GAMEVIL’s newest release, Dark Avenger, isn’t the greatest game you’ll ever play in your life nor is it the worst. It's a mediocre hack and slash chock full of in-app purchases. Still, considering that the game is free, it is worth a bit of your time, especially for short bursts of fun.
The Dark Avenger universe is crawling with hordes of undead, and the game feels like it’s a direct port of the traditional hack-and-slash RPG genre to a handheld mobile. There’s nothing more to the game, apart from killing lots and lots of undead, and then killing some more. After all, that’s what the protagonist does all the way through it.
However, you won’t find any motive as to why you are killing armies of undead; you just go on killing until you put down your phone because it gets more and more predictable, or your fingers hurt from the constant tapping.
The gameplay interface, thankfully, is as simple as it gets. Dark Avenger uses a virtual stick and a massive attack button surrounded by control buttons that hold the different abilities of the player. You go on hacking and slashing your way through your enemies, gathering gold and other loot, and as you progress through levels, you gain improved loot and abilities. This, in turn, gets you improved gear.
Most players, using Dark Avengers for the first time, can easily get bored due to the fact the initial stages are a bit slow. Things actually start happening once you level up and gain more skills, and you begin to understand that there’s a lot of emphasis on the smaller levels in the game and its replayability value.
The game’s combat system also feels stiff, compared to other similar games on the market. More than being stiff, the controls are also repetitive and at some point, you’ll wonder why you are even bothering.
For example, there is an in-game three-hit combo that happens over and over again. And what’s the point of gaining skills if you can’t even trigger them during attacks? If you are not sure how to execute a combo (which initially you will find a little problematic), you will be massacred — by burning golems. And because the game is free, there are plenty of things to buy from better weapons to upgrades to the ability to continue after you are killed.
While you are bound to get bored after playing the game for a chunk of time, it still has a little amount of replay value, provided you take up the game once every two weeks. But it’s definitely worth a try, at least.
Check out the official trailer below:
