There have been alot of hellgate london sucks, or hellgate london is awesome threads floating around but honestly most of them barely go into the elements of the game, and most seem like pretty pathetic attempts to sway public opinion instead of actually informing players about certain elements of the game. I hope to explain the elements of the game and allow the readers to make up their own minde based on what I've experienced in the beta.
I'll start with storytelling. The story is actually quite interesting, and is fairly unique and complex. The problem is the presentation for the story is boring and not-visual at all. If you're a fan of old school RPG's and don't mind reading the plot then it's fairly interesting. If you're one of the many gamers who wants Cut-scenes, and voice acting instead of text then you're going to think the story is crap. So in short the presentation of the story is not good at all, but the story itself is well thought out if you don't mind reading. Also in the beta the voice acting is very, very cheesy which is funny sometimes, and annoying others (I've heard that the VO will be toned down in the full version, but that's rumor).
Onto the graphics. This is actually my weak point since I'm playing on a low end PC. Overall I'm impressed, and the game runs great eventhough I'm almost right at min-specs (2.0ghz AMD, 1gig ram, and a 6600LE). It's not as pretty as say fear, and Half-life, but still much better than most modern games like oblivion, bioshock, and Company of heroes. I wish I could give you my high end PC experience, but I can't. I will note that the art direction is pretty good, and eventhough it's topic is pretty common in pc games it does have a unique art style.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is a touchy and complicated subject so this might turn out to be a long read. First off the game takes almost zero physical skill so don't expect a crazy FPS type game. Though moving your character around, and using FPS strategy has many advantages. Most of this game is strategy, and equipment based. The games equipment is very diverse, and complicated. You've got a ton of different effects that can effect your stats and skills, and it's one of the most complicated equipment systems I've seen. I haven't gotten that indepth with it but at lvl 18 it seems like you have a ton of tough designs when it comes to armor, and though I'm not sure it seems like there isn't an uber armor item that is best for each class. Legendary items are best, but they seem to varry alot depending on bonus stats. When it comes to weapons you've got the same situation but it's much more complicated since you now have MODs you can enhance your weapons with. The spell/skill system isn't as indepth as most hardcore RPGs giving each class about 25 or so different skills each with levels that need to be built up. It takes awhile to really get your character moving, and I've already made several strategy mistakes in building my summoner, because I want to test everything out instead of build up the right skills.
Overall the fighting consists of holding down the mouse button until everything is dead, of course the weapons you use, and your skills can kill things alot faster. The game starts off super easy so you really don't have to think too much about strategy, but it does get progressively harder and if you don't start using the right equipment you'll probably die, or run away alot. The missions consist of go here, kill this much like diablo so don't be expecting anything complicated like escort missions, recon or something like that. The level design is hit, and miss. Sometimes it's easy to tell it's randomly generated, and the design is very repetitive, and once in a while you get an incredible design that's just mind-blowing-ly awesome. Most the time it's a bit above average which is pretty impressive for random level design.
I haven't really played socially so I really don't know if that element of the game will be worthwhile or not. So far the beta doesn't seem very "party friendly" with few features but maybe I'm just being a hermit, or the community is just too new. I really don't see the point or value of the $10 optional subscription. It really seems like an attempt to milk hardcore fans by giving them options that should be in the free verson of the game. I really feel they gimped the free users to make paying look like a better value, and personally I'd never pay for that.
There are tons of bugs in the beta, like a memory leak that crashes the game after playing for a couple hours or so. You can get stuck pretty easily, or get a network error and several other bugs are still around. I hope that most of the bugs have been fixed, but I wouldn't be surprised if many make it into the retail verson. Most will probably be fixed as online play continues, and hopefully we're not looking at another Battlefield 2 here. Honestly the only two I hate is the memory leak, and network errors, though getting stuck isn't much fun either.
Obviously this game isn't going to hit if off with everybody especially those that are accustom to modern RPGs with really cool cut-scenes, and tons of unique missions/quests. Those looking for a RPG/FPS hybrid will also be quite dissapointed since there's really no FPS elements beside the view, and movement. I do think this game will appeal to people that want to spend hours and hours collecting unique items to make their character better. I really don't know this for sure since I don't have the full version, and I'm not really that far in the game. So far I've enjoyed the beta but still not sure if I want the game or not. I really don't think I'd enjoy the game on a part-time basis, and don't have the time to be a hardcore player (much like WOW).
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