EGTV: Exclusive Hellgate videos

By Robert Purchese Published 9 November, 2007

Here be dragons, well, demons.

Hellgate might be a bit like Diablo and similar to Titan Quest, but then it is made by ex-Blizzard staff. Besides, Diablo was fantastic anyway - and now we have sumptuous graphics to dress it in.

The game has been out for a week already and we have given you our review, but to take it one step further we thought we would capture footage of us playing it to give you an idea of what you can really expect.

The English footage, best served with fish and chips, shows our heroic warrior Bertie go from creation to world renowned hero. Along the way he levels up - as you might expect - and fiddles around with skill trees, statistics and his inventory. He also chats to other people in tube stations to gather-up some quests and ventures through a hellgate to take on some big, named nasties.

Key points to notice are how skilful this Bertie character is at dispatching the hordes of demons, as he uses his left-click attack that restores health over time for each enemy killed, and right-stick blade flurry-like ability - as well as medical kits and some other attack, too. That is just the tip of the iceberg, too, and it all gets bigger and more complicated as you go.

Not content with that footage, then you can head over to Eurogamer Germany and Eurogamer France for an alternative look at what we got up to. No two videos are the same, you should remember, so each time you plug-in you will be rewarded.

Hellgate: London was released last Friday to solid critical reception - pop over to our review to find out more.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Rayn #1 4 years ago

    Here be boredom
    Seriously, this has to be one of the most hyped turds for ages?
    I've got the game, I've played it up to lvl 16 but I really couldn't be arsed to go any further. Embarassingly bad GUI, repetitive locations, bad animation, uninspired combat, unoriginal skillsets and classes, dire graphics and a suicidal colour palette.

  • ratmaggot #2 4 years ago

    That poster, up there, no.1, him.

    I don't think he liked Hellgate.

  • ZuluHero #3 4 years ago

    shh.. if we stay really really quiet he might go away...

  • Gurgeh #4 4 years ago

    1. They've had some problems with their billing system where a number of subscribers were being billed every day instead of every month. This was fixed - although it took them 5 days to sort it out.

    2. If you cancel your subscription you lose your subscriber's rights immediately, even if you still have days (or weeks) left on your account.

    3. The game still has numerous bugs especially memory leaks.

    4. The game isn't balanced at all into the higher levels - meaning you can have a really tough time making progress. And by tough I don't mean "requires skill", I mean "requires hours of grinding away at easier monsters"

    Upshot: wait and see if they fix the game before purchasing.

  • UncleLou #5 4 years ago

    Embarassingly bad GUI, repetitive locations, bad animation, uninspired combat, unoriginal skillsets and classes, dire graphics and a suicidal colour palette.

    First two yes, the rest is nonsense.

  • Lim-Dul #6 4 years ago

    No, the bad animation and uninspired combat bit is true as well (the other may be nonsense =)... I mean look at the video - the blademaster runs like a fag and his main method of attack seems to consist of flailing his arms around madly... Over and over again, that is...

    I was SO overwhelmed when I actually got to play this game. For all its uninspired crappyness Timeshift was more fun to play than that...

  • UncleLou #7 4 years ago

    Um, it's a Diablo-style action-RPG, of course it needs a no-frills, quick basic combat animation. Apart from that, the video seems to run at 10 frames per second.

    The combat is only uninspired if you expected a completely different kind of game instead of a Diablo-clone. Skills are extremely well thought out, and you'll need to know how to level, and use all the skills at your disposal to survive from the late teen-levels on. The game is buggy, but the core gameplay is terrific, and it's obvious that there's a good deal of the Diablo 2 design talent behind the game.
    Edited by 1 at 09/11/07 @ 18:08

  • Phattso #8 4 years ago

    The game has issues. The game is fun. If your tolerance for the former is less than your enjoyment of the latter then it's a given that you're going to dislike the game.

    I'm enjoying it immensely (and so, presumably, is Bertie to have generated the video :)) but really Flagship only have themselves to blame for the negative reaction the game is getting from some quarters.

    That said: calling the combat uninspired is to miss the point entirely. To call the skillsets and classes unoriginal is also to miss the point entirely. And the graphics, while having issues, are far from "dire".

  • shopmans #9 4 years ago

    People expected Diablo 3. It didn't deliver.

  • JavaJawaUK #10 4 years ago

    How much is EG getting paid to hype up Hellgate? It's pretty bland.

  • Lim-Dul #11 4 years ago

    The combat is only uninspired if you expected a completely different kind of game instead of a Diablo-clone.

    Well, I don't know about you but Diablo-clone sounds like the definition of uninspired to me...

    The game has issues. The game is fun.

    Nah - the game is like the total opposite of fun - it's bland and boring... I don't care about other issues than that. I quit playing after a couple of hours so as not to fall asleep...

    That said: calling the combat uninspired is to miss the point entirely.

    Because?

