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I gave it a chance, but am disappointed
Kaiphas
Member Posts: 59
I feel horrible that I convinced my friend to purchase this game - when I am in fact planning to stop playing it.
Hellgate london has alot going for it - the graphics are phenomenal, the weapon types are unique.
However, what I thought would be a groundbreaking game turned out to be another endless diablo grind. Players will likely leave HGL to go play Diablo II, which did a better job at what HGL attempts.
The lack of social interaction is only amplified by the fact that the chat window is hidden, and there are no chat boxes above characters. Every area is instanced, which makes the game not quite an MMO. However, the game borrows from MMORPGs a very weighty grinding treadmill. The possibility for grinding is absolutely endless, considering the rarity of certain level 50 items. Without PVP, there will be little respite from endless instances. It comes as no surprise that HGL borrows heavily from WoW. The item colors (green, blue, orange), the quest exclamation points (the game is very quest heavy), and the fact that you level influences several combat factors that skillspoints and attributes should.
There is an unpolished feel about the game. You can't open your inventory and your chat window at once - the chat window will stay on top and not allow you to mess with your inventory. The chat window also blocks quest text. The special effects are silly and somewhat overdone - it's hard to tell exactly what is going on in a battle, instead you just shoot and hope that the numbers are on your side. Technical difficultues are frustrating. My engineer friend found that the guns on his drones kept disappearing when he logged off. As a summoner, my main pet would become unsummonable - which is especially frustrating when you enter an area and find that enemies are beating on your character while the game is loading (they are placed at area entrances sometimes). One storyline quest is bugged for many players. On the night of release, the servers and HGL website were down for 5 hours. These factors paint a poor picture of FSS's ability to polish a game.
The lack of innovation would not bug me so much if the gameplay at least felt good. However, the control scheme feels very WOWish, in a non-WOW game. The firing effects of the weapons are often just annoying. The game does not have very convincing physics.
This game has given me a serious headache. I tried so hard to justify it's problems - but have come to realize that Flagship studios intends to act like Blizzard -but without the polish.
If you don't like it, don't play it.
800 million subscribers cannot lie
Comments
One last note.
The game's descriptions for the skill trees are difficult to understand and many players are finding that they want to respecc. However, the game does not offer and will not offer any opportunity for respeccing. If you want to change your character, you will be forced to play through the grind once again.
Flagship studios has succumbed to draconion, old fashioned values from a time when gaming was less evolved. I am so, so disappointed.
If you don't like it, don't play it.
800 million subscribers cannot lie
I really dont think respeccing is the problem, my first character in diablo 2 was a molten boulder/poison creeper druid; I didnt mind having to recreate him because the game was fun. I recreated a lot of characters because it was fun, if the games not fun its simply not fun and thats all there is to it.
The problems I think are the lack of themed environments, the lack of cool/unique skills, the game play being wayyy to easy, and unethical business practices which denies any sympathy I could have felt for a newly developing developer.
Your oppinion is yours to have, but I just can't let this pass. You do realise that those colours were used in diablo to begin with? And that exclamation points popped up over the npcs in diablo aswell? This part of your post was just plain stupid.
As for the rest, for some each to his own goes, I do however agree with the stupid way the chat window blocks stuff.
Oh and yes, the gameplay's very easy in solo, you should really try grouping with your friend. First, it makes the monsters harder and just not onekills, and secondly, it's really more fun. Ran around with a mate yesterday and kept pulling huge spawns around me for him to napalm strike. Very fast pace and a lot of hack n' slash fun tbh. Lot more thrilling than WoW 5mans/raids. We've set up a guild and the constant spamming in gchat have made the game more enjoyable.
I really like the game but then again, I have a lot of irl/other game friends playing which makes it much more fun.
I know some of you would argue, but for us people who play this to look for friends, guildmates or maybe even rivals online would like more social interaction from a game that identifies itself part MMO.
I say give it a chance. They will add content and add new features. I usually give MMOs a few months to settle down before I give up. The only exception to that rule was DDO. I never got out of preorder beta.
I still think that Mythos will be the better game.
I have to agree with Ruthgar..unfortunately releasing MMOs before they are ready is now the norm. I think we as a gaming community are to blame for that. So, I give a game a few months to see if it gets better and I think this one has a lot of potential.
It strikes me as odd, that you, the OP, is filling his post with lies.
First of all ,you talk about Diablo II, but you compare item-colors to WoW. Of course, they could have made them purple, but the last time I checked, they didn't. Item coloring to display quality has become a standard SINCE diablo and is therefore not borrowed from WoW, but from their previous project, Diablo (hint).
Not to mention that it doesn't affect the gameplay at all, so I don't see the point of your protest against this.
Quest exclamation marks are a smart thing to add. It removes the frustration from searching for quests and allows to player to enter battle quickly.
Grinding was one of the major, if not the only, aspects of Diablo II and is key to these type of games. What makes them different, is the amount of mobs you get to destroy with single blows. Diablo became famous for it's unlimited destructive image, not for it's Korean Grinder attitude.
