Recently, Hellgate: London appeared in the New York Times. Thankfully, they’ve ceased charging to view older articles so we can provide a snippet of what they had to say.
There are single-player games (like Mass Effect). There are persistent online games (like Tabula Rasa). And then there is the hybrid action role-playing genre pioneered by the fabulously popular Diablo series. Many, many contenders have tried to exceed, or even just match, Diablo’s addictive combination of randomized levels, easy yet deep combat and, of course, “slot machine”-style loot, where every monster just might drop that superpowerful item you’ve been hoping for. All have failed to approach the polish of the Diablo series.
Hellgate, on the other hand, just might, and not least because many of the game’s senior designers defected from Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo team to strike out on their own. Once again, this new game shuns fantasy themes for more of a science fiction feel (notice a trend here?). You can play offline, but the real depth in the game comes from joining friends in cyberspace. The demons have invaded London, and naturally your job is to clear them out. Publishers: Electronic Arts, HanbitSoft and Namco, for PC.
As the NYT said, there are hundreds of games which have tried to emulate and acheive the level of success which Diablo and Diablo II experienced. However, if there is one team in this day and age who can put toghether something with the potential to top it, it’s the developers of Diablo themselves. Hellgate: London drops into retailers on October 31st.
