On paper, Hellgate: London sounds like an unmitigated disaster: although its an RPG blended with the visceral action of a first-person shooter, the ranged weapons lack any punch, making it feel as if youre detached from the action unless youre hammering demons with a melee weapon; the randomly-generated worlds are made from similar building blocks, meaning that the locations soon become repetitive and fail to capture the grimy streets of London; the denizens of Hades youll dismember lack variety and use a familiar range of attacks, meaning that the combat becomes a chore when trying to earn the experience points to max out your character; and niggling problems such as a poorly designed inventory, tedious script, and action that occasionally judders when a lot is happening on screen also do little to mask the games failings.
However, despite its problems, Hellgate is still strangely compelling, giving players piles of items they can collect and use to enhance their avatar, who can then be taken online to show what a demon-busting badass youve become. The various character classes you can play as also come into their own when you hook up with other players online to form a hellspawn-slaying team, and the premise - although badly scripted - is still a decent jump-off point for a maelstrom of devil bashing.