Now it’s a known fact that every other mobile platform titles – iOS or Android – tries to borrow a bit (if not entirely) from leading console or PC originals, and as far as the concept of copy-paste is concerned, it seems like iFreyr Games’ Bounty Hunter: Black Dawn is probably the biggest example. It’s like playing Borderlands, but on a much smaller screen.
The game heavily resembles Gearbox’s massively popular Borderlands franchise, with the developers hoping to offer the same excitement garnered from the RPG/FPS hybrid, that will also fit in the pocket. Bounty Hunter: Black Dawn for iOS, as the official description states, offers a total of four classes with more than 100 skills, alongside a number of random attribute equipment drops are at the player’s disposal.
Players fight through large maps, challenging quests, and online multiplayer system, with eight adventurers with different backgrounds and customizable diverse game styles. The players start out the game after deciding which of the four classes they want to play with, alongside the character’s avatar and gender.
As soon as all that is dealt with, the players are introduced into the main scenario, starting off with a number of mini missions intended for newbies to get used to the gameplay. There’s not much to strategize here as the entire gameplay follows one simple rule: Whatever it is, just go in all guns blazing.
One of the strong points of the game is the way players are allowed to customize their in-game characters. The main aim here is to get the ball rolling with the best rated gear possible, and more of that can be picked up by killing enemies, collecting loot (which are found in huge piles) and completing missions.
Sounds similar to Borderlands, right? Well, the similarities continue. For example, when a player shoots a bad guy, the amount of damage you deal is shown, and this is something we are so prone to expecting whenever there’s a Borderlands game inbound.
However, all that being said, this doesn’t mean that the game is free off any kinds of problems or glitches, and the most prominent issue is the usual repetition in every other mission, something that's fairly common. Eventually, most players are just going to get tired of doing the same thing over and over again.
Also, there’s more work to be done on the online co-op and PVP lobbies for the game. It seems natural that the devs wanted to bring that open world structure of Borderlands to the mobile platform, but they didn’t really fall in place. Maybe as the title progresses and more and more players appear in the multiplayer scene, these little issues will be dealt with.
Understood that the game may not have that big of a replay value, but that again depends on players’ points of view. Still, I'd call Bounty Hunter: Black Dawn is only worth a onetime play at best.