compromise wherein I have my three characters on the US server and they have one each on the European server.

One last confusion: I do not understand anything of the in-game guild structure. Any links to how it works (or is supposed to work )? At this point, I have received and accepted an in-game invitation from TPJ for a guild called TheBasin. But I have no clue what, if anything, that will mean, or if it will preclude any RBD in-game guild membership.

[KingOfPain]

OMG, Shadow deserts RB and sons exiled

KoP