Hellgate

05.11.2007

Nearly two hours later my better half comes into the darkened room. She says snappishly that she is going to bed. The casserole she has made for me is now cold. There is still a little left for me down stairs. But, at the moment nothing matters to me. I stare rigidly at my screen and forget everything else around me.

There are several reasons for this fact. On the one hand, HellGate: London got a hold on me. My old Diablo-addiction has me in its clutches once again. The search for better items for my heroic Templar, mystical Cabalists or my high-tech Hunters drives me from level to level. On the other hand, I am a little disappointed by HellGate: London. I am not used to the makers of Diablo sending me on bad or boring quests. HellGate: London has plenty of these. For five minutes I continuously bang on an enemy aircraft, without any harm coming to me. I ask myself what is the point? The side quests consist mainly of “kill so and so many X-type monsters, and return to me.” Even the “side quests” in HellGate: London take on a different meaning than the name would suggest. If you follow the story linearly, the main quests are almost unsolvable, because your own avatar is too weak, no matter well you have skilled him. I therefore spend hours clobbering stupid monsters. The fundamental elements for the side quests would have been very good A small boy, for example, asks you to return his prosthetic leg (which was stolen by a demon) to him. That is motivating. That is fun. I want more of this.

There is a plus side to slaughtering all those monsters, however. Killed opponents are constantly dropping new objects, be it a sword, new armor or various items that can be used to modify your weapons. These articles can be sold to vendors for the game’s money (Palladium), disassembled into their individual components, or used to customize your own character. Each item selected influences your character’s merit. Therefore, it is very important for you to select which of the four merits (accuracy, strength, endurance, will power) you wish to allot your five points to (one of which can be taken into the next level) wisely. You are rewarded one skill point for every level up, which you can apply to the Skilltree to either get new magic, to learn new attack tactics, or to improve those you are already familiar with. All this is needed to explore the world of HellGate: London.

This is actually quite large. Thus I must travel with my heroes from one subway station to another. Subway station? That is correct! After the demons invaded London, those who managed to survive sought refuge in the English metropolis’ extensive subway network. From there they coordinate their battle against the underworld. These stations function as “cities”, which are a common feature of role-playing games. There you can shop and often find new quests. Futuristic portals catapult you into the dreary world of HellGate: London. Dreary? Yes, unfortunately it is. Apart from the stations, HellGate: London consists of five stark sets of graphics. HellGate’s engine uses the set elements to create dynamic levels, but this is hardly noticeable since the set elements always remain the same. You always feel like you are in the same place. Too bad! The “boring atmosphere” is only accentuated by the fact that the types of opponents also fall short of being particularly varied. You go up against the same hoards of villains time and again. Apart from criticisms mentioned above, HellGate also has a quite noticeably nasty bug. On more than one occasion, thanks to faulty collision detection, my character got stuck between objects. This is annoying, because even if there are no opponents lurking about, I am taken into the realm of the dead, and must exit my current game and reload. Consequently, not only are all the mobs once again on your present level, but the maps are also recombined. This can sometimes be very frustrating.