Necropsy: “Hellgate: London” – A Prime Candidate for a SD

PLATFORM: PC

This game had such promise, and an incredible marketing campaign. I got the collector’s edition and immediately read the included graphic novel, which set the stage for what I hoped would be an incredible adventure. Then, off I went to play and was, sadly, somewhat disappointed.

PROS:
Great concept, textures, character classes and design. The weapon system, tech tree, and modification system was also very well done. I also really liked the fact that playing the difference character classes afforded a very different experience in game play, which is not commonly the case.

CONS:
My biggest disappointment lies in the quests. There was little purpose to them other than to get the player out killing things. There was a missed opportunity here to develop other characters (especially the three from the graphic novel), NPCs and the storyline into something that could have truly been epic. There also seemed to be a lack of attention paid to the weapon and modification leveling. Near the end of the game I was consistently getting treasure that I would expect to find on the first few screens. Finally, the progression in difficulty with the enemies was lacking, in my opinion. I got quite tired of fighting the next level of zombie, rather than some new class of enemy or even a leveled-up less-encounter one.

COULD MYTHOS HAVE HELPED?:
I would have put much more effort into developing the storyline to make the game into a truly epic adventure. Supporting cast would have been far more fleshed out and compelling, adding richer subplots and more purposeful quests to advance their storylines. Also, because of the detail given to the fighting motions, I would have added the ability to choose shots. Clicking different regions of the screen or enemy would use a specific attack, for instance, clicking the upper part of a tall enemy would use an overhead swing or a hammer attack. This could have been applied to gun-type weapons as well, and could also have provided some interesting effects for mind-control weaponry.