Characters in the human resistance are ciphers distinguished only by sex and the armor they're wearing, the missions they give out are the generic 'kill eight foozles and bring back their heads' design and the actual plot - what there is of it anyway - is thinner than the mystical border between Hades and London is supposed to be. As a result, Hellgate: London creates quest-givers, quest designs and dialogue that make the average RPG story structure look like a masterpiece of exposition and story structure.

It's part and parcel of the game's design that nothing should get in the way of the fast action, especially things like storyline and character development. That back story is really all most players will ever really understand of the motivations of the two parties to Hellgate: London's central conflict. The Tubes are a mystical fortress against the demons prepared by the Freemasons and are the base from which humanity is planning to take back the Earth from the minions of the Prime Evil. The last remnants of humanity, consisting of the Templars, the Cabalists (magicians who also went underground during the age of science) and the Hunters (the remnants of Earth's elite military forces) are huddling in the London Underground. Fast forward to 2038 and the Hellish invasion of Earth has been a complete success for the forces of darkness. The forces of Hell were planning an invasion of the Earth and the Templar were the only ones who knew about it. It seems the Knights Templar, an ancient order of Christian Crusaders thought destroyed in the 14th century, actually went underground, taking a terrible secret with them. The back story of Hellgate: London is actually rather good. Over the long haul, though, the game starts to feel like a diet of non-stop Doritos and soda - a lot of empty calories. There's a lot of fun to be had in its quick-hit combination of fast action, endless demons to slaughter and a constant parade of new weapons and armor to play with. Welcome to Hellgate: London, the gaming equivalent of a junk food diet. Who hasn't sat in front of the tube watching a really bad movie with friends chomping down buffalo wings and drinking beer? It's only a problem when you try to build a lifestyle around it. Now, everyone binges on junk food once in a while. These are the 'ding' moments, the gaming equivalent to the sugar rush that comes when we eat a piece of junk food. Consider the computer role-playing game's most exciting components - killing monsters, getting new equipment, increasing in power and going out to kill more monsters.

Below you'll find our first impressions of the offline portions of the game. A full review of this game will be posted shortly, once it has undergone testing in the same conditions that you'll play it in. Editor's Note: It's GameSpy's review policy to test all online-enabled games in real-world multiplayer conditions before posting a final review score.

Hellgate london character editor