Games

Best of 2008 | 07 | 06 | 05
Advanced Search

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed games.

Hellgate: London

EMAIL PRINT pc

6.2 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 40 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 315 votes
Read user comments
Rate this game >

Game Info

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: Flagship Studios

Genre(s): Action, Role-Playing Game

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Release Date: October 30, 2007

Summary

Set twenty-five years in the future, Hellgate: London introduces a world devastated by a demon invasion and a desolate city scorched by hellfire where mankind has gone underground to survive. Among them are the Templar, an archaic and secret society that foresaw this demonic apocalypse centuries ago. Followers of arcane rites, the Templar combine futuristic technology with ancient artifacts to forge powerful weapons and armor. The mystic sanctuary of the Underground system provides players safe conduct throughout the sprawling metropolis of London as they seek to preserve the bloodline of man and gain a foothold against the minions of darkness. Hellgate: London combines the depth of role-playing games and action of first-person titles, while offering infinite playability with randomly created levels, items, and events. The player creates a heroic character, completes quests, and battles through innumerable hordes of demons to advance through experience levels and branching skill paths. A robust, flexible skill and spell system, highly customizable appearances, and a massive variety of randomly generated equipment allow players to create their own unique hero. [Namco]

Cheat Codes & Hints: Cheat Code Central GameSpot Guide

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

PC Gamer

It doesn't redefine the action RPG, but in a genre laden with derivative games, Hellgate is a refreshing concoction that's likely to have enduring appeal. [Dec 2007, p.48]

NZGamer

Hellgate: London presents a wonderful story set against an artfully designed world but never goes that extra mile to separate it from the masses.

Read Full Review >

Game Informer

What Hellgate does, it does well – few games have core gameplay this strong. However, it doesn’t venture far outside of the scope of filling an XP bar or finding that next upgrade. The story isn’t much more than a thin excuse to kill demons, and the truly memorable encounters are few and far between. If you like faster-paced combat than you’ll find in the rest of the MMO genre, though, this could be a great fit.

Read Full Review >

Pelit (Finland)

Hellgate: London takes the elements that made the Diablo series classic, and puts them in new, invigorating setting of demonic threat, dark magic and high technology. The fresh world of Hellgate: London is its greatest asset, but sadly the game fails in capitalizing it properly, with quite shoddy plot and generic missions outside the main story. Nevertheless, Hellgate: London is a good action RPG with plenty to enjoy. How the multiplayer system works when the game hits stores will ultimately determine the staying power of the game. [Nov 2007]

Jolt Online Gaming UK

It’s no "Diablo 2," yet, but give it time and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by just how much is on offer here. And hey, if nothing else you get to pretend that the demons are Christmas shoppers, which makes slaughtering them just that little bit more fun.

Read Full Review >

Play Magazine

Hellgate: London arrives as an addictive and highly replayable action RPG. [Dec 2007, p.96]

GameStar

Hellgate is like the first Diablo, just in 3D. If you can live with it's weaknesses and bugs, you will enjoy the usual hunt after better items. But, being done by former Blizzard developers, it could have - and should have - been better.

Read Full Review >

Play.tm

If Hellgate: London had appeared on shelves with no hype and no known links to past gaming glories then we'd probably be sat here at the end of the review chatting about how it was a bit of an undiscovered gem that fused FPS sensibilities with Diablo-esque loot collection and character customisation to provide a thoroughly enjoyable, if slightly unpolished, experience. Unfortunately we don't have that luxury and the game's high profile throws niggles like the repetitive level design, the often dull quests and the stability issues into harsh relief.

Read Full Review >

AtomicGamer

I enjoyed Hellgate immensely. You have a ton of items to find, lots of fun monsters to kill in the randomized levels and fun bosses to face off with. If you're looking to scratch that pack-rat itch and can put up with the bugs, I'd highly recommend Hellgate.

Read Full Review >

Cheat Code Central

Hellgate: London is definitely worth the price of admission for the single-player mode, but it would be an incredible bargain if the online mode was of similar quality.

Read Full Review >

ActionTrip

Sure Hellgate: London has many features that are found in the Diablo series but they have not made a Diablo clone. The games could be called kissing cousins but for all its downsides, HG:L can be an addicting experience.

Read Full Review >

PC Zone UK

Hellgate's done itself a disservice, because it's hidden some decent fun underneath a dated, linear and difficult-to-love veneer.

Read Full Review >

PC Format

Item fiends and "Diablo II" fans will love the complex loot system but most of us will be bored senseless after just a few hours. [Christmas 2007, p.54]

PC Gamer UK

Hellgate: London hooked me, and I think it'll do the same to a lot of other players. But no matter how much I adore its juicy roleplaying sub-systems, I can't get past its wobbly core game. [Dec 2007, p.52]

GameZone

The game controls easily on the movement front, but breaking in action to press a random button can cause some frustration.

