Quick Review: Dungeon Hunter HD for iPad
Dungeon Hunter HD [$6.99 - iTunes Link] brings Gameloft's popular iPhone game to the iPad in beautifully rendered, HD splendor.
The story unfolds as our hero uses the dark arts to resurrect his beloved wife only to have her turn against him and plunge a dagger into his heart (women!). You play the hero and get to choose between three classes, wizard, rogue and warrior. The inventory menu and manner of choosing skills is intuitive and enjoyable to navigate.
For more on Dungeon Hunter HD and screen shots continue with us after the break!
The main difference between the iPad and iPhone version is the crisp HD graphics and the absence of long load times between zones, which afflicted my iPhone 3G. Thanks Apple A4! The iPad version also allows you a choice between using the circle pad to control your characters movement or to place your finger where you want it to go.
If you enjoy real-time RPG games than this is a must-have for your collection.
Video and screenshots after the break!
Senior Editor at iMore, psychotherapist, 2x Canadian Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion, co-host of iPhone & iPad Live and ZEN and TECH.
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Looks great and I bet it's super responsive. Damn I want one lol!
It looks like some of same screen freeze issues that plague the iPhone 3GS I have are present in the iPad which explains what happen when she was a about to fight the boss of the level. It's a little bit suspect that they decided to cut and paste the video rather than be upfront and discuss the screen freeze.
I think that it wasn't a freeze, but the cut was done to avoid the boss video to keep the clip short. Even if you hit skip, you get some of the video.
Watch 3:04 -> 3:16 the screen just doesn't respond and then the video cuts to a bit later on in the game. Is that a problem with the iPad or the game?
Whetever it is, it sounds like the same problem was on iPhone 3GS as well, according to Taye.
Thanks for putting some video up! I'm actually looking at Dungeon Hunter HD in the App Store right now and trying to decide if I should grab it or not. Some of the launch games look fantastic though! I particularly like Zombieville USA :p
On the "screen freeze" issue, I just played through the iPad game, and it never froze or exhibited any technical problems at all. Load times moving between areas can be longish, but not so much as to spoil play.
This is a fantastic dungeon crawl game for the Ipad. The graphics remind me of the original Dungeon siege.
Play is understably shorter than a computer or console version -- I took my time leveling up and spent 10 hours or so. It's not terribly "deep" in terms of a storyline, but there are quite a few cutscenes and commentary from NPCs, etc. The fairies that follow you around and that no one else can see are good fun.
The inventory system is a real strong point, with 9 categories of wearable items and a good selection of findable magical items of various levels. The auto-equip option, is interesting and useful in the early levels, and the option to automatically "transmute into gold" found items below a certain magic level is a great innovation that keeps your inventory from getting out of hand.
I've only played through as a mage so far, and while the magic system isn't terribly complex, there are lots of things to think about in terms of strategy for alloting skill points, combining with items, etc. I wondered if it would be worth playing a mage on a presumably "dumbed down" mobile RPG game, but Dungeon Hunter delivers. It's amazing to me that a $0.99 (on sale) mobile game would have this level of graphics and detail. For example, the game displays the character's actual equipped armor and weapons not just in the inventory view, but during game play instead of some anonymous stick-figure avatar.
Overall this is a great Diablo / Dungeon Siege - type hack & slash, item finding game for the iPad. Sitting back on a rainy day holding a 9-inch color touchpad like a novel and playing a game that's beter looking than, and arguably as deep as, the original Diablo is extremely cool, and shows how far mobile devices have come in a short while.
Can I play the HD version on my 4th gen ipod with a4? Should I just get the original game (no HD)?
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