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Dungeon Hunter Alliance Review

Matthew Vella
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Dungeon Hunter Alliance
Platform: Mac (Reviewed)
Studio: Gameloft
Publisher: Gameloft
Release Date: 11/11/2011
Available via iTunes($15.99)

Overview

Dungeon Hunter has been a huge success for Gameloft, and it’s not hard to see why. After bringing that classic addictive dungeon crawling action to iOS devices, PlayStation Portable and more, Dungeon Hunter Alliance now comes to the Mac app store with full brutal force, complete with a very smooth and strong online multiplayer community and endless treasures to loot. While Dungeon Hunter Alliance is far from perfect, it sure is a lot of damn fun with plenty to do. An easy recommendation to all Mac gamers, especially if you like dungeon crawling.

Story

Have you ever woken up dead before? Well your about to! Dungeon Hunter Alliance grabs your attention straight away with a unique and interesting plot point-your character is a dead king, brought back from beyond the grave to undo his past wrongs and stop his evil ex-wife from doing evil Queen stuff. Unfortunately after this the storyline is all downhill from here, as everything is basically forgettable and you only ever meet one other person that isn’t an enemy that matters. Oh yeah and that character is so poorly developed that you really couldn’t care for her existence at all. With a story you’ll want to skip through, boring cut scenes and practically no character development, you’d think this would be a problem. Thankfully however, the story is not important as it’s all about the gameplay. While an engaging storyline could’ve made the game more captivating and enjoyable, this title puts you straight into the action and it works. Why? Cause telling stories is for little girls! Now grow a pair and kill some trolls!

Gameplay

To be blunt, Dungeon Hunter Alliance is really just your standard top-down, hack-and-slash dungeon crawling RPG and isn’t all that ambitious, but it’s made so well you shouldn’t care at all and it’s really easy to have fun with. You’ll begin your quest with a whole bunch of options-choose from one of three classes (Warrior, Rouge or Mage), figure out if you want to play via point-and-click style or begin raiding dungeons with your keyboard and then eventually you’ll need to decide how you’d like to transmute your items. What makes Dungeon Hunter Alliance so easily accessible to the casual market is that transmuting loot for cash and equipping weaponry can be automatically done for you. It’s a huge time saver and a neat inclusion, but the option to not do so is also present for the hardcore gamer who likes to observe the stats of every item he comes across. Hot keys are also nicely implemented but what makes the gameplay so addictive and fun is that the upgrade system encourages the player to constantly want to improve, so you develop a need to push forth in the storyline as the enemies do get harder as you go along. Levelling up can more and more time consuming as you advance, and as a result grinding starts to feel more rewarding. Each time your character gains a level they are also given points that can be assigned to their stats as well as skill points to be assigned to which magical spell they’d like to learn or improve so you can easily see your results in real time.

The most fun you’ll have however is sharing the experience in the online multiplayer with up to 3 allies. The game runs smoothly for the most part and it’s really fun to develop teamwork, although admittedly you don’t really have to as every problem can mostly be solved via hack n’ slash. Sometimes a particular section in multiplayer mode may be hard to take on alone, so these situations can easily be worked around by simply hosting a new multiplayer game online and brining in some allies to help you out. There’s almost always somebody online and connecting a game is never hard. The main challenge however is finding someone who’s advanced as far as you in the story, as you can’t connect to quests you haven’t unlocked yet. Strangely no online voice chat has been included which is a shame, as it’s something the game really could’ve benefited from. There is a chat box for typing, but it’s seldom used and occasionally can be buggy so it’s a bit of a let down as well. Regardless, multiplayer still is a blast to play.

Despite so many highlights, there are numerous flaws within the game. First of all, the AI is terrible. Enemies will try and run through walls rather than around them to get to you, enemies will get stuck they’ll know where you are before your even in sight, etc. While it doesn’t really matter as the gameplay is simply ‘bad guy runs at you so you slash at him and he dies’, it’s slightly sad when your able to base a lot of your tactics on how stupid your opponent is. Also levels can get really repetitive and things can feel like fetch quests, but thankfully the stage variety and upgrade system is enough fun to motivate you through them. Puzzles are introduced to spice up the gameplay, but they are designed so effortlessly that they are more chores rather than puzzles as they are simply just ‘pick this vase up, put it on this pressure pad to open the gate’ while oddly standing on the pressure pad doesn’t work. There are also numerous bugs throughout the game. However despite all of these issues, none of them are game breaking and none of these should ruin your experience with the game itself, and in the end that’s all that really matters!