    To call the skillsets and classes unoriginal is also to miss the point entirely. And the graphics, while having issues, are far from "dire".

    I agree that the classes, skillsets and graphics are OK but it doesn't matter when the game is simply not fun...

    You see - Diablo was fun because it was nothing more than mindless hack&slash. Once you start messing around with that concept you unfailingly end up with something dull and half-baked... The combat system in The Witcher has the same problem... You have to be radical in game design - you should either settle for something far more sophisticated like the fighting system in Jade Empire or stick to the KISS principle. Either way, you shouldn't pull off a Hellgate: London...

    Edited by 2 at 09/11/07 @ 19:36

  • UncleLou #12 4 years ago

    Well, I disagree. Hellgate: London captures the Diablo magic.

    Funny that you should mention Jade Empire, that's my prime example for a half-arsed combat system that's neither fun as a stat-based visualisation (like Hellgate or The Witcher), nor as an action game.

  • jonnyreb #13 4 years ago

    Graphics look a bit crap :/

  • Phattso #14 4 years ago

    Lim-Dul, if you can't see the fun then it's not the genre for you and I seriously question whether you appreciated and/or liked Diablo 2. UncleLou is correct - once it gets into its stride this game _is_ Diablo 2.

    The first couple of hours is largely about familiarising you with the world, the systems, and the combat. A couple of hours is barely enough to get to level 10, and the game doesn't really kick in until the mid teens. The Diablo games were the same (and Titan Quest, to an extent): you needed to get into the tougher encounters before the magic happened.

    So to quit after a "couple of hours" pretty much reinforces my statement: you're missing the point. :)

    Can't say I blame you, though, as there are clearly issues with the game that will cause a lot of people to give up on it. It's a shame, but there it is. For my part, me and my Level 16 Blademaster are having a great time and I'm looking forward to seeing what the game has in store for me as I continue playing through.

  • Lim-Dul #15 4 years ago

    Lim-Dul, if you can't see the fun then it's not the genre for you and I seriously question whether you appreciated and/or liked Diablo 2. UncleLou is correct - once it gets into its stride this game _is_ Diablo 2.

    Ha, ha - a typical "it's not the game that you dislike, it's the whole genre" argument. ;-)

    For your information I love the Diablo series. So that you know I started using the nickname you see here in Diablo 1 and have used it ever since. =)

    Yes, Hellgate: London can be described as a "spiritual successor" of Diablo 2 with all the fun stripped from it...

    The first couple of hours is largely about familiarising you with the world, the systems, and the combat. A couple of hours is barely enough to get to level 10, and the game doesn't really kick in until the mid teens. The Diablo games were the same (and Titan Quest, to an extent): you needed to get into the tougher encounters before the magic happened.

    That statement is so wrong, I don't know where to begin. First of all the impression the game makes in not even the first couple of hours but couple of minutes is the most important one - if something doesn't show its true potential in several hours of gameplay then it is simply bad game design and a waste of time. I seriously can't name a single title that I didn't like at the beginning but started liking in the end...

    Basically you used two very weak cookie-cutter arguments: "you don't like the genre" and "you have to play the game to the end, otherwise your opinion is worthless". =)

    Just for your info - I'm also a game reviewer but for paper magazines - not English ones by the way - so appraising a game after a couple of hours of gameplay - of course the longer I play, the more accurate my appraisal - is kinda my job and my judgment rarely fails me (luckily I haven't been assigned the chore of reviewing Hellgate, otherwise I would have had to play it even more). If you noticed EG gave the game a 7/10 and the average review scores on Gamerankings and Metacritic are 74% and 72% respectively so the game might not be so good after all - especially if compared to Diablo II with a rating of 88.2% and 88%. =)

  • Phattso #16 4 years ago

    If you're a games reviewer, then I wonder how you can equate a score in the 70%+ range into "not so good". That suggests to me it's above average, and good fun for fans of the genre. If the game had no fun at all, as you repeatedly insist, then surely it should be getting 50% scores? It's not - there's fun there and most reasonable people can see that.

    As for your point regarding the first few minutes of the game, I'll grant you that first impressions are important and Hellgate makes a bad one. But the vast majority of games out there take a little while to settle in. This is a game that will take 30 hours or more to complete, so frankly it's pretty standard for it to take a few hours to get going. I'd hold up any RPG ever to that scrutiny. The first half hour of Oblivion was slow paced boring wank - but the 40 hours I put into it after that were great fun.

    It's only instant action experiences that only last 8-10 hours overall (or less, thinking of CoD4) that need to make a whopping first impression. Not longer burning games like this.

    The fact that you think it needed to find its stride in the first few minutes really does confirm for me that you're missing the point. Which I find strange given your professed love of the Diablo series, because the first hours of the Diablo games weren't that special either - I found neither to really find their strides until their second acts. Perhaps it's rose tinted specs on your part there, who knows.

