Hellgate: London

Hellgate: London is a game that was developed by Flagship Studios and was announced in March 2005. It was released on Halloween 2007, but was considered a flop by many.

Background

Hellgate: London was announced via an exclusive article in the computer magazine PC Gamer in March 2005 following months of teasing concept art for an unknown game.

Flagship Studios' first title was formally released October 31, 2007 as an action role-playing game ARPG in the same vein as the Diablo games, but with the twist of being played in 3D, primarily from a first-person perspective.

The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic demon-infested London, following a great battle between demons and humans. The developer was careful to point out that the game experience would be nothing like that of regular first-person shooters. The game featured much deeper RPG content such as, random quests and a character's combat efficiency was determined by statistics rather than player reflexes. In addition, the game featured random levels, uncommon in games of similar perspective and scale.

Expectations from the game were high, as earlier games the developers have been involved in, especially titles from Blizzard Entertainment, have become best sellers with few exceptions. However it received mixed reviews, and complaints by many gamers that the game was released in an unfinished state, which was later admitted by CEO Bill Roper. The company no longer owns the intellectual property rights to Hellgate: London.

HanbitSoft currently owns the game, and is developing it for the Korean market. Anyone that purchased the game in the EU/US are now unable to play due to a lack of servers. Namco Bandai currently owns the license for the EU/US, but are not using it at all.

References

• IncGamers: Hellgate is Back