Dungeon Hunter: Huntastic!
Written: Oct 13 '09
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Solid gameplay, fairy system, great graphics, great sound options, Loot!
Cons: No online multiplayer, no randomly generated dungeons, three static classes, crazy story, control issues
The Bottom Line: It's not better than Diablo II, but it's still a great iPhone game.
|
|
|
| kjell1979's Full Review: Dungeon Hunter for iPhone |
Dungeon Hunter was receiving quite a bit of buzz when it hit the iTunes App Store a few months back. However, it soon disappeared from the App Store because of an issue with the game crashing during a specific level later in the game. However, just a few weeks ago Dungeon Hunter made its triumphant return to the App Store, this time with even more anticipation and fanfare as before. I hope other game developers don't catch wind of this form of teasing or else we might see quite a few games pulled for a couple weeks as fans twist in the wind in anticipation of its return.
Story
You are the prince of Gothicus who has been revived from the netherworld to combat the Queen whom he once loved. The Queen is terrorizing the world of Gothicus and you are the only one who can stop her. When it comes to storylines, Gameloft isn't exactly going to win any writing awards. Most characters are static and do not develop in any way. There are some twists and turns, but they are rather predictable and cliché at times. Overall the quality of the story is a solid C minus.
Gameplay
Dungeon Hunter is to put it plainly an action roleplaying game like its inspiration, the Diablo game series. Your objective is to go from area to area battling endless streams of creatures while trying to keep your own life bar from running out. You pick your character class at the beginning out of the three available to choose from: sorcerer, rogue, and warrior. Each character class has a specific set of abilities of which you can choose from. After you choose your character, you are thrust into a dungeon where you battle your way through enemies that earn you experience, gold, and equipment. You can either bash your way to victory or use special abilities that cost mana to defeat your foes.
Your characters are very customizable not in terms of look but rather the equipment your character can wear, the abilities your character can master, and the character points (strength, dexterity, endurance, and energy). This enables you to create a sorcerer who can use powerful magic but can also be customized to use powerful equipment used for battle if you so choose.
Besides the ability system there are a couple other gameplay mechanics at work in Dungeon Hunter. First, the game operates on certain elemental properties. Most creatures and spells are of a certain elemental property: electric, water, wind, fire, and earth. These properties are strong against some elementals, but weak against others. Another gameplay mechanic is the faery system. You can have a certain faery accompany you. These faeries supplement your attacks with a specific elemental damage. In addition it gives you the ability to cast a elemental spell against your enemies. The faery system definitely isn't overpowered, but it can help to have a specific faery when facing enemies of a certain elemental type.
The main quest takes about a dozen hours to complete, which is a pretty good amount. There are some side quests that can take a few hours on top of the main quest as well. These side quests are good for earning some special loot. The main draw for the dungeon crawling is finding all the different equipment unique and rare to the game. It's always a huge rush to find that key piece of equipment that makes your character even a little more powerful than before.
In addition there are a few nice features to help with the dungeon crawling. You can use a feature that automatically equips the best equipment in your inventory. I was a little skeptical about this because sometimes the best equipment is debatable given certain situations, but Gameloft really got this feature right. The auto-equip feature takes into account your abilities such that equipment that boosts specific types of damage is factored in. Another feature is the ability to transmute items into gold while in a dungeon. This is a nice feature if it wasn't for a few key issues. First, transmuting takes longer to do than going to town and selling it in a shop. This is because there's a confirmation dialog box that opens up when transmuting that isn't there when selling in the shop, thus making it a slower experience. Second, money isn't all that important. The equipment sold in shops will hardly bankrupt your character. Besides, all the good equipment can be found in the dungeons anyway.
My only other gripe with the gameplay is the save system. The game saves whenever you enter into a new area. While you can save at any moment by simply leaving a dungeon, doing so can be very detrimental to your ability to advance in the game. By exiting a dungeon prematurely, you have to start back at the beginning to battle your way through. This is especially annoying because Dungeon Hunter just sucks up the power from my internal battery on my iPod Touch. So often was I about to finish a dungeon before the battery warning would appear and I'd have to ditch my dungeon run and all the progress I made.
