Dungeon Runners Impressions

Dungeon Runners almost didn't make it out the door. Originally shelved, NCSoft brought on a team of developers—the fourth to work on the title—to massage the existing assets into a game that would support the payment model NCSoft had decided was worth giving a try: give the game away for free, but charge a modest five-dollar fee for additional functionality like stackable items and the most powerful weapons.

It might not work so well if Dungeon Runners took itself seriously, but a quick glance over the item names and descriptions makes it clear the ten-person team was more interested in parodying standard fantasy MMO tropes—especially those from World of Warcraft—than they were in creating their own mythos. It totally works, because Runners is a game designed around instant action. "We're going for 15 minute experiences," says the lead developer.

We were shown a few new features that will be released over the coming
months: PVP; new weapon and armor sets; new dungeons. A new class of axes may look familiar: they're all inverted guitars, with names that reference Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles.

12:00 PM on Sat Jul 14 2007
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13 comments

Comments

Krytha at 12:06 PM on 07/14/07
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Iiiiinteresting?
Crippl3 at 12:24 PM on 07/14/07
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Beta for this was fun.
Might just give it a go, just to see the new stuff. I wanna kill things with a guitar :D
EnigmaNemesis at 12:28 PM on 07/14/07
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Connectedness Index: 745

So basically a built in IGE/Gold Farming system. Only you pay them. You want to be uber, you can buy it!!!!
scndmg at 12:32 PM on 07/14/07
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A link would of bee nice.
alucard_0007 at 12:33 PM on 07/14/07
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I really like how NCSoft makes all their MMO's free to play. WoW is nice for what it is, but there's alot of people that don't want to pay a monthly fee. I mean if you get bored down the road and decide to take a month long break or so from playing a game(it happens to everyone) you don't want to feel as though you're wasting money by paying for something that you're not using at the moment. Even gamers need vacations...
Not-Witzbold at 12:36 PM on 07/14/07
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Oh yea it is crazy fun. Like Titan Quest/Diablo on crack the game is great for us gamers who don't want immersive stories, dozens of hours of grinding just plain and simple fun hack & slash gaming.
Really the game's sense of humor reallt got to me with the more rediculously named items and if you bother to read your quest info your realize exactly what kind of errands you are doing >_<
Really though give it a shot. It's free though I did subscribe for 3 months (at the price of a single month of WoW). Take a look at some screenshots. I especially like the swords that are 3x the height of your character.
NoBullet at 12:53 PM on 07/14/07
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The game is fun. Unfortunately they didnt let us resume patch downloads, so my 56k ass cant update anymore.
theninjaherb at 12:56 PM on 07/14/07
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i play, i even pay the $5 a month.

and it's fun. the nice thing about it, it is 15 minutes (or an hour) of just run around a kill stuff.

one thing I wish they would add would be a couple of quests that were a bit deeper...but other than that, fun for $5 a month. totally feels diablo-esque
justhesh at 06:51 PM on 07/14/07
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Rose is adorable and the rat music is badical.
amygdala at 10:48 PM on 07/14/07
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I gave this a whirl just a few hours ago, and it's fun! It reminds me a lot of Diablo, but picking up a team and starting the hacking and slashing was much faster. Seems a little unpolished, but given the price...

I'm glad to hear that they didn't cancel it outright. NCSoft shows an amazing tolerance for risk in a crowded marketplace, and seems willing to try out new ideas (in this case, payment schemes).
Dataleap at 12:02 AM on 07/15/07
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I had fun the first week I played this game. But you quickly find out that all the dungeons have the same layout and you're quickly limited by the small skill set at your disposition. Mix that with very simple gameplay, few monster variety, almost no story driven elements and you get quickly bored. Don't get me wrong, I like action rpgs with diablo like inventory but this one doesn't cut it for me!
Siegeman at 08:58 AM on 07/15/07
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The thing about this game, is that it WOULDN'T work on a regular MMO model. The graphics are poor, the gameplay is severely lacking and the world as a whole is a caricature which quickly becomes tiresome.

As such, the business model they have adopted, free and premium play, is what allowed them to keep the game from being an immediate, and well-forgotten, flop.

Still, worth the price if you have a particular affinity for action.
brieeyeball at 04:13 AM on 07/16/07
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I'm enjoying myself so far. It's a good game, especially for the price. I'm actually paying, or at least will for a while, it's nice to know that i'll still be able to play if i decide not to.