THG reviews Hellgate: London.

[Roland]

As much as I hate what THG (Tom's Hardware Guide) has become (it's absolute trash; I can't even think about it long enough to come up with an adequate metaphor because my brain starts to hurt), they gave a fairly solid, albeit scathing, review of Hellgate: London.

As much as I had high hopes for this game, my patience and my common sense forced me on to greener pastures. For now, this game has been shelved to be re-examined further down the road, when it's had more time to mature. I'm thinking... June? July maybe? We shall see. In any case, the gist of the review is this:

- Epic potential for the story. $0.05 comic-book quality to the delivery.
- Bland settings, gameplay, progression make for a boring game, while the "random" elements that should be its savoir serve virtually no benefit.
- Complete lack of product maturity, especially in the Single Player client.
- Great vision, poor sight. Game has great potential, but falters heavily on delivery.
- Cannot recommend game in its current state, despite some enjoyment being possible.

I don't know if anyone actually cares about reviews, especially if you're still actively playing it, but I thought it summed up the game nicely. It certainly echoed my feelings a great deal (although I can't comment on SP, having never tried it). As much as I want to love the game (deja vu for GW, much?), there is just too little to tie me to it right now, especially with so many other great games out there to enjoy. I hope those who are still actively playing continue to get enjoyment. Myself, I'm going to give the game another solid look in about 6 months, I wager. I think it will take AT LEAST that long for the game to begin to mature, and even then I'm not convinced it will be all that it has been touted to be.

[ShadowHM]

I read that review today. The only thing I would quibble with is his conclusions. I still like the game enough to keep playing.

I hope those who are still actively playing continue to get enjoyment. Myself, I'm going to give the game another solid look in about 6 months, I wager. I think it will take AT LEAST that long for the game to begin to mature, and even then I'm not convinced it will be all that it has been touted to be.

Thanks, Roland. I am still enjoying the game, most of the time.

Tell ya what? In six months I will be off at Pike Bay, playing crokinole and cards, when I am in a gaming mood, and you can borrow my account to try Elite mode out then. That way you can test the waters without any cost.

[Zed-F]

IIRC Roland went Founders anyway, so cost shouldn't be an issue.

[Roland]

IIRC Roland went Founders anyway, so cost shouldn't be an issue.

Was planning on it, but cost was too great during the holiday season. Couldn't fit it in my budget. Besides, the more I played, the less inclined I was to invest that much into the game, so I've since held off entirely on the idea of any form of subscription. I don't know if they still offer Founder's or not, and if they do, whether or not I'll consider buying it in the future, but for now it's not even a concern.

Here's hoping for the future, as always it seems.

[Nystul]

I don't put much faith into the notion of a game developing into something post-release. In order to please subscribers, they will certainly try. But this game was in development for years to get to this supposedly immature state. Some bugs will be fixed, compatibility issues addressed, some ARGHs will be eliminated (or replaced with different ARGHs), a lot of rebalancing will be attempted without actually changing the core nature of the game, and there will be some more sub-only stuff thrown in.

Unless a particular technical issue or balance issue that can be corrected is the only thing standing in the way of the game being enjoyable, or you have played a while and are just burnt out, I wouldn't expect a few months (or years) to change anything. As completely different as the current patch of LOD is from the day I took D2 out of the box, the fun factor is more or less the same.

[Thenryb]

I agree completely with the review including its conclusions. I also agree with Nystul that if a game is sorely lacking to begin with a few patches will not make it better. Frankly, this is a game I like less the more I play it. I am only continuing to play because no other game out there has caught my fancy. Every time I play something new and annoying surfaces. For example, today I had a quest to kill 20 screechers in Upper Ground. The mobs were fairly tough for a marksman (Gargantua and shock slayers) and after killing 19 screechers I had to return to town for more pots. Guess what-the screecher count reset to 0 and that happened over and over again. I would expect that to happen if I logged out (although there is no good reason for that either), but not if I just went to town. Now that bug (and the one which will likely pop up next time I play) may well be fixed but that won't fix the boring and repetitive nature of the game.