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The beta reviews thread
Lord.Bachus
Member RarePosts: 9,686
Beta ends today...
Please use this thread to state your personal beta opinion... (and not to attack otehrs opinions) so independant readers with no access to beta can get a good idea what people like and dislike about this game..
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Let me start with my personall opinion. (typicall MMO player))
Combat is fun in this game, its fast and its furious. Its hack and slash and the monsters behave like there is actuall some AI. Hey did i say i like the combat. Yes i really do
Classes are diverse.. All classes play different and give a totally different feel.. they are fun.
Quests are simple, no challenges and no real puzzles, just follow the questtext and you'll be allright. The mainstory line does not give me that epic feel.
Zones are a dissapointment. after about 10 levels they all feel the same. despite the fact that they are randomly generated, this is clearly not an MMORPG, but then noboddy at flagship ever stated this game was an MMORPG
Gear looks great from the start, gear is the most important thing in this game.
Community, this game is not as good for community building as true MMO's even at the player hubs people run past eachother.
Roleplaying, i have not seen and met any other roleplayers in this game, i tried a few times in the stations, but it felt just like real life, people where allways in a hury.
PvP, while the combat system fromthis game is made to PvP, there are no real PvP zones. I'd have loved to see some PvP instances and Arena's like Guildwars or WoW. But they are not there yet. Sad thing is the story behind the game which is player "good side"versus deamons"evil side" which gives no hooks for epic PvP battles either
Final toughts: while the combat is fun, espescially if you like FPS action... the game feels very linear, you are allways pushed in the one direction that the developers want you to go, i miss the freedom of a true MMO. Next to that, if the game wants to become a huge hit that binds players they should create some very well designed PvP hooks and instancess very fast, before people leave and move on.
Will you play the game ? : I don't know yet, but with so many other good games just around the corner (I am looking for a good game to pass my time till TCoS, Warhammer and AoC...in that order...arive) games like COD4, UT3, Clive barkers Jericho, and still being tempted to return to EQ2.... I do not think i will play the game. Its not a bad game, but its not great either, but most important, its not an MMORPG.
Verdict : If you are lookinf for Diablo 3, this might be your game.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Comments
I didn't play the beta, thought when I pre-ordered from EA I'd get invited, but it never happened.
That said, I think I'm going to skip it for now..... too many reports like the OP's about the game....
Oh well....another one bites the dust.....
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Combat: Very fast and will keep you on your toes. Hack and slash type game but you can have guns too, even better! Can have 3rd or 1st person, choice is yours. Different stances(depending class) for sitting and sniping off baddies or simply go
and run and gun.
Classes: Choice of male or female and nice customization. Can be a Nerco type with minions or you can be up front and slash and blast your way through. 6 Different to choose from for all your demon killing desires.
Quests: Pretty straight forward here. Get a quest , do the deed. Some are fed-ex type and others are kill count type or obtain items. There are 2 special quests. 1) Guide and help a 4 man assault reach safety. 2) Use a huge turret gun to blast a very large baddie while blasting incoming drones attacking. I thought those were a nice spice to the game and hope to see more of these.
As far as storyline goes, there is one but its difficult to follow. With it being beta , maybe they were not telling the whole story for it to make sense, 
After making 3 characters I simply got the quest and completed it without reading.
Zones: Random Maps. Some are fast and some take a bit of time. I think the layout of the maps were nice. Not too confusing which meant I didnt waste alot of time trying to figure out where I was or where I needed to go. Mostly town and sewers , so its kind of hard to get lost. They have special tunnels within the zones called passageways. These passageways can be Elite,Treasure or Hidden. I won't spoil it for ya. Overall I like most of the zones and maps. I cant complain or give a hell yeah! They work with the game.
Community: Ok , typical community. Lots of nice people and then you have your |337 talkers too who call everyone a noob. People will be people, most did not hesitate to answer a question if someone asked. Community A-ok with me.
Roleplaying: I don't really do this sort of thing so I cannot comment on this topic.
PvP: Um, why do this? There are demons out to get you? On a more serious note, I hate Pvp , so , no comment here.
