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It’s hard to review a game like Hellgate: London. The true, spiritual successor to Diablo II – arguably the greatest action RPG ever to grace the PC – by the team that could and should make it great…this game has some crazy expectations to live up to. On one hand, you want to cut the game and the team a bit of slack because there’s no possible way they can succeed in every area. On the other hand, you know they created greatness once, so why can’t they do it again? Thus is the conundrum of the Hellgate reviewer.

A Blizzard’s Chance in Hell

Even though Hellgate is most obviously a 3D game, it still plays a lot more like Diablo II than it would seem at first glance. Attack success is still determined through a whole lot of number-crunching, and you’ll still be gathering mad loot during your travels. While this looks something more along the lines of, say, Gears of War, it is at its heart an action-RPG. The new camera angles just add a whole new level of excitement and intensity to the mix.

Dampening that intensity, however, is the random level generator. Yes, while moving through this post-apocalyptic, 2038 version of London, you’ll still see the various landmarks you’d expect. Even right from the start of the single-player game, it’s painfully obvious that the whole thing is being generated on the fly. Although it makes for a unique experience every time you play, there’s no substitution for intelligent, human-designed levels. Things like reused set pieces and ridiculous objective placement overrun the entire Hellgate experience.

Also slowing the pace is the old Diablo classic – inventory management. While the rest of the formula has moved into the new millennium, Hellgate’s inventory management system, where you have to constantly shift around items to make room for new ones every few minutes, is stuck firmly in the early 90’s.

Demonic Highway

Much has been made of Hellgate’s online experience, and in theory, it’s mostly a good thing. Players gather together in hub stations to chat, trade items, show off the spoils of their adventures, and group up for upcoming missions. Then, as they head out, the whole thing is instanced particularly for that group. And then, the random level generation takes over once again. It’s not as big a deal in the online mode, since you’ll have the camaraderie of your party members to make up for the sometimes irritating level design. Plus the whole thing is free. Hellgate does feature an optional subscription service that adds options like Guild functionality and the promise of future content upgrades, but the free multiplayer is likely where most gamers will want to stay.

Put quite simply, Hellgate: London is a buggy mess. And that goes double for the multiplayer action. Crazy slowdown during battle; graphic issues where various on-screen elements completely disappear; and bugs that crash players right to the desktop are all issues in the retail version of this potentially awesome game. Patches will almost assuredly fix these problems eventually, but it’s still pretty disheartening to rip open that cellophane for the first time and realized you’ve basically paid full price for an unfinished, unpolished product.

Uncaptured Magic

As a single-player game, Hellgate delivers – especially if you’re a die-hard Diablo II fan. If you can deal with annoying inventory management and unimaginative level design, you’ll get a lot of fun out of this game. 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.

Review by: Greg Stewart
Video Produced by: Mark Fahey