Hellgate: London

[ThunderTitan]

From the guys that brought you Diablo, it certainly looks interesting.

Official site: http://www.hellgatelondon.com/

Wiki: http://wiki.flagshipforums.com/Main_Page

Discuss.

[TheUndeadKing]

I've watched a couple of trailers before, and I must say it looks amazing! But I have my doubts, because it's almost too good to be true. The developer team has a good past - they did a great job with Diablo I & II. But things are different now. This is their first non-Blizzard game, it's in 3D and last but not least, it's in first person (not necessarily an FPS).

[ThunderTitan]

Actualy from what i read and saw, it's both 1st and 3rd person. Go to the character section on the official site and you'll see both the Cabalist and Templar videos are 3rd person. I read that the 1st person view is best used for long range weapons, coz you can see further.

And Blizzard is just a name, it's the peole that worked there that made the games great.

[TheUndeadKing]

Hmm, I didn't know that. Guess I'll have to check it out then.

[DaemianLucifer]

Currently there was only one cyber-punk RPG game that I liked,and it was fallout(I count it as one game,even though I liked both),so I have my doubts here.

[ThunderTitan]

But this has demons in it. But the question is whether you liked Diablo 1/2.

[winterfate]

That game is looking awesome...

btw, yes I loved Diablo 1/2 (playing 2 again actually, making a Zealadin).

[ThunderTitan]

I was actualy asking DL... there's another thread for Diablo if you wish.

[DaemianLucifer]

But this has demons in it.

Thats actually a reason more not to like it.Even though I like the original doom,the concept of demons and guns is not my thing(except in the way I used it in my RPGs).

But the question is whether you liked Diablo 1/2.

I did like them,but 2 became boring towards the end.To repetitive.

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

I was looking forward to Hellgate until it was announced that it will basically be a pay to play game (if you want the cool content.)

The single player game is "free", that is no monthly payment after you buy the game. There is a core multiplayer component that is "free."

But there is an "Elite" premium service. The premium service gives you access to areas where only premium players can go, access to equipment only elite players can possess, a larger inventory, more character slots (3 is the non-pay, 12 character slots for elite membership), ect, ect.

So basically unless you pay every month you get a gimped game. So I'll be skipping this one.

See the below articles for more info:
http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/hellgate-lo ... 714p1.html

GOW

[ThunderTitan]

Seems more like you pay for new content... of course the extra equipment (if it's more powerful and not just for show) and extra levels are rather crappy. New areas aren't very different then NWN premium modules.

Hopefully ppl will bitch enough so they drop the lvl cap.

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

If they made the extra content available as expansions I would buy the expansions. Then the content would also be available in single player mode. The majority of players in games that have a multiplayer and single player component are single player. That's something they should consider.

And the standard backpack capacity (20 items per character) seems pretty low to me, especially if there are set items and such that take a long time to gather. In Diablo you can make an unlimited number of mules to hold your items to use for trade and for other characters later. Not so in Hellgate. You can only have 3 characters total without paying extra and the storage of those characters is rather limited.

But buying content that you can only gain or possess (if you stop paying you lose access to the elite items that are in your possession and to characters beyond the 3 character limit) as long as you are paying monthly is not worth it to me. Different strokes for different folks.

PS Did I mention a 3 character limit? That's rather low.

Edit: It just feels to me like I would be buying a demo of the game.

GOW

[Meandor]

I hope that some one will crack those stupid limits.

[ThunderTitan]

I'm more into SP anyway...

[ThunderTitan]

PA FTW as always:

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

You've summed it up nicely.

GOW

[ThunderTitan]

Thank Tycho.

[Campaigner]

It looks good, but I don't like "pay x$ and play for y days". A better system is like a WoW gamecard where you get 60 days that's only being used when your logged in.

The subscription/gamecard way of games is the way of the future, it's something people will have to learn. GoW and people his age who has always been used to "This box is what I pay for and it is what I get" are in for a change.

And who says this change isn't for the better? There are more advantages than disadvantages for a subscription/gamecard system than the old "buy box and end of story".

Continually new content

New stuff every 3rd month or so.


Continual support

With the game being developed all the time, bugs and issues will be taken care of and your experience will improve.


5-year enjoyment of a game you really like

This is probably the best point for me. Instead of playing a few games every month that you can't replay (like old NES and SNES games), a game that you really like that gets updated regularly is all you need to play. So you can play your favorite game for years!


Disadvantages

Monthly pay (gamecard to a limited extent).
Yeah I agree, it feels bad to have to pay every month (or for every gamecard) and if you don't play for three weeks you'll feel like you're wasting money. This is remedied by gamecards in WoW style though.


GoW: That's a pessimistic view :p Why now see it as: "I gotted what I paid for. If I want more content I'll have to pay more"?

[ThunderTitan]

The issue is not about getting extra content, but not getting what used to be normal content. And paying for better equipment is unfair imo.

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

Whether or not subscription game cards or monthly pay is the wave of the future remains to be seen.

I don't mind for paying for new meaningful content in the form of expansions. But $10/month for a once per quater update that you have no clue what is going to be is not the prefered method for me.

In 3 months time you have paid what you could get most expansions for. Will you have recieved the equivalent of an expansion in content? Or will you have recieved one new colored shirt that can be gained only in elite only areas, 2 new monsters in elite only areas, and a bracelet saying "lEEt!"

Furthurmore, that monthly fee is not only for new content but to be able to keep playing with the equipment and characters that you get as being an elite member. If you decide to cancel elite membership and go back to the "free" (why do they call it free when you bought the game?) membership you lose access to the elite equipment that your characters possess and you lose access to the characters you have above the "non-pay" 3 character limit.

As time goes by there is going to be a wider and wider gap between the power of the elite membership players and the "free" membership players. This will be detrimental to the game.

Even adding in free new content (although I don't expect free new content) can be profitable for a company. It keeps the game fresh and keeps players playing it rather than jumping to a competitor's game. That keeps the sales of the game up. I think that Blizzard proved this with Diablo's ongoing popularity. Patch 1.10 added and changed a lot of stuff and they have added a little new content since then.

I hope they have better luck keeping the hackers at bay than Blizzard has had.

GOW