Darkest Hunter

About

Darkest Hunter is a single player and multiplayer casual role playing game. It was developed by ECC GAMES S.A. and was released on September 27, 2017. It received neutral reviews from both critics and players.

"Darkest Hunter" is an action-packed, top-down shooter game where players take on the role of a powerful hunter fighting against dark forces. With a variety of weapons and skills to choose from, players must strategize and upgrade their character to defeat devastating bosses and save the world. The game features procedurally generated levels, ensuring a unique and challenging experience every playthrough.

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45%

Audience ScoreBased on 38 reviews

story4 positive mentions

graphics3 negative mentions

The game offers a fun and casual Match-3 experience that can be enjoyable for short play sessions.
It features a variety of characters and over 250 items, providing some depth in terms of gear and customization.
The pixel art style is visually appealing and adds a nostalgic feel to the game.

The game feels like a poorly executed mobile port, lacking depth and complexity expected from a PC title.
Gameplay is repetitive and grindy, with little challenge or variation in mechanics, leading to boredom over time.
Technical issues such as clunky controls, poor UI design, and lack of resolution options detract from the overall experience.

story
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
50%
21%
The game's story is criticized for being minimal and lacking depth, with 13 characters that share similar stats and skills, making them feel more like cosmetic choices than unique entities. Despite some attempts at storytelling through dungeon notes and character profiles, players find the narrative lacking and unengaging, overshadowed by the gameplay mechanics. Overall, while the game offers a lengthy campaign and entertaining quests, it fails to deliver a compelling story, leaving fans of narrative-driven RPGs wanting more.
- “There are 13 characters, each with a somewhat long explanation and backstory.”
- “As far as adventuring goes, brace yourself for a long campaign as there are over 300 quests to complete in the game.”
- “In conclusion, while Darkest Hunters is not nearly as fun and refined as Puzzle Quest, it is recommended to puzzle, fantasy adventure, and match-3 fans alike.”
- “As for RPG, it doesn't have any decent story.”
- “I know grid games aren't the best at storytelling, but since the developers left notes in dungeons, enemy descriptions, and heroes' written profiles, where is the background?”
- “But there's no story; all characters play the same, light and heavy armors play the same, and all melee weapons play the same...”
gameplay
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
54%
23%
The gameplay has been criticized for being grindy, repetitive, and lacking meaningful challenges, with many players finding it clunky and uninspired. While some appreciate the simple mechanics and fluidity, the overall experience is marred by a lack of innovation and engaging content, leading to a sense of monotony. Despite its potential, the game fails to capture the depth and excitement found in benchmark titles of the genre.
- “The gameplay is simple in that you connect gems of the same color up, down, left, right, and diagonally.”
- “Pleasant and fluid gameplay, difficult fighting and character leveling.”
- “In summary, Puzzle Quest will always remain the benchmark title in this genre for me, and as far as gameplay goes, this game tries to capture some of the magic that the title has yet falls short in my opinion... good attempt though.”
- “The maps became larger, but the gameplay on them does not change from the first time; you just repeat the same thing over and over again, with no special abilities or obstacles to make movement less monotonous.”
- “Extremely repetitive gameplay elements meant to incentivize skipping via microtransactions, such as merging duplicate gear items to increase strength, still exist.”
- “Screen panning and control mechanics are still built for multi-input touch displays, leaving overall control clunky.”
graphics
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
33%
50%
The game's graphics feature retro pixel art, which some players appreciate for its nostalgic charm, while others criticize the lack of modern graphical options and resolution adjustments. Overall, the visuals are described as coarse, and there are concerns about potential issues related to graphics settings and display modes.
- “Visually, I'm a big fan of the graphical style of this title as I love pixel art, and it also really gives the game an 'old-school' nostalgic feel.”
- “A choice was made to use obsolete, decades-old retro pixel art as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics.”
- “There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks.”
- “Coarse graphics.”
grinding
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Reviews indicate that the grinding in the game can be tedious and detracts from the overall challenge, leading to a mixed reception. While some players find the gameplay enjoyable initially, they express concerns about the potential for excessive grinding, especially for completionists. Overall, the grinding aspect may hinder the experience for those seeking a more dynamic and engaging gameplay.
- “I'm totally sick of the grinding and lack of challenge.”
- “Maybe it gets harder in the next 60% of the game - or with another of the many characters provided - but the gameplay is, as I said, so grindy and boring that I'm going to have to vote thumbs down.”
- “It does hit a point where a ton of grinding will be needed to progress, so if you are a completionist, you've got a fair chunk of time ahead of you.”
monetization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
75%
The monetization strategy of Darkest Hunters has drawn criticism for its origins as a mobile cash grab, with high in-game prices and a poorly balanced economy that fails to adapt from its mobile counterpart. While the PC version lacks microtransactions and ads, players still find the upfront cost unjustified due to repetitive gameplay and insufficient in-game currency rewards. Overall, the game's monetization approach is seen as exploitative and poorly executed.
- “Darkest Hunters is a mobile app that's been dumped on Steam as if it was a real PC game (it's not)... it's a cash grab from greedy mobile devs. The game is a badly made, badly translated, very basic match-3 (Bejeweled ripoff), but with some RPG elements tacked onto it.”
- “Even though diamond rewards have been replaced with extra coins, various prices throughout the game were never scaled and are still set at high points to incentivize no longer available microtransactions.”
- “Extremely repetitive gameplay elements meant to incentivize skipping via microtransactions, such as merging duplicate gear items to increase strength, still exist.”
music
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
100%
The game's music is criticized for featuring only one repetitive track during combat, which can become annoying over time. While the sound quality is noted to be good, the overall soundtrack lacks memorable elements, failing to leave a lasting impression on players.
- “The sound quality is also good, especially during battles, and the soundtrack does its job well.”
- “As for the game itself, it has godawful level design, and it has only one track playing nonstop in combat that can easily get annoying (playlist music hype, I guess?).”
- “Did I mention the single song for the entire game?”
- “The sound quality is good, especially during battles, and the soundtrack does its job; however, I didn't find any of the tracks particularly memorable.”