There seems to be a “normal” and “elite” mode for the games, but unless you subscribe, you’re stuck with “normal”. I wonder if that means that the non-subscriber game is very short.
When your inventory screen is open, notice the 3 slots on the bottom. You can drag and drop weapon combos on each of the three spots, and switch between them with F1/F2/F3. Can it get easier than that?
It also fixes your inventory problems, as the items are no longer in inventory if they’re equipped in one of the slots.
Wow, thanks for the summary fluiddruid! I’m still trying to decide on whether or not to buy it, and I’m a bit curious about how people are finding the melee and range weapons now that the game has been out for a bit. I’ve mainly heard reports that: a) melee can be extremely frustrating due to poor hit detection on both sides and b) the guns feel as if they have very little stopping power or feedback, which makes using them feel somewhat artificial. Are either of these true on a large scale, in people’s experience?
My thoughts, after playing in the beta and most of the weekend:
I like it, but I’m not sure if that will last long term. It definitely has preserved the fast paced blow-em-up feel of Diablo, which I like. I get crazy glee out of just blowing up crates. The NPCs are funny. The quests are OK. You can move around fast, and completing quests goes fast.
I’ve played a summoner in beta, and an Engineer, Evoker, and the Paladin thing that I forget the name of in the real one. The pet aggro thing doesn’t bother me. Really, what do you want it to do? This is hack n slash; it hacks n slashes.
I really like the Evoker and the Engineer. Evoker has some neat spells, including one that gathers health from the mobs around you. Very much fun to wade into a group of ten mobs as a caster and blast from within with the heal thing going - not a normal role for a caster class.
Weapons are very cool too. I like the graphics and the cool effects. I like the mobs, too. It’s a nice touch that zombies come in many different sizes/shapes, and shooting off their torso and having their legs keep coming at you is way cool.
The multiplayer interface seems like it was rushed. The chat window is huge and you can’t reposition it so it ends up taking up screen space and blotting out stuff I need to see, so it gets turned off. There’s no way to filter chat so you can, for example, see tells from your friends but not the general chat. If the chat window is closed, forget seeing tells from your friends.
The controls are such that you can play or chat, but not both. That forces the use of Skype or some other voicechat utility, which is OK when I’m grouping with friends, but the hell if I’m going to fire up Skype if I’m grouping with strangers. As an adult woman, I really, really don’t want to have to listen to 14-year-old boys call themselves fags while playing. So much for pickup groups.
The friends list is stupid; you can only add them if they’re online, which makes it hard to keep track of my friends alts. I also don’t know if you get a notification when they come online.
So far, I’m having fun, but we’ll see how I feel in two weeks.
I’ve heard several people complain about there not being any banks, but there are lockers in every station they are just not very obvious at all. They are usually right next to the shop, they look like well… lockers.
I’ve only played a few levs as Engineer, Summoner and Blademaster. Engineer seems the most fun so far.
Initial thoughts, disappointing. I’ll keep plugging away and see if it gets any better.
Banks - in answer to a question above, I thought I saw a bank system at Holborn. Set into the wall are all these drawers and I believe you can store items in there.
And one can’t choose “elite” until after one beats “normal”.
F1, F2, F3.
Okay, folks - has anyone here who has played Hellgate also played Titan Quest? I’m kind of curious if someone is up to comparing Diablo clones.
Now personally I think Titan Quest actually improved a bit on Diablo, with a better skill system ( doesn’t hurt that I like the setting as well ). Howabout Hellgate, relatively speaking?
I like Hellgate better than Titan Quest. For whatever reason, I found Titan Quest dull, but it’s been a while so I can’t recall the details. Did TQ have a multiplayer mode?
Thanks for the tips. The minigame is interesting, but basically has required me to stock all my newly-discovered weapons slots with different types of damage. 
The lockers weren’t at all obvious. Thanks!
I guess I did find it a little disappointing too. Levels are short, each act is taking me a lot less time than acts in Diablo II. I just wish non-subscribers could do Elite mode. The game just feels unfinished if you don’t pony up extra cash and I don’t like that much. I also get stuck a lot.
I’m still enjoying it, don’t get me wrong. It’s just pretty easy (I’ve died 4 times - all of which were due to getting stuck on something and being unable to move). I’m hoping to get a friend to join me which I think will be fun.