Final Thoughts: I like this game alot. It was my type of game for sure. Very 3D Diablo style. There are a few things that can be upgraded but that will happen in time. I liked the weapon customization and the way you can break down items into pieces to be reused for better items via the crafter lady. There is not a whole lot of cons on this game I can speak of. It ran very well on my system and for it being beta, I'm pretty surprised.
Will you play the game? Without a shadow of a doubt I will be playing this game. It is alot of fun and I will be looking for a guild to join up with for Ultra Killing sprees. Now don't that sound like fun or what?
Verdict: This game will do well. Won't be a WoW killer but it will for sure be a nice game to play when your frustrated and want to beat the crap out of some stuff or simply hangin' with friends and family for leisure time.
Bob Ross
Combat: Very fast paced action. Really draws you into the game with a character style different from any other MMo currently out on the market. The no lock on twitch/fps is great (TR let me down by making it lock on). Up to lvl 22 there doesn't seem to be to many incredibly over power abilities. While some are great they don't insta kill from what i've experienced
Classes: Only played Engineer, Blademaster, Evoker: Which only the evoker made it to 22 (although all 3 complete Oculis [ last quest available in beta ]). I found the Evoker to be incredibly fun, along with the engineer, but I was not a huge fan of the Blademaster (Though even in D2 there are classes I just don't like so I figure that is to be expected in any game).
Quests: Very basic quests very similar to D2, although the kill this go here is similar in many MMo's with limited creativity in their quests. I would love to see time trials inputed as quests. (Kill this monster in the time, or clear the stage in this time etc..)
Zones: Beyond the special "Yellow blocked" zones the others aren't much to look at. The zones are very similar and with the random staging you memorize them very quickly (Which is atleast a little more interesting than the same on every time.
Gear l Best feature of this game. The ability to upgrade through the Nano-Forge or adding bonuses through the shaper is so sweet. Being able to possibly roll an amazing stat on your armor/wep or getting that bonus to dmg through the nano-forge.
Community: Didn't participate in the forums or in game. (Played it completely solo and loved it still).
Roleplaying: I don't roleplay in any MMorpg (Though I did see people doing it and laughed).
PvP I din't pvp at all. Mainly waiting for them to release the massive pvp battle zones where it is just a giant free for all (O the hours of endless fun).
Final toughts: It got me addicted enough to be craving it the 5 days till release. Great action based MMo that fills the spot I thought TR was going to fill.
Will you play the game ? : Absolutely a buy for me. Still deciding if the founders pricing is pulling me hard enough yet.
Verdict: Great game if you are looking for a change of pace from the other MMo's out there. It is a must buy if you are a diablo2 fan. I must say that it was better than I expected and am surprised at the game play itself.
-Combat- The combat in this game is much like diablo in that it is fast paced hack n' slash (or should I say blast n' slash) goodness. You run around, or sprint, or blink, and blast your guns and shoot your spells until theres nothing left remaining in front of you. As bland as this might sound, surprisingly I have yet to tire of it, and only seems to get more and more fun. I haven't noticed any mob's with incredibly intelligent AI, however I did only play within Act 1 to lvl 12 (there are 5 acts with 50 lvl's) so maybe the mob intensity lvl increases later on in the game to give a bit more of a challenge. Elite mode might be what I'm looking for here. Also...skills need to get a good hard reworking because right now there are too many useless skills that are only going to be used as jumping pads just to get to the "worthy" ones. All skills should be equally enticing so that there is variety within the community and we don't see everyone going for cookie cutter classes.
-Classes- The classes all seem fun to play. I only got a chance to play an evoker and marksman before beta closed, and I have to say I had a blast with both. Evoker has a variety of unique "spells", ranging from Fire, Spectral, Venom, Bone, and Drains to name a few. Evokers are like your typical caster class (wizard, mage). They have low hitpoints, and rely on staying at range, good shield (not the hand-held kind), and armor to stay alive. Marksman are like your non-magic range class (archer, ranger, ect.) They use weapons as their main offense with a variety of different skills to take advantage of those weapons. They can snipe, throw grenades, cloak, all kinds of fun stuff.