Overall the gameplay is still very solid despite some minor gripes and oversights. Dungeon Hunter is a game that will capture your attention as long as your battery stays charged. There are plenty of gameplay mechanics that mesh well together, and thus the gameplay is one of Dungeon Hunter's strongest assets.
Controls
The controls suffer from a similar set of issues as other aspects of Dungeon Hunter in that it offers plenty of options but the basic operation is buggy and poorly implemented. There are two control options in Dungeon Hunter. One of the control schemes is the virtual stick. The virtual stick is effective in that you can adapt better to enemies that appear from off screen, but the problem is you have trouble orienting yourself for projectile spells or to attack. Dungeon Hunter does have a pretty effective auto-targeting system, but it isn't always perfect.
The other control scheme is the touch method which is closer to the Diablo-style point and click. This method is pretty good, except the path finding isn't as good as in other games such that you can get stuck all the time.
Another control option is the buttons controlling abilities and spells. You can place them on the left or right of the screen. In addition you can place all three abilities on the screen at once or a single button that you can scroll to another ability or spell. While the option to place the ability button on either side of the screen is a nice feature, the scrolling buttons just doesn't work too well. Often the scrolling mechanism just doesn't respond well to my fat fingers.
Overall the controls have plenty of nice options, but not all of them are implemented as well as I would have liked.
Graphics
The graphics in Dungeon Hunter are some of the best you'll see on the iPhone, yet I came away somewhat disappointed in the end. The worlds are clearly alive as trees respond to wind, spells have nice graphical effects. Still the character models and overall look is filled with jaggies and rough polygonal models. What's more disappointing is that there are some areas where there are some graphical slowdowns when there's lots of action going on. Part of my gripe is likely rooted in the iPhone hardware itself, but I expected character models and environments to have a little more detail.
Sound
I really liked the audio options in Dungeon Hunter. The default music and sound effects are rather pedestrian. You hear the clanks of steel on steel, the crackle of your lighting bolts, but they lack that epic feel from other dungeon crawlers. The music is creepy in a subdued but ambient way. There are some dungeons where it even gave me goose bumps a few times. Still, the greatest aspect of the sound is the customizability. You can play musical tracks from your iPod or iPhone in Dungeon Hunter. You can select between different play lists or shuffle through all your songs. Loading the Castlevania Symphony of the Night soundtrack proved to be a great audible on my part made possible by a great design decision. One detail is that the sound effects seem to disappear when you're playing your custom musical tracks.
Replay Value
There's a fair amount of replay value in Dungeon Hunter. The main driving factor of the replay value is the loot system. For those who are famous for dungeon crawling for loot will definitely enjoy that sensation when you pick up that rare or unique item that makes your character even more powerful. The ability system also allows you to create different player styles from battle mages, to assassins, to tank-like barbarians such that you can play through the game in not only all three character classes but the same character class more than once.
There are some aspects that take away from the replay value. The lack of online multiplayer and randomly generated maps does make it such that playing through the game can become tedious even if you're trying out a new character build. In addition bosses drop the same loot items which render part of the loot discovery disappointingly static and predictable.
Yes Dungeon Hunter is a game clearly inspired by the Diablo games, but those expecting it to have everything the Diablo games did and more will be greatly disappointed. There are only 3 character classes, no online multiplayer, and no randomly generated dungeons. The graphics are decent for an iPhone game, but Diablo had less jaggies than Dungeon Hunter. Still the premise is the same and the price is right. It's tough to say no to a game where there's plenty of loot to earn. At a price point of $6.99, this game is definitely worth a look. If you're still not sure, just wait until a weekend sale.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
kjell1979
|
 in Games |
 - Top 500 |
|
Location: Oxford, Mass
Reviews written: 288
Trusted by: 348 members
About Me:
Smack! Smack! Sugar Smacks! Give me a smack and I'll smack ya back!
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.