But my main reason for calling you a liar, is the fact that you can't be, never ever,beaten down when entering an instance. The reason for this, is the protection you get against attacks. The mobs simply will not agro you. So you sir, should get off the horse you are on and admit you are, for some pathetic reason, trying to demoralize players.
There are plenty of bugs going and I have indeed once had that one of my elementals couldn't be summoned, because it got stuck, but from all of the people inm y guild (16+) that joined to play HG:L, not a single one has ever had bugs that directly affected their game, beyond getting stuck.
I'd also like to say, that I've played Diablo II for 6 years, of which 4 on HC. If any game ever gave me WTF ESCAPE QUIT GAME thrills, it was Diablo and I have the same with HG:L. When I first encountered that huge skeleton lightning enchanted guy, I knew I was hooked for another 6.
They dó need to improve my ping though.. I'm on 20mbitup/10mbit down , seriously I don't need to have a 100+ ping.
I admit this game seems an endless grind. BUT it is alot more fun with 2 players, me and my friend use vent n its a hell of a time just wading through the mobs. I am a summoner and he is a blademaster. It isnt to bad the grind but it really helps to follow the quest since the no point grind can get a bit tedious. If you want to respec and you cant i recomend using this hellgate.ingame.de/skilltree/summoner/
I found it when i was level 11 n i admit i made 1 mistake but its doable, you can plan your character quite easilly on this. Also go on hellgate guru they have active forums that have several class guides. Hope it helped.
Currently playing : Darkfall
Character name : Aeola Anara
Played: Almost every P2P MMO you can get your hands on, notably:
Daoc, SWG, LOTRO, WAR, AoC + Dozens more
The only thing I will agree with you is that the UI is clunky, so much that it causes a lack of social interaction. I remember somehow discovering my chat box and seeing absolutely nothing on it for the longest time... and it took me awhile to figure out how to minimize it again. It's horribly done, I think. Hell, I think the way diablo 2 handled chat would work perfectly here... just show it on your screen temporarily, and have a chat log in the menu screen, would work wonderfully for such an action game... I certainly wouldn't want that ugly chunk of chat UI to be permanently integrated into the combat UI.
But as for quests, personally I do them, because they usually send you near the areas where you're going for your main quest anyway, and they're pretty easy to do. You could NOT do the quests and just kill stuff. But the exclamation point idea... D2 had that too. And other games before WoW had been messing with showing an npc had a quest.
All I know is that it has been a long time since I played a game that could give me a scare so bad my body about jerked out of the chair LOL
You know when you think you have some area cleared, you take a big sigh of relief that you survived and then you take that step that causes some under ground spawn to explode RIGHT in front of you!!
CCCCCRRRRRAAAAACCCCKKKK!!!
LOL I love that.
I do wish the respawn rate was not quite so fast however so I could spend more time selling and trying on loot.
So very much loot and so little time!!!
REMEMBER THE DEAD.....FIGHT FOR THE LIVING!
Playing: Everthing
Played: DAoC,AC2,EvE,SWG,WAR,MXO,CoX,EQ2,L2,LOTRO,SB,UO,WoW.
I have played every MMO that has ever come out.
to the OP:
To each his own... However I really do must say that most of your griefs are easily removed with a patch or two... which is bound to happen pretty soon since FSS plan to have a large staff (40% of the original crew) just working on patches and additional content - permanently.
So, if you don't like Diablo-style gameplay, why did you buy the game in the first place?
In it's genre - action RPG - this is The Second Coming. Nothing since Diablo 2 can even begin to compare.
It's like saying Biohazard is a crap game because you personally don't like to play FPSs.
I must say i was a bit disappointed when i first got to try out the game on the beta. the demo really sucked tbh.
I have been waiting for this game for about a year now, and i was greatly disappointed when i played. but, the game is good. but not as good as i hoped it was. the UI, or rather ALL textures of the UI, action bar, HP/MP orbs. the inventory / skill panels. all the textures seemed like they were just stretched from the 800x600 resolution, I was using 1440x900 when i played it. They really should fix that, I would love id they made something like UI Scale like WoW has. so that everyone can adjust it to what they feel most comfortable with.
I'm buying the Game tomorrow, With a new computer. going to buy a few new games too later this month.
Seems like HG:L will only be a temporarily Time consumer for me while i wait for one of the upcoming MMO's im waiting for.
I really hope FSS make a good deal of updates, Gameplay, and UI soon. it would make the game a lot more comfortable to play. at least that's what i think.
Ironically enough DDO became tons better after a while.
The game blows.. Look at the reviews alone on this game. You all who support it are just looking for an excuse as to why you just blew $50.00 bucks, and want to believe there is something more out there than the MMO's youve been playing. Unfortunately, you will cancel and go back to what you were playing before until something else new comes out and you blow your money again.. and again.. and again. The cycle repeats itself...
