A game that falls in the "is not a bad game" category instead of being "it is a great game".
This game puts you in the boots of a Templar tasked with the destruction of the hellish menace that afflicts London. You can choose to be one of these 6 classes: Blademaster (the barbarian) Guardian (the paladin), Evoker (the sorceress) Engineer (the druid), Summoner (the necromacer) and the marksman (the amazon). Each of these classes has its own pros and cons, like, the blademaster dual wielding swords for great effect to the expense of no shields, or the guardian being a walking tank against masses but not being equally effective against single foes. The classes are very well balanced, and each are different enough so that each provides a unique gaming experience.
But theres where "unique" ends. Once you start to play, youll notice not only that graphics are barely beyond Tabula Rasa's level (which means that arent exactly gorgeous), but also animations for your char can be counted with a single hand fingers... and not all fingers are needed. This gives a repetitive air to the slashing which is worsened terribly by the fact that all dungeons look EXACTLY the same (actually, I had one dungeon that was the same as one 3 stations before... just that with the starting stairs mirrored). The "sameness" on layouts wouldnt bother me that much, if it werent because of t he fact that there seems to be only 4 tilesets: Subway (for stations) sewers, street and maintenance. Of course, there is hell, but that sub-cluster is not even worthy of counting. If you are able to see through this clouding faults, however, youll find a very (and I mean VERY) addictive game. The amount of loot you can gather is almost overwhelming, and is generously dropped among the also generously provided demons.
However, like a vicious circle, we find the same repetitiveness on the demon slaying. See, while Doom's demons had the advantage of being the first, and Diablo's of being small enough for you not to care, the similarity of demons here is so "in-your-face" that youll feel at times you never left the first dungeon. Level 1 Flesh Golems are exactly the same as Level 10 Grotesques, and the same applies to other beasties. Ive been playing for 38 hours, and I swear Ive only seen like, 20 monsters. Of course, there are more than 4 variations each, allegedly being "80" monsters... But changing color and size sometimes doesnt cut it.
But, even if they are all twins, they are incredibly satisfactory to kill. The sound of sword cutting flesh and flames burning meat is fantastic... But, regrettably, bullet penetrating brains isnt as good. Weapons feel like they are all fake, and the feeling is even more notorious without ammo or reloading of any kind. This makes the marksman a rather noiseless class... in a bad way.
Other quirks include MASSIVE framerate drops without any reason (I ran 58 FPS on a massive train station warehouse with 50+ critters on screen but slowed down to 2-5 FPS staring at a box =/ ) and some shadow clippin bugs.
Now, after reading all this, you might say that this game is bad, right?
Well, let me tell you: despite of the times Ive cursed at the frame drops, yawned at the same creeps and stretched at the "random" dungeons, the game is actually FUN. When you find a boss you feel some sort of rush, and seeing all those demons waiting just for you to go and slash their puny asses is an extremely entertaining task. Sure, quests arent extremely bright, but that doesnt stop you from slaying lots of monsters with a smile in your face. Music makes a great job at transmitting power, even if kicks in randomly and ever-so-fleeting.
The skills offer a large array of customizing branches, but is a bit messy. Youll have to be careful to look all the options and requirements to succeed on leveling your toon the way you want to.
So, there. A Hellgate: London review without saying the word "Diablo". Of course, now that the review has ended, let me add a P.S:
P.S: This game is modern age Diablo II. Shame Diablo II did all of this before. Otherwise, Hellgate London would have been a revelation. As is, is like "Future Diablo II Mod for Tabula Rasa". And even like that, it delivers.