Audio/Visual

Graphically speaking Dungeon Hunter Alliance isn’t going to win any awards for best graphics this year. Character models look ok but never outstanding and character design plays it safe although that’s not a terrible thing. Magic looks nice as well with bright colours that catch your eye and backgrounds are interesting and contain a lot of variation. Sound effects are decent but it’s a real shame that the the main characters have no voice acting. Occasionally you may hear one or two lines but it would’ve been nice to hear more and read less for the Mac version of the game. Tunes are pleasant to listen to but nothing is spectacular.

Overall

Dungeon Hunter Alliance is blast to play. While it does play it almost a little too safe at times, it’s a strong reminder of how fun dungeon crawling can be. With an upgrade system that motivates you to push onwards, an entertaining multiplayer and addictive gameplay for only $15.99, Dungeon Hunter Alliance is hours and hours of grinding fun and a great value for money. If you own a Mac and enjoy a good dungeon crawl, this is hands down a must buy game.

8-5-capsules-out-of-10

Thor coming to Pinball FX2

J. Bradshaw
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Marvel Pinball for PS3 and Pinball FX2 on Xbox 360 are each going to receive a new DLC pack soon. On December 13th, the God of Thunder will be coming to PS3. The next day, Thor Odinson will be arriving on the Xbox 360. Each consoles DLC will cost $10. In addition to Thor, Moon Night and Ghost Rider will also be included in this collection of pinball tables, entitled “Vengeance and Virtue.”

Zen Studios and Marvel describe the experience that Thor will bring to the classic arcade game:

“Venturing throughout the Nine Realms, Thor must defend Asgard against his mischievous half-brother Loki and the ferocious power of the Destroyer armor, as well as the evils of the fire demon Surtur, and Ymir, ruler of the Frost Giants. Thor unleashes strikes of brilliant lightning and hurls his powerful hammer Mjolnir on this visually striking table that boasts more animations than any other to date in the critically acclaimed Marvel Pinball series.”

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations map pack DLC announced by GameStop

Travis Bruno
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It seems that GameStop should be the official announcer of most companies video game news rather than the companies themselves. GameStop has updated a listing in the Assassin’s Creed: Revelations DLC to actually include something that wasn’t a character package. The DLC is called The Mediterranean Traveler Map Pack and is expected to be released on January 24th 2012.

The pack will add a large amount of maps to the multiplayer aspect Siena, Jerusalem, Dyers, San Donato, Firenze and the Imperial District of Constantinople. Those who remember Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood should recognize a few of these maps and if the listing is anything to be believed, players can expect a $9.99 price tag for the DLC when it is released. Though, Ubisoft themselves have yet to actually make an official announcement, but this seems pretty cut and dry.

GTA III 10 Year Anniversary Edition Coming to iOS and Android Next Week

Roger Ma
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Rockstar Games have finally announced a release date for the Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary Edition which was announced back in October. If you’ve got an iOS or Android mobile device you can get your hands on this classic game on December 15th for $4.99. Currently supported mobile devices are:

  • Apple iOS Devices: iPad 1 & 2, iPhone 4 & 4S, iPod touch 4th Generation
  • Android Phones: HTC Rezound, LG Optimus 2x, Motorola Atrix 4G, Motorola Droid X2, Motorola Photon 4G, Samsung Galaxy R, T-Mobile G2x
  • Android Tablets: Acer Iconia, Asus Eee Pad Transformer, Dell Streak 7, LG Optimus Pad, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, Sony Tablet S, Toshiba Thrive

No word yet on if anymore devices will be supported in the future, but for now GTA fans will be able to pick up and play the game that revolutionised the sandbox genre in the palm of their hands next week for only $4.99.

Fruit Ninja plushes available now

Travis Bruno
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Fruit Ninja plushes available now

Perhaps one of the most popular and simple games on the iOS marketplace, even more so than Angry Birds is Fruit Ninja. That little mobile title was developed by the company known as Halfbrick and have even expanded beyond the mobile game and created a Kinect version of the title on the Xbox 360 for those who want to chop fruit with their own hands.

Fans of the game can now even have their own little sliced watermelon or even the game’s Sensei in plush form. To be more exact, Halfbrick has created their own online store and are selling the Sensei plush for $15.99 and a sliced Watermelon that can be stuck together with velcro for $14.99. Currently only the Sensei plush is available but if you keep an eye out I’m sure the watermelon will be available soon.

