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Hands-on with Gameloft’s upcoming Dungeon Hunter 5 game

Back during CES 2015 we got to sit down 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 able to talk about the hands-on we had with the game itself.

Since this was back in January, the version of the game we got to play was a very early Alpha build. The total amount of areas we got to play through, or levels if you will, were five and thing did include a boss fight. We also got to try out the new upgrading system for weapons and armor that we mentioned back in the original announcement for Dungeon Hunter 5.

Equipment Upgrades

This new upgrading system was developed in order to offer players a new way to get better gear without feeling you like have to spend money on IAPs in order to get well-equipped. Does it accomplish this? From what I experienced with my hands-on time I would have to say yes. You can take a piece of gear you get at an early level and build that piece up all the way, if you wanted to, through all the levels you go up. Not only do the stats of the item go up when 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 find from monsters, chests, and anything else and combining it with the current weapon/armor you have. This is the process of fusing items together as one of the two methods for upgrading. The second method is using Evolution Materials.

The Evolution system is more geared for upgrading weapons and armor that are already at max level. So if you have a sword that can not be leveled up anymore, this is when you would want to start using the Evolution system. This basically starts upgrading the stats of the sword even higher even though the sword is at max level. Eventually, using both systems, you could take a level 1 sword and bring it with you the entire game, leveling it up along the way, and even increasing the original rating of that sword (as an example going from normal->magic->epic->legendary).

All of this upgrading can be accomplished without spending a dime if you don’t want to. In fact the entire system was made so people would have more options when it comes to gear besides grinding levels over and over again or buying gear through IAPs. Of course there will be IAPs available but it will feel much more optional.

Combat

Combat is still all about the hacking and slashing of monsters and other enemies that you come across. 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 since there are different classes that range from up-close combat (swords, dual-swords, etc) to ranged combat. In fact the class system is mainly just choosing one of the five weapons available at the start of the game (and whether you want to be male or female). It could be dual-swords or the dual-crossbows. There is auto-targeting in this game as well which make the combat seem a lot faster.

The boss fight was enjoyable as well, bringing back that sort of MMORPG feeling to it. There is a bit more thought put into the boss fights as it isn’t just a matter of running up and smacking them with your sword but also dodging unique attacks that require some skills and thought to avoid. This isn’t new to Dungeon Hunter but it just seemed a bit more thought out.

The class structure, as we just mentioned, is basically picking out a starting weapon at the beginning of the game and off you go with your chosen weapon of choice. However, unlike a lot of RPGs out there, you are not locked into the starting ‘class’ you’ve chosen. This means that you can change at any point in the game to something else for whatever reason. This feature can actually come in handy if you need to be long range against a boss but originally chose a sword or something that’s close range.

Visuals

As mentioned in the original announcement post for Dungeon Hunter 5, this game has been built from the ground up  and this is especially true for the graphics and animation in the game. While the style is still the game, everything just looks more polished and more crisp. There is also more smoother animation and fancy effects for attacks and spells which makes the game as a whole 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 here in 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 in the hopes of stealing some of it. This works both way so you can raid another player’s dungeons to steal their gold. In order to accomplish this though, you will have to beat the player who owns that particular dungeon at the end of it, essentially making them the ‘end boss’. The gold you steal, if successful, can be used in the game like normal.

If PvP isn’t your thing, Dungeon Hunter 5 will also have asynchronous co-op multiplayer as well. This is where you can hire friends and other players’ characters to fight alongside you. We’ve seen this feature in a hew other games such as some of the titles from Gamevil.

Random Details

There are other important random details that prospective players will want to know. Dungeon Hunter 5 is an online game and as far as we know, there is no offline mode. We are trying to get additional confirmation on this point right now but that, as we know it right now, is how it is. Both the male and female character will have separate voices and will have language localization. These are just things we noticed from 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 we didn’t get to go through a lot of content, what we did go through was quite fun to play. The game doesn’t stray too far from the dungeon crawling hack n’ slash template that it has had for awhile now but there is plenty of story and narrative in the game. There’s plenty of loot as well and the whole crafting part of Dungeon Hunter 5 is something a player can actually have a lot of fun doing and can get caught up in it. There should be plenty of replay value with Dungeon Hunter 5 as well since 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 and when we talked about this, we were told that all the feedback had been received and it is something the company is trying not to have happen again in Dungeon Hunter 5. Hopefully this is true and this applies to the entire IAP layout in general.

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

Official Website: Dungeon Hunter 5

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