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Hellgate: London is a sci-fi/fantasy Action RPG developed and published by now-defunct Flagship Studios in 2007. Many members of the development team previously worked on the Diablo series and went on to form Runic Games, creators of Torchlight.

In the near future, the world falls prey to Demonic Invaders. Modern-day weaponry and tactics prove largely useless against the hordes. Surviving humans flee underground and much of the surface world suffers from "The Burn", a kind of demonic terraformation.

The game focuses on London, England, in the year 2038. The streets are overrun by demon soldiers, zombies, ghosts and mindless hell-beasts. Survivors dwell in The London Underground, protected from intrusion by Alchemic wards built into the stations by The Freemasons. Most people are just trying to survive in this nightmarish new world, but three large organizations are striving for change and searching for ways to hinder or even push the demons back: The sword-and-light swinging Knights Templar (yes, those Knights Templar), the high-tech Hunters, and the sorcerous Cabalists.

Player characters belong to one of these three factions, each with distinct weapons and methods for combating demons, but the ultimate goal is the same- drive the demons back through the Hellgate once and for all.

The game was generally not well received due to a massive amount of bugs and a generally rushed impression, and the online servers closed down in early 2009 after Flagship Studios declared bankruptcy. Hanbitsoft has since obtained the IP and is now working on Hellgate: Tokyo. In addition, a small modding community is attempting to revive the original game. Finally, Hanbitsoft's relaunch of the game in Korea was successful enough that they are planning on bringing over Hellgate: Resurrection to International shores, which will include HG: London and HG: Tokyo. A short beta of the game recently started (and ended), with more details on the official website, at T3Fun.com.

It remains to be seen how successful these projects will be.

There's also a novel trilogy, by Mel Odom. Since there are no known coding errors with paperback novels, it has very few detractors.

Welcome to London...

Tropes used in Hellgate:London include:
  • Abnormal Ammo: See Bee-Bee Gun below. Other examples include "Greek Fire" flamethrowers, tesla guns, palladium bullets and other craziness.
  • Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Much of the game takes place underground, in ruined subway tunnels and sewers.
    • One of the rare inversions of the trope. The actual London Underground is substantially larger than it is portrayed in the game.
  • Action Girl: Player characters can be female. Backstory examples include Lyra Darius and much later, Jessica Summerisle, who was only a child when the invasion began but later grew up to be a ranking Templar commander, like her grandfather.
  • Affably Evil: Murmur. Even after he reveals he is a demon, he still displays the same polite personality he has exhibited through the entire game.
  • An Adventurer Is You: Six classes, two per faction.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: Hanbitsoft has officially resurrected the game as "Hellgate Global", along with poorly done english translations, incomprehensible story and oddly colored characters.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: Played around with, as you can get armor, weapons, weapon mods, or consumables as rewards, in addition to money and reputation. Even weapons get pimped out and display their equipped mods.
    • Subscribers were rewarded with dye kits, which changed the character's clothing color scheme to various presets. Some of the rarer ones also had highly sought after stat-boosts.
  • You Fail Geography Forever: Due to randomized level architecture, many areas you visit don't look at all like their real-life counterparts, with exception of fixed areas like Piccadilly Circus.
  • Bad Powers, Bad People: Averted with Cabalists. Some can be pretty ornery, but are ultimately on the side of good.
  • Battle Aura: Templar characters can learn various auras that provide different effects, though you can only employ one of them at a time.
  • Bee-Bee Gun: The Wasp Hive-type guns shoot a swarm of glowing green insects that devour and demolish everything as long as they last. Perfect DoT-dealer for the first part of the game at least. Unfortunately, available only to Cabalists. Templars can use "Hive Swords", blades for which the grip is a hive and the blade is formed of the insects themselves, who presumably bite as they go. Both inflict toxic damage.
  • Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Various historical events are said in the Backstory to be averted demonic invasions, most notably The Crusades and the Great London Fire.
  • Black Magic: This is the Cabalists' Hat. The Cabal as such formed during or after the invasion, but it's made up of the same sort of fringe scientists and arcane scholars that have been hanging around for centuries. Famous proto-Cabalists include Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla and Aleister Crowley. The Cabal want humanity to progress to something called "The Awakening", an evolutionary breakthrough brought about by demonic power.
  • Blind Idiot Translation: The online version released by Hanbisoft falls into this. Even quests that were from the original game, which was in English, fall under this because for some reason they decided to replace the quest text with the same quests, but minus any references to the overall storyline. For example, you still get the quests to clear tunnels of enemies, but no one mentions why you were going through those tunnels in the first place.
  • Cassandra Truth: When the invasion began, The Knights Templar offered their services and magics to the military, who balked, refusing to believe in such nonsense.
  • Cast from Hit Points: The Summoner's Blood Link ability which heals the main Minion. Also, both Cabalist classes have a skill which can exchange Life Points for Power Points.
  • Cat Scare / Nothing Is Scarier: Slain monsters are removed from the map when out of players' range, then are re-spawned and re-killed when returning. The net result is that death cries echo most clearly, and sometimes startlingly, when the map is empty.
  • Chainsaw Good: For Hunter classes only. Requires a lot of strength instead of accuracy. Looks awesome against zombies, but is kinda weak otherwise.
  • Character Level: Obviously. Monsters have these, too - a level 20 Zombie is a bit harder to kill than its level 1 counterpart.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Many NPCs, but first prize goes to Lucious Aldin, an Ax Crazy Gibbering Genius. His mind was burnt to a crisp by the darkness but his soul was left largely intact, though subsequent years of imprisonment and torture by demons didn't help. Though quite mad, he means well.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: The merchant from the Oxford Circus Station. 50% of his speech consists of CensorBleeps.
  • Cool Old Guy: Templar lord Arphaun, a kindly soul who dispenses Koans, extols the virtues of patience and True Companions, and warns of the dangers of mayonnaise left unrefrigerated.
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Arphaun: "You must always be wary of poorly-stored condiments."

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  • Zerg Rush: Most enemies are fond of this, especially zombies. Unfortunately for them, this is unwise to do against Templars, who grow in power the more enemies enter their Battle Aura.
  • Zombie Apocalypse: A disturbing amount of those who did not flee to safety underground remain walking about- souls not included.

... You're not welcome here.