-Quests- Quests in the game were nonsensical and simple. Things such as, kill this specific boss mob, explore this level, find 4 items, ect. Nothing you haven't seen in any other RPG, however I must mention that the quests in Beta sucked (imo) mostly because there was no back story or rhyme or reason why you were doing these specific tasks. When the live version hits they said the NPC's will actually give the storyline as opposed to the random nonsensical stuff they were asking us to do in Beta.
-Zones- Like I said before , I didn't get past Act I and I was only lvl 12 for my highest character, so there might be more to the game in later levels/Acts. But judging by what I've seen, the zones in the game could use some variety (even being randomly generated they were still bland). I got tired of the outdoor run down buildings, with junk cars trashed in the street look within the first hour. I've heard that each Act has it's own look and feel to it, with the last two acts being really stellar when it comes to zones and combat, but I haven't gotten that far, and can only judge the first Act...which could use some work.
-Gear- There is lots of varieties both with the way your armor looks, and the many different bonuses you can get, however, unless they continue adding new armor weapon skins every few months, I can see everyone beginning to look the same, which would suck. imo you can't have enough variety. I like the mod system, it gives flexability to add specific bonuses to your weapons with the option to take them out and reuse them in other weapons if you choose... not to mention adding mods to your weapon changes it appears which is cool. Dye kits are neat, but I hope there are more then just the 4 different ones you can get by pre-ordering.
-Community- Ahhhh what can I say. You get the bad and the good, much like any other game. From what I've seen in beta, not many people actually group up, so unless you advertise and try and hunt someone down to group with, you might be flying solo. Having guilds in the live version might help this...unless you don't want to join a guild. The community in beta was split between those that wanted to pay monthly and support FSS, and those that wanted to play for free with all the content. These two types of people bickered endlessly.
-Roleplaying- non-existent
-PvP- Didn't get a chance to try it (don't even think it was available in beta) but I think if done right, the PvP experience in this game could be amazing. They would have to introduce more features such as being able to crouch, go prone, deploy shields, or reflectors, or turrets, or things of that nature that make it more like a game such as Battlefield.
-Final Thoughts- This game might not be what everyone expected right out of the gate, but I had a ton of fun playing beta, and I think that down the road when a few patches, and additional content is introduced, that this game will be all that everyone had hoped for. I'm no prophet and I can't say it will happen for sure, but I have faith in Flagship and how they will handle this game. I must say that they are very open to suggestions, and they actually communicate with the community to tell them whats going on. These are great signs of a company that wishes to succeed in this business.
-Will You Play The Game?- I HAVE played the game, and anxiously anticipate the 31st so I can continue playing the game.
-Verdict- Great game with HUGE potential.
I was only able to play till lvl 8 but here are my thoughts.
Combat short, sweet, and over fast. either you had them or they had you. the only extended combat was boss or rares. FYI bosses are mean
Classes a fit for all play styles. 1st or 3rd person view, melee or range, minion master or heavy hitter, swords/sorcery or guns/grenades.
Quests They started out pretty simple and quick. my lvl 8 they did get longer and more difficult so I have high hopes for later lvls. basic formulas for the quests. fedex, kill count, go fer.
Zones nice visuals. walking through burned out houses, frakked up subway stations, destroyed cities...very cool. they really need to add more variety of scenery but over all visually pleasing. some zones were larger than others but I'm hoping that things much larger further in.
Gear From what I saw this is a gear driven game. that being said they allow for HUGE customization. most weapons allow for addons which you can find, make or purchase. you can break items down to get resources with allow you to upgread items, build addons ect., and last but certainly NOT least pay good hard cash to randomly mod your gear with common, rare, and legendary mods. can i get WOOT!
Community, Didn't see much of a community. yes you see and can talk to other players at the stations but there was very little interaction.
Roleplaying, As with above there was little interaction so no RP that I saw.
PvP, didn't see any, haven't heard of any, and frankly...why would you? The world is all but destroyed by demons. civilization consists of tiny enclaves separated by demon held zones. why would you fight amongst yourselves? would have been nice if they allowed us to play the demons. I guess thats what expansions are for
Final toughts: fun game, great potential, definately worth picking up on release.
