Currently populated with more bugs than beta testers can shake their swords at, playing Hellgate: London can feel downright hellish at times.
With Flagship Studios' highly-anticipated online RPG only 16 days from release, many otherwise-glowing previews have included a caveat explaining the game's current instability and, in some areas, a disturbing lack of key functionality.
However, watching closely from behind the scenes, Flagship staffers aren't especially worried.
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.
This game would be better if it was Diablo 3.