The game is good, it's just not the end-all-be-all-savior-of-all-RPGs-with-hyphens-included. It's mediocre. run of the mill.

It's not the atrocity that some make it out to be, but it's also not god in a box. The game tried to be Diablo 2 with a twist, which it is. It plays like Diablo 2, its graphics are gorgeous, it captures the "evil" feel (perhaps a little too much, environments are pretty drab.) But, it tries so hard to be Diablo 2 that it just fails in many areas. NPCs are something that stands out. You click on a guard, and if you're a guy, he's gruff and stereotypical, if you're a girl, he asks you to rub oil all over yourself. There's some intense in-depth dialog there. Totally immersed.

The diablo crowd was mostly attracted because it was simple, fun, and casual. Hellgate London is simple, and fun. A hazy area of this game lies in the "casual" field, mostly regarding fees. It's true, you can play this game online without paying a monthly fee, that's great. But it penalizes you.

If you play online without paying a fee, you become quite literally a second-cla-ss citizen. You can't start guilds, you can't become an officer of a guild, you get reduced storage space, other disadvantages to game play, as well as being restricted from obtaining content updates.

The EA influence of this game rings out true and clear with its in-game ads. My vision of an apocalyptic world is not riddled with the likes of nVidia ads, but someone's wallet at EA Games disagrees with that vision. It's pretty annoying to know that even in the game you paid big money for, you're still not safe from ridiculous advertising, especially when its spiritual predecessor did not require you to pay a monthly fee to be worthy of playing the game to its maximum capacity, and the strength of Diablo II was in its multiplayer aspect.

The FPS aspect feels tacked on, but honestly, that's a technological problem as well as a design flaw. Bringing first-person into the game attempts to attract that type of gamer, but that gamer will be sorely dissatisfied. The recoil of your gun amounts to the expansion of your crosshairs, with no other visual aid whatsoever. Not even a slight rise of the barrel of your weapon. It brutally sucks the intensity out of first person play when your character has been firing a fully automatic weapon for 15 seconds and still recycles the same shooting animation and sound. Overall the first-person plays a lot like Planetside, it's passable, but there's no "umph" to it, and no satisfaction, either. I actually found third person a lot more satisfying, because at least you don't have to look at your stupid weapon. (lack of a better adjective.)

The game is also invasive regarding your system and you as a gamer. Accepting the game's EULA means you submit to the collection of 'technical and related information that identifies your computer, including without limitation your Internet Protocol address, operating system, application software and peripheral hardware'." Not a big deal to some, but it adds to my list of "why-nots" for this game.

The animations and gameplay variability is pretty weak, but those flaws will probably be fixed with the patches that you have to pay for. The game is definitely still in WIP (work in progress) form, and I think they alienate a lot of their target audience with failed attempts in multiple areas. The most blatant of which being the stupid online system, ads, tacked on gameplay aspects, and the lack of LAN capability. I played the demo and the beta, and remain unimpressed. At best, Hellgate London will serve as both inspiration and a caution to aspiring developers. I think they should've taken more time developing it to perfection, especially if they expect you to pay for it.AdobewanKenobi

Well said.

[QUOTE="Johnny_Rock"]

[QUOTE="I_pWnzz_YoU"]millions more would play if they didnt have to pay $15 a monthDragonfireXZ95

And how would that matter if they were losing the $15 a month, 8.5 million are paying now?

Also just think how much it costs for upkeep and bandwidth (the big money eater) for one 5,000 person server and multiply that by the 200 or so servers that they need to keep up per month. We're talking millions per month just in upkeep. That's not including development and salaries (including U.S. healthcare costs for said employees). It's amazing how people thinks that MMO's are pure income once they're released.

You really don't know much about economics do you? Take the number of people playing, and multiply that by 15; that's how much money they would be losing each month. Oh, and don't post your shi**y computer specs in your sig, it makes you look like a dweeb, although speaking out of ignorance and idiocy does the job quite nicely itself. :P

Leave the guy alone.

Just because you have the patience of an Arsehat doesn't mean you get the right to rip on anyone you want.

Deserves a 9.3-9.5

But knowing Gamespot, whom consider WCIII's "Hero Rush" a perplexing stragety, we all know this will be over their heads.
:P

The Space RTS is dying because it is spending less energy innovating as a seperate Genre and more incorporating ideals from other Genres.

Playing these Space games, I feel like I'mliving in the 17th Centuryrather then in an actual"space".

Nexus Died because it didn't have an "Empire" mode. Which is a pity, because Nexus's engine could have made it incredible.

Sins of a Solar Empire, though, is okay, and should be for what RTS Space fans are left around. I'm in the beta, and I can say it is fairly decent. Really advanced Tech Tree, Great Graphics, but the combat is a simple slugfest similiar to any EA C&C rehash.

I won't even bother reading the first post. The thread name has it all.

Think: Starcraft 2 + C&C3.

enough said.

humbugdude

Know: What a Space RTS is....

World in Conflict.
Total War Series
Gal Civ 2
Company of Heroes

In the end, it's the taste you own that matters, rather then the critque of others.

Some pretty intelligent points and posts are flying around.
The only problem with this issue is that this is a new phenomen and most people we use for guidance and wisdom haven't experinced this first hand nor have the benefit of history to guide them. After all, realistic gaming is incredibly youthful while 80's gaming itself is already dead. The only few similitaries they have together is a time commimentint and their relative brain stimulation; but other then an occasional gathering, whose to say Pen-and-Paper RPGs have had a lesser effect?

Yet at the same time, this phenomen is so young (MMORPGS for instance) that the intellectual community has yet to even react to this uprise; more or less develop a code or some sort of sanctioned philisophical thought that could allow us to "listen" to the ripples created by the industry and to "see" the future effects and debate the creation of this new media outlet. Morality, economics, the adaption and rewriting of Human Culture, and the formation of a fully fresh interactive media outlet is yet to be fully addressed with clarity. (Due to it's youth)

Nevertheless, gaming is certainly not a form of corruptive brainwash by any circumstance as much as it is a form of a Interactive Media Outlet and a Cultural occupative hobby. The very same click that makes the pong ball bounce is being used to "simulate" murder and the greatest scales imaginable. To the conscience being, it is more then apparant, it's daughstrfully horrible. But to brain, does it truly understand the difference. After all, isn't it but stimuli to a react-reward equation.

(But by definition though, a Media, in order to be effective, must have the ability to Brainwash, for it must grab attention and control in order for it to be acceptable, but I feel I've written my fair share of text rather then going on.)

In this very end, Technology will continue to push the boundries of our lives and further shape the Human Race to whatever it becomes, good or bad. But for all I know, Technology has never been a portyral of reality; only an escape, an alternative, or at the very, very best; a crude depiction.

As for me, though, I will always continue to hit the button to grab that one last bannana :D