I continue to be both amazed and dismayed that people seem to have two settings when it comes to review. Either a game is utterly amazing and the Best Thing Ever, or it's utter crap unworthy of anything other than insult and derision whenever it's mentioned. This just isn't the case. Hellgate may not be an utterly fantastic wonderful game, but it is a bunch of fun.

Hop in, blast and hack up some zombies and demons for a while, hop back out again. No endless hours grinding mobs for reputation. No endlessly running the same instance over and over hoping the Drop of Uber Leetness falls for you. (Unless you want to do that!) Go, kill, loot the bodies.

The crafting system is nice. You don't spend tons of time making 100 useless items to get to a high enough level to make something decent. Just gather materials as you go, check out the crafting vendors and when you see something you like, or want to upgrade, drop in the mats and go. Easy, simple, clean and fast.

Inventory management? that's been the standard for these sorts of games for ages. And given that most of the stuff you can break down, simple to take care of.

Flagship set out to take a game that is immensely popular now, many many years after it's release, Diablo 2, and update it with a 3d engine and a fantasy/sci fi storyline. Something you can play as you want, commit to it as much as you like and still get fun out of it. You're not tied into playing 20 hours or more a week for a couple months to get anywhere. They may have had a rough start because the game wasn't ready, but they've succeeded for my money, and the game's only gotten better since I picked it up.

So hop down off the high horse, lower your head so you're not looking down your nose, grab an automatic rifle and start blasting some zombies. You might just find that the game is fun for what it is.

And really, isn't that what gaming is about? Fun?