Durango: Wild Lands is a huge new MMORPG for mobile that aims to shake up this increasingly stale genre. That means there is no autoplay, no pay-to-win mechanic, and not a lot of flashy over-the-top combat skills.
Moreover, you won’t become a knight in shiny armor who is destined to save the world from an evil demon (or more likely, an anime-like girl wearing as little clothes as possible). Instead, you will be just another normal human being that, for some unknown reasons, has been thrown into an alternate universe in which dinosaurs are still living. So now you have to try not only to survive in this strange new environment but also to establish a life in it.
In the beginning, Durango: Wild Lands is pretty similar to any other survival simulator. You’ll explore your surroundings to obtain resources and then use them to create some basic tools. However, as you look at the crafting menu, you’ll realize that Durango has gone the extra mile: The sheer number of options there is absolutely massive, which will definitely keep you busy for quite a while.
As you progress, you’ll be able to tame various dinosaurs and then ride them into battles.
Then there’s your operation base, which you establish on one of the few safe islands that can be found in this world. However, since this is an MMO, you won’t be able to just build in any location you want. Instead, you will have to claim your own territory.
Once you do that, you’ll be able to do whatever you want with it though. The most basic structures would be a place to rest, crafting stations, stables (short of?) for your dinosaurs, and storages.
Quests do exist in this game, but they mostly consist of the usual kill-and-fetch types, so it’s likely that you’ll just skip them after a while and spend the extra time to work on your next crafting project.
With each item you craft, you’ll gain experience for your character as well as for that particular skill. Naturally, once you earn a certain amount of experience, you will level up and earn skill points, which can be spent to upgrade various combat and crafting skills.
The individual skills can be leveled up as well, and you will also unlock more perks as you do. This motivates you to keep pursuing the next level. Before long you’ll find yourself hooked on progressing.
The skills generally overlap too, so you won’t have to worry about one of them getting over-leveled while the others are ignored. For each recipe, you might need to gather rock and wood and kill dinosaurs to obtain their bones. Each type of material might require some further refining too, meaning you’ll get to level up yet another skill.
The combat, meanwhile, is also a really strong aspect of Durango, which is pretty surprising considering the fact that most of the game is about crafting. To engage in combat, you simply have to tap on a dinosaur of choice and hit the ‘Attack’ button. The combat system has a turn-based feeling to it, but it is actually fully real-time.
You can do various things during a battle, from auto-attacking to dodging (which requires precise timing) to using special abilities. Interestingly, these abilities are divided into 2 types, one reduces the beast’s stamina – allowing you to tame it, while the other reduces its health – eventually leading to a kill.
Just like with the crafting part, as you fight more you’ll be able to unlock various perks including passive bonuses, stances, weapon skills, and more. Throughout the game you will find yourself going from a dude hitting dinosaurs with a wooden stick to an absolute killing machine.
All in all, Durango: Wild Lands is a massive game with tons of content that will no doubt deliver countless hours of fun. If you like dinosaurs and survival, it is definitely worth picking up.
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