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Gauntlet… just… “Gauntlet”… actually, I think it’s Gauntlet™? That’s dumb. You’re dumb WB Games/Arrowhead. Wait. WB Games made this? Why the crap is WB Games making Gauntlet?
Gauntlet™ is the newest product of the Gauntlet series assembly line, a game series dating back to 1985. The game has always been about two things–slaying hordes and hordes of monsters and grabbing tons of treasure. I guess Gauntlet™ more or less lives up to that standard. You choose one of 4 classes (5 if you’re a sucker and bought the DLC like me) and jump into a series of dungeons with monsters spawners, gold piled to the ceiling and the occasional guest appearance by death.
Apparently the game is in its “Slayer Edition” now. I gave a good 2 or 3 hours to the game with 3 other friends back when it came out. We really weren’t that impressed. The Slayer Edition is an enhancement from where I last left it, so it’s good to see that the company in charge of its creation cared enough to improve upon it. The most notable difference to me that I appreciated was the introduction of a map that not only showed you your progression through the campaign but made it easy to jump back to the old levels and even complete a few optional levels.
While this game may be more in lines with the original 1985 Gauntlet, I grew up playing Gauntlet Legends and Gauntlet Dark Legacy. I have to say that I miss so many things that were in those titles not the least of which was the booming announcer narrating simple aspects of the game.
“YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE VALLEY OF FIRE.”
“THE THUNDER HAMMER!”
“BLUE WIZARD NEEDS FOOD BADLY.”
It was corny, but I really liked the way it blew everything you were doing over the top. In line with this, the adventure itself was very Conanic, taking you to locations that were built to feel larger than life. You fought off hordes of goblins on steep peaks, dove into volcanic mountains filled with lava, scaled massive medieval castles and fought bosses that felt like they were 100 times bigger than you were. Gauntlet™ by comparison is sort of drab and doesn’t contain the same energy. My memories of dynamic camera angles while traveling through slimy dungons, metallic armories and broken down villages are now replaced with dull temple-like square rooms in a non-changing top-down view.
Gone too are the slew of wacky treasures you could find from the older series–your only pickups are gold, food and potions (and some dumb crown that I can’t figure out). I mean, I guess there are keys but they’re just part of the dungeon; you can’t stockpile them and you don’t use them on chests like in previous titles. Where’s my phoenix? Or Light Amulet? Or Triple Shot? Rapid Fire? Thunder Hammer? Levitation Boots? Time Stop? Shrink Potion? The list went on and on in Legends/Dark Legacy. Half the fun wasn’t just leveling up and getting more stats, it was raiding the treasure stores and hoarding powerups. Loot was piled to the sky and it was fun to swim through it and pick out the ones you liked best. Speaking of leveling up, that too has been removed from Gauntlet™ replacing the usual feeling of gain from slaying a monster with a feeling of “okay, let’s move on to the next one.”
The game still has very tight controls and smooth gameplay though. As always, I chose the wizard–and I have to say that the Wizard himself is perfectly designed. He has a beautiful balance of simplicity and speed while maintaining distinct strategical elements. Basically, he has 3 runes that he can combine on the fly to create 9 spells. The spells diversify the wizard’s repertoire allowing a smart wizard to have the tool to handle any situation. It’s very well balanced to boot–clever and careful use of all the spells is rewarded much more than trying figure out which one is OP and then spamming it. Before the Slayer Edition, I think that this may have been a Tier 3 game, but with the introduction of an endless mode, a rework of the way skills are purchased and its overall decent design puts in Tier 2. It doesn’t capture what I love about the Gauntlet games I grew up playing, but it’s still a decent play.
