Hellgate: London

[DennisS]

This is a somewhat convoluted story.

Hellgate: London was originally released back in 2007, as an excellent action RPG, like Diablo II or Borderlands.

I played the hell out this game, one of my favorite games of all time.

The game company, Flagship Studios, went bankrupt, and a Korean developer, Handbitsoft, bought the IP. They took the IP, and turned it into an MMO, for mainly S. Korean players. It lasted several years. They nerfed the rate of experience game, added a fifth act, Tokyo, and established a number of pay walls and pay to win items for their MMO.

Their MMO also fell on hard times, and died.

So...Hanbitsoft re-imagined this game back into a single person game, and put it on steam for about $10. Gone are the micro transactions, but there do exist quite a few gameplay enhancements, left over from the time this game spent as an MMO, exept for the last Tokyo act. This last act is still being cleaned up to work in single player.

No multi player mode, no micro transactions for bag space, no top tier bosses hidden behind a pay wall.

I love this game..and wanted to share this with the community.

[Gusington]

How does the game hold up graphics wise after all that time?

[DennisS]

How does the game hold up graphics wise after all that time?

Surprising well. It is a DX9 product, so there are some minor issues.

I would suggest looking at a new youtube video from killrob. Killrob has the newest steam version. Most other videos are either from bootleg, older variants, or those associated with the old MMO.

[Gusington]

Thanks for posting - I was very interested in this game when it was released originally but never picked it up. If the single player is still solid I may get it this time around.

[DennisS]

Thanks for posting - I was very interested in this game when it was released originally but never picked it up. If the single player is still solid I may get it this time around.

This is a very complex, solid action RPG. Rip up poor quality weapons and armor, to get materials of varying quality to build new gear. Blueprints can be found as loot, as can various types of mods.

Weapons can have mod slots, up to EIGHT of them. A fancy Markmanship's sniper rifle can be decked out to be something that is just ... beastly!

All gear can be trans-mogrified (for a steep price) to be changed from normal to uncommon, or from rare to elite.

All things considered, my favorite ARPG game of all time, and I played all Diablo's, all Torchlights, all Sacred's, and all Borderlands' IP's.

[Gusington]

Favorite of all time?? WHAT

How many hours of gameplay are there, if you had to guess?

[DennisS]

Favorite of all time?? WHAT

How many hours of gameplay are there, if you had to guess?

As a guess, perhaps 60 hours per each archetype, 8 of those.

Each type has three skill trees, and having played all of them, with multiple builds, I would say in the several hundreds.

If you have played Titan Quest, it would be comparable. Call it several hundred hours.

[Yskonyn]

Unfortunately I find these games the most fun in a multiplayer setting where you can trade stuff and show off you gear.

I was all over the original game as well. I even uppef my data rate with the ISP for it at the time! The setting was unique and graphically it was superb at the time.
It was a big big dissapointment to see it fail and susequently turned into some Korean P2W grindfest.

[spelk]

Imagine enjoying the original online/subscription game so much that you buy the £100 lifetime subscription, and then they shut shop. Then they reopen shop without your lifetime subscription. And now after beating it senseless and microtransactioning it up on the Korean market, they're stripping it of its multiplayer and trying to sell it to us lot again.

"It was developed by a team led by former Blizzard Entertainment employees, some of whom had overseen the creation of the Diablo series."

It was a pretty good cyberpunk demonic hellscape shoot-a-thon loot-a-matic. It was great. But it was ripped apart and prostituted out, and now its back, to whore itself all over again. Makes me sad.

Some screenshots I took at the time..

[Gusington]

So this is just a cash grab or can I fall in love with it the way DennisS did all those years ago?

[Yskonyn]

Oh man, spelk, I am with you 100% on this! I was a lifetimer as well!
No way they are getting a cent from me anymore.

I guess if you are ok with SP the game could still be fun Gus!

[Tpek]

I'm having some fun with this game, but it didn't age that well.

@Spelk, it was originally an SP game. After it failed the first time, it was relaunched as a "MMORPG".

[DennisS]

All right, calm down.

The original developers, Flagship, created a brilliant game. Many of these guys were from Blizzard North, that created Diablo II.

They fell on hard times, and sold it to the Korean company, Hanbitsoft. You can't blame them for getting something for their IP.

Now...the South Koreans created a cash cow MMO, with subscriptions, pay to win, micro-transactions, everything. The gameplay was modified to fit an MMO...much, MUCH slower leveling, and of course, multi-player. In addition to all this, a fifth act, Tokyo, was created.

The MMO also fell on hard times, and failed.

I have been a part of other MMO's that failed, notably Pirates of the Burning Sea, which I enjoyed immensely. I am still not happy with that. Naval Action is going that way, as well.

But....this is a GOOD game. GUS - Go for it. $9.74 on Steam. I have wasted four times that much on junk.

IF you liked Titan Quest, Sacred, Torchlight, Diablo 2 or 3, and/or Borderlands, you should enjoy this game a lot. I have thousands of hours in the six games mentioned, and I liked Hellgate: London as much, or more, than any of them.

For those that feel burned by the failure of the MMO, I get it. You don't wish to support Hanbitsoft. I have a few game companies that I refuse to support as well...but it doesn't stop this game from being a blast to play.

[Father Ted]

I don't think that the graphics are dated at all - that's pretty much what London and Londoners look like these days.

[MC]

I think this all happens after Brexit.  :)