Hellgate: London Review
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To Hellgate: London's credit, every class in the game plays very differently. The skill tree for each class is massive, with 27 skills available. Unlike Diablo II, players are encouraged to diversify their skills, rather than focus on pumping points into a few specific skills. The game actually runs in third person mode for melee combat, and first person mode for all ranged weapons. It's a pretty good setup on paper but the execution isn't so good. Melee combat feels a bit clumsy, while the guns lack that all important sense of weight. With the exception of the sniper rifles, all of the first person weapons are aim assisted, so there's no real challenge. There is a pretty big variety of weapons available, and many different creatures to use them on all of which appear to be very threatening. Hellgate: London also follows the Diablo formula of having a stronger than average enemy (with a specific name) that will hold extra good loot.
Loot and special items are always an important part of action-RPGs on the PC, and Hellgate: London is no different. In addition to finding items strewn all over the game world, Hellgate: London allows for players to forge their own items, upgrading the power of a weapon, adding resistances to armour and that sort of thing. If you find a piece of equipment you don't want that has useful effects, you can break the item down and use those components to enhance another item of your choice. Inventory management can be a minor annoyance however, as the game lacks any sort of auto sort option, so your character may refuse to pick up an item despite the space being available with minor reorganisation. This is a real pain when you find out that the game is filled with character specific items you can go questing and only find things that you will never have any use for. It feels like only 20% of the loot you pick up is actually of any use to you.
