Taking place in an apocalyptic, futuristic England, you stroll into this war-torn wastleland armed to the teeth with a very large chip on your shoulder. Don't think about winning this campaign, that's a foregone conclusion. Instead, you must kill, scavenge and unpgrade not only yourself but your abilities and weapons. If this sounds strangely familiar then you have been playing games for a while, for although it is a tried-and-true formula, Hellgate is an enjoyable experience provided you come armed with patience and a heavy-duty system.

As a gamer, you should know that setting up Hellgate can be a long and somewhat pain-in-the-butt experience. The title takes quite a while to load as it is quite large, but then - depending on your system - you may need to go to Microsoft's Web site for a "hotfix." Then load the thing on, restart the computer and then boot up Hellgate again. Do I sound a bit frustrated? Well then you get my drift; not only is it not a smooth experience for Vista users, but the game seems to take forever to load, and this does include moving between sections. So while my mouth watered at the promise of tearing a very large hole in some giant creature, my frustration was beginning to cause me some indigestion towards the game. Finally, after numerous reboots and a drink or two, I managed to begin playing.

 
"I'm afraid you must pay a toll if you want to ride the trolley, guv'na."

First things first, you must register the software and register your online account using the same "key" provided in the game case. Now I understand piracy and I do not support it, but this was the kind of game that I would have liked to send my Dad once I was done playing. He digs this sort of thing and I am convinced he would have enjoyed this title, but since you can only register the key code once, this makes for a cheesy way to combat piracy. So instead of someone else getting enjoyment out of this title when I am finished, it will sit on my shelf for years, only to be eventually thrown away - sad. Ok, enough whining, on to the good stuff. When you finally do start the game, you will discover that you can choose from one of many character classes that make up this futuristic Knights Templar. There's the standard soldier, the melee fighter, the sorcerer type, the gadget maker and so on and so forth. You can change their hair color, clothing, sex and all sorts of other things to give you the idea that the game is really heavily involved; it really isn't.

Now, the beginning of the game is essentially a tutorial for you to learn the hot keys, the actions, how to attack and collect the loot you find in the game. This loot is of most importance as the game really revolves around scavenging. Taking its cues from post-apocalyptic movies, you are constantly shooting up boxes and finding lockers and, of course, blowing away anything moving that isn't human, as it may or may not have money or items contained within its grasp. Now most of the items you find won't be of any use to you as there are class-specific items that can only be equipped by the correct character, but that doesn't mean anything in this world, because you can always sell it for cash and then buy items that you can use. There is also a futuristic forge where you can take items and metals and combine them to make a more potent "insert noun here." The point is, the game really wants you to go find stuff and either use it or sell it. This can be a terribly addictive thing as you constantly warp to other parts of London in the hopes of finding some rare and expensive item.

Hellgate wants to be a Diablo-esque type of game, with the random monsters and items generator each time you enter an area, the idea is that you never know what you are going to get when you enter a new section (or return to). The developers try and keep things relatively fair as you enter areas in the beginning of the game that shouldn't provide too much trouble for your character and allow them to level up. Clearly using a familiar leveling system, the game provides a current experience point total along with the total required for the next level. Now depending upon what type of character you chose, you are allowed skill point(s) to put towards the skills you start off with and when certain level requirements are met, additional skills are then offered. For example, my character is a marksman type, complete with machine guns and modern weaponry. Initially I only possessed the steady shot skill. As I leveled up I was allowed to keep beefing up my steady shot skill (because the game actually gets this part right), because you aren't that steady a shot in the beginning. But as my character got more skilled, I gained new abilities, like grenade-throwing skills and dual-wielding abilities and about 20 more.  The point being, your character has quite a bit of leeway in terms of really customizing him/her. Plus the intuitive inventory system and relatively easy to navigate menus makes the downside to the action almost enjoyable.

