The mobile survival MMO Durango: Wildlands is well received by players. It has even surpassed the dinosaur survival classic ARK. But how good is the game really, and is it worth playing?
What is Durango? This game is a free2play survival mobile game. It was released on May 15, 2019, for iOS and Android and quickly became a great success. It has over 12 million downloads, more than 85,000 concurrent players, and is available in 229 countries.
The thematically similar survival MMO ARK on Steam has only managed to reach about 83,000 players simultaneously as a record.
So Durango seems to be quite successful at the moment. But how does it play, and who is it worth it for? I, Jürgen, have played Durango based on recommendations from my colleagues and due to acute internet crisis, and I will explain to you what to expect in the game in the following paragraphs.
This is how it starts with Durango
This is how character creation works: The game’s introduction goes smoothly and excitingly. Because I start in a train and can choose a character from a selection of travelers. Among other things, there is a soldier or a teacher. Each character has different skills; the soldier I chose can deal more damage in melee combat.
The chosen character can then be customized in various ways, including a portrait that dynamically reacts to hair and skin color.
This is the intro sequence: Once the character is ready, I am supposed to go to the dining car and get something to eat. This immediately explains one of the most important gameplay mechanics. Because without food, there’s no fight, and if you don’t eat regularly, you’ll perish.
But as I run through the train, I get the feeling that something is not right. Travelers complain about strange premonitions and become increasingly restless. I almost feel like just stopping and waiting for the train to arrive. Then surely nothing will happen.
But fate is heavily scripted, and eventually, a mysterious catastrophe occurs that tears half of the train away. In search of a missing child, a full-grown velociraptor suddenly stands in front of me, and I have to defend myself against the beast with a fire axe!
This is how the combat system works: The battles in Durango are semi-dynamic and semi-turn-based. I have various skills and actions, but after executing them, they have a cooldown and cannot be used again for a while.
This also applies to the dinosaur, which occasionally makes dangerous jumps indicated by a red arrow. This is the right time to execute a defensive action with good timing.
However, the combat system is even more complex, as certain attacks require that I first unbalance the creature, stun it, or weaken it in some other way. Thus, Durango later allows for complex attack maneuvers and combos.
Yet in the battle against the raptor, all of that is still future music, and I have my hands full to fend off the creature. But then suddenly the entire train compartment bursts open, and a huge T-Rex snaps at me! Thankfully, it only catches the raptor, and the whole scene ends in a bright, blinding flash.
“Wow,” I thought. “I’ve played worse intro sequences.”
This is what you experience in the tutorial
The first steps in Durango: Shortly after, it continues, and I find myself in a strange wilderness. There, a woman with a dog immediately comes to explain the situation to me roughly. I have landed in “Durango,” a bizarre parallel world where a mysterious “warp” apparently regularly spits out people.
Moreover, there are dinosaurs here, and one must fight for survival. Fortunately, the woman is friendly and helps me with chocolate bars and tips, with which I can craft my first stone blade and my first stone axe.
Additionally, I should gather materials, as they are currently working on a large raft that is supposed to take me and other newcomers away from the first island.
On the way, I quickly notice how detailed the game is. Huge dinosaurs graze in the river valleys, and occasionally, a giant dinosaur skull looms into the picture. Fortunately, these are just harmless herbivores and not another raptor or even a T-Rex.
I collect the necessary wooden pieces for the raft by chopping down trees and bushes with my new stone axe. Many elements of the game world are usable, but many can only be used with the right tools or appropriate skills.
My most intense experience: To earn skills, you collect experience points and level up. This happens quickly with quests that you receive from NPCs at a communication station.
An early task was to collect the meat of small mini-dinosaurs. Near the mini-saurians, “cowardly raptors” roam around, who initially leave me alone but eye me suspiciously.
I walk past them and finally find the sought-after dinosaurs. After a tough fight—my character has hardly any experience—the little dinosaur is dead, and I want to gut it with the stone knife. But the game’s AI is cleverly programmed, and the cowardly raptors immediately rush in packs and eat my prey right before my eyes!
I hadn’t anticipated that! But with a pack full of raptors, even if they are cowardly, I don’t want to confront them. It takes a few attempts before I manage to drive one of the small dinosaurs far enough away so that I can kill and butcher it unbothered.
But just such cool details make the game world of Durango immensely alive, and it is fun to delve deeper into it.
This is the big secret of Durango’s success: Overall, the game is cleverly designed because there is so much to do and so many skills and blueprints to discover. I constantly encounter things I have never seen before and where I may need new abilities to fully utilize.
This, in turn, motivates me to continue playing because I want to be able to build something new, and on the way to leveling up and acquiring skills, I find new things I want to try out. Often, I also have a true treasure trove of useful things at earlier locations where I could achieve nothing with my meager skills back then.
This is how it continues in the real game
This is my own island: After the extensive tutorial, I can finally occupy my own island. It is safe and will not be invaded by other players or destroyed by the warp. However, there are few resources there. I can build whatever I want, but if I want to really construct something meaningful, I have to go to unstable islands where dangerous monsters reside.
So, I first build a shabby tent and a sign that says “All mine!!!” Funny: It actually says that, and you can even read it in the game.
This is how the community met me: In search of resources, I eventually went to an unstable island and there encountered other players who kept a respectful distance and didn’t snatch anything from me. Additionally, they provided valuable tips and helped each other by sharing locations of rare plants in the chat.
This is how taming dinosaurs went: The highlight of my expedition was that you quickly receive the task to catch and tame a real dinosaur! Initially, only the relatively unremarkable zebra dinosaurs are available for this.
You should beat them until they are stunned, and then you can catch and ride them with the corresponding skills. However, by the time I figured this out, some of the poor dinosaurs had already crossed the Jordan.
Later, there are skills to ride dangerous creatures like raptors or even bigger beasts, but for now, my dino-zebra is my great pride! I better not tell him about his unfortunate predecessors who accidentally got killed during taming.
Conclusion – Who should play Durango?
After my first hours in Durango, I’m already itching to dive further into the wild world of dinosaurs. Durango looks great, plays intuitively, and offers just the right spiral of challenge, exploration, and reward that motivates you to keep playing.
Therefore, it appeals to fans of survival games and also attracts MMORPG fans with its complex skill system. In the game, you will regularly meet other players, but PvP is not mandatory. If you want, you can later fight full clan wars on special islands.
So, anyone who wants the “ARK feeling” of survival in a wild dinosaur world and enjoys playing on mobile devices will surely not make a mistake here.
One last word about the cash shop: The game is free2play, and real money is generated via an in-game shop. However, even though you can progress faster with real money and can buy cool dinosaurs directly, everything can also be obtained in the game. And exploring and unlocking things is ultimately the great charm of such a game.
