Dungeon Hunter 3 is an interesting free-to-play game that mixes action and roleplaying. With direct and easy to dominate gameplay, its concept is great for those looking for fast play seasons with their mobile phone. It offers lots of hours of content and plenty of customization options.
If I had my druthers, Dungeon Hunter 3 would be more like its predecessors, offering meaty exploration and loot to lust after. Nonetheless, Gameloft's new approach comes together admirably, even if the gameplay requires some tightening up.
The game is not as terrible as some people say. Sure, the game is riddled with in-app purchases, but as of now, there are ways to earn gems (daily quests, from chests, and also through weekly awards) and casual grinding can net you quite a decent amount of gold (4800 per game). I have over a million gold and 200 gems without spending a single cent on in-app purchases and I've been playing for slightly under 10 months. If you're looking for a game that you wish to complete by the end of the month, this is not the game for you. But for a casual stress-reliever, DH3 is a game worth trying out.
This game is such a difficult one to rate because it is simultaneously a disappointment to fans of the series and yet also a strong stand-alone title. It is a disappointment because it is such a major departure from the previous games. Dungeon Hunter 3 has been generally panned for eliminating almost all semblance of storyline and randomized drops in favor of a huge series of arena-style deathmatches pitting a hero against waves of enemies and a pay-as-you-go model of gear/skill advancement. It is unclear why Gameloft chose to even title this "Dungeon Hunter". A great deal of the backlash against this game is solely due to this decision. Fans of Dungeon Hunter 2 will be greatly disappointed if they're looking for more of the same. The raw combat gameplay is the same, but otherwise, this is a very different game. The in-game purchases are mostly optional--meaning most things in the game (with the exception of some fairies and late level skills) can be bought with in-game money earned by defeating arenas and challenges. However, the items are generally unlocked long before they could be afforded by the players who don't pay. This is because players are only allotted a certain number of keys to unlock treasure at the end of any arena--where the lion's share of your in-game money will come from. Keys replenish up to a quantity of five on their own over a relatively short period of time, but still, everything is encouraging you to drop some real money on in-game cash so you can buy the most powerful gear. And that doesn't feel good to gamers who enjoy working in-game towards getting the best gear. That said, this is a free-to-play game, so it's hard to complain about being unable to obtain all the gear immediately without paying. But it's more the way the whole transaction feels. You feel like you're being cheated because if you just dropped $10 (or, more likely, more), you could suddenly be an epic character without any real work on your side. And we all know how that's going to feel--it's going to feel like a huge waste of money after about five minutes of owning all the content in the game that was so hard five minutes ago.
All that said, I give this game a 7/10 because it is a very good take on this particular type of game. If you don't mind the pay-as-you-go model and you like the Dungeon Hunter style combat, this game is fantastic for you. In fact, this would be an 8 /10 or 9/10 game if it were simply a free-to-play game not called Dungeon Hunter that contained a greater quantity of purchasable gear and added in some randomized loot. As it stands, I have had a number of enjoyable hours in DH3 without paying a single dime. For that, I feel obligated to give it a decent rating. It's free. It's fun. But is it Dungeon Hunter? Not really. And that's what brings it down a couple pegs.
The Dungeon Hunter series has always been a bit of a blunt object, and this third instalment is no different. In spite of its controversial move to a freemium model, Dungeon Hunter 3 is still an entertaining, violent romp.
Ultimately, Gameloft chose to make Dungeon Hunter 3 more casual friendly while experimenting with in-app purchases. Probably not the greatest decision, given the largely negative reaction from the iOS community, but as a hack and slash title, it's worth a try.
Dungeon Hunter 3 takes a series that has some depth and skims from the top, providing players with a thin sheen of a game (albeit one with many levels to unlock); a boon to budget gamers willing to pay their way through grinding.
No, no, no Gameloft! That's not the way! You had it with DH2 why did you called this spin-off a "DH3"?! That's not a slasher-RPG... that's heavily monetized arena battles. Hmm...
Oh ok. Let's try it.. [After a week] I had a really hard time in playing this up until I've payed 1.5EUR for some supportive cash. They it became manageable but still tedious to perform tiring missions (tough they add some replay ability) over and over again... Rather a disappointment but with good mechanic, animations and graphics.
1. Cannot find any DH3 gems except the few that had to be used during mandatory tutorial. A few popped up during the game but have no idea where they came from? Should there be gems to find? all the screen shots show thousands of gems.
2. Cannot redeem collections rewards even though screen implies it should be an option. Pressing Redeem button makes a clink sound but nothing else?
3. Cannot find any detailed instructions or references anywhere, including gameloft website. Plenty of cheat sites, not what I am looking for.
4. Made it to about level 25 with a Warlord and did some upgrades. Also had second character, Astomancer, at about level 13. While waiting for the upgrades, that is, not using ipad2, pushes prompted the upgrades where complete and to come try them out. Well the program wouldn't open, it would get to the startup cover screen with the little circle turning in the bottom right corner then closed. After several attempts, I turned ipad2 off, restarted ipad2 and DH3. DH3 started first character over, my level 25 character gone. Could not stop the mandatory tutorial so was forced to make new character. Game remembered my level 26, lost all upgrades, kept the gems and added new ones from mandatory tutorial except for the ones needed during the key purchase to 10, which the second attempt programmed into the tutorial cancelled the purchase. Lost all of the first Warlords completed arenas and their completed missions. WHAT?
I realize this DH3 is a new game, are the levels limited unless gamers purchase something? if so, how much does it cost and at what level?
Are there other websites, socials, game sites that review and ID game flaws that could be more helpful?
Dungeon Hunter 2 was my absolute favorite game on my phone, being very much like the mobile version of Diablo. Dungeon Hunter 3 is absolutely terrible.
Many games have adopted the practice of in app purchases, but DH3 has fundamentally changed the game to revolve around them. You are put in an arena, you kill some monsters, go to another arena, kill some monsters, and so forth forever. There are no item drops at all, only money. You have to buy all your gear. You can also upgrade, which prevents you from using the item while the item upgrade takes several hours in real time. Maybe because they want you to buy two sets of gear or something like that. There is no plot and no dungeons and no quests. When you finish an arena you see this little animation with a cauldron of gold coins showering coins around the screen. It looks EXACTLY like one of the banner adverts for online casinos you frequently see on the internet. Flashing lights. Shiny things. Keep gambling! That is the psychology behind this game. It is boring beyond words.
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