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Dungeon Hunter Review
Written by Robert Workman on Thursday, October 15, 2009
Two great control types, three excellent characters to choose from, useful magic attacks and fairy assists, your health and mana regenerate automatically, graphics look great for an iPhone game.
Mildly annoying auto-equip system, the level-up screen is a little smaller than it should've been, no opportunity to form multiplayer parties, no manual save.
Dungeon Hunter, currently available on the iPhone, is a great way to pass the time. Gameloft's role-playing adventure is similar to such games as Diablo and Dungeon Siege, but without the multiplayer component. That's fine, however, since there are more than enough power-ups, character classes and quests to keep you busy.
In the game, you take control of a young hero, sworn to rid the land of evil by hunting down a vicious queen. She once was good, and your character was in love with her. Still, you'll need to put your feelings aside, or else the world of Gothicus will fall into darkness forever, with demons roaming around like they own the place.
When you first begin, you'll select from three classes. The warrior is the best choice for quick combat, the Mage can hold his own with magical attacks, and the Rogue is perfect for sneaking around. You can improve one of four separate skills, while also choosing from several weapons and magic abilities. Sometimes the game will automatically pick them for you, which is kind of annoying. After all, if you're a level seven, wouldn't you want to use a weapon on that level, instead of a weaker one? Once you get used to the system, though, you'll find the best way to take advantage of it.
Along with spells and weapons, you'll discover five fairies over the course of the game. They're terrific allies, each with their own advantages and disadvantages on the battlefield; Wetty, for example (yes, there's a fairy named Wetty), uses water techniques to douse enemies. Their abilities are element-based, so you've got the basics for earth, wind, fire and water. Still, you'd think Gameloft could come up with better names than Wetty or Windy.
Two gameplay options are available. You can use touch-screen movement, poking a point on the screen and having your character follow it, or an interactive joystick, which controls your movement in real time. No matter which method you use, both work very well. You'll slash beasts and buff yourself up in a matter of seconds.
Visually, Dungeon Hunter is one of Gameloft's best iPhone games to date. All the action erupts on screen with barely any slowdown, even when you're pulling off a fantastic lightning attack on several enemies at once. The animation is smooth and some of the lighting effects, like the ones you'll experience in the lower dungeons, impress. The overhead view is great, too, so you won't have to worry about enemies popping from behind unexpectedly.
Dungeon Hunter is a terrific single-player journey, but we still wish it had multiplayer. Trading weapons, enjoying side quests and sending messages in real-time to your fellow warriors would have improved the experience.
Don't let that stop you from buying the game, though. There's more than enough single-player combat and questing for the seven-dollar asking price. Dungeon Hunter is an impressive role-playing hack-n-slash adventure, one that fans of the genre shouldn't miss.