    Fair enough if you don't like it - I'm not telling you what to like/dislike or what opinion to have. But to exclaim that there is no fun is an empty argument, invalidated by the scores it has been getting. 7/10 is not a bad score for a game in a pretty niche genre like this. Had it not been for the technical issues I'm certain it would be getting 8/10 across the board. Just like Diablo 2.

    I'm not saying your opinion is worthless - just that it appears not to be based in fact, and not in keeping with the scores it has been getting worldwide. :)

    And as for my arguments being weak, I don't think saying "you need to like the genre to like this game" isn't particularly weak? I'd say it was 100% fact.

    And suggesting that a game built to last for 30hrs+ on first play through, with replayability and class diversity potentially tripling that, shouldn't be judged on the first couple of hours also seems like a pretty sensible point to make.

    Clearly you disagree - I can't say I'll be losing any sleep over it. Sorry you didn't like the game, though - Diablo clones are scarce enough these days that your wait for one more to your liking with be a long one I fear.

  • Lim-Dul #17 4 years ago

    If you're a games reviewer, then I wonder how you can equate a score in the 70%+ range into "not so good".

    10 is perfect
    8-9 is good and very good
    6-7 are different shades of average
    1-5 are simply different degrees of how badly the given game sucks =)

    'm not saying your opinion is worthless - just that it appears not to be based in fact, and not in keeping with the scores it has been getting worldwide. :)

    How is my opinion different from the scores Hellgate keeps getting worldwide? I already said that this isn't a totally bad game - just something quite bland and overhyped...

    And as for my arguments being weak, I don't think saying "you need to like the genre to like this game" isn't particularly weak? I'd say it was 100% fact.

    Nope - any professional journalist knows to at least partially detach his or her personal feelings from the score he or she gives a game. I for my part know a good game when I see it even if I'm totally not into the genre - most likely I won't play it and maybe not even enjoy it but I'll most certainly give it a positive review.

    Clearly you disagree - I can't say I'll be losing any sleep over it. Sorry you didn't like the game, though - Diablo clones are scarce enough these days that your wait for one more to your liking with be a long one I fear.

    They aren't that scarce but it's true that they have become rarer... However, does a lack of decent titles justify overhyping something just because it's rare?

  • Phattso #18 4 years ago

    I'm not overhyping anything, Lim-Dul. I think this is a piece of shamefully unfinished software that should never ever have seen a commercial release this side of Christmas. I further think that the lack of polish is what is costing the game higher scores, and that the first few hours of the game are too easy, to the extent that levels 14+ actually feel like a _totally_ different game.

    I only take issue with you proclaiming there's no fun there. The 20 hours I've enjoyed with the game would suggest otherwise. :)

    As someone who likes Diablo, I'm just surprised you're not liking this. My experience thus far suggests that it's _only_ people that liked Diablo that are liking this!
    Edited by 1 at 10/11/07 @ 19:41

  • Phattso #19 4 years ago

    Oh, and the reason your opinion is different from all the reviews out there is that not a single one of those reviewers said "this game is no fun" which is what you said. :)

  • Lim-Dul #20 4 years ago

    I'd rarely say that the game is not fun in a review as well since that's a very subjective statement - I'm not reviewing the game in the comments section, however, so it's OK. =)

    To make it more clear: there's so much wrong with the game that it isn't fun for me. =)

  • Phattso #21 4 years ago

    That's more like it. ;-)

    Just to pick up on an earlier point, where you said that your first impressions are rarely wrong, allow me to offer you this short cautionary tale:

    I played the demo released last month. It was shit. Really poor. I went straight into the forum and vented my disappointment. I was directed to the Beta, and told that it was a better indication of the game. It too gave a terrible first impression, only to a much lesser degree. Intrigued I continued, and about three hours in the game 'clicked' and I was in the Diablo zone again and loving it.

    If I hadn't pushed through my awful first impressions I'd have missed out on a really enjoyable game.

    I totally agree with you that it's a bad state of affairs when one has to do this, but what I'm saying is for fans of the genre it's worth taking a leap of faith and persisting with it. You might just find it has what you were looking for.

    You've bought the game, even after all the 7/10 reviews, and only played it for a couple of hours... well that seems like an awful waste of cash to me. ;)

  • Macross #22 4 years ago

    I quite like it, although id like it more if it didnt freeze up my pc with memory issues after playing it for a short while ;)

    still that aside Im with the likers here, once the game is debugged a little more il say its pretty solid and can be frantic fun when you hit a big blob of monsters to chew through!

  • FunkyRenegade #23 4 years ago

    @Lim-Dul - "...most likely I won't play it and maybe not even enjoy it but I'll most certainly give it a positive review. "

    For a professional journalist that's pretty poor. How can you review something without playing it? That's like saying everything you've just said about Hellgate without actually playing the game...

    But on a lighter note, I love the game, It's what I've been waiting for to be done well since Diablo II.