Hellgate: London beta
November 2007 Issue
Features
- From the Editors
- Craft Check: Gamer Soap
- Gaming in the Media: Fallen Guitar Heroes
- Market to Me: Using sex to sell
- Gamer vs Gamer: The Virtue of Reality?
Interviews
- Industry Interview: Shelly Mazzanoble [Author, Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress]
Articles
- Gender & Live-Action Role Play: Into the Tavern, Part II
Author: Samara Hayley Steele
- Sims vs. Playboy: Sex and Relationships in the Dark Ages of Video Games
Author: Cherie Thomason
- Another Rape In Cyberspace
Author: Pat Miller
- Immaculate Reception
Author: Latoya Peterson
In this ongoing series, Samara shares her experiences as a female LARPer in a male-dominated LARP Organization.
Cherie discusses the portrayal of sex in console video games.
The trauma of a sexual assault is not limited to physical hurt. Pat discusses the violation of virtual bodies as analogous to that of real bodies, and wonders how it can be stopped.
Latoya discusses the lack of sex in mainstream video games and critiques the interplay between hyper-sexualized characters and their chaste actions.
Gamer Stories
Reviews
Odds 'n Ends
I have been anticipating Hellgate: London for a couple of years now, ever since I saw the amazing cinematic trailers that premiered at E3 2005. I have never played any of the Diablo games, though, which were highly influential in the development of Hellgate: London.
I played about of five hours of the Hellgate: London beta and got my character up to level seven. I only completed main quest chains. I did not reach the “end” of the beta. However, I think five hours of play is a decent amount of time to invest in a game so I will share my impressions below.
Likes
Good Game Play
I prefer spell-casting classes over shooting and melee classes, so most of my play time has been with a Cabalist Summoner. The Cabalist is an arcane magic user in Hellgate: London. The Summoner calls demons to do their dirty work. You have some non-summon spells, such as self-heals at your disposal, but most of the Summoner’s damage output is indirect, through elemental and demon pets.
The game is action-packed. The interface is intuitive. I didn’t have too many problems adjusting to the control scheme. Fighting is quite satisfying, so I don’t think any fan of action will find the game lacking in this department.
Great Graphics
My graphics card, an ATI Radeon 9800, is getting on in years. I’m not able to revel in the full glory of Hellgate: London’s graphics. However, I am satisfied with what I’ve seen, and the graphics did not detract from my game experience. People with reasonably up-to-date computers should have a great time ogling the lighting, the architecture, and the demons.
I was also able to create a reasonably attractive character. Though the face options were somewhat lacking in variety, the skin tone and hair options offered a ton of possibilities.
Dislikes
Story
The storyline was not compelling enough — this is the deal breaker for me. The sense of urgency in Hellgate: London felt contrived. You are essentially dropped into the middle of the story with no explanation of why you are there.
The beta lacks a gradual build up that allows players to identify with their characters and with the location – ostensibly “their” city. I don’t role-play in online RPGs, but I do like to have a sense of my character. This certainly wouldn’t be as much as a pre-generated, pre-defined character with motivations and a past handed to me out of the box, but still. We know we’re fighting demons and that demons are bad, but the forced urgency simply isn’t enough to get me to care. This fact is slightly more significant because I lived in London for over a year. Despite my love of the real city, this had little impact on my affinity for the in-game London, which surprised me.
I did not reach the “end” of the beta, so I’m sure I’m missing some interesting plot points. The introduction of a mysterious and mystical oracle type figure wasn’t intriguing enough for me to want to continue playing. The story didn’t hook me, but this may be a matter of personal preference.
Inflexible Skill Trees
I know I’ve been spoiled with the flexibility of Guild Wars’s Skill point allocation, which allows you to tweak your specialties as much as you like as long as you are in a town or outpost. Hellgate: London, like other online games, will not allow you to reallocate Skill points into your character’s areas of focus once you have spent them. World of Warcraft allows you to reallocate your Skill points for gold, but Hellgate: London will not let you do this for any price.
