xpectations for this title have been high ever since Flagship Studios was formed with the core of the Diablo team in charge four years ago. Well, get used to hearing about Diablo in relation to Hellgate: London, because few games so closely ape a previous design. Granted, the perspective is no longer isometric, the multiplayer implementation is a leap forward, and the graphics are sharp – but regardless, Hellgate follows Diablo’s experience grind template point for point.

With demons in control of the Earth’s surface, the last vestiges of humanity’s resistance to the infernal invasion have taken refuge in London’s underground. As a newbie hero in this world, you’ll grow quickly in power while uncovering a mystery that may save mankind from the scourge. In traditional fashion, gaining levels unlocks new active and passive skills along with stat boosts and better equipment. While this design is one that every gamer should be intimately familiar with, Flagship has done an admirable job of making every skill useful, fun, and scalable as the game progresses. There’s nothing worse than outgrowing a favorite spell, and luckily you won’t here.

Slaughtering monsters by the dozen is a hell of a lot of fun. Each class has its own style of laying down the law, and they’re all a blast. Planting your feet and trading blows with a Templar is no less satisfying than using a Cabalist’s explosive magical abilities to exterminate evil wholesale. Combat is fast and smooth, and you never have to rest or wait for anything – nothing ever stands between you and getting more loot and experience.

Continuing the Diablo homage, nearly everything in Hellgate is randomly generated, from the maps you explore to the weapons you equip and the monsters you fight. Unfortunately, the environments prove to be the game’s biggest disappointment. The dozen or so tilesets are endlessly recombined into unique levels, but the set pieces quickly become all too familiar. The twentieth time exploring the same ruined building (albeit perhaps on a different side of the street) doesn’t exactly hold the same sense of wonder.

Thankfully, the rest of the random content is much better. Equipment is endlessly varied and allows a ton of room to customize your hero’s abilities beyond the skill tree. Rare and epic monsters have new abilities and modifiers grafted on and provide unique challenges. And though the quests are pretty basic (collect 14 zombie ears or kill some unique monster), they do give you something to look forward to as you plow through the legions of Hell.

Online play is a big part of Hellgate’s appeal, and the infrastructure is in place for non-stop multiplayer action. Structured like Guild Wars or Phantasy Star Online, you’ll be able to interact and hook up with other players in non-combat hub zones, but once you get into an adventure area it’ll be private to your posse. The game scales quite well for additional heroes, and each of the classes is designed to be able to lend some extra utility in group play. It’s not really a true MMO as it lacks much of a persistent world, but as far as co-op monster slaying goes it’s top-notch.

What Hellgate does, it does well – few games have core gameplay this strong. However, it doesn’t venture far outside of the scope of filling an XP bar or finding that next upgrade. The story isn’t much more than a thin excuse to kill demons, and the truly memorable encounters are few and far between. If you like faster-paced combat than you’ll find in the rest of the MMO genre, though, this could be a great fit.