It looks like Namco Bandai, the North American publisher for Hellgate: London, will soon be taking the game off of life support. The publisher has announced that it will continue to run and support the game's servers through January 31, 2009, at which point they will pull the plug. Finish. No more.
The game's developer, Flagship Studios, closed its door this past August leaving the future of the MMO in question. The game launched to mix reviews as well as host of server issues last October, leaving many disappointed with what was being called the "spiritual successor" to Diablo (a title which we now know actually belongs to, uh, Diablo III).
Are any of our readers still playing Hellgate: London? Does this upset you, and will you be bringing pitch forks or torches to Namco Bandai's door step?
[Via Shacknews]
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Contest:
1:02 PM on 10.24.2008
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In any event, I was kind of hoping to get around to checking this game out one day. I suppose the opportunity has passed me by.
The singleplayer is still fun, but not as fun as multiplayer
@chadandjody: Sad thing is I'll probably pick it up then, considering I don't really care about the online component.
This is the sole reason I will NEVER buy a game that requires servers or being online to play as this seriously sucks and it can happen at anytime.
How long was this game out for, like almost 2 years?
If people want a true successor to Diablo... Play Diablo II or III
Game Title: Was Lame
Too bad though.
Also why you gotta kill an ol' prospector? He just wants gold I tells ya!
Although the multi was great. This game really was like a 3rd person 3d diablo. I'm sad to see it going I had a great time with it.
Still a sad day though, it didn't deserve to die like that.
I recently reinstalled it and played through the singleplayer version without patching, it was pretty fun.
Though, there are tons of games out there that suck more than Hellgate, are free, and are still up and running!
Did something change somewhere? Last I recall HG:L had no lan mode at all.
At least they are waiting until February. That way all the lifetime subs (such as myself) can't bitch. If you do the math, $150 lifetime sub, purchased October 31st (which we now know will end February 1st 2009) comes out to exactly $10 a month, which is what a normal sub payed.
I was so wanting to love this game. I talked it up to all my friends, and a couple bought a copy. I was convinced it was going to be "Diablo in present times". And it had so much going for it, too.
Then I played it. And it was kinda fun. But man, it was no Diablo. And so I tried to play it on its own merits instead of comparing it to Diablo. And it got boring.
I think that's what did it in for me. Didn't matter what part of town you were in, it was always the same tilesets, but sometimes with different lighting. Always the same "hell" tileset. Same subway template. And the map segments were not generated with anything approaching the complexity of Diablo (1 or 2). It was always a straight shot through the segment. Those things made exploring a drag instead of something to look forward to. After seeing the same tileset for the umpteenth time, I stopped caring about seeing more of the game.
Also, the voice acting. Diablo was a game that took itself seriously, pretty much. And it was a universe that I wanted to take seriously, and wanted to get into. You really felt like you were someone who was present when the winds of change picked up into a storm. It was good stuff.
But in HG:L, everyone was over-the-top and shallow stereotypical. I'm not saying that Deckard Cain was award-winning, but I could at least imagine myself in a world where he existed. It's like Hellgate wanted to interrupt your attempts to immerse yourself in the game as often as it could.
So yeah, it kind of disappointed me.
I've never played Hellgate London - but some of my friends were seriously considering it. Glad for them that they didn't.
Man, I hope you never bought a DVD player. It will be a serious waste of money in the foreseeable future.
So if your plan is to pass on online games forever, good luck with that. Now I am not saying that this was not the right thing to do with this particular game. Just the same as not buying a BETAMAX, you know. But nothing wrong with the concept of a video recorder in itself.