Read Full Review >

YouGamers

A disappointment. Unfinished, unpolished, monotonous and offering poor value for money with the subscription scheme. Yet it kind of grows on you over time.

Read Full Review >

PC PowerPlay

It bothers me that it seems to think it’s an update, not a rehash, of the dungeon crawl formula. It bothers me that it could have been so much more. But it is what it is: a good game which doesn’t bother with the bits it thinks we don’t care about. [Jan 2008, p.49]

Strategy Informer

All in all, Hellgate is a success in the more revolutionary areas of its gameplay, though more attention could have been paid to the typical action RPG elements that seem to have been taken for granted.

Read Full Review >

AceGamez

It's a sad conclusion to draw, but Hellgate: London will never be remembered as the role-playing classic it could have been with a little more work and a little less time paying homage to its RPG grandfather.

Read Full Review >

games(TM)

This is exactly the sort of thing Diablo fans have been waiting for and although there’s little chance that it will change your life, there’s every possibility that it will consume it. [Chrismas 2007, p.126]

GamingExcellence

All in all, Hellgate: London isn’t the next revolution in Diablo-style gameplay.

Read Full Review >

Gaming Nexus

Hellgate: London does have potential though but it's just not there yet. There's a lot of fixing the needs to be done and a lot of bugs to hammer out.

Read Full Review >

Game Over Online

The scenery is dull and repetitious, and the monsters are slow and stupid, coming at you a few at a time to be dispatched easily when a serious bull rush might actually cause you some trouble.

Read Full Review >

Worth Playing

If you're a fan of action -RPGs, then by all means add this game to your collection. Just don't expect it to be "Diablo 3." That crown still belongs to "Titan Quest."

Read Full Review >

Eurogamer

Hellgate: London is filled with gorgeous artwork and dripping with atmosphere; it's got a delicious sense of humour and finely tuned combat systems that will be keeping action RPG nuts happy for a long time. Despite this, we've got vast reservations about key aspects of the game; the randomly generated levels feel increasingly hollow, pointless and gimmicky as you progress, the user interface is clunky in some important areas, and there are clearly some hefty bugs here that need patching.

Read Full Review >

GameDaily

With all its features and the charm from its wicked sense of humor, Hellgate makes for a very entertaining game, but it needs more depth.

Read Full Review >

GameSpot

Hellgate: London has plenty of neat ideas, but many of them aren't executed as well as you'd like.

Read Full Review >

GameTap

Flagship, despite whatever mistakes it's made with Hellgate, still taps into that addicted-to-loot gland in my cranium, and I am willing to put up with its flaws. It's now a matter of whether you want to put up with its somewhat unpolished nature at the moment, or wait until Flagship possibly smoothes out the warts that its little demon is showing.

Read Full Review >

IGN

An experience that is fun for a few hours but quickly grows repetitive. The stat-driven combat takes the player one step away from the action and the modular levels and peripheral nature of the story keeps players from investing in the world.

Read Full Review >

Games Master UK

Maximum action, minimum story makes it a game you'll only dip in to. [Jan 2008, p.78]

Game Revolution

How do you score something that is so hellish (in more than one way) one second and so awesome the next? Hellgate: London probably just needed some extra time in Beta. Maybe pushing for Halloween was too much. I'm in the camp that would rather have a game delayed than have it get over-looked due to technical issues that could've been worked out beforehand.

Read Full Review >

RPG Fan

For all the twisted, macabre, death-worshiping crap that's found in this game, it only makes sense that the game itself should suffer a terrible fate.

Read Full Review >

PALGN

Hellgate: London is one of this year's biggest disappointments. It had a whole bunch of great ideas, but squandered them with weak execution, a variety of technical issues and a ridiculous subscription model.

Read Full Review >

GameSpy

If the development team had poured half the creativity and personality into the setting, character, content or story as they did into the fighting and looting, the game might have become a modern-day classic. Instead, what comes out of this Hellgate often feels a little underwhelming.

Read Full Review >

GamePro

You might get sucked into the online world of competing slayers and level grinding for a while, but the tedium will kill you far quicker than any member of Hell's vast.

Read Full Review >

Boomtown

It seems to borrow too much, and doesn’t really deliver in terms of an immersive story, hoping that the gameplay itself will be addictive enough to keep an audience captive and paying extra per month.

Read Full Review >

Edge Magazine

While World Of Warcraft and its peers provide variety through landscape, Hellgate fails utterly to conjure any motivation to investigate the next instanced dungeon. [Christmas 2007, p.97]

GameShark

For a game with such promise it’s a shame that it’s sunk into the realm of also-ran.

Read Full Review >

G4 TV

Online, however, is a broken mess as of launch. In time, you’ll probably be able to add at least a point to our score, but as of right now, you’re better off waiting to jump into this demon-infested version of London.

