Fun, addictive, and replayable, Dungeon Hunter: Alliance is one of the best titles in the PS Store.
On a technical level, the game is sound. The graphics are nothing special, but they certainly do their job and are actually better than what you find on most titles of this level. The enemy models are varied and have a fair amount of detail and the main charater models look pretty decent even if they appear blocky and ugly close-up at the main menu. The various armor pieces (gauntlets, chest plates, helmets, and boots) actually change the way your character looks, as well. There are only a handful of different styles for your worn items, but even the small amount of customization offered lends some personalization to the game and character to the graphics. The environments also look pretty good and range from your typical castle-style dungeon to outdoor areas that boast some surprisingly good lighting and particle effects.
The sound is also passable, though certainly nothing to get excited about. There are only a handful of sound effects and every action always sounds the same, but the effects still manage to get their job done and not break your involvement in the game itself. The music is a sort of classic dungeon crawling spread ranging from medieval-sounding orchestral music to organ music in some of the "creepier" areas. It is actually surprisingly good even if it is a little dated. It is worth noting that I also experienced a strange sound glitch in one of the levels in which I could hear nothing at all until I moved on to the next area.
The gameplay is where Dungeon Hunter: Alliance really shines. It is, for all intents and purposes, just a top-down Diabloe clone. You gather missions in town and then head to various dungeons to murder thousands of baddies, collect loot, and level up. The loot system is highly similar to that of Borderlands in that all the pieces of loot are color coded by their power level, allowing you quickly decide what you want to keep and what you'd rather sell or transmute (turn into gold). There is even a handy option for higher level characters that allows you to transmute any items below a certain level automatically, greatly reducing the amount of time the player has to spend managing the mountains of loot he/she has collected.
The levelling system is also well done. There are only three character archetypes to choose from: a mage, a warrior, and a rogue. All of these play basically exactly how you would expect them to in any RPG, but each has its own skill set that can be learned and upgraded. There are dozens of skills avaliable to each class, ranging from passive abilities (increase critical damage, increase mana regenration, etc.) to active abilities (going invisible to escape a tough enemy, call in a meteor shower, etc.). Each can be upgraded up to five times during your first playthrough and then up to ten times in the harder new game+ option. You only earn one skill point per level, so expect to spend a lot of time agonizing over where you want to spend them and then respecing your character when you realize you don't like your choice.
Fortunately, respecing is extremely cheap and nearly always affordable. This is good because you can only assign three active abilities to the gamepad (square, triangle, and circle) and you will frequently want to change out one for the other while redistributing your points to the new ability. The levelling system is rewarding and addicting, and in combination with the loot it is enough to keep you coming back for more until the end (my playthrough clocked in at between 15 and 20 hours before beginning new game+).
Now, to address the "flaws" many reviewers report to have found in the game. The first is in regard to the story. Yes, the story is garbage and can be easily discarded as some other reviewers have been quick to point out, but that's hardly a fair criticism for an arcade game that costs $15. If you want deep story arcs and meaningful characters, go play a full release RPG. This a simple hack and slash grinder that uses the story only to force the game along. It is simply unfair to demand that it do any more than that at this price point.
The second flaw is that the co-op is "broken." The co-op on the game is phenomenal. I have read some reviews bashing the game for the co-op being broken, and it is true that there is an issue that prevents you from joining friends, but there is an extrememly simple workaround (press x repeatedly during joining) that fixes the problem entirely and coud be found via a simple Google search. It's a little annoying, but until a patch comes out it's a super simple way to save yourself some frustration. I used it without a single hiccup to get into friends' games and vice-versa, so I know it works.
The game will up its difficulty when you play with other players, so be warned that you are in for a tougher time than you might have had alone. The pay off is that you will find more valuable items, however, and it is generally more fun to play with your friends than alone. The beauty of DH:A is that it is perfectly acceptable as a co-op title and a single-player only game, so you could start playing alone and then host a game for your friends to drop in on at any time and still have fun.
It is true that DH:A shamelessly copies other games, but really what else can you do with a loot-grinding dungeon crawler? It's true that there are some online issues, but they are easily avoided. You owe it to yourself to play this game, especially at $15. Buy it