Picking Nits
Authenticity
I knew Hellgate: London’s London wasn’t going to be 100% accurate. It’s a modern horror fantasy version of London set in 2038, made by an American game development studio. Hellgate: London is essentially a game set in a London as a bunch of Americans imagine London to be. Still, minor disappointment started to set in after I began noticing some of the details. I had the distinct feeling that this London was a sort of Twilight Zone London – it’s not real, but it was a very solid attempt to be realistic.
For example, the distance between Tube stations on the surface did not resemble real geographical distances. They had Holborn far too close to Russell Square, and the “square” in Russell Square (which is actually called Bloomsbury Square) didn’t even resemble the real thing, not even in size. I used to walk from Russell Square to Holborn nearly every weekday for the better part of a year, so I’m not just pointing out a random inconsistency after having looked it up online.
The landmark buildings do not have the same level of architectural detail as the real versions. I was in Hellgate: London’s British Museum the other night, and although it was an impressive copy, it doesn’t have the scale of the real thing. It’s a lot smaller, and obviously none of the artwork in the Hellgate: London version resembles what’s inside the real British Museum. You also can’t go into the museum’s Reading Room, and that was disappointing.
Covent Garden Market was actually decently reconstructed, though again, it seemed smaller than the real one. Having said that, the visual details (as in, the appearance of objects, buildings, stone, wood, etc.) were very nicely done.
There are traditional British red phone boxes almost everywhere in Hellgate: London. In the real London of 2007 you would struggle to find them because mobile phones have become so ubiquitous as to render landlines almost unnecessary. What more the London of 2038?
Another irksome aspect about Hellgate: London so far are the accents. There are lots of stereotypical London accents (as well as other English accents) represented. London is one of the most diverse cities in the world, however Hellgate: London’s London isn’t as diverse as the real London. Just walking down a street in London, in certain parts, you’re liable to hear at least four different languages spoken at any given time. Also, I’ve yet to see any British Asians and other ethnic and racial groups. Almost every character sounds like a caricature of real Londoners. Someone in the forums pointed out to me that some of the accents are meant to be humorous cultural references (there are Harry Potter and Sound of Music references) or tongue-in-cheek, but does the world really need more stupid British stereotypes in its entertainment?
Clothing on Female Characters
The development team is aware of this criticism. I participated in one of the larger Hellgate: London communities when it was just starting up and Flagship Studios had a strong presence in that community. One of the threads I chimed in on was about armor and clothing on female characters.
Flagship Studios has made the annoying decision to outfit their female characters in high-heeled battle boots. The Guardian and the Blademaster classes are sword-wielding armored knights, basically. They get into the thick of battle; how are high heels in any way appropriate or practical? The Marksman and Engineer classes are gun-toting and robot-commanding classes. They run around the place, shooting things. I challenge anyone to wear six-inch high heels and run around for six hours and tell me that it was a good idea.
I also have, of course, the requisite criticism that the female spellcasters, the Summoner and the Evoker, tend to be scantily clad, though there are sensible armor sets (randomly) available. Spellcasters are also outfitted in high heels and when they cast spells they float mysteriously in the air, but they do run around smiting demons just as much as the other Classes.
Conclusion
If you enjoy action, Hellgate: London is probably worth investigating. Hellgate: London is great for those who want FPS-lite, since the gun-wielding Classes are less demanding to play than full-on FPS games. Anyone who loved Diablo will probably find Hellgate: London very enjoyable. If you don’t need to feel strongly attached to your characters, to the story, or to the location, Hellgate: London is probably worth a look, too. Whether its story hooks you might come down to personal taste, however.
I have to stress that I played the beta version of Hellgate: London. The beta contained no cinematic cut scenes, and Flagship Studios added a lot of new content upon its release on October 31. It’s possible that the story aspect that I found so lacking in the beta is complete in the full retail version, however I will never know since I have decided not to purchase the game.
