Someone here playing Hellgate London 2038?

A Fan Project with new online servers for the good old Hellgate London which got shutdown sadly

Looking into it.

Can someone please explain to me where the appeal of this game is? Because i honestly don't see it. I didn't play Hellgate when it came out (and i'm glad i didn't), i tried it a few months back last year, and i was very disappointed by it... maybe i wouldn't have been disappointed if the game wasn't so praised by numerous ARPG fans. "It's like Diablo 2 with guns" they say... sorry, but no! There's a lot of nice ideas here, but the game doesn't even feel halfway finished. Where do i even start?

First, it looks extremely outdated, even for 2007 standards. The FPS mechanics and overall combat system is an abortion. It's an ARPG FPS game after all, how can you messed up the aiming and shooting with guns so badly? Compare this abomination to Borderlands and... there's no room for comparison actually, Hellgate fails at it big time.

The ARPG aspects of Hellgate are solid on first glare, but the more i played, the more they started to crack. The skills are boring and there's not enough useful ones that you would want to develop. And even though there's not many skills for each class, there's also not enough skill points to develop your desired build. Not to mention the leveling is very slow and tedious as all hell.

The loot sucks as well! I have spent 40 hours in this game before i gave up, and i never found a single legendary item. I'm not the type of player who wants the legendaries to rain. I like it when the really good stuff is rare. That's why there's should be a variety of legendaries that are more commonly dropped, but also rare ones that you really need to grind for... just like Diablo 2. When every unique is extremely rare to the point where you start to lose hope of ever finding one, now that's the type of loot system i don't agree with.

The art direction, the setting and the premise are all cool, but once again very lazily executed. 90% of the game takes place in sewers and boring underground storage rooms, there's like 3 underground stages and 2-3 overworld stages that endlessly repeat, there's no variety whatsoever... and because the game was originally developed as an MMO, all the quests are MMO-esk garbage... "go in the sewer and kill 5 zombies" or, "now go in that next sewer and collect 5 pieces of crap from X monster type"
There are a few main story areas that are unique, but they are so far in between, you just get sick of all the other repetitive boring locations. There's also the Hellgates that have a grand total of 2 areas that endlessly repeat. First you go through a hellgate to end up in a super small suspended platform in the hell dimension, then you enter a hellgate within the hellgate to end up in the same giant, but mostly empty hall, with a few monsters and chests in it. There's not even unique bosses for you to fight in there.

And speaking of monsters... it's all the same crap! You get a few monster types that endlessly repeat... have fun!

So what is it that draws people in this game? Because even the multiplayer is not that great, when you have nothing interesting to do with your friend, but to kill the same monsters again and again, on the same repetitive locations, with boring loot and skills. The state in which this game was released (and still is to this day) is not even worthy of a demo.

I'm going to commit a sort of blasphemy now, but i'm not surprised this game was made by David Brevik. I believe he's an overrated developer. He had some brilliant ideas in the 90's that led to the creation of two classic masterpieces. He was ahead of its time back then, but sadly failed to evolve further. I mean, what has he really done since Diablo 2? Mediocre title after another. Even his indy game is just a Terraria rip-off with a Diablo twist in it. Why isn't he working for the big companies? Why did he fail to make Diablo 3? The early screenshots we saw of this game were promising, but behind the curtain the game could have been a disaster for all we know... a disaster that led to the subsequent drama with Blizzard. Even if we look at the state Diablo 2 was released back in 2000, we can raise some question about this guy's integrity as a game developer.

This post was edited by KillingIsMyBusiness on Jan 9 2021 07:14am

You didnt play 2007 than ... in 2007 it was graphic wise pretty much on top of everything out there.

Did you even play diablo 2? ... there are 5 monster types with some variations ... so yes this point is basically exactly like diablo 2.

Also the game made some progress in the generation of maps which was not there at this point in any game at all - Dynamic Map creation on entry.

Yes if you play it not it seems kinda boring and "normal" ...

Quests ... you really didnt play diablo 2 right?

Always make the same over and over ... did you even play arpg genre before? Thats exactly what people are looking for in this kind of games ... make it over and over and try to find the right items.


What is missing in the original version, which came with hellgate global version was mega hard boss fights you needed a team of 5 people to coordinate - which basically was not present in any game at all at this time

David Brevik was not even involved in this game ...
David Brevik was not involved in diablo 3 either ...

So at least get some informations if you make a post like this, which tries to be informative and from a guy that knows what he is talking about

Hellgate lives the good old fashioned diablo 2 stile of farming the same things, getting some ultra rare drops eventually after doing the same thing hundreds of times ...

This post was edited by Dark_Lagencie on Jan 9 2021 09:07am

It looks to me that you're the one who never played Diablo 2, or any other half-decent ARPG. Yes, there are copy/pasted monsters in Diablo 2, but each act also introduces a bunch of new monster types, not to mention, a new setting with a variety of dungeons. Hellgate repeats the same shit again and again throughout the whole game, with an occasional (and i'm being generous here) "unique" area here and there. It doesn't help that the 95% of the game takes place inside boring underground storage rooms and sewers.




I don't see any improvements. So the game has procedurally generated maps... so what? It's the same maps again and again with a different layout. At least in Diablo and other ARPG's, you get different dungeons and location changes with each act, but in Hellgate, you go to the next act and nothing changes, it's the same crap again and again.




