There goes my free time.

I was convinced by a fiend...errr.. "friend" to try Hellgate: London.

What....A....BASTARD.......

The game starts with easily the coolest intro movie I've ever seen. It's amazing, and that's before you ever play a single thing - or even create a character. The basic storyline is that Demons have over-run the world in the year 2038.

Unfortunately, the gameplay graphics, while decent, don't begin to compare. Not that this is really an issue, there are a lot of games that have gorgeous cut scenes, but average graphics.

Hellgate: London is an action role-playing game. As such it's very much like any other RPG, go here to get my wooden leg, collect 8 of this item for me, kill 12 blood zombies for me, etc. etc. Basically an animated shopping list, and while it may sound that I have a dislike for this, I don't. RPGs have always been this way, and frankly, it works. That being said, it can get a bit repetitive, but what game doesn't at times? It's a great RPG.

The big gimmick of Hellgate is that multiplayer allows for up to 8 people to play cooperatively along the storyline - for FREE. Taking from the playbook of Guildwars, Flagship Studios created a game that can be both single players and have a great multiplayer aspect.

Or that's what was promised, turns out that free online multiplayer is available, but there's also a Subscription level that's available that offers enhanced gameplay and features. Basically it's a fleecing mechanism, designed to get you hooked then make you pay monthly to play. Not that I plan to pay any more than I have, this is a great game that works well single player.

I can deal with server queues and reduced game features, I just think it's a shady way to make some more money. I understand that running the online servers takes money, but Guild Wars does it on the sales of the games alone, why can't Flagship?

And to all those people that argue that charging monthly is just the way it is and people need to get used to it, I cry B.S. Just because companies are trying to start a trend does not mean we have to allow it. By consumers rolling over and accepting shady business practices is exactly how Microsoft and RIAA became what they are.

Of course I preach pretty loudly for someone who has already bought the game, but at least I can admit to being a hypocrite...

Addendum: - Upon trying to play today, there's a patch that needs to be applied that's taken almost 10 minutes so far. That's right, not 48 hours after release, the game needs to be fixed. I'm thinking the developers knew about these problems but released anyway. No wonder they need to charge monthly, they're paying incompetents to do their jobs...