I didn’t buy Hellgate: London right when it came out, and the extreme difference in opinions only made me more cautious: some of my friends whose reviews had been highly reliable in the past loved it while other, equally reliable friends absolutely hated it. I finally took the plunge and bought it this afternoon and, to my lucky surprise, I ended up being one of the people who love it. I recognize that it’s kind of a pointless game, but the complicated leveling system appeals to my my Inner Rules Lawyer and the variety of classes looks like they’ll promise a long, looooong period of fun.
Having said that, I was hoping I could get some advice from people who have already gotten a good feel for the game. I wanted to start the game with one of the Hunters to get the Army of Darkness-esque FPS feel, and I’m feeling conflicted between the Engineer and the Marksman. Offhand it seems as if the Engineer gets oodles and oodles of support abilities in exchange for significantly fewer combat skills, while the marksman gets a bunch of combat abilities in return for not getting minions… on the surface, it seems like the Engineer is getting the better deal, but this is predicated on the engie’s drones doing exactly what the player wants them to, when she wants them to. With that in mind, I wanted to ask people:
a) How good is the drone/minion AI? Is screaming obscenities at my minions as they do something stupid that ends with me getting butchered going to become SOP as an engie, or can they be controlled accurately enough to let me use them to very precisely butcher wave after wave of badguys?
b) Does the Marksman experience ever change? I’m worried that I’ll end up getting bored by utilizing the same tactics at level 25 that I do at level 1, whereas with the Engie I can at least look forward to getting new support powers and drones at a reasonable rate.
c) As a markie, what kind of things should I be considering as I build my character up? I’m assuming there are some pretty obvious archetypes that will become obvious as I play, but right now I simply have no clue as to what abilities I should be considering. At the moment I’m thinking of more or less ignoring the Grenade and aerial bombardment trees in favor of emphasizing the Rapid Fire and Tactical Stance trees, but I’m assuming that Phase Grenade will eventually become an invaluable part of any solo range fighter’s bag of tricks, since Snipe, Immobilize, Retreat, Snipe seems to be the safest way to proceed.