If It's Not Nazis, It's Demons
If there's anything developers love more than Nazis, it's demons. As a player, I love killing both. There aren't too many black and white conflicts throughout history. I can safely say the Allies vs. the Nazis is one, and the future war of Humans vs. Satan'sDemonic Hordes will be another.
I downloaded the newly released Hellgate: London single player demo yesterday and I was really happy with the game. I'm not a huge fan of Diablo or the thousands of Diablo clones. I didn't play Diablo when it came out and I have always found click fests like Titan Quest incredibly boring. I'd have to say the biggest reason I never stick to MMOs is that I hate repetition.
When you play a game like Diablo or World of Warcraft, the game, if you really want to break it down, is repetition wrapped around a gooey shell of loot and skills. You can say the same for any shooter, because you more or less shoot people with the same handfull of guns in Half Life 2. I guess it's the scripting and situations that change things. In WoW I always feel like I'm killing a bigger jackrabbit.
/rant over
Hellgate was really cool. I really liked the setting and the fact that it's semi-futuristic (I'm so sick of fantasy!). I played the Marksmen class to avoid the blademaster hack 'n slash and really digged him. Futuristic armor + big rifles is always a win in my book. Demons exploded pretty quickly and it reminded me a lot of the simplicity of Serioius Sam. I reached level 4, so I was able to toy a little bit with skills and stats, plus some gear. It seems deep, but not too deep.
I imagine single player will be fun for 5-10 hours only. I can tell it'll get repetitive and the story sucks (mostly text, fairly blah). BUT, co-op should be excellent. Co-op makes almost any game excellent. That's why I may play this game for a long time.
I worry about performance -- it seemed to chug a little on my monster work desktop. It can also get a bit ugly in parts. We'll see. The game is only $10 with my EA discount, so I'm not that concerned.
(posted by grant at 10/19/2007)
