Dungeon
Hunter HD is, as the name suggests, is a dungeon crawling adventure. The story revolves around a prince in the world of Gothicus who’s suffering an identity crisis. After you wake, you find that the kingdom is infested with all kinds of foul beings and your queen is wreaking havoc throughout the lands. This is a direct result of your arrogance in utilizing black magic to raise her from the dead when she attempted to murder you. It’s not breaking any new ground, but it’s well told and a nice setup.
After the intro, it’s time to pick just what type of Prince you intend to play as be it Rogue, Warrior, or Mage. Each have their own archetypal strengths and weaknesses, and come with their own special abilities. It’s really a matter of what type of attacks you prefer, but no matter the choice you’ll be hitting the attack button a LOT as you make your way through towns, caves, forests, and of course, dungeons.Dungeon is presented typical dungeon crawler style, with a top down perspective. You can choose between two control schemes, one that has you using an onscreen joystick or dragging your finger in front of your character. While both work well, I tend to prefer the joypad style as it feels more natural after years of playing console games and handhelds. While each plays a bit different, they’re both very responsive for the most part and movement is very smooth. The auto-targeting does occasionally leave you a bit jarred, it’s a rare occurrence.
The graphics look fantastic, and even with multiple enemies onscreen the action doesn’t miss a beat. There are a variety of enemy types and the environments are colorful and varied, eschewing the typical dingy looking palate that’s often used in these type of games. Mind you, that’s not a jab at those rampant fanboys displeased with the Diablo 3 color choice- in fact, Dungeon HD is as close as you can get to Diablo on the iPad! The music’s passable as well, thought it can get a bit repetitive. Thankfully you can choose to listen to your own soundtrack while you play the game and tweak a variety of other options as well, including the location of the controls onscreen- it seems like that’d be helpful for gamers with smaller or larger hands.
Of course, a hack-and-slash RPG wouldn’t be much without those RPG elements. Dungeon Hunter HD does an admirable job using the iPad’s touchscreen to streamline the addition of skillpoints, attributes, and the equipping and discarding of various armor and loot you pick up along your adventure. Leveling up is a rewarding experience and it’s a blast unlocking new abilities to dispatch your opponents. It’s very reminiscent of Untold Legends for the PSP with a little bit of WoW thrown in, what with the talent trees and all.
In the end, for $7 you could do far worse in choosing a game for your iPad. It’s fast-paced, controls well, looks great, and is just plain fun.
I give Dungeon Hunter HD a 7 out of 10.
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