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Dungeon Hunter: Alliance
PlayStation Network
Hack ('n Slash) the Planet!
3.5/5 stars
You like killing things? Sure, you like killing things! Who the hell don't? With Dungeon Hunter: Alliance, you'll get your fill of killing things, finding things, upgrading abilities, killing bigger things, finding better things... you get the picture.
This is essentially Diablo lite, with the ability to get your friends in on the fun. Up to four players can join in (though there are only three classes: mage, warrior and thief) and hack and slash their way to glory. I'm an unabashed Diablo fan - I never get tired of slaughtering hordes of... whatever... in order to find the next best weapon/armor so I can get even better at slaughtering the next horde of things. It's no wonder I was designated the warrior aka Tank in this particular game. Big, slow yet nigh impervious to damage. I had a lot of fun.
I think that for the price, the game has a good variety of enemies, both in the normal peons and the bosses. Other than one particularly horrible boss, the difficulty was pretty much spot on throughout the game. Enemies level with your character (as do the items you receive), so as long as you keep going forward, things go smoothly.
The game is pretty simple - you have your basic statistics: Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Energy - guess which one applies to each character class? (Hint: Endurance is directly linked to HP). Those statics tie in directly to what weapons and armor you can equip - hence a mage with high energy can use awesome staves, a warrior with high strength can equip the heaviest armor and a thief with insane dexterity gets the best bows.
Each weapon and each piece of armor - helmet, boots, gloves, chest and two rings can come with up to four magic enhancements on them. Weapons might deal more fire or magic damage, magic and HP regeneration, increased critical or a boost to any of your four stats. Armor can come with the same stat boosts and regeneration bonuses but may also offer magic resistance, a better chance to find items and gold or the great piece that boosts all attributes. Figuring out how to balance these bonuses with sheer power or armor is one of the fun parts of the game. Depending on what you value more, you may sacrifice power for MP or HP bonuses or any number of stat boosts.
While the customization doesn't get really deep, it's deep enough to make things interesting. Likewise the fact that you have so many abilities to choose from in each class also adds a bit of depth to a PSN download. Each class has 21 abilities. Some are passive, meaning they're always active (like the warrior's HP regeneration, strength and weapon bonues) and some are active - being assigned to the square, triangle and O buttons - like the warrior's cleave attack. Each level you gain gives you two stat points and one ability point to spend. Deciding on which ability is key to surviving and if you choose... poorly, luckily you can reassign all your stat points at any time (for a nominal fee).
Where Dungeon Hunter: Alliance falls short is on the story - which is in turn terrible and lame at the same time (along with the dialogue). The character design is also pretty standard, even if the weapons and armor looks good, your guy looks the same no matter what class you choose. There are some annoying bugs - one level had no sound, multiple people buying from the merchant at the same time can lead to unintended buying and three people running around can lead to getting stuck behind enemy lines (and hence, probably being killed). These are not necessarily game-crashing bugs, but they are annoying and prevent this from being any more than a fun diversion rather than a serious game.
However, for the price, and provided you have some friends join in, this is a decent game. It certainly takes up quite a bit of time (more if you decide you want to tackle Legendary mode) and for Diablo fans, if will make an adequate substitute while waiting for the long-gestating part III to arrive.
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