Apple Otaku

With its excellent pedigree, I had high hopes for Hellgate London. In many ways, the addictive game play clearly shines but the flaws stick out like a steaming turd on a wedding cake.

You can think of this game as the technological successor to the Diablo series. It has the same addictive, fast-paced game play and paper-thin plot. Except now, it’s all wrapped up in pretty DirectX 9/10 graphics. The year is 2038 and London has been ravaged by demonic forces. That’s all you need to know, really.

The main attraction of the game are the items you can pickup during your adventures. There’s a huge array of weapons, armor and various other gadgets that should keep loot whores plenty happy. A lot of the items you’ll run across will often have multiple upgrade options. You can also dismantle items and use the parts to craft new ones.

It’s not a true MMO by any means. Once you leave the underground station, you’re immediately placed into an instanced play field. Those used to the rich, vibrant world of a traditional MMO might find this gaming lacking. But that’s not really a bad thing. I think the creators of this game wanted a more focused play environment without the fluff that can plague an MMO. And for the most part, I think they succeeded.

The action is fast-paced and there are many instances where you’ll be frantically surrounded by large mobs. Those interested in soloing will find this game lends well to solitary game play. Playing a marksman, I’ve so far been able to complete a good portion of the content alone.

But Hellgate London has its blemishes and they aren’t pretty. For one thing, the game is buggy. I feel like I paid money for a beta test. On a clean Vista install with the latest device drivers and hotfixes, the game would occasionally crash during launch, during exit, and during the game play.

When it’s not crashing, there are regular instances where the game would inexplicably slow down. Menus take seconds to appear, as though they were stuck in quicksand. Even with a 8800 SLI setup, there will are times when framerates would feel like they dropped down to single digits. And by single digits, I mean 1 frame per second.

It’s sad to see a game of this caliber being carelessly rushed into the marketplace. Give this game another month or two of solid testing and I’d probably be extolling its virtues.

But right now, I can’t recommend this game to anybody but the most patient fans of Diablo. I would wait and keep track of the update patches at the game’s website: www.hellgatelondon.com.

If they’re able to iron out the majority of these gapping bugs, this would be an easy pick for the action RPG fan. Yes, I think this game is even worth the hassle of boot-camping into Windows.

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