If you haven’t heard of Flagship Studios, let me give you the quick rundown. After Blizzard released the Diablo II expansion, a group of Blizzard employees banded together and left epic Blizzard and founded their own game company called Flagship Studios. So we’re talking developers, writers, and artists from the very company that brought you Diablo II, arguably, one of the best online games till this day. So of course, we have huge expectations from the games coming out of this company.

Demo? More like DemNO!

Flagship Studios recently released the demo of Hellgate: London, available for download off their website. The written concept of the game before the demo was highly promising. It is a MMORPG with an FPS mode when playing a ranged class. The setting is based in the future where the world is overtaken by zombies. The storyline doesn’t sound particularly innovative (yea, sounds like Resident Evil), but the gameplay is where this game is supposed to shine. The concept described the “option” for an FPS mode. However, in the demo, all that was available to test out was the FPS mode. I question where the “option” kicks in. Throughout the whole demo, Shooter is all that’s available, ranged class or not. What gives?

For the Diablo II Fans?

The game is also “supposed” to be modeled after Diablo II. The only thing Diablo II about it was reference to Wirt’s Leg, the skill tree, no designated tank, healer or DPS, and the endless amount of items available. Where Diablo II’s skills were most effective when concentrated into one section, Hellgate: London offers more leeway. Conceptually, if the skills are distributed among all the different sections, the skills will still be effective…again, something that was left out of the demo. Like Diabo II’s classes, each class can heal and dps effectively. However, unlike Diablo II, the demo offers only 2 classes: ranged and melee. Theoretically, there are supposed to be 3 classes that branch off into different sub-classes, but this was not available to test out.

Visually speaking, the demo does the concept and the company justice. I love the available video options as well as the realistically stunning scenery. The only visual complaint is the ugly faces in character customization. I can only hope they’ll make some younger looking faces…they all looked so old in the demo.

The subscription options are also something we haven’t seen before. You can either play for free, pay $9.95 a month re-occurring like a typical MMO, or pay a one-time fee of $149.99. The difference between the free and paid accounts is the content. Free accounts won’t be able to get the best items available in the game. For example: If a subscriber and a free player were to kill the same monster, the subscriber will receive a rare item, while the non-subscriber will get a common item from the same monster killed. There will also be restrictions on entering certain zones. I’m not quite sure what to make of these odd subscriber options. On one hand, anyone, no matter the income can enjoy the game. However, only the gamers with jobs or mom’s credit card will be able to advance onto challenging content and obtain l33t items. If there’s one thing I know, one of the characteristics of an MMO player is the purple-fever syndrome: greed for gear.

Final Thoughts

Closed Beta testers have confessed on forums that the Hellgate: London demo doesn’t do the game justice. The demo is essentially a purely visual teaser into a game that is much more complex and entertaining than a typical shooter. I trust the Beta testers. Call me biased, but if the developers that co-created Diablo II and came from Blizzard are promising a great game; I believe it has definite potential. Hellgate: London is scheduled for release October 31. Make sure to check out our Almighty review for our final take on this potentially epic/tragic game.