So... Hellgate London

[Dincrest]

Is anyone else looking forward to this title?  Yeah, I know it's had its share of delays, but I recall some 'fan staff at the '06 E3 really digging it.  

For some reason, I've been having some cravings for an RPG with FPS elements (like System Shock 2 or Deus Ex), and Hellgate London seems intriguing.  

http://www.hellgatelondon.com

[Eusis]

I hear they announced you'll have to pay per month. I was kinda interested before, but unlike PSU, my interest wasn't high enough to blow off the monthly fee. I'll ignore unless I hear absolutely amazing reviews.

[Dincrest]

I assume that's for the online component.  I'm not interested in the online aspect.  I'm more interested in the offline, single-player experience.  (I swore off online gaming 5 years ago) and from what I've read, the game is an offline single player game first with the online components being secondary.

That 6 minute intro movie is f'n awesome.

[John]

Roper has confirmed that there will be a free online component on top of the pay one.

[Eusis]

Hmm. Interesting.

And I dunno about offline with online, ultimately depends on who and what series I guess. It's good to see they're taking another, more positive note from PSU though.

[Dade]

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/hellgatelondon/news.html?sid=6166996&mode=previews

Interesting read on the Factions and their respective classes.

I keep getting excited about this every time I read something....and then get those hopes slapped down the second another delay hits.

[Serene Prophet]

Well I will resurrect this since supposedly it comes out at the end of the month (fingers crossed)

Has anyone been in the beta?  Any chance you can let us know what you think of it so far?  I'm sorta sure what to expect, but also wondering.

[Masamune]

I've played about 10 minutes of the beta, actually.  I can't tell you a whole lot, but it felt kind of like World of Warcraft and Diablo 2 combined.  At the start I made a Marksman and I was killing zombies by shooting them in the face to level up.  I can't really name anything new yet that the game is bringing to the genre, it has skills trees and NPC's that give you quests and whatnot.  The only real big difference I can see thus far is that the setting is very unique.

As I said though, this is based on literally 10 minutes of playing.  I made a character, gained a level and logged off to do something else.  The character creation was decent, I'd put it at about the same level of WoW.  You can choose different hair designs, body piercings, jewelry, hair/skin color, etc.  Nothing out of the normal.  Really no complaints about the game, but I doubt it'll do anything to hurt WoW's population.

[Tooker]

I was a massive Diablo 2 fan, so I've been watching this anxiously even though my laptop probably can't handle it.  You know - hope springs eternal and all that.  I seem to remember them saying a while back that they were trying to keep the system requirements down, but who knows what exactly that means.  Hopefully they'll put out a demo I can download to test my system.

I saw this today and thought it was pretty funny - check out the second "exclusive pet:"
http://www.hellgatelondon.com/underground/love-your-pets

[Fei]

NDA has been lifted, there's a playable demo available, and the game launches in a week.

I got into beta, and I am totally sold.  I much prefer the FPS classes to the 3rd person ones, but they are still fun.  I am reminded of Dungeons and Dragons Online, with the instanced gameplay and search and destroy ... gameplay.

Extremely addicting, and I will very much miss the weapons I've personalized in beta.

[Serene Prophet]

I checked out the demo, the setting is really cool, but the battles just seem really funky or something, I dunno.  I guess just the association with diablo kinda turns me off, since I did not really like that game, but I dunno, ill probably pick this up when it goes down in price.

[Tooker]

Downloaded the demo last night and played both classes today.  Couldn't believe it plays on my piece o' crap laptop.  I had to turn the graphics down to "not the best," but nowhere near the bottom, either.

I thought it was fun, and it was definitely a different experience as a ranged character than as a swordsman.  The whole wooden leg thing made me chuckle, too.

To be a bit more specific, I liked the whole system of breaking down stuff to get parts to upgrade your current stuff, and I thought the way your guns got less accurate if you just blasted away was a good balancing tactic.

I felt like it was a bit too hard to tell whether new equipment was better than old, but as I played, I got more comfortable with that.

After playing the demo, I think it's fairly likely I'll get the game.  Probably won't play online, and definitely won't pay to play online.

[Lord Scottish]

Is there any chance of a 360 port?

[Superflat]

If anyone wants to hear more about Hellgate, Bill Roper was on last weeks 1UP Yours. They talk a lot about Hellgate and a little about some other MMOs.

To answer your question, Scottish, possibly. Roper talked a bit about ports on the podcast and said that it probably wouldn't be done by Flagship, seeing as they are mainly a PC dev team, but is something that they are always thinking about.

[Evil Gately]

Hmm, played the demo for a couple of hours and I gotta say, I'm beginning to side with the 'meh' reviews... Reminded me a lot of PSO/U's constant grinding tedium mixed with a bit of Enclave's hack 'n' slash tedium. Minus PSO/U's interesting visuals.

I was hoping for a lot better, but I'm keeping very much open minded. After all, this is a short demo (I believe you can only get as far as the Covent Garden Steam Tunnels, right?), and I doubt it fully shows off what you can do...





I hope.