Dungeon Hunter 2

Dungeon Hunter 2 – Life as an immortal isn’t all it’s cracked up to be...

Anyone who likes the top-down type of wizards and warrior style games like Gauntlet will no doubt be excited to see the second instalment of Dungeon Hunter.

You play the hero who’s charged with turning the tide of a tyrannical and rather evil ruler and the dark forces that follow. You can pick either to be a warrior, thief or mage at the very start and you then get to break out of the prison, beat up more than your fair share of monsters and unlock the mysterious levels to discover more about your character, and the fate that awaits you.

Some of the levels you get to explore aren’t much more than a nice add-on to the main plot, but importantly, they don’t just add a bit more colour to your character’s development but also help you get more powerful (in terms of attack and defence) through boosting your skill points.

As you move throughout the various lairs, you will uncover a number of characters who you can choose to help or ignore as you see fit. For example, you can speak to a prisoner who asks you to kill eight (killer) moths, if you do this mini-challenge, you will be rewarded, and if not, then it won’t have any significant bearing on the end of the game.

The games controls are pretty responsive and do all that you’d expect. The plot is plentiful and it seems almost a pity to move from one stage to the next as it’s such a pretty game with a lot of detail in each scene – however, it’s always matched by equally artistic scenes to enjoy at every next stage.

At the end of the day, this game is really entertaining and will challenge you and develops with you. I can’t say it’s in the same league as Fable in terms of the characters’ development as you interact with the environment around you, but for a handheld game it really is way up there.

The game suffers a little in terms of its automatic features, especially the automatic aiming ability with the mage’s ranged attacks. When trying to cast a spell, it would either miss or if there’s more than one enemy on the screen at any one time, you will have to pay special attention to ensure you attack the one you intend (usually the closest or more powerful monster); having said that, you will probably be watching the screen intently and very engrossed in it for all the other good reasons.

Positives

Beautiful game to look at

Decent controls

Lots to explore and good script

Negatives

Perhaps a bit too much for the less mature players to take on

Automatic aiming can let you down at times

It’s fiddly improving your character’s attributes

4 stars