年度失望大作 : Hellgate London

從2005年的E3就開始讓人引頸企盼的Hellgate:London(中譯改了幾次，從暗黑之門變成現在的地獄之門倫敦），打著正統Diablo 2製作小組的旗號，成立的一家新的工作室Flagship Studio 的處女航，幾乎擄獲了大多數廣大的D2迷甚至是暴風雪迷的目光。後來一直經過了先期Alpha 測試，經過了Beta測試，問題慢慢浮現出來。

這款遊戲的內容真的足以... 發售了嗎？

誠然以台灣自己的標準來講，開發個兩年多是個不可思議的現象，你看看那個網龍開發一款遊戲甚至只需要半年多！多驚人的效率阿！不過對國外來講開發個三四年並不算太少見的例子，甚至還有開一開開個兩三年就腰斬了（你看看那個Wish就是一個例子）。當初beta只開放到第三章節（整個Hellgate一共五個章節），少數選出來的beta tester才能去接觸到第四章節跟第五章節。基本上在這種情況下，能夠完整測試的也只有到前三章，而當初許多測試者已經發出了一些警告。

「遊戲場景重複性質實在太高了。」

「遊戲主線劇情實在太薄弱了。」

「耐玩性太低，bug也太多了。」

在萬聖節發售當天，開發商超高效率在當日就出了一個Patch0處理一些問題，包含一些嚴重影響遊戲性的臭蟲。的確，開發商的效率是有目共睹的高，不過到底是為什麼要這樣趕鴨子上架？

普通來講，大多數人都認為發行商EA要負絕大多數責任，是EA逼迫開發商在遊戲還沒完全完成的時候就發售的。而另外一方面，開發商旗艦工作室也在這種情勢下發表了將於十二月推出Patch1（擴充內容Stonehenge Chornicles ）作為因應。目前來講，這個擴充已經延後了一個月才發表，將於1/21號才能正式上場。這真的能彌補核心部分的不足嗎？我的blog有對這個擴充的評論，不過可能我的標準比較嚴苛，我只能給這個擴充打40分。

不過在談這個未來幾天才會上場的東西之前，還是先談談核其他部分吧。首先，先從這個遊戲的付費機制談起。

要由玩這個遊戲，首先當然要先花一筆錢去購買他的實體包裝。這個對於國內玩家來講可能比較不可思議，不過國外就算是線上遊戲程式也並不會是免費的，而且價格也相當於一個普通的單機遊戲。當你購買這個遊戲以後，你可以用裡面的CD-KEY去網站上登陸一組帳號密碼來進行遊戲，這部分是完全不用額外再付費的。也就是說，當你買了這組遊戲，不用再花額外的錢就可以享受類似B.net 的網上多人遊戲功能。以這方面來講的話，他跟D2是一樣的。

然後你也可以選擇成為他的付費會員，可以享有一些節慶任務，特殊任務，加大的儲物箱以及一些新場景新關卡新物品，包含Stonehenge。

這一切聽起來還滿合理的，普通會員享有額外的連線對戰功能，付費會員享有額外的關卡物品以及更高的遊戲便利性，似乎很正確。

問題就是這樣發生了。

首先是他核心內容（就是你買來就有的內容）做的非常差，重複的場景，過多的臭蟲，都是這款遊戲的致命傷。在上個月開發商在irc 上面跟玩家討論，也承諾會加強核心內容。不過說真的，這種重複到不行的內容，絕非當初買這款遊戲的玩家預期。基本上，免費玩家又玩不到當初承諾的12月大改版－－這個不但延到了一月底，而且還僅限於付費會員－－這自然引起了很多人不滿。

那付費會員部份呢？不是有Stonehenge可以玩嗎？Stonehenge根本還沒上檔。從十一月開始付費付到現在一月的會員，得到了什麼？也是幾乎什麼都沒得到。加大的置物櫃，一雙還不錯的手套（那是期限限定的任務，付費會員的新角色還沒有咧），能夠創工會的權利... 沒了，這樣值得一個月十塊錢美金？我想恐怕大多數付錢的玩家都會搖頭。

阿還有一個，可以玩一種模式，你死了一次就沒有的Hardcore，恩這是付費會員專屬的喔，真是挺諷刺的。

Stonehenge擴充還沒上，不過已經在測試server上面開放了。基本上我也上去測試了一下，基本上一些老問題仍然沒變，以及當初宣稱的組隊用區域實在也很拉蒙。用到爛的場景一樣照用不誤，整個新場景只有四個，其他也是一直重複個不停。其實我這方面要求不高，場景只要貼圖稍微換一下，氣氛弄得完全不同，這樣我就可以接受了...可惜只有一個場景有這樣重製，其他都還是照樣原封不動的搬過來用，完全沒有做任何改進。

我個人對這個擴充非常不看好，雖然他的確做了不少改進，比方說增進遊戲性，讓他至少看起來比較像一個mmorpg了，不過仍然很糟糕。

就算跟六年前Sony推出的PlanetSide比，仍然還比不過。

我個人並不懷疑旗艦工作室的研發能力，不過看起來他們似乎並不善於消減玩家的失望感。

套一句官方論壇玩家常常拿來消遣別人的話。You have been flagshipped.

