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PSP | RPG | Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground

Boxart for Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground
Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground 52 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 3.00
  • SOUND: 2.50
  • CONTROL: 2.25
  • FUN FACTOR 3.75
  • AVG USER SCORE n/a
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 3.5

Review: Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground

Review by EmaWii | 08/22/2007 | 15:26:11 PM PST

Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground is pretty much the perfect summer release. It's won't blow your mind or change videogaming forever, but it's a solid title that will quickly get you addicted to spending many a lazy afternoon cruising the corridors of the deep dark hidey-hole you've designed yourself.

You arrive in town quite the oddball. You want to do what? Attract monsters? The townspeople are trying to get RID of them! Well, that's just the point. In order to stop baddies from pestering the townspeople, you start construction on a dungeon outside the city gates so the monsters have somewhere else to run around, instead of your neighbor's front porch.

Of course, there's plenty of loot to be found by thrashing said monsters. The deeper your dungeon gets, the more interesting, powerful, and wealthy the creatures become, but high quality loot-droppers have high quality taste, so don't expect them to haunt just any old tunnel. It's important to have hallways with lots of turns and nice decorations--ideally marble. I'll bet you didn't know monsters prefer to sleep in bedrooms rather than simple dirt caves!

The cycle of play is compelling. Each day, you head downstairs to smack around some monsters and create additions to your dungeon as quickly and simply as you like. If you defeated a boss the day before, chances are you'll be moving down a floor. There are twenty in all, but the Wandering Demon uber-boss can be attracted by level ten. Once you've had your fill of combat (and loot!) head back to do business with the merchants in town where you buy building materials and everything else you need to be a successful dungeon architect.

Once satisfied with your activities in town, return home for an evening meal. You can buy ingredients for skimpy recipes from the girl at the market, but more nutritious dishes are made using, say, mongrel liver. It's important to keep a good stock of food around because missing a meal means missing out on stat upgrades--the only kind you'll get outside of what armor and accessories you're wearing. No matter how many monsters you slay in a day, your personal experience growth depends on strengthening through home cooking. That said, it's not hard to find the stuff you'll need and it's nice to be able to upgrade the stats most important to your play style by dieting smart.

After a good night's sleep to replenish your HP and MP, it's back to the hunt. You might say you're going to pop in just for a day or so and then suddenly find a week has passed--it's easy to get caught up looking for that particularly obnoxious monster, or that perfect addition to the museum curator's collection.

Despite plain graphics, rather generic design, and even a bit of a hit detection annoyance, it's still really fun to build your own loot hole. Also encouraged is the pastime of fighting with your friends over whose is bigger after trading dungeons via ad hoc. If the summer heat is getting to you, it might be a good idea to head underground.


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