Ripten writes:
"Hellgate: London – we hardly knew ye.
As an MMO you were announced with much pomp and circumstance, a FPS – brawler set in a dystopian cyperpunk London where demons arose to turn the Britain metropolis into a romper-room for the nefarious powers.
Alas, it was not to be.
While I and my fellow gamers rejoiced in the freshly wrought game and the manner in which you presented it, something was amiss. I did not begrudge the amount of time it cut into my World of Warcraft. If anything, I celebrated it. WoW had become a stale, flaccid diversion. Hellgate looked promising. Hellgate looked provocative.
Hellgate looked devilishly good.
Unfortunately those in charge of your better angels forswore your development, and while 50 managers shouted and berated five techies working hours that would exhaust an Egyptian slave, the game foundered under the immense strain that was the creative ego. In the end, the game was besieged by a very different set of devils – those in management, ensconced in ivory towers."
Before Flagship Studios, there was Blizzard North. Originally known as Condor, the Redwood-based studio was acquired in 1997 by Blizzard Entertainment. At the time, Blizzard North was hard at work on the development of the game that would be the cornerstone of everything that came after: Diablo.
IGN : Remember Hellgate: London? The dark fantasy action role-playing game came out in 2007 for PC, a year before developer Flagship Studios went bankrupt. Since then, various free-to-play and online revivals have come and gone. Now, 17 years after the release of Hellgate: London, it’s back.
I remember some friends and I all bought Hellgate: London day one because it was made by some original Diablo devs. We had fun playing it, good memories.
PC Invasion: Hellgate: London is back on Steam, but it's not what you expect it to be. It's a single-player game in the vein of Asian MMOs.
