It’s the year 2038 and London lies in ruins. The nearby Hellgate has turned
the sky gray and it’s presence dominates the horizon. The Invasion eradicated
the powerful nations of man and the decades-long process called The Burn has
begun which alters and assimilates our world to make it feel more like home
for the demons that now roam the streets of the destroyed city. The last
surviving members of mankind are hiding in the shadows deep down in the former
train stations of the city and do what they can to fight back and perhaps even
stop the madness.

The game is an Action-RPG very similar to Diablo II. At the beginning you
choose one of the three available factions called “The Templar”, “The
Cabalists” and “The Hunters”. Each faction also features two different
classes. For example the Templar use swords and fight face to face with the
demon hordes but you can choose if you want to be a Templar Guardian or a
Templar Blademaster. While the Guardian is more of a tank which uses his sword
and shield to go deep into the crowd and increases his effectiveness when he’s
surrounded by demons, the Blademaster wields two swords at once and tries to
kill his enemies as fast as possible.

The choice of your character also changes the way you will play the game.
While it is better for a melee-character to see his surroundings and so
playing from a 3rd-person view, the classes that use guns are better off in
the 1st-person view because they need to aim right at an enemy to really hit
him. Of course you can change the view at any given time.

What remains the same for all the characters is the core gameplay. You kill
monsters, fulfill quests to level up your character and get the precious
talent points you then invest in your attributes and the big skill tree to
unlock new abilities or make you stronger. On your way you’ll also find many
items like armor or weapons. Although most of the stuff is limited to specific
class, you can always dismantle an item in the hope of getting crafting
material out of it. If you have enough material you then can upgrade your gear
at the train stations.

Although Hellgate: London has a single player-component, the main focus of
the game lies on the multiplayer-mode which comes in two flavors: free of
costs and a monthly subscription-based premium access. The premium model
grants you access to additional content and other benefits like an additional
Hardcore Mode (when the character dies, the character stays dead forever) or
more inventory storage space. But both player types are on the same servers
and can play together.

Hellgate: London VR