Hellgate:London

[Roland]

Maybe many of Xiuhcoatl's other objections are unrelated to having a subscription or not, but...

I have to agree with him. 3 character slots = crippled in a game of this sort. The whole beauty of DII (which is being compared in this thread with the nonsubscribed version of HGL) was about lots and lots of experimentation. Odd combos of special items (where would I put them?), and how to find a build that could make use of them.

D2 had an incredibly small stash when it first came out. We learned to deal with it. Diablo had NO stash. Again, we learned to deal with it. Even Guild Wars had a meager stash in the beginning, especially given how HORRENDOUS the item needs were (absolutely hundreds of different little items, all required for different quests, all of which the game was designed around). Once more, we learned to deal. Also, in two of those three cases the problem was addressed - one by a paid upgrade, the other for free. Both took a great deal of time. Is it so easy to forget the past in lieu of the present? I'm not saying I AGREE with the choices, but surely it's nothing new.

Look at character slots! Diablo had one account, one character. Diablo II expanded this to 8 characters per account. Guild Wars only had 5 (!) upon release, with only an additional 2 slots per PAID Expansion pack (if you linked them; 4 slots if you didn't, which sort of defeated the purpose of "expansion content"). Eventually Guild Wars opted for paid character slots (at $10 apiece, no less), but that took them over two expansions to produce.

I just don't see the justification in THIS MUCH hostility in light of what it's being compared to, including newer releases. If you don't want to pay, by all means don't. If you hate the game that much, by all means don't buy it. Don't expect to convince me it's such a horrible game, and the subscription model is complete trash when several games that have come before it have had the exact same issues (just without a pay model), that were corrected with time and money. It's absolutely no different, to me, and furthermore trashing a game this much upon RELEASE, before even giving the game a chance to accumulate all the extra goodies that a subscription will offer, is just plain silly and cynical. Even WoW, a subscription-based game from the start, lacked a HUGE amount of content upon release, not to mention you HAVE to pay to play that game. At least with Hellgate you have the opportunity to play in Single Player, for free, and still enjoy the actual game, even if it is without all the extra "fringe" benefits of subscription play.

All I'm saying is give the game a chance before tearing it to shreds. Come back 6 months down the road and talk to some people who HAVE bought the game, who HAVE paid for a subscription, and then make your judgments based on ALL the facts, instead of this cherry-picked fragment of view.