Zelda: Skyward Sword contains game-ending glitch, Nintendo advises on how to avoid it

Travis Bruno
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Nintendo has come out and revealed that at the moment there is a game ending glitch many hours into The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. To be more specific, a certain quest called the “Song of the Hero” can cause a glitch that will completely lock out the rest of the quest and halt all progress in the title forever unless the player has an earlier save.

Nintendo revealed this fact to Zelda Informer and even went about explaining exactly how the glitch could occur and how to avoid it. If the player completes the quest’s desert leg first and speak to a certain Goron not once, but twice, the game locks out completion entirely and halts the game. This can be avoided by not talking to the Goron more than once, or simply perform the desert part of the quest last.

Fall Xbox Live update now available for some

J. Bradshaw
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After much touting, marketing and other hollerin’, the expected Xbox Live update that was supposed to happen early this morning was delayed. Now it is evening time in the United States and it appears that Microsoft is now able to release the anticipated update. According to Major Nelson’s Twitter, certain users of Xbox Live should be able to update their consoles now, or in the next couple of hours. The update will be become available to the rest of us sooner rather than later. If you have the update, what is your favorite feature so far?

Exploring the future of Uncharted

Claire Phillips
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There are plot spoilers within this article. If you have not played and completed Uncharted 3 Drake’s Deception – you read on at your own risk.

The Uncharted series has sold 13 million units worldwide and is probably responsible for the deaths of countless more digital mercenaries. Nathan Drake and his half tucked shirt are Sony’s biggest exclusive, and developers Naughty Dog seem keen to keep the ball rolling:

“There are a ton of Drake adventures out there and we haven’t told all of them yet, and as long as fans want the games and as long as we find something that’s interesting and will push the medium forward, we’ll continue to make them.”

Uncharted 3 game director Justin Richmond, in a quote from Official Playstation Magazine UK

So what’s next for Uncharted? And what should change? Assuming that the world doesn’t go crazy and give us Uncharted Team Racing, here are a few thoughts….

The Setting
There are a myriad of mythologies and countries still to be explored, but where should Drake go next? It has to be somewhere with a rich history and culture, one that is preferably dead or no longer dominant. Jungles and deserts have been done to death, so what about leaving the tropics behind and heading north?

North America is ripe for the picking and could finally let us in on the secrets of Drake’s personal life. The rich cultures of the indigenous people could provide the adventuring back drop, and weaving in a Viking connection would have a lot of potential too. If you’re not up on your Scandinavian history, Viking Leif Eriksson landed on North America long before Christopher Columbus did, and Erik the Red discovered and settled Greenland. Just to sell the Viking idea even more, the community of some 3000 Vikings established there disappeared after 500 years, with the reason behind it apparently a great mystery.

Or take in the vast wilderness that is Russia, the Celtic history of the British Isles, the ice caves and glaciers of Austria. Why should adventuring be stuck in the tropics?

Ultimately the developers have nothing to worry about when it comes to Drake’s next adventure – in terms of historical set up and setting at least. The world is packed full of cultures and mythologies not yet explored, and there are enough lost cities out there to keep Drake and co. busy for decades. But that’s just the set up, the source of all the action and the artefacts – what about how it’s used?

The Story
The life span on Uncharted’s formulaic story is growing short. You can’t get away from it – when you pick up an Uncharted game you know exactly how things are going to turn out – there’s an artefact that leads to an artefact that leads to a forgotten evil power conveniently nestled in a long lost city that won’t survive past the end chapter. The minutiae along the way help distract from the pattern but ultimately nothing changes, not for the characters, not for the Uncharted world.

The best example of this? Near the end of Uncharted 3, Drake sees Sully shot and killed. Having completely forgotten about the hallucinogenic water that Drake had just downed, I was genuinely taken aback by what I thought to be a real occurrence. I was furious at the villains, sad for Drake, and ultimately really impressed that the developers had had the guts to knock off one of their main characters.

But no. It was all a dream. Why do that? Sully is a great character and the relationship between him and Drake is entertaining, but what better end could there have been to a game that began with the very beginning of their relationship? It would have marked a new chapter in Drake’s life, and a chance for the game to change gear. After all Deception is littered with sequences that make Drake question the way he lives – the desert being the obvious stand out. Taking this disillusionment together with Sully’s death would have made the final reunion with Elena all the more poignant, and opened up an ideal way to have Drake back off from his adventures – if only for a little while. There’s a lot of drama to be had dragging a broken man back to his former self – perhaps on a quest to save a certain someone rather than a certain something?

