A Solid RPG Which will keep you going until Mass Effect
User Rating: 8.5 | Hellgate: London PC
I bought this game without hesitation - if the creators of Diablo2 were releasing a game along similar lines, well it's a must have. I've been playing Hellgate (single player) for 6 or 7 hours in total up to now - and in all, I like it - its good fun: good graphics, (not the absolute best but then playability is more important than graphics), great setting, interesting characters to choose from, lots of skills and character upgrades and the ability to modify/upgrade almost all equipment you find. So why then am I not raving about this game as the best ever, rather than just saying its 'good fun'? I think the fundamental problem is that it has lost something in 'translation' from a 3rd person hack and slash to what is essentially a 1st person shooter. One of the main reasons people liked, (and continue to like), Diablo2 was that in addition to the character generation and loot grabbing, it has a coherent linear story, real plot development and excellent NPC characters. Hellgate, in comparison doesn't have any of these. For example, it has some of the worst NPC characters ever - they sound like village idiots! Why did Flagship not just have them read out their quests instead of having them make stupid random outbursts? - I actually think that removing their voices altogether would be preferrable to what we have now. Plot is another area which suffers - you don't really get the feeling you are progressing in the game as it seems to be just one long monster-shoot for no particular purpose. Even with the character upgrades to keep you interested, I think this will get a bit boring after time. Fundamentally, this game is a halfway house trying to please both RPG Diablo/NWN fans and 1st person shooter Halo/Bioshock fans: unfortunately you can't please all of the people all of the time and I don't think it really represent a classic of either genre. While it is good, and I would recommend it, I don't think that this game will stand the test of time as well as Diablo has...pity really. 
