Hellgate: London Review
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Perhaps the most talked about subject regarding Hellgate: London is its subscription game. Guild Wars more or less set the bar for this instanced style of MMO, and Hellgate seems to be going in a different direction. There is no mandatory subscription fee to play Hellgate; however, if you choose to pay $9.99 a month, you receive extra character slots in addition to the base three, content downloads and new items to discover. This has been a fairly polarizing issue among the faithful. I personally have no real feelings, because I see both sides of the argument, but the longer I stay with Hellgate, the longer the subscription becomes a real temptation for me.Spotted on Blue's News.
Admittedly, I've had a very hard time with Hellgate: London. I enjoy the single-player game quite a bit, but I purchased it to play with friends. Despite the frequent patches, we still have some of the same issues. For example, we spent the better part of one night when I was only visible to my friends by my name above my head, my character was not visible on their screens and they had no idea that I was in the same instance as them. Repeatedly zoning in and out never solved the issue. Class balance seems like it needs some work as well. I play a Marksman, and if I'm playing solo, it feels just about right. But in a group with some melee fighters, I feel vastly underpowered. Even the Guardian can deliver quick damage and kill some mobs faster than I can. That's not so much a gear issue, either, as we've compared gear, and in many ways, I have superior equipment.
Right now the game has its fair share of bugs, which has made it a bit of a struggle to play. But I've stuck with it, simply because when things have worked, they've worked very well for me, and I've enjoyed that. There really is a good and enjoyable game under all those bugs. If someone was looking for a good single-player RPG, I'd recommend Hellgate: London in a heartbeat. But if someone was looking for an MMO-lite or heavily instanced online game, I'd definitely give pause. What is there is fun, but in its current condition, it's definitely not for everyone. That being said, I look forward to still spending some time there and coming back in a few months to review the progress that is being made with the game.
