Hellgate: London

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Hellgate: London is a dark fantasy themed action role-playing game developed by Flagship Studios, released on Oct. 31, 2007 (5 years ago). It was developed by a team headed by former Blizzard Entertainment employees, some of whom had overseen the creation of the Diablo series. In 2008 (4 years ago) Flagship Studios filed bankruptcy and all intellectual property was seized because it was used as collateral for funding received from Comerica Bank. Subsequently, development of the game halted. Namco Bandai Games provided free ongoing US/EU server support in the fall of Flagship Studios until 31 Jan. 2009 (3 years ago), when the US/EU multiplayer game servers and websites were taken offline. HanbitSoft has since acquired properties to the game and it is being developed and played in Korea to date.

Set in a post-apocalyptic London in the year 2038, Hellgate: London is a fast paced action role playing 'hack and slasher'. The game featured both singleplayer and online multiplayer support when it was released although US/EU online support has since shutdown. Flagship Studios released 1 major MP content update The Stonehenge Chronicles and the 2nd The Abyss Chronicles on the test server before the studios closure. Similar to the Diablo series, randomization is embedded into many of the game mechanics including weapon and armor attributes, item drops, mob spawns and level composition. The singleplayer version features a 5 act story quest line and when completed, the player is eligible to restart the story line again in Nightmare difficulty and create new characters in Elite mode.

Trailer

Gameplay

Hellgate: London is an action role-playing game that builds upon the core design of roguelikes by using random generation of maps, monsters, and loot to allow for replayability. The game can be played in either third person perspective or first person perspective. Melee classes are set to a third-person view and cannot select first-person perspective, whereas ranged classes default to a first-person view but can switch to third-person if so desired. Precision aiming is not required to use most weapons; which track their targets, “lock-on”, or carpet an area with explosives. The game contains sniper rifles and other weapons that require accurate manual aiming, though most are exclusive to the Hunter faction. Hellgate: London can be played offline or online without a fee. Players can pay a monthly fee to gain additional content over time, including new areas, weapons, monsters, classes, quests, events, titles, game modes and other content. The game consists of six acts to unify the areas a player travels through on a greater scale. All acts account for approximately 25–40 hours of single-player gameplay.

The game world of Hellgate: London is a set of demon-infested dungeons and city streets, featuring safe zones such as disused Underground stations. The safe zones scattered across the world act as havens, where players can purchase and upgrade items at NPC merchants, interact with other players in the game world, and commence or complete quests. The journey between zones is randomly generated, levels are fully 3D, rendered with the game's own proprietary graphics engine. Included in these environments are randomly generated enemies, bosses and items. The game features historical London areas and buildings, St Paul's Cathedral was featured in an early concept art drawing. Another building that has been brought up in an interview is the Clock Tower which houses Big Ben.

Singleplayer

The singleplayer version of Hellgate: London hosts the 5 act story quest line. Elite characters can be created once a character has completed the story quest line once. The story line can be repeated in Nightmare difficulty starting with mobs starting at level 30. A characters experience is capped at 50 levels while enemies in Nightmare difficulty can reach level 62.

The last SP patch Flagship Studios released is known as version 1.2. The file is no longer officially hosted but can be found from various third parties.

Multiplayer

Hellgate: London was designed to be primarily focused on solo and cooperative PvE combat, but players can duel and there is a free-for-all PvP Mode for subscribers. Dueling can only take place outside of Underground hubs. Players can also choose to enter into PvP mode, which means they can be attacked and harmed outside of Underground hubs by anyone else that has chosen to enter PvP mode. That is, those in PvP mode, must always be ready for PvP. This is a way to have wide-ranging free-for-alls, or create a “friendly-fire” way of playing the game. In multiplayer mode, players can meet and organize for team play and quests in safe zones - the old Underground stations, protected by the Freemasons' wards. The world will not be split in "shards" or servers, but rather play like a massively multiplayer online game with heavy instancing, such as Guild Wars. Every character is capable of soloing the entire game. Grouping with other players is optional, though grouping will bring benefits in terms of experience gain and items. As the number of players within an instance increase, the difficulty of the instance increases. The game does not feature LAN support. The servers were shut down on Feb. 1, 2009 (3 years ago).

Reception

The game received average reviews, with a Metacritic average of 71%, based on 39 reviews and GameRankings average of 70%, based on 42 reviews.

Positive aspects of the game commented on by reviewers include its story, described as "not totally original" but "still very much enjoyable", and the overall look of the game.

Other aspects of the game received mixed reception. For instance, some reviewers called the combat enjoyable, with varied classes, and praised the loot and customisation aspects, while other reviewers described combat as underdeveloped and monotonous, with quest repetition and locked progression choices.

Similarly, the game's technology received mixed reviews. The multiplayer component was both praised and criticised, with some bugs, slowdowns and crashes mentioned.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

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