Will you play the game ? : Bank on it.
Verdict : If you are lookinf for Diablo 3, this might be your game.
We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.
I am the type of MMO player that rarely groups, despises raiding, likes PvP where/when it makes sense. I acknowledge WoW for its polish and bringing MMOs to the masses. Waiting for the next great thing (from an MMO standpoint, HGL isn't it ... but I am buying it and will play it to pass the time). I typically prefer ranged damage dealers (rangers, mages) ... despise tanks (especially paladins) ... and have on occasion played healing classes. I like long walks on moonlit beaches ... blahblahblah
Combat I dig the combat. A bit on the easy side, but I didn't group up in the beta at all. I look forward to elite mode (and nightmare and hell later on).
Classes I tried all of the classes to level 5. They did seem to overlap a bit in that 4 of the 6 can use some sort of gun. Specials and equipment though do seem to keep the classes fairly diverse. The hunter faction (engineers and marksman) is my favorite (I took 2 engis to 10+ and a marksman to 10+). The evoker was nice. The blademaster seems quite overpowered (and I don't care for melees). The guardian put me to sleep. One note on the summoner, from the beta boards it did seem this was the gimpiest of the classes. Pet classes in general where a bit frustrating as it usually takes 5 more levels after you get them to unlock skills to command them.
Quests Real simple, no need for allakhazam, guild help etc. No real story line. Flagship has promised that the quest NPCs have had major polish since the build we were on in beta and the state of the game come patch0.
Zones I'm a fan of randomized instances, and I have been since I played diablo. Would people really rather play the same exact ones over and over? I mean, I realize that static zones can have more flavor decor to entice you more into the atmosphere of the game, but in the case of a hack and slash ... I applaud the developers making this trade off! (Especially since we get to redo them all in nightmare, hell, helping friends or just loot runs).
Gear I really like the looks of the gear and the customization options. I love the weapon system ... you can do field upgrades based on the weapon to add things like batteries, fuel, ammo clips, relics, tech libraries ... etc. that all add to the basic properties of the weapon. Adding things like procs, and + to damage, +to crit, etc. You can also level up your favorite weapons. Throughout leveling up your characters you will encounter lots of vendor trash, weak rare items, or powerful rare items that you cannot use. You can scrap them all for spare parts. It is from these spare parts, that you can level up your weapons at a nano-forge. A third weapon customization option available to you are in the form of special NPC's spread out throughout the stations who will add a random attribute to your weapon for a price.
Community I don't take part in online gaming communities much. If I need a group for something, I wait for a friend to do it with me (WoW really has forever ruined PuGs for me). I do read the forums some. Like most betas, the HGL forums were overrun by whiners forecasting certain doom. The in game chat channel seemed fine. Not a lot of grouping or trade chat going on. Fine by me, but this is something I don't really add value for. I was pleased to see my old pal Tiggs in beta (from SWG days as well as the DDO and LOTRO alphas).
Roleplaying Not sure why this is a category in a diablo clone, but I will echo what everyone else has said. Not seeing any roleplaying in HGL did not disappoint me (it even pleased me a bit).
PvP TBD. Hopefully the team can get creative for some meaningful storylines to do PVP. As it seems it will be, PvP will be glorified dueling with no real consequences. Unfortunate ... and hopefully something that changes in the future.
Final toughts: Dave Brevik -Chief Visionary Officer, Flagship Studios
"The pitch I made when I suggested Hellgate was a first-person shooter Diablo."
Thats the vibe I get from this game. I have always wanted someone to do an FPS RPG! Games like Oblivion are great, but they do not have that fast action component. Games like Biohazard err too much on the side of an FPS (not much char customization). HGL is the closest thing I have played to that vision of a balanced marriage of FPS and RPG.
Also, I haven't seen too many mention it, but the Achievement System is a very good fit for this game. When you are starting to get bored by loot-runs or questing, you can advance your character via achievements. Some nice little bonuses/perks for killing x thousand demons, or blowing up x-hundred crates. Kudos.
