Hellgate:London

[Monkey]

Just wondering something. WoW was also a complete friggin mess when it was released. Is HG:L even worse?

-Bolty

I rolled characters on launch day in both games. The kinks in the system are nothing worse than WoW's issues (server queues, hourly crashes, imbalanced classes, etc.)--It's just been 3 years and no one remembers having to wait an hour at the login screen.

Hellgate doesn't have the depth of WoW because it's really focused on being an action game and not an immersive world. For example, if you want to meet a friend who is already playing:

In WoW, you'll join their party, find out where they are, and then use some combination of hearthing, flightlines, and riding a ground or flying mount to get there. Travel Time: 5-15 minutes.

In HG:L, you join their party, select "Party Portal" from their portrait and you're there. Travel Time: 5 seconds.

As for tactics, my friends and I (playing in a 3-person group) are up through act 4, and we've found that it's much more difficult (and we die a lot more) when we don't employ "WoW-style tactics," with sticking together and pulling groups with LOS and other tricks. However, it still doesn't have the depth of WoW's Healer-Tank-DPS trinity--that is correct.

I really need to finish the whole thing on normal so I can write my hellgate review.;)