digitalmeandering.com

I’m a big computer geek, as if you couldn’t tell already, and a goodly amount of my free time is tied up with video games. I’ve been taking a psuedo-break from my World of Warcraft addiction (meaning I still play WoW.. just not quite *as* much) and have been giving a couple games from Flagship Studios a try.

For know I’ll focus on their big name title, Hellgate: London. Luckily they officially lifted the NDA today, so I can get into the gory details without fear of .. my moral conscious? Keep in mind that all my comments/praises/criticisms are all based on a beta build of the game, so things can (and probably will) change when the game goes live this Halloween.

Anyways, lets get on with the good stuff. I’ll give my opinion of the game in four categories: Gameplay, Multiplayer, Graphics, & Sound, and pick an arbitrary number from 1 to 5 to rate it where 3 is a good solid average. I’ll follow that with my one sentence sum-up of the game overall.

Hellgate: London

Gameplay: Overall the interface is excellent, the controls are easy to grasp and the transition from 3rd person perspective to 1st person is flawless and really gives the game that added dimension over other dungeon crawlers where you’re stuck staring at your characters “posterior-portion” the whole time.
Rating: 4 (of 5)

Multiplayer: For the most part I have no complaints here, but I also don’t have any real praises either. There’s no real standout features; you form a party, go forth and slay the monsters, and collect the loot. Though there is a nice little feature, much like Guildwars whatever loot you see that drops is all yours, no one else can pick it up.
Rating: 3 (of 5)

Graphics: In one word, AWESOME. The graphics are brilliantly rendered, even on my lowly DX9 graphics card, and the models and tile-sets are superbly well done.
Rating: 5 (of 5)

Sound: All the sounds and audio are well done, the NPC’s London accents are hilarious to us ‘yanks’ and I love the sounds of demons and beasts in their deathly throes.
Rating: 4 (of 5)

In Short: The game utterly rocks, it just needs a few minor tweaks to really bring it up to a place where it can steal some serious marketshare away from World of Warcraft and Guildwars.