Hellgate, it delivers on some levels but falls short of others. Good mindless fun though.
The game starts out with a tutorial to get you to grip the basics and yet you're left dangling on some concepts like crafting and augment, so self-exploration is advised.
Then you play through the first set of quests and think, "This is too easy.", worry not, the difficult will pick up sometime later. On quests, this game has a LOT of quests, a lot lot. An NPC might hand out on average between 3-6 quests throughout the game and theres quite a few of them standing around so if you're a completionist, enjoy, though the quests do do a good job at getting you to explore the various maps and what not.
Then you'll notice the much-hyped randomization of practically everything thats not located in a station, bit of a let down there, there's a slight lacking of map templates that they use so expect to see the same environments with the layout of the crates scattered differently each time. But to me, that's only a slight dent in the game, I didn't expect much here anyway, but some more variety and/or eye catching locales wouldn't hurt
Next up, while taking up quests, you'll hear a bit of the dialogue, which to say, is um... not what you expect to hear from a post-apocalyptic game. The game tries a bit too hard at humour. The written text also follows this trend. I found it irritating the first time I played the game but some how got hooked in the next sitting.
You'll then listen to the various characters and they'll fill you in on the game's story, which is to say, a gate from hell (Hellgate), opened in london (Hellgate: London, woopee) and demons pour out and screw everyone to, well, hell. If you read the previews for the game then you pretty much covered it. There is an additional sub-plot in the game but then the game suffers from horrid storyline pacing, some of the chapters are too long or too short.
On the gameplay itself, the item randomization is nice, and there's loads you can do to step up your equipment even more it's nice for stat-freaks. The ranged combat is a little meh, and the guns lack the umph you'd expect. Still the combat is engaging and there's always the "one more chest/dungeon/item run" feeling so thats a plus.
On graphics I can't really say as I don't have a killer system but on medium the game does the job. Small tip, if you experience frequent lagging due to having a weaker system, reduce your graphics settings, the game's more fun when it plays smooth.
Oh yeah, I myself am not into the online thing Flagship's got going but you people can decide that one yourselves.
Alright, that was still a bit long so here's a summary for all you lazy people.
+ Item hunting!
+ Weird dialogue humour, if you're into that kinda thing
+ As Gamespot says, sucks you in.
+ Cool looking cyberknight dudes and monsters
+ Lots of quests
+ Game is practically a time sink
+ Good for vegetarians! (Sorry, had to put that somewhere)
- Weird dialogue humour, in you're not into that kinda thing
- Lack of music most of the time
- Story pacing problems
- Guns lack umph, seriously
- Random levels not up to hype
- Rocky start at the beginning of the game
All in all, Hellgate is more suited to the casual gamer than the hardcore. If you're looking for mindless, it doesn't get anymore mindless than this, trust me.