Dungeon Hunter

There seems to be no let up in the number of apps coming out of Gameloft these days. Dungeon Hunter was released into the App-Store last week, but removed after a bug was discovered which reportedly causes the game to crash when loading the Forge.

Whilst this may have temporarily halted what many may have thought as an unstoppable train, I am sure that once re-released, this game will storm up the chart.

Fortunately, I am one of the lucky ones who managed to grab a copy of Dungeon Hunter before its understandable withdrawl from the App-Store, and as the ”˜bug’ only comes in later in the game, I’ve had plenty of game time and feel ready to share my feelings on this upcoming re-release. But temporary withdraw aside, let’s have a look at what I’ve found so far.

Dungeon Hunter is an Action RPG which many have compared to Diablo. Now, having never played the latter I cannot confirm if this is true or not. All I know is that Gameloft have done it again. The story goes like thus; As the Prince of Gothicus, you were due to marry the love of your life, but she takes ill and dies. Instead of moving on, you indulge in some dark magic to bring her back to life, but, something goes wrong and when she awakens she kills you and begins a reign of terror across the kingdom. But fear not, the fairies aren’t going to let her get away with this and bring you back to life to put an end to her tyrannical rule.

See It In Action

Gameplay

The game progresses from here, and from when your character first awakens in the catacombs you can see that graphically, this game is beautifully crafted, from the dark dungeon environments, to the villages you come across and the sun streaked forest paths. The camera angle works well for the most part, although on occasion the lush environments and in particular over hanging trees do temporarily block your character from view. The soundtrack is also very well implemented, it isn’t overpowering and I’m enjoying playing with headphones so I can immerse myself in the game.

Controls once again make use of a virtual joy pad – and – whilst this works well, the controls don’t seem to be as accurate as we’ve seen in previous Gameloft Games. Whilst on a quest to retrieve some stolen items from bandits I kept finding my character walking over booby traps despite my best efforts to avoid them. I don’t want you to think that the controls are bad, far from it, it’s still one of the better games to make use of a virtual joypad, just not quite up to the usual standards that we would expect from Gameloft. But, after a little time with them, you get used to the way they work, and if you really don’t like them, there’s also the option to touch the screen to move your character.

Speaking of your character, as you would expect with an RGP style game, there is plenty of scope to develop your characters abilities along the way. With three classes to choose from; Mage, Rogue and warrior, each with their own abilities and skills to master. This should offer plenty of replay value as you try and complete the game using all three class of character. You also unlock the help of a variety of fairy guides as you play, each with their own unique ability. You start the game with Celeste, who can attack your enemies with Lighting, and I have recently unlocked my second fairy, but have yet to test her abilities.

At present, it would be impossible to tell you exactly how big this game is, but I’ve been playing for a while now and have discovered a large number of weapons and items and even at my comparatively low level the one vendor I’ve encountered had plenty to take my fancy. So far I’ve completed a variety of quests ranging from locating a traders son to investigating a windmill that the owner claims is haunted. I feel that I have hardly touched the surface of this game and am finding the story engaging and enjoyable.

Gameloft have stated that Dungeon Hunter will be back in the App-Store soon, and I urge you not to let this set back put you off picking this up when it does finally return. I personally haven’t reached the point where the game crashes, but even if I reach it before the game is re-introduced into the App-Store, it won’t stop me continuing with it once the update is live.

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