Monsters, demons, he-beasts, she-beasts, and other frightening anomalies such as hovering eyeballs will attempt to thwart your progress at every turn. They possess different attack patterns which will challenge your reflexes, even at ranged distances. These creatures will crawl, lunge, run, fly, float, and attempt to ambush you from the shadows using stealth techniques. Monsters that don't personally attack will launch a multitude of projectiles. You can defend yourself with a shield or just dodge the incoming.

Eventually you will be able to discern the different demons' patterns and initiate the various moves required to neutralize the threat. You will encounter many of the same creatures throughout the game. For the most part, they are well rendered and display convincing animation, although it's difficult to debate the locomotive mechanics of a giant brain since we have no model to base a theory on. The character models are imaginative but perhaps a bit too diverse. There's not much consistency with the demons. It seems as though Hell is not selective enough with its immigration policy. At the same time, the story does little to explain the origin of these horrendous species.

Boss battles are as challenging as they are refreshing. It's nice to find a character that has different, and more deadly' attack patterns. The melee characters fare better in boss battle because of the close proximity to its weaknesses. For my money, I enjoy the immediacy and instant gratification of melee combat with the Blademaster.

Environments are far too repetitive. You'll see the same textures, tunnels, streets, corridors, and ruins over and over. In the multiplayer mode, you will meet with other players in the various connecting underground junctions. Here you will be able to meet and greet other players as well as swap and shop your loot. Once you enter into a co-op game, you'll revisit the levels that you played in the single-player mode. The multiplayer component helps to lessen the feeling of deja vu, but the latency and slowdown can make it a really frustrating experience. A couple of recent patches helped with some of the glitches, but it's still got a ways to go to make the multiplayer component a selling feature.

Hellgate: London is definitely worth the price of admission for the single-player mode, but it would be an incredible bargain if the online mode was of similar quality.

By Cole Smith
CCC Senior Writer

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