Hellgate: London Returns as a Free-to-Play MMO

[Fat.Clown]

Hellgate: London Returns as a Free-to-Play MMO



After Hellgate: London proved to not be a success when it was launched in 2007, developer Flagship Studios was forced to file for bankruptcy. It lost its intellectual properties in the process and, like with Mythos, Hellgate's rights were acquired by Korean company HanbitSoft. With the help of Korean MMO developer T3 Entertainment and its North American publishing arm, Redbana, Hellgate is being brought back to North America for the first time since it was shut down on January 31, 2009.
The third-person action-RPG is now referred to only as "Hellgate," and will be going into a very short closed beta next month. The beta will run from June 3 to June 5, with the full game expected to (re)launch later in 2011. Flagship's other title, Mythos, was recently relaunched in Europe.

Being free-to-play isn't an enormous departure from the original version of Hellgate -- it carried an optional subscription that provided players with exclusive content and features.

After first acquiring the rights to Hellgate, HanbitSoft stated that it wished to continue supporting the game in North America (along with Asia; the game was well-received in Korea), but it was blocked from doing so by publisher Namco Bandai. Full distribution rights ended up being acquired by HanbitSoft last year, paving the way for its return to North America.

The video above was posted on the Hellgate YouTube page and, as you can tell, it still looks like a game that was originally released several years ago. As a free-to-play title, it won't be expected to look a good as more recent games, and it's noted that the video is not from the final client -- "there will be some changes," although it's unlikely those would have anything to do with making it look noticeably better. More details will be made available on the game's new official website.

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Hey! I remember playing this game!
it was pretty awesome while I tried it.
if it's free I'll definitely play again.

 

[murdocsvan]

It was always free to play. Don't see why that part is news.

 

[synergy]

There was a tremendous amount of hype surrounding the game, then it just fizzled when released. I think it was plagues by bugs and lack of intriguing gameplay.

 

[murdocsvan]

It just wasn't that good. It was buggy, had a rubbish subscription model, and didn't deliver on features promised, such as DX10.

There was basically no MMO aspect to it, as the only areas where you can freely mingle with other players is the shop area. Everything else is instance based, so its only good for playing with friends.

There was supposed to be an FPS aspect to the game if you chose a certain class, but after trying that I found it very buggy, tedious and repetitive, and any sort of lag made it almost unplayable.

The storyline was acceptable though. The gameplay as a third-person view based class was good as well. Some people dubbed it the spiritual successor to diablo 2, and to a degree this was true. In the end I found it could be a fairly rewarding game, and i even managed to complete a playthrough.

It probably failed because they were relying too much on the purchase of the game to make the income, when really its the subscriptions that sustain some of these MMOs.

 

[Baez]

The problem were the few developers who previously worked for Blizzard opening their big mouths saying this was the next Diablo. You never overhype and under-deliver. When people expect something of that level, even if the game is good in its own right, it still never lives up to standards.

 

[JoshuaJay]

You never overhype and under-deliver.

/agree

I have a big feeling this is what is going to happen with TOR. They have been hyping that game for 3 years now. Will just end up being another WoW clone I'm sure...