Dungeon Hunter 3
By Gameloft
So Dungeon Hunter 3 was recently released. Most fans of the series knew it would be free, or “freemium,” so there aren’t too many surprises there. But what was really misleading is that Gameloft even called this game “Dungeon Hunter” at all.
Let me start by saying the original Dungeon Hunter was one of the first games I bought on my iPhone, and I played through with every class before I tired of it. I also played through Dungeon Hunter 2 with several classes before moving on. So of course I would look forward to another Dungeon Hunter game. However, I heard all the news about the freemium, so I didn’t get my hopes up in the slightest bit.
Here’s what Dungeon Hunter 1 &2 consisted of:
ΓÇó Choose from three (3) different classes, with two possible upgrades for each later on. But only male characters.
ΓÇó A cliche story, but a story nonetheless.
ΓÇó Quests, with lands to explore and a kingdom to save. You usually encountered NPCs who had quests for you.
ΓÇó Loot-able items, as well as some you could buy from traveling merchants.
ΓÇó Skill trees with plenty of active and passive skills to choose from. Skill points are earned on leveling up.
ΓÇó Fairies to rescue, which offer their own special ability.
ΓÇó True RPG elements that kept you playing and progressing.
ΓÇó You could loot potions.
ΓÇó Casual, relaxed hack-and-slash gameplay that anyone could play.
Basically, you buy the game once and enjoy everything it has to offer.
Dungeon Hunter 3:
ΓÇó Choose from four (4) different classes (Warlord, Astromancer, Trickster and Shaman). Female gender introduced, which is a nice addition.
ΓÇó No exploration. Only arenas (waves of monsters to defeat).
ΓÇó No story. Only waves of monsters.
Γò¼├┤Γö£├ºΓö£Γöé There are missions, given at the beginning of each round. Not the same as quests from NPCS, but it’s something.
ΓÇó No loot. Must buy all gear and upgrades with coins or gems.
ΓÇó Each piece of gear can be sent to the blacksmith to be upgraded, but it takes time.
ΓÇó New skills must be bought with either coins or gems. Some have level restrictions, while others (only bought with gems, of course), do not.
ΓÇó Fairies: You get one to start with. The rest must be bought with coins or gems. Some can only be bought with gems.
Γò¼├┤Γö£├ºΓö£Γöé Keys: To unlock a treasure chest that you earned by defeating a level, you must unlock it with a key. And if you run out of keys, you guessed it — you have to buy them with gems. You’ll get a new key every 20 minutes, but ONLY if you have fewer than 5 keys.
Γò¼├┤Γö£├ºΓö£Γöé You can still get coins from defeated enemies, but they won’t add up to as much as the treasure chests.
ΓÇó The enemies are unusually strong, even at the beginning. The boss on the first level has a lot of HP and you get swarmed upon. This is not the casual play of the first two games. It is obviously done this way to get you to buy upgrades faster, and therefore spend money sooner.
To sum it up, you download the game for free, but must spend money to enjoy anything at the kind of pace you would have in the first two games. It’s also nothing like the first two games, other than the hack-and-slash fighting.
If you like Glu’s freemium games such as Eternity Warriors (I didn’t), then you won’t have any problem with Dungeon Hunter 3, as long as you don’t mind investing all your time and money into new game. It is a visually stunning game. The enemies look great, as do the environments. Some people may even prefer the tougher survival-style gameplay in this game, versus the more casual play of the first two games. But this should not have been called Dungeon Hunter 3, as it’s misleading. We all know Gameloft copies other successful games, so it’s no surprise that they would make an Eternity Warriors knock-off. The problem is that Gameloft was obviously using the success of the first two games to attract people to a game they might not necessarily enjoy playing. Had they named it something else (perhaps even Dungeon Hunter Survival, or Arena), maybe we wouldn’t all be so offended. But, at least the game is free to download. If you want to see what it’s like for yourself, download it here.
Here are some more screenshots. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