Lamed Expension : Hellgate London - Stonehenge Chronicles

If I have to score this game, I would rank this game with 40/100, YES, YOU SHOULD NOT PASS! (lolz)

Ya, in the point of a hardcore gamer's view, this expansion is rather disappointing. Deficiency in original HG:L still exist in this expansion, for example : repeative scene, dumb bosses, boring gameplay and lacking of replaybility. I can tell that I played once, and never wants another time.

Total gameplay time is about 6-7hr(for my Lv50 Elite Marksman), and half of it is wasted in finding Beast Essence, it is a critical point to adjust.

Ok, lets see whats new in Stonehenge Chronicles.


All Stonehenge expansion consists of 14 zones, respectively Stonehenge base, The Wild for grouping propose, Wake Hallow + 8 zones for questing, and Moloch's Step+Necro fall + Master's Court for final boss fighting. In order to enter 4 wings connect to Wake Hallow, you must collect 4 types of essence. They are Demon(to Hallow Deep=>Heart of Hell), Necro(Skull Step=>Lair of the damned), Spectral(Shadow Pass=>Torment) and Beast(Blood Walk=>The Maw). Each wing has a boss in, you must kill all of them to collect their head. In order to enter Moloch's Step you must have all 4 heads, it is all questline in Stonehenge.

Lets introduce these zones.

Stonehenge :
There is 5 vendors in this base, selling level varies items, and no crafter here. Just like regular station base, it provides nano-forge, augmatrix3k and de-modder. For now it provides no quest, just some guide. There is 3 platform in this area, and maybe you can see some of them are hollowed, maybe for use of further expansion.


Wake Hallow :

This area is a big jungle, a new tileset in this expansion. There are 4 wing area connecting here, they are Demon(Hallow Deep=>Hell's Heart), Necro(Skull step=>Lair of the Damned), Spectral(Shadow Pass=>Torment) and Beast(Blood Walk=>The Maw). In order to enter these sub-area, you must collect each type of essence of 5. For example, 5 necro essence is required if you want to enter Skull Step. Every time you "unlock" the door, the door will remain unlocked until wing boss is killed, no matter you relog, rezone or so. Beast essence is most difficult to obtain, because lots type of beast can never appear in rare quality or above(such like coils, spawning felborn, felborn lashers strikers archmugus or mega-sized revangers). Fastest way to collect beast essence is farming Big Ben in Lower Kingsway Sewers. He have about 0.5 ratio to drop this, so you can almost sure you can get at least 1 in 10 min(about 2-3 runs).

Demon Wing :
Hallow Deep=>Hell's Heart
Boss : Errgoth

Hell's heart uses tileset which is used in St.Paul Hellgate's Hell, and enlarged to about 3-4 times. Boss is named as Errgoth, a greater size version of Shulgoth with decent hitpoints. The major different between him and his brother is he blast high power electric balls instead of inferno flames. He is a dumb boss with weak melee damage, but his electric steam is lethal. In Marksman's case, just like the way to slay his brother, hit and run, and avoid the electric steam.


Necro Wing :
Skull Step=>Lair of the Damned.
Boss : Oriax


Lair of the Damned uses Church tileset, and have some texture improvement. Although it is an old tileset, but this improvement makes great unique optical effect. Oriax himself is a zombie summoner, much more HP, and summons zombie....a greater size and much more powerful Gutgore, the ironfist huge zombie. For marksman he is a formidable foe, because Gutgores is one of worst mob for Marksman. Anyway, just use R+R and get in good position, he would be a history :).

Spectral Wing:
Shadow Pass=>Torment
Boss : The Nicor


Another 314's mind, and of course, much bigger. This is another proof that FSS makes nothing effort in improvement tileset :(. Boss in this area is named The Nicor, looks like flea(Lost One), acts like flea, even hitpoints like flea too. His hitpoints is equal to fleas you can see in some maps, so you may unexpected overrun him without notice, and feel strange why theres lots loot on ground lol. He is nothing worth to report, and always act with a horde of fleas, nothing special.

Beast Wing:
Blood Walk=>The Maw
Boss : Ash


The Maw is just another Wake Hallow, and smaller. Ash is a flying fiend with lethal fireball attack. He have 3 attack mode, regular melee, fire field splash and fireball. His hitpoints is insanely high and he will flying here and there, so you must take a long time to fight him. His fireball is extremely lethal, will 1 hit kill somebody with 180AC, 2.2kHP plus 500ish shield, so when fighting to him, main object is avoiding his sick fireballs.

Boss wing :
Moloch's Step=>The Necro Fall=>Master's Court
Boss : Moloch



Moloch's Step is another another another jungle, nothing special. Necro Fall use crypt tileset, and add some unique features to make it looks better, not bad. Master's Court is the boss room of Moloch. I must admit, Moloch looks really cool, but too weak. He have only 2 attacks, in ranged he uses Flame column stream will ignite player, and in melee range he use tailspin to AE stun players. Both makes weak damage, like Bloodblade(lol).

He seems always drop an amount of Nanoshards, I got 3 in this battle. Just like 4 wings, while you killed Moloch, the warp gate leads to Moloch's Step will be locked, and require 4 heads from slaying his generals again.

Too repeative, a pity =P