What the Hellgate?

What the hell just happened?

I think I just finished Hellgate: London last night. I put emphasis on the "think" part because I'm really not sure. You see, like most people I was intrigued and drawn in by this gorgeous intro movie, but I think it was a sham, they sold me snake oil and took DAYS of my life away.

***Warning: Spoilers Below***
*****
****
***
**
*

So as you can see in the video above, there is a well laid path for an intricate and deep plot. A young daughter gets saved because she has a destiny. But in reality, that destiny doesn't turn out to be all that interesting. You get a small hint late in the game that the little girl's father (who you will see in a full intro movie from the game) sacrificed himself so that humanity's survivors could go into hiding, but this is where things start to unravel.

You see, to make the plot a little more unnatural and epic they included these "Truths". They give all these speeches about the virtues that will save humanity, that will allow you to fight the demons, to attack the Hellgate itself. But they are incredibly overdone and the "glamour" fades long before the end of the game. Even the final speech about "hope" seems more of a cop-out on the game's part than anything else, like saying "oops, well we can't build up to a really terrific ending (especially since that might stop us from making tons of sequels), so .. we'll just have to send you to battle in Hell ..."

Then on top of that .. well .. here watch this movie of the end of the game.

Now, have you seen everything? That's you, battling in hell, ouu scary! :p See I know this falls into myth and religion, and that Hell is supposed to be the ultimate "bad place", but really can't you get a little more creative? I mean your dealing with "the dark" which has supposedly destroyed thousands of worlds, why can't you be taken through what you've called a "Hellgate" (accept the fact that it's just some religious archetype that your culture or history provided) and end up on a more interesting wasteland of a world were the demons .. or "the dark" began, or are at least based out of.

On TOP of the poorly pieced together ending, the game isn't really over .. AT ALL .. in any sense of the world "over". They want you to keep playing on and on, until the expansion comes out .. then you can play some more. All the buildup leads you to a battle that you obviously cannot win, and Earth is still stricken with the plague of demons. I mean, there's really nothing good about this ending at all. You kill one big baddy, you lose your sorcerer, if you hang out in the hellgate entrance long enough you'll see that all the templars DIE, and the Hellgate is still there, just hanging out .. letting demons pour through it. They even put effort into developing the pseudo-science/magic of this universe and they don't even apply it to the hellgate (something which must be maintained, or powered, and can be taken down or turned off).

Anyway, I think the moral of the story is that my original fear is partly well founded. Gaming companies are being run as successful businesses, but the business has been inbred into the games. It's all about only putting in enough effort to sell the game, not develop something awesome. Even games like Gears of War ended this way. They only include enough cutscenes and content to keep you playing until the next add-on comes out for sale. I'd love to see how much they spend on advertising and how much is actually spent on the game. On top of this the online was very buggy on its initial release, which was supposed to be a huge part of the game.

For those interested, here's a movie of what looks to be the expansion. Here's hoping it's a little more content oriented.