The look and feel of Hellgate is hot and cold. The city really looks good, burned out, massive destruction and you get to wade through it. The HUD displays are clean and the lighting effects along with the general demon design is pretty good. But, they do use recycled location ideas and creatures but only change the colors. How many exposed basements can one person explore before realizing that it is the same thing over and over with subtle differences. The character designs are smooth and decent looking but I noticed that everyone is too healthy and clean for a game like this. The citizens and even the Knights Templar should be sweaty, rough looking and dirty. There is no running showers, there is not hygiene in this future, everyone has hair that belongs in a "Garnier" commercial and scar/blemish free skin. I would have loved it if every character had bad teeth and looked like the business end of a donkey.

 
"Sadly, the profession of Demon dental hygenist has a high mortality rate and really bad 401K."

The game does feature some pretty good sound effects and orchestral accompaniment. Some creatures shriek at you and begin running at you with a wild abandon, others die with nary a whimper. The voice-over tutorial and sometime in-game voice work sounds good and clear, a rich robust voice that probably shouldn't be so upbeat considering rat is the meat of choice in this bleak future. The sound is solid.

Now, the game can be controlled either from the first-person perspective or third person. The controls are the same either way and you may want to tweak things around a bit. The game defaults to a 7.1 speaker setup so watching (and listening to the awesome intro movie) can be strange initially. The controls are pretty decent; the developers clearly wanted a game controlled with the most common of defaults. There is an awful lot of buttons to push in this title and if you are like me and like to play your games in the dark, then finding the right key in .000481 seconds can be irritating. But I must admit, the action comes in generous heaps and I love the weird humor that can be found in this title. For example, the "Sumatran Rat Monkey" is an enemy found in the tunnels. This is the crux creature in Peter Jackson's Dead Alive movie, arguably one of the goofiest and gory movies ever made. That should give you some idea of how this game can be.

Unfortunately, the game is too much action and not enough RPG quest-style play. The lite quests you do get involved with are nothing more than a couple of uninspired sentences that point you to take item "X" to professor "Z." From the gut-wrenching introduction movie, I honestly had my mind made up of what kinds of wonderful things I would need to do. It simply is not the case; you do more wandering around, killing creatures and looting items than you do anything else. If they could have come up with a really gonzo single-player campaign I think it would have given the game a different set of legs. Here's hoping Hellgate: New York does something to improve that.

Now there is a serious multiplayer mode to be experienced here, and initially you can only tackle a medium-level online experience. Only by beating the single-player mode are the harder modes unlocked and additional challenges doled out. The gist of the multiplayer mode is to team up with other adventurers and tackle areas of London deemed too difficult for any one person. Now when I say that I am really coming up with my own verbage, nowhere in the game does it say that about teaming up, but it sounds good so I wrote it. In addition, I do know that teaming up with other players (preferably those who are not like you) makes for an enjoyable way to pass the time. In addition, should you purchase the $9.99 subscription fee, you will be privy to campaigns not allowed to the general public, new monsters and some kind of cool theme missions. There was one that came out on Guy Fawkes day that I hear was enjoyable (speaking with another online player). However voice chat is still a bit spotty and the ability to chat in-game can be cumbersome.

Gameplay: 7.5
The game controls easily on the movement front, but breaking in action to press a random button can cause some frustration.

Graphics: 8.0
You had better have a hot graphics card and equally hot system to match the demands this game has. The graphics look good but are recycled too much for my taste. Moving from one place to another requires the use of teleport stations. The game would have been cooler if you had to go through checkpoints that were armed with guards and massive turrets.

Sound: 7.0
The audio is good and does a good job of reminding you that you are in a bad place, and can be humorous in spots.

Difficulty: Medium
I must have killed 15 creatures before I ever took a hit. You can go a long, long time before ever being killed. Some creatures are so insanely difficult though, you had better be buying and upgrading everything.

Concept: 6.0
I like the idea, but the lacking single-player campaign really hurts; I would have loved a much more fleshed-out RPG experience.

Multiplayer: 6.5
I so wanted to get into this whole game; the idea is great, the thought of rocking and rolling with others online as we lay waste to all sorts of baddies is just ... unfullfilling. I can't help but think the Gears of War multiplayer idea would have worked so much better here.

Overall: 7.1
Hellgate: Cleveland had better get things right where Hellgate London got them wrong.