Written by AndrewH

Back during CES 2015 we got to take a seat with Gameloft and go hands-on with their upcoming addition to their Dungeon Hunter franchise, that being Dungeon Hunter 5. While we were not able to talk about what we witness during that hands-on time immediately, we are now in a position to talk about the hands-on we had with the game itself.

Since it was back in January, the form of the game we got to experience would be a very early Alpha build. The total amount of areas we got to experience through, or levels for a moment, were five and thing did include a boss fight. We also got to check out the new upgrading system for weapons and armor that we mentioned during the original announcement for Dungeon Hunter 5.

Equipment Upgrades

This new upgrading system was created in order to offer players a different way to obtain better gear without feeling you like need to spend money on IAPs in order to get well-equipped. Does it accomplish this? From what I familiar with my hands-on time I would have to say yes. You are able to have a piece of gear you get at an early level and make that piece up completely, if you desired to, through all of the levels you go up. Not only do the stats from the item go up whenever you upgrade it, the visuals will slowly get better as well, looking more extreme and essentially “cooler”.

Essentially the upgrade system works by taking weapons and armor that you simply find from monsters, chests, and other things and combining it using the current weapon/armor you’ve. This is actually the process of fusing items together as one of the two methods for upgrading. The 2nd method is using Evolution Materials.

The Evolution product is more geared for upgrading weapons and armor which are already at max level. So if you possess a sword that may ‘t be leveled up anymore, this is when you would like to begin using the Evolution system. This basically starts upgrading the stats from the sword even higher although the sword reaches max level. Eventually, using both systems, you might take a level 1 sword and produce it along with you the whole game, leveling up along the way, and even increasing the original rating of that sword (for example going from normal->magic->epic->legendary).

All of the upgrading can be achieved without spending any money if you do not wish to. In fact the entire system was made so people might have more options with regards to gear besides grinding levels again and again or buying gear through IAPs. Of course you will see IAPs available but it will feel a lot more optional.

Combat

Combat is still by pointing out hacking and slashing of monsters and other enemies that you encounter. However, comparing it to previous Dungeon Hunter games, in this one it seemed to flow a lot smoother and faster. Of course there are different style of combat to be had in this game because there are different classes that vary from up-close combat (swords, dual-swords, etc) to ranged combat. In fact the class product is mainly just choosing one of the five weapons available at the start of the sport (and whether you need to be man or woman). It may be dual-swords or the dual-crossbows. There’s auto-targeting in this game as well which will make the combat seem much faster.

The boss fight was enjoyable too, bringing back that sort of MMORPG feeling to it. There is a little more thought put into the boss fights because it is not only a matter of accumulating and smacking all of them with your sword but additionally dodging unique attacks that require some skills and considered to avoid. This isn’t new to Dungeon Hunter but it just seemed a bit more thought out.

The class structure, once we just mentioned, is basically picking out a starting weapon at the beginning of the game and off you opt for your chosen weapon of preference. However, unlike a lot of RPGs available, you are not locked in to the starting ‘class’ you’ve chosen. This means that you can change at any time in the game to something else for whatever reason. This selection can in fact prove useful if you need to be long range against a boss but originally decided on a sword or something that’s close range.

Visuals

As mentioned within the original announcement post for Dungeon Hunter 5, farmville has been constructed from the ground up? and this is especially true for the graphics and animation hanging around. As the style remains the game, everything just looks more polished and more crisp. There is also more smoother animation and fancy effects for attacks and spells making the sport in general look good.

Multiplayer

While we didn’t get to check out the multiplayer gameplay during our hands-on, we will just briefly go over it again within case you missed our previous coverage. Players essentially create their own dungeons, placing their minions inside it in order to protect their gold. Players can raid your dungeon hoping of stealing some of it. This works both way so that you can raid another player’s dungeons to steal their gold. To be able to make this happen though, you will have to beat the gamer who owns that particular dungeon after it, essentially which makes them the ‘end boss’. The gold you steal, if successful, may be used in the game like normal.

If PvP isn’t your lifestyle, Dungeon Hunter 5 will also have asynchronous co-op multiplayer as well. This is when you can hire friends along with other players’ characters to fight alongside you. We have seen this selection in a hew other games for example some of the titles from Gamevil.

Random Details

There are other important random details that prospective players may wish to know. Dungeon Hunter 5 is an video game so that as far as you may know, there is no offline mode. We are looking to get additional confirmation on this point at this time but that, as we know it at this time, is how it is. Both male and female character will have separate voices and can have language localization. These are just things we noticed in the recent Dungeon Hunter 5 stream Gameloft did on TwitchTV.

Overall Impression

Even though the version we played was a really early Alpha build and that we didn’t reach undergo lots of content, what we should did go through was quite fun to experience. The sport doesn’t stray too much in the dungeon crawling hack n’ slash template it has already established for awhile now but there’s lots of story and narrative in the game. There’s lots of loot as well and the whole crafting a part of Dungeon Hunter 5 is one thing a person can actually possess a lot of fun doing and can get caught up in it. There should be lots of replay value with Dungeon Hunter 5 too as there is the whole loot crafting part as well as the multiplayer raiding aspect to the game.

One thing that everyone disliked about Dungeon Hunter 4 was the potion system so when we talked about this, i was told that all the feedback have been received and it is something the company is trying to not have happen again in Dungeon Hunter 5. Hopefully this is correct and this pertains to the entire IAP layout generally.

A many things could change between now and the discharge of Dungeon Hunter 5, especially since out hands-on was back in January. As it stands though, the sport was pretty fun, looked good, and seemed much better than the rest of the ones so far. If this launches, hopefully all this remains true. You can pre-register for the game over on its official website.

Official Website: Dungeon Hunter 5