Read Full Review >

1UP

Underneath the frustrating instability, behind the graceless chat window, and beyond the procession of NPC dialog boxes, you tickled that deep primordial need to gather more stuff and get stronger. Loot and leveling are the essence of any RPG, and you're equipped to satisfy that jones.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 6.2 (out of 10) based on 315 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Dave K. gave it a9:
Has all the feeling and addictiveness of the Diablo games, with that "gotta get that uber item" feel to it. All of the technical flaws have been fixed, sans the almost unseen memory leak nowadays. The game is extremely fun and the community is concentrated and mature, with the majority open to partying for almost anything. I haven't tried much PvP, but that's also fun, but the core is in the PvE for me. I mark it down for technical flaws upon release, despite being fixed now. Also, there were things that were promised to subscribers that weren't implemented immediately (most have now, with exclusive content), though I never subscribed. The thing to keep in mind is that this is not a real MMO, but is closer to an FPSRPG mix of Guild Wars and Diablo 2. Give this a try nowadays and you'll likely be happy you did. Flagship definitely needs to work on polish before they ship out any more games, but they have the right idea so far.

gamer god gave it a1:
Game is full of bugs even after 3 months of patching. Sp still at .6 patch even though mp is now up to 1.0 patch. The levels/acts/skills are boring. With the new 1.0 patch that added new zone can only be play buy mp that are paying 9.99 monthly few. The lack of support from flagship on their single player patching is hard to over look. Stat feed system force you to save stats points for later use because of the high stat feed for gear/weapons/mods. It is very limiting to the amount of fun when finding new gear/weapon/mod "Don't expect to wear ever piece gear that drop for your class even if it's better." Act 5 nightmare has been mess up since release . Mobs levels are 9-12 higher then char cap lvl 50 , and is very slow in mp or sp play. Beating the game in nightmare one must forget skills/class/ gear becuase of the design you are left to do death runs in hope of igniting the boss which does 5% damage. It take 3-5 hour to kill the last name with little to no reward. Game got some problem that might never be fix imo. This game that came from the maker of diablo really left a bad taste for arpg, and one u might try to stay away from.

Jim F. gave it a2:
A total mess, lacks any of the appeal that made the Diablo games so addictive, suffers from serious bugs (even though many have been patched a lot remain) the optional subscription is a joke in itself with ridiculous seasonal 'themed' events that basically make the mobs drop a stupid amount of junk and gives you a bit of extra bank space, worth 8 quid a month? I think not! This game is an insult to the hack and slash genre, not even Diablo’s own developers could best their own creation, it’s been a big disappointment to a lot of us and no matter how we try to dress it up, this game is way below standard, and it won't be long before this flag ship sinks to the murky depths where it belongs.

Brian J. gave it a2:
I can't believe Flagship spent so much time making this game. Putting aside all the technical issues, which FS seems in no hurry to fix, the story just barely makes any sense at all. It's poorly written and poorly executed. As a player with no interest in multiplayer I feel particularly ripped off. It's great to say that "no game is perfect at launch", but for single player what you get for $50 is just what's in the box. What's in the box is a half completed game. I gave it a 2 instead of a 1 because it was fun for a few days.

Kevin L. gave it a2:
The game has so many bugs, the most annoying are the out of memory crash occuring every hour. This is particurlary annoying when you're doing a quest, the crash force you to restart. This is aside of all the other instability, frame rates, network issues. The game is also repetitive and lacks contents. I was expecting a lot from this game initially but after playing it, I realize how buggy and repetitve the game is.

Alex gave it a2:
I bought this game back in November a little bit after it was coming out, and I just couldn't understand how people PAID money every month for this game, some even paying over $100 for the lifetime subscription. It claims to have raids and all that when your installing, but the only difference between paying $15 a month and not is having the option of making a hardcore character.... if you can get past normal mode being as boring as it is. Everybody is a prick and hates to party, which was the only fun part in my mind. This game is such a waste of time and money, I wouldn't buy it again even if it was only $10, save your money and buy a BB gun and shoot yourself in the eye, its much more fun I can guarantee it... swing and a complete miss in my book.

J C gave it a7:
Metacritic's average rating hit the nail dead on. Usually I dont play games with under an 80 rating, simply b/c it usually isnt my time. It isnt the greatest game, it has many flaws. Multiplayer HAS been fixed since launch. You cant expect a game to be 100% perfect at launch and things like multiplayer will only be seen when users cant connect. So I dont hold that against them. However, it is a BASE GAME. By this I mean it contains the basis of an RPG without much fluff. Follow the main quest and you will do fine. It is not a challenging game unless you play hardcore. It was somewhat dissapointing but its not a horrible game in my opinion. Yes it is mindless killing.

Games

Sony

Microsoft

Nintendo

Other Platforms

Upcoming &Recent Releases

Hellgate: London

Game Info

Summary

What The Critics Said

What Our Users Said

Upcoming &
Recent Releases