So far, in all but a single area, I’m 100% satisfied. Over the last few days, I’ve been getting to grips with my new system. The biggest problem, I suspect, is that it launched a good six months before it was ready, and the majority of the negative reactions are from people who played it when it first came out and quickly gave up on it, thereby not having an opportunity to experience the improvements that have been made since its release. I’m currently testing the 2.0 content patch on the beta server, and will be putting together a full review of my own at some point in the future.įor the time being, though, I’ll just say that the game is in better shape than it was when it launched, and that, while it has significant problems, they don’t prevent it from being rather enjoyable. I also have a feeling that the bulk of the bad buzz comes from a small number of overly obsessive individuals who, for one reason or another, have had a particularly painful experience with the game and have therefore launched some sort of personal vendetta against its developers. My own personal opinion is that the negative press directed towards Hellgate: London is completely disproportionate to its actual flaws, which are considerably less numerous and severe than has been claimed. It’s often said that an in-depth analysis of why a game fails is far more revealing than one of why a game succeeds, and, so far, Shamus’ investigation has proved to be quite fascinating, providing not only an in-depth account by a first time player into what has gone wrong, but also suggesting ways in which these problems could be fixed. Instead, you use the cursor keys to move the camera, which, when you’re trying to move the character (using the W-A-S-D keys) and perform attacks (using the I-J-K-L keys) at the same time, is about as absurd and infuriating as things can get.īlogger Shamus Young has written an interesting series of posts about Hellgate: London, putting together what he describes as an “autopsy” of a game that has seriously disappointed many people (to the extent that an entire site exists devoted to tearing both it and its developer, Flagship Studios, a new one at every possible opportunity). Not so in Devil May Cry 4, which has no mouse support. In most PC games played from a third person perspective, you’ll use the W-A-S-D keys to move the character and the mouse to move the camera. Case in point: you can control both the character’s movement and the camera position.

I’m considering picking up a copy, although I suspect I’ll need to get my hands on a compatible gamepad beforehand, as the keyboard controls in the PC version are counter-intuitive to say the least.

These screen captures come from the DirectX 10 version of the Devil May Cry 4 demo for the PC, the full retail version of which is due out on July 11th.

Attention, readers: here’s your eye candy for the evening.

Hellgate london character editor