First Impressions: Hellgate: London beta

About Hellgate: London
Those of you who haven't heard of Hellgate: London yet, it's basically a new Diablo-like hack'n slash game, originating from some of the creators of the original Diablo game(s). It's got a single player story, as well as multiplayer mode, both working in a rather standard MMO fashion. The location of the story seems to be in London, England, in a futuristic fantasy-type setting. You have machines and guns, but also spells and swords.

Hellgate: London beta
Having played mostly older games lately, I decided to place a pre-order for Hellgate: London, because the theme and genre interest me. Pre-ordering from certain retailers grants you an access key to the beta multiplayer game. The release date of the game is set at less than two weeks from now, and I can pretty much wager that it'll be postponed by at least a few weeks minimum. The multiplayer is technically up'n running, but buggy as hell. I'm not sure how much the testers are allowed to reveal things to the public (since I'm just like everyone else and don't read the agreement stuff upon installation of a game.), so I'll keep things brief, just to give a general idea of what I've witnessed in the short time I've played.

Hack'n Slash
I wasn't really quite sure what to expect from the game when I finally was able to login at the beta server. It's hack'n slash, and supposed to be Diablo-like, so that's what I was expecting. The game is hack'n slash indeed, but because of the rather World of Warcraft -like controls, it feels more like an MMORPG, than traditional hack'n slash games, which consist more of 'click-click' than movement key tapping.

I've only played worth about 6 levels with two characters, amounting to about 4-5 hours of gametime, probably. So far, the enemies have been easy. Too easy even. I've heard that the combat is more hectic in a party, as the amount of enemies and stuff increases too. I'm yet to try that out, but hopefully soon enough.

I started with an Engineer character, whose abilities include constructing/summoning bots and drones to support in the battle, while the player mostly uses guns to shoot from a distance. This seems to work rather nicely, and an upgraded bot can take a good beating while keeping most of the enemies away from the player(s).

As a second option, I chose a Guardian, similar to Paladin class in most fantasy games. Well armored, wields a sword and has protective and self-healing abilities. Since there's much more close combat battle than with the summoning classes, the character also takes more damage, though even so, I hardly ever had to manually heal the character.

London
The game seems to be set around underground tunnels of the city, basically meaning metro/subway stations, with various tunnels and even some famous locations as questing zones. The stations are kind of sanctuary locations, where players can do shopping, accept quests and gather a party. Once you enter an area with enemies, a random instance is created, and only you (and your other party members) can access it. So, you won't have random high-level people killing all the enemies or looting all the stuff ahead like in some other hack'n slash games, which is kind of a good thing, but also very lonely setting for online gaming. I like playing mostly alone, sometimes with a friend, so the requirement to have a party to experience intense action is a big minus, I think.

Barrels 'n Boxes
The instances are filled with barrels, boxes and chests, just like in Diablo, though this time around barrels are steel, boxes cardboard and chests metal cases, at least in the first parts of the game. You'll find lots of items during the game, many of them are equippable, but only a fraction for your class. The useless items can be sold, or broken into pieces, which you can use to upgrade or construct new items at stations. Cash is rarely a problem, as you find lots of it in the instances if you just bother to crack open everything.

Braaaaiinnnnnsss...
Enemies are mostly demonic stuff. Zombies, skeletons, demons, lizards, stuff like that. Some boss creatures show up every now and then, but so far I haven't found them very challenging myself. Hopefully the default difficulty is upped a bit for the final game. Otherwise lasting value is going to be rather low. I'm trying to stay optimistic though.

First Impressions Scoring:
So, what's the verdict for first impressions?
I'd say something along these lines:

Visuals: 9/10
Looks great for an MMO game. For a single player game, it's all pretty average.

Audio: 8/10
The little music there is works well with the theme. Sounds are pretty ordinary, guns could could make more noise.

Gameplay: 6/10
Buggy as what, but it's a beta, so this is expected. Controls seem pretty standard.

Lasting Value: 5/10
The game has potential, but if there won't be much changes, especially to the difficulty factor, then this is looking to be a game with rather short age.

Overall: 7/10
I'm not canceling my pre-order, but I'm not too ecstatic about the game either. Still looking forward to the final version though.

Last words... for now
In case I'll keep the pre-order, then expect to see a preview of the retail product later. ;) Hardcore MMO and hack'n slash fans should find this an interesting game, though time will tell how good the final build will be...