What?




No! The grind is not the only thing that people look for in these types of games. In order for a game to have replayability, and for the players to enjoy grinding the same areas again and again, the locations and monsters need to be interesting and diverse... you also need good combat system and action, and Hellgate fails in all of these aspects. Go play some Borderlands if you haven't yet, and see where the shooting mechanics of Hellgate fail.




I think by now we made it crystal clear that you're the one who's never played Diablo 2 or any other half-decent ARPG. Yes, Diablo 2 has some fetch quests, but these quest always lead to interesting dungeons, with at least one superunique monster or boss at the end. When in Diablo 2 did you see "Go in the sewers and collect 10 power cells from 10 generic trash mobs"? Or "go on the streets and kill 10 zombies just because"? Not to mention, these quests completely lack any sort of context.




Oh wow, great, i'm sure that's enough to compensate for the fact that the rest of the game is a complete waste of time.




You need a fact check. Go read some articles, and then comeback. I'm not the one in need of information, it's you




HELL NO! That's a joke... and not a good one!

This post was edited by KillingIsMyBusiness on Jan 9 2021 09:58am

Hellgate London was made by Bill Roper one of the lead programmers from diablo 2 ...

I dont need to fact check anything because i know both David Brevik and Bill Roper in person ...

And yes David Brevik did leave blizzard already in 2003 because he had some big disagrees about what diablo 3 should become.

Also David Brevik is working for GGG as of right now ... as a advisor for the launch in china of PoE

This post was edited by Dark_Lagencie on Jan 9 2021 11:14am

And who designed the game? I'll give you a hint - it's the same person who in your previous post you claimed had nothing to do with the game. I guess you needed that fact check after all.




By the time Brevik left Blizzard in 2003, the work on Diablo 3 had already begun, and he was involved in it. The game was in very early stage, when Blizzard came and basically said that what Blizzard North (and that includes Brevik) is doing was outdated and not up to the standards of the company, which led to the disagreement between the two parties and the subsequent drama. So to say that Brevik never worked on Diablo 3 is false.




So? He's an advisor (whatever that means) for a company that in 14 years has produced 1 game that's basically a more complex rip-off of Diablo 2. What a great achievement for what was once a real visionary in the industry. Brevik just failed to adapt with the current, everything he developed after D2 was mediocre at best.




Ok, now you're lying. But even if there's some truth in this, no one's going to believe you anyway, so why even make that claim? It doesn't help your argument in any way, because you don't need to know them in person, since all the evidence and history on the matter is out there on the internet. One quick search gets the job done. In fact, by saying something as ridiculous as this, it makes you look more desperate to prove something, while in fact, there's nothing to prove here. You like Hellgate, i hate Hellgate and that's it! People have different opinions, so let's agree to disagree. What you shouldn't do though, is get annoyed when someone doesn't like the games that you like, especially when said person explains his reasoning and provides some constructive criticism. Don't tell others to "get information", when it's clear that you don't know the full picture of what you're trying to defend so desperately, because you can't accept different opinions. You did not provide any valid arguments to why Hellgate is a good game... all you did is repeating stuff like "you never played ARPGs and Diablo 2" and false claims like "Diablo 2 did the same thing". Instead of insulting my ability to form an opinion, why don't you try to explain why Hellgate is good, especially in comparison with other ARPG shooters and maybe then we can have a more civil conversation.

This post was edited by KillingIsMyBusiness on Jan 9 2021 11:56am

there is no more need for any discussion ... if you actually believe blizzard started to work on Diablo 3 9 years before its release
https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Diablo_III

2006 the development of the current diablo 3 started ... and yes its easy to read about it but you should actually read good facts and not some bullshit .. like they needed 11 years for diablo 3

Admitting when you're wrong is a virtue you clearly don't possess. At this point, there's nothing left for you, but to continue to post nonsense that doesn't help you in any way. Where did you see me saying that "the development of the current Diablo 3 started in 2001"? I was talking about the original Diablo 3 concept all along and i made that crystal clear, it's you who refuse to accept the obvious facts.

Do you know what this is?




This is the link you should have posted, not the one from the wiki of the "current" Diablo 3, that conveniently for you doesn't even mention the original D3 concept.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_III

And here's a little quote from it:



Who are you trying to fool anyway? This entire forum and their grandparents know about the original Brevik and Co. Diablo 3 concept, and when it was started. Also, how is that helping you in your defense of Hellgate London at this point? Why do you keep responding with nonsense?

This post was edited by KillingIsMyBusiness on Jan 9 2021 02:28pm

your point is invalid ... yes david brevik worked on the ORIGINAL CONCEPT of diablo 3 but did not work on diablo 3 as we know it ... because he didnt like the way blizzard wanted him to go with the game and thats what i said above already

Torchlight Frontiers had a lot of programmers also ... still Torchlight 3 is a complete different game and someone that worked on Torchlight Frontier didnt work on Torchlight 3.

Thats ur line: By the time Brevik left Blizzard in 2003, the work on Diablo 3 had already begun

And this is wrong if u like it or not ... because the work of the original diablo 3 concept has begun, but not the work of diablo 3 ... diablo 3 started in 2006 and they dumped pretty much everything of the original concept so there is nothing david brevik worked on in diablo 3