And youll rant and rave some more after this.......but you know what Im talking about..
Ironically enough DDO became tons better after a while.
Completely agree with this statement. I bought the game at launch and didn't last a week. I started the game back up again a month ago and having a blast. I've made a few really shit choices as far as my characters go and I like the fact that I'm given the freedom to do it. Then again over the years my time alloted for playing games and general outlook have changed so I'm sure some young lad will come in here to "tear me a new one" with his self serving more important opinion.
Welcome to the real world dude...
Did you notice something really funny about HG:L? No pre-release advert campaign...
All the mainstream game review magazines are corrupt to the core - no advertising $$ no %%.... How can you explain the huge disparity between user and mag ratings? How many obviously really crappy games got raving mag reviews recently? Take the red pill man.
Do you remember Diablo mag reviews when it came out? You'd think no one in his right mind would consider playing it for free... It makes me laugh out loud even now, after all those years.
Over time it is only the quality of the game that matters. And I can tell you firsthand HG: L is here to stay.
Well, first of all, I stopped reading reviews after the media got a grip on our masses and started demeaning the truth just to sell something. Cycle? Well, the MMO craze has hit and been very successful, people supposedly waste $1 million + dollars toward the MMO market. So, blowing money on a $50 game is nothing. Your argument remains: MMOs are an ongoing cycle...well isn't all games? MMO is simply a newer genre becoming more and more successful as new ones keep rolling out.
Lets take a bigger, better example: look at the Halo series. Every time a new game comes out, nothing new really happens, they simply change a few things here and there, but fans love it. After all, Halo 3 was the biggest selling game of all time! You can't argue against that.
Also, selective hearing complex is a little childish...
I know some would like repsecs but really, it is no major grind to 50 at all. The hardcore gamer could probably reach max level within a week. The casual gamer who doesn't have much time as the hardcore player could probably reach max level easily within the first month depending on how much time one has. There are alot of easy gameplay elements to the game, respecs would simply just make it too much easier.
Because the game is instanced, there is always the lack of a social environment. That is the only downfall to instancing.
About the unpolished feeling, there are very few games today that actually have what people like to call a "perfect release" Look at WOW for example, their release was far form perfect and later they managed to find 6 mill plus subscribers. Not saying this game will have 6 mill subs but definitely some people like to over exaggerate the so called bugs they complain about.
This game may not be for everyone and that is fine. Just remember it is barely a week into release before some make assumptions and conclusions.
STOP COMPARING IT TO A MMORPG!
95% of you that don't like this game have only yourselves (and maybe web sites like this) to blame! i myself took 1 look at it and said "crap". however when you look at the game as an entity unto itself without trying to compare it to stupid pop games and mmorpg's it holds its own.
i thought diablo 1 and 2 were garbage, i think blizzard in general puts out over rated trash. the character creation is just pathetic for this day and age, but then again if i wanted to play dress up i would go play barbie, im just not that kinda guy. while all the kiddies were hyping this up i was snickering and thinking "morons". after obtaining a copy tho and simply playing it I LIKE IT. haven't had this much fun since oblivion.
the MAIN place this game totally drops the ball is splitting it up, EVERY TIME a company makes a split the game suffers examples include but are not limited to pc/console releases, on/off line games, rp with pvp. since they want to satisfy soo many kiddies at once they cut corners to fit things in and meet deadlines.
there is no pride or art in games anymore.
and for everyone that hates this game i suggest you stop going to sites like this, by having no expectations it's hard to have them let down. of course it could also be that i wasnt stupid enough to buy it.
I stress this point constantly. We can't allow that standard to continue. Unfinished games are to be criticized for what they are.
In fact, alot of the games that are tested properly and released at the proper time are the more successful ones. Look at WoW, Eve, guild wars. I hear tabula rasa is kicking ass right now and had a great launch.
Ever ever ever!?! This has happened to me when entering an instance. I don't know how it could never happen, because it did. I remember getting a protective shield when entering an instance for about 5 seconds, but I think it only works whenever the instance is fresh - after that, you are fair game to any monster that happens to be placed at the beginning of the instance.
You can't remove a grindfest with poorly built gameplay in a few patches. It is an integral part of the game.
In HGL you will not have the 'magic' that was found in diablo II, WoW, or any other blizzard titles. I promise you that. Keep an eye out for it, it won't be there.
Funny, did I not see HGL featured on the cover of computer gaming world two times prior to it's release?
Okay, assuming CGW is not corrupt to the core - don't forget that the makers of hellgate london flashed the "I worked for blizzard' card every chance they got.
An advertising budget it not needed when you say you worked for Blizzard. It's not the quality of HGL that has drawn people - it is the fact that ex-Blizzard-Employees made the game. I beg you to claim otherwise.
I don't read many reviews in general. (only the occasional PC gamer) but PC Gamer did give the game an 89% which is a pretty darn good score. Their biggest complaint was whether or not the subscription system was going to work out.
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)