As it stands, Uncharted 4, when it undoubtedly happens, will begin on the same footing as every other Uncharted game. Drake and Sully hang out. Drake and Elena kiss and make up. Yes, the current formula works, but we all know that if something is repeated and repeated and repeated, it gets old.

The Set Pieces
Uncharted 3 Drake’s Deception had some of the best moments of event gaming in recent memory, and the scale and style of the spectacle define the series. Uncharted wouldn’t be Uncharted without some big action scenes, but with so many of them in Drake’s Deception, have Naughty Dog backed themselves into a corner?

Where Among Thieves had its train sequence, Deception had a plane crash, a sinking ship, a crumbling city, a blazing inferno, horseback chases, a sandstorm, and the bold emptiness of the desert. What’s left? What natural disaster has Drake not survived, what vehicle has he not fallen out of? A tsunami is too much like a sinking ship, an earthquake echoes the already overused crumbling city, a small avalanche or two crept in to Among Thieves. In going all out with the third instalment Naughty Dog could have exhausted Uncharted’s potential – the story is already repetitive, and if the set pieces head that way as well…

The Future?
Now there isn’t exactly a new Uncharted game every year, but the last thing anyone wants to see is a new game that’s just a repackaging of the old one – we know that doesn’t sit well! It may sell, and it may still be of some quality, but it damages the brand. With Uncharted Golden Abyss heading to the Vita in the new year and a movie adaptation of Drake’s Fortune in the pipeline, there’s already more than enough Drake to go round. Whilst ‘Drake in Space’ is a ridiculous idea, the next entry in the Uncharted series is going to have to take that one giant leap to keep itself at the top of it’s game.

But what’s the best way to avoid repetition? Stop. At least for a little while.

Of Orcs and Men – Teaser Trailer #1

Joshua Moris
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Being constantly hunted down by the Empire of Men might put a damper on your life expectancy. As an orc and goblin, you must be fearless as the Emperor of Men rages war against your people. The only way to end this conflict is to take down the Emperor himself.

Focus Home Interactive in junction with Cyanide and Spiders presents a new trailer for the 2012 RPG Of Orcs and Men. In the first teaser trailer, you get to see the two heroes of the story in active gameplay. Each character presents two very different playing styles. The orc offers an aggressive style of combat where he vaults himself into a fray of soldiers. On the other hand, the goblin acts more as an assassin preying on enemies from the shadows.

Check out the trailer below, and get ready for the rebellion in 2012.

Purple Dildos Claims 2 Million Lives in Saints Row: The Third

Joshua Spudic
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Ladies and gentlemen… big purple dildos covering baseball bats have officially claimed the lives of 2 million residents of Steelport. However, this figure is small when compared to the figure of lives lost in the carnage that is Saints Row: The Third. A total of 5.8 billion lives have been lost from gang and senseless violence. May all of those who have departed rest in piece.

In addition to the above figures, THQ has compiled a report on what else has been going on in Steelport:

    1. Players have spent a cumulative total of two years in their birthday suits.
    1. In Whored Mode, 44 million pimps, gimps and prostitutes have been dispatched.
    1. 650 hot dog mascots have been overcooked to death by players using a flamethrower.

In other news, THQ have announced a new way to map the chaos you create in Saints Row: The Third. By logging on to SaintsRow.com, there are a number of applications that allow you to track the carnage you have created in Steelport and compare them to your fellow players. This is what you can do on SaintsRow.com:

Saints Row: The Third Stats and Achievements Tracker
With the new in-depth tracking features on SaintsRow.com, you can now quantify the crazy. Check out your stats page for a list of your most devious accomplishments, from total time surfing moving vehicles, to number of pedestrians you’ve run over. See how you rank against the rest of the community, or drive by a friend’s profile page for a head-to-head comparison.

Big Picture Map of Steelport
Some maps show directions. This map shows indiscretions. Check out a top-down map of Steelport updated in real-time with a feed of all in-game activity. In addition, tag an area on a map and leave hints for the rest of the community. Know the location of a hidden secret? How about a tip on completing a mission? This is your time to share. Finally, upload your favorite screenshots and tag them on the map to create your own cherished memories from Steelport.

So, what are you waiting for? Head to SaintsRow.com to start tracking your carnage.

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