Will you play the game ? : Definitely. I don't see a sci-fi, WoW-caliber MMO on the horizon. I've tried everything on the market so I am up for something new. Sick of fantasy RPG so TCoS, Warhammer and AoC just aren't doing it for me. As for this game being an MMO or not, it does have a discussion board going on MMORPG.com ... and Guild Wars and Planetside are here to, so ... technically speaking it is a massively multi-player game with RPG elements
Verdict : If raiding with your uber guild defines you as a human being, stick with WoW (or EQ or EQ2) ... if you are looking for something you can play solo or with small groups without the time commitment, look in to HGL (by the way, the demo sucks compared to the version we played in beta).
Let me start with my personall opinion. (im a FPS,RTS,MMORPG and MMOFPS)) Also i like to play the MMO part of the MMO and hate Role players, i play the MMO to play with RL friends and Online ones.
Combat , This aspect of the game is great, pick your own skills that fit to your liking and play with them, kill zombies and hellish creatures. Whats not to like. My only gripe i have is on the FPS aspect, its something that needs to be played on elite for a challenge.
Classes Great class's as a starter, my only gripe is the summoner for its lack of involvement, cant wait to see more.
Quests The quests are generic in someways, other times quests are awesome and feel epic usualy the quests that are moving the plot forward not just the random kill ones(the ones with the purple question mark are the fun ones
)
Zones The Zones do have this same kind of feel but as you move forward in acts and such they change, its prty much a theme for where you are, later enviroments get larger and arnt in little tiny places.
Gear reminds me exactly like diablo and i loved the system so not gripe
Community, yeah there is a lack of it, but really this is a game where you expect to play with your friends online with online friends, i kinda like the lack of community(atleast for me right now, since the community is why i always quit wow)
Roleplaying, Once again i did not buy this game for RP, nor do i care to much about RP, i care about community more in a MMO, rather then trying to escape from reality i enjoy it as more or less are like a 2nd one or a extension.
PvP, I didnt buy diablo for PVP same for this.
Final toughts: All in all this game seems like it will be what i expected, a DIablo 3 in the future and i loved it before so why hate it now, while il agree my only gripe of this game is most likely the zones in the beggining, but later in the game they get bigger and the early add ons are going to be wilderness(thus bigger areas and hopefully stations outside, like military compounds)
Will you play the game ? : hell yeah
Verdict : If you are lookinf for Diablo 3, this might be your game. If your looking for RPG, dont buy it and stop complaining, i dont know why everyone who buys MMORPG are so focused on the RPG factor rather then the MMO(which is a very prevalent thought process on these boards)
Combat - MIXED. Ranged combat (first person shooter) is excellent, Melee combat is very poor and awkward.
Classes - AVERAGE, you have 2 type of classes. Melee and FPS, with FPS divided into 2 types 1 with bot, 1 without bots. Marksman and Evoker are copies of each other, Engineer and Summoner are again copies of each other.
Skills - VERY POOR, about 75% of the skills in the skillstree are useless or bugged. In diablo2 or any rpg, usually when you get a skill point you are excited to spend it. In HGL, you dont even care, this is how bad the skills are in HGL.
Quests - VERY POOR. The dialog, story, npc, and quest design are all a joke. Although the cutscene looked nice, the in game quests/story are uninteresting and takes away from the game rather than adding to it.
Zones - POOR. Very limited tileset, all maps look the same from act to act unlike diablo2 where it's very distinct flow from town, to jungle, to desert etc. There is no theme for each act as the maps are all the same. Dev, we want randomly generated maps NOT randomly themed maps using the same few tilesets...
Community - WHAT IS THAT? No one groups, because there is no need to, and there is no good tool that let people group easily. So as it stands now, it's a solo game with online chat. And trading of loot between players is done via posts on the forum (there is no auction system). Welcome back to the stone age folks.
Items - EXCELLENT. This is one area where hgl shines, the long list of items and the ability to customize them in multiple ways is excellent and i would say better than diablo.
PVP - AVERAGE. Added as an afterthought.
Conclusion, i was so disappointed i cancelled my pre-order. Plan now is to wait a few months and checkout this game again to see if they fixed some of the problems.