MMO Review – Hellgate Global

Back in 2007 – a bunch of people from Blizzard started a company to make Hellgate: London. An Action Roleplaying game that you could play as single player or Multiplayer mode. It was very much like Diablo…but in a post-apocalyptic setting. I found it to be a nice change from the MMOs I was playing at the time and bought a copy for my son and I. We had fun with it for a month or two but lost interest to….something else. It was very fun though.

The game didn’t last all that long though due to the lack of players and the company (Flagship Studios) going bankrupt. It was sold and a company in Korea picked it up and released it as an MMO. Finally this year it was re-translated back to English and released in the US as free-to-play. It has changed slightly from its original design and expanded with more areas, quests, a cash shop and marketplace.

If you have never heard of it, I would ask you to give it a try. It is a shooter type game, but not a hardcore first person shooter. I myself play in 3rd person mode 90% of the time unless in sniper mode. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic London after demons infest the world and humans are forced into hiding underground. The settings are a mixture of destroyed city streets, subway tunnels and pathways, outdoor fields, and hellish ruins. Many of the zones are randomly generated and each zone outside of stations are instanced just for you or your group. Npcs give you assignments and some lead you on the games unending main storyline to fight back the hordes of evil that brought the world to its current state.

It is very much a Diablo clone in that you need to identify items, play Tetris to organize your cube style inventory, upgrade your weapons with slots and take a gamble with a chance of improving your weapons. There are different levels of rarity of weapons and armor. You gain skill points and choose different paths to spec your person how you like and choose what stats to increase. They even have a Transmogrifying Cube to make special items or combine things.

There are 6 classes – 2 with swords, 2 with guns/bots, and 2 with magic/minions. All classes can use guns….just different types. Grouping doesn’t use the trinity of Healer, Tank, DPS…there are no healers. Most classes have some skills mixed in to heal themselves, and there are HP injectors. A tank type person can be handy in some very hard boss fights but everyone is a DPS’er and that is pure fun.

Hellgate is non-stop action, creepy and dark, and will give you a bit of an adrenalin rush as you mow down enemies and sneak through tunnels. You can solo all of the beginning of the game but as you get into your 40′s you will run into a boss or two that you just can’t down alone. At that point just look for a group or enlist a buddy. This is a very fun game to grab 1 or 2 other people to level up with you. My son and I have a blast together. It won’t become your next MMO that you stay in for years, but it is a great game to get some entertainment value from…and its FREE (though they did build in a point where you can’t progress in the game without buying a pass when you are around level 20….so you have to buy it from the cash shop for $4 or make enough cash in game to buy one from another player.)

Downsides to the game: Scenery can get a bit repetitive, there are some odd translations and items called “Needs Translation” still hanging around. People can sorta buy in game money for cash if they buy passes and sell them in game. The Marketplace could use a way better search function and the marksman could use a bit of love, but other than that, I didn’t really run into any bugs.

Recommendation: Worth the download – Get it here!