Type /stuck to be transported back to the local station entrance.
I have to echo the “rushed” feel of the game. For example, the loading screens fly rapidly through different tips, and is unreadable. The music stops and starts during loading. I get stuck on textures a lot, but the in game “contact us” just leads minimizes the game and sends you to the website (which has no info on in-game issues of that nature). So, rather than having an “unstuck” feature like WoW, you have to logout. Which means quitting all the way to the desktop. You also have to do this to switch characters.
I guess maybe the key to the problem is that it’s being marketed in a way that isn’t really fair to the game experience. If you’re expecting Diablo II, you’ll be disappointed in some ways (though the graphics are, of course, a big improvement). If you’re expecting an MMORPG, it isn’t one. It’s fine as a basic “kill a bunch of demons” game, but that’s just not the type of game I usually buy.
I like the Summoner class best so far, but the skills drive me nuts. They’ve taken an ardent anti-respec policy, and there are just so many to choose from! I mean, at least in Diablo II you could max out one tree and move into another before getting into absurd amounts of playtime. It seems that every skill has ranks of 1-10 and there are like 20 or 30 skills per class - but a max level of 50! Probably much less without elite mode. This seems really odd and broken to me, that I play a class with so many neat abilities, but I’ll never even get to try most of them. (And, with 3 character slots, it’s not like you can just make a ton of additional characters.)
There are some great things, though. I love the dismantle/upgrade system and the mods are really neat. I love that you can take items and pay to add various levels of random upgrades to them. I love that there’s a reason to pick up everything to get lots of parts and that there are so many ways to mod weapons. I like that you can get skill items to try skills out that you don’t have. The difficulty does improve a bit later on with Zombie Summoners - the only real challenge I’d had was dealing with two rares and one “orange” Summoner all at once, who were gating in zombies so fast that my minions couldn’t keep up.
Thanks, didn’t know that, but, still irritating. I’d like to be moved a bit to the right or left, because this always seems to happen at the end of a two-zone stretch to the next station or something.
But there isn’t, IIRC< anything which mentions them or points them out in-game. I never thought they were anything other than background scenery.
But there is something in the manual, a-l-l the way back on p.28.
Agreed, though, they aren’t very obvious. I almost overlooked them until my mouse cursor changed to the little green hand as I panned over them.
I’m enjoying the game so far, we’ll see how it goes. One thing I can’t figure out is where you’re supposed to get all the little bits and pieces that allow you to upgrade your weapons/craft things. I’m not talking about the Battery, Fuel, Tech, etc. stuff that drops; I’m referring to the ‘salvaged components’ required for the Nano Forge.
Oh, and for what it’s worth, PC Gamer gave the game an 89% review.
Right click on the item. There should be, at the upper left of the disk-shaped submenu that appears, a little screw icon. You use this to disassemble items.
Low-level common items (white) may or may not give you anything.
There seem to be (at least so far for me) 4 types, with each having a normal (white) and a rare (blue) subtype. Rares seem to come from green or better items.
I dismantle EVERYTHING unless I need money and I’ve been able to upgrade items several times (twice on my legendary gun I got from the Act 1 boss). You can upgrade it until it tells you that you don’t have enough experience.
I’m still unsure about this game. It still seems pretty easy too me…I haven’t really been challenged yet by any mob and I’m level 11 already. The levels are also kind of redundant as well.
I finally figured out how too completely upgrade my equipment, which is cool…though very expensive. The rapid fire machine gun I use is WAY cool too watch, though completely over powered for most of the mobs I’m encountering.
Still having fun with the game though. I haven’t tried either multi-player or the pay subscription yet. Any one tried those out? If so…thoughts?
-XT
Apparently it was included with the last patch. I tried this in beta and didn’t go anyhwere; being sent back to the entrance is certainly an improvement.
You are basically playing what for any other game would be the “very easy” setting, the harder modes are not unlocked until you beat the game at the starting difficulty. Once you beat normal elite and normal nightmare modes are unlocked, for elite you have to start over with a new char, for normal nightmare you can keep playing your old char. Once you beat elite mode elite nightmare mode is unlocked, its apparently EXTREMELY difficult.