I can see my fellow Cursers have also been hard at work playing Hellgate: London. That would appear to account for the somewhat lengthy absence of reading material lately from us at TDQ. Anyway, here's my take on the game from the perspective of an Evoker. I copied this directly out of my Facebook note.

I know there's a few of you out there that are looking at it eagerly but are wary of it at the same time. You're not sure what it's about and you're waiting for some other guy to check it out and see how it is.

What is Hellgate: London?

It's the next potential flagship game for Flagship Studios. They're mostly comprised of the same team that set up Diablo 2. You can expect lots of demons, undead, and more then 100 ways to send them back to hell.

What is Hellgate: London not?

It's not a game that's going to supplant the dominance of World of Warcraft. That will not happen for a long time (if ever). The design of Hellgate is similar to that of Guild Wars. When you zone into combat areas, you are loaded into an instance that you and your party mates are a part of. Furthermore, the instances CHANGE everytime. They evolve. If you had to make a right to go to the next room, you could potentially run into a dead end the next time you take that path. Level's are randomly generated. This game's combat levels are not linear. This game is essentially Diablo, digitally remastered.

There's two versions of the game. There's a subscription service and a non-subscription service. Ten bucks a month nets you access to nifty features like the ability to make guilds and more storage. You also get access to Hardcore mode were if you die, that's it. You don't get your char back. Sadly, I'm busy playing WoW and I don't have the financial stability to pay for this on a monthly basis.

People deem it an MMO. I have to disagree with that assessment. While it's true that it has the potential for tons of players online simultaneously, the actual interaction is quite narrow. You're not going to see any 40 on 40 PvP action. You're not going to see 25 main raid groups killing big, bad bosses (although that may change from what I've seen). I just don't think the game is massive enough to be considered massively multiplayer.

I rolled an Evoker. It's a spellcaster with the potential to suck life out of mobs and literally drop suitcase nukes all over the battlefield. Out of 50 levels, I'm now at Level 20 (Bought the game on Wednesday). I've spent my entire MMO career as a healer (Monk in GW, Paladin/Priest in WoW) and for a nice change of pace, I get to nuke ***.

Interface

I found it to be quite... clunky. The chat box is jammed and full of crap and is hidden by default. I had no idea the game HAD a chatbox until someone asked me why I wasn't responding to their tells (in game whispers). The alt key needs to be pressed down in order for you to interact with the menu. Destroying items is tedious requiring you to right click, move the mouse down to press a button, and then move the mouse over again to confirm. Considering you're going to be junking 75% of the items you get in this game, you'd think the ability to throw things out would be more streamlined.

Combat

I don't know about you, but when I'm playing video games, I fully expect to be able to install and jump right in and learn on the fly witout RTFM (that's Reading the Fucking Manual).

Your spellbars are limited to 12. No, let me rephrase. You can cast or use a total of 12 spells or items. The keys are limited to 1 - 0, and Q and E. 12 choices. Sure you can change them in combat, but it's going to be very hairy. I'd much like it if there's a way to allow us to at least use spell combinations utilizing ctrl, alt, and shift. That would triple the amount of abilities that we can use. Given the choice between Hellfire and Health Packs, I can safely say I would rather opt for nuking. I might die a little early, but at least I can rest easier knowing I took 30 demons with me.

Itemization

Completely random. It adopts a three tiered value model that's common in other games (Uncommon, Rare, and fucking dead sexy). The items that dropped are random. The stats on them are even random still. Most items are not bound to you. Once you finish with one, you can toss it or give to a friend who is several levels below you so they can use it. Unlike WoW (and much like Diablo), the items take up different amount of slots in your bag. Rifles will take up several rows. A sword will take up three blocks in a column, etc.

Atmosphere

Spooky. I stop playing this game past 11 unless I'm grouped with friends. There's no way I'm diving into a sewer unless its 2 PM, my blinds are open with sunlight flooding through, and the Guitar Hero OST is blasting from my Macbook. They did a hell of a job. Just picture yourself walking through a dark tunnel with little light, then the floor ahead of you erupts, and this four scythe limbed demon appears charging at you for blood. You turn around, but six zombies throwing exploding balls are blocking your way. To top it off, there's a few annoying bats who've decided to annoy you by flying around in your face.

A well timed nuke solves all problems.

Conclusion

Fun cooperative game to play with friends. It's something to do on a Saturday night. Hardware requirements might stop a few people. But if you're looking for an alternative to WoW, try Tablua Rasa but I don't know much about that game right now. Guild Wars players will want to crave some PvP aspect. There's none here. The non-subscription access may appeal to the more casual gamer market (If not them, then the financially challenged ones). All in all, Hellgate's a nice place for me to release my frustrations from WoW without relying on CS:Source or TF2.

EDIT: After I posted, one of my friends informed me that there are in fact fourteen different keys that can be used for spells and abilities. The two slots meant for your weapons can be changed to include spells in them (left and right mouse).