Warrior Needs Food… Badly | Gauntlet Review

<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s not easy for a studio to reboot an old IP&comma; and they don&&num;8217&semi;t come much older than <em>Gauntlet<&sol;em>&period; Originally released in the arcades in 1985&comma; <em>Gauntlet<&sol;em> is a game whose legacy can still be seen today in games such as <em>Diablo III<&sol;em>&period; It was one the first four player dungeon crawlers and still has a dedicated following of fans&period; There has been numerous sequels to gauntlet but the last one was way back in 2005&period; <em>Gauntlet&colon; Seven Sisters<&sol;em> was met with mainly negative critical reception when it launched on the PS2&comma; Xbox and Xbox 360&period;  The IP has since fallen into the hands of Warner Bros and this newest game is the result&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The task of reviving <em>Gauntlet<&sol;em> has been given to Arrowhead Studios&period; The developer has a lot of experience with multiplayer isometric action games thanks to their <em>Magicka<&sol;em> series&comma; but how have they handled <em>Gauntlet<&sol;em>&quest; Fans of the franchise will be pleased to hear that altogether&comma; Arrowhead has been pretty faithful with this reboot&period; All four original characters&comma; Wizard&comma; Warrior&comma; Valkyrie and Elf&comma; are accounted for&period; Other features of the original such as the amusing voice overs and the fact that you have to eat cooked turkey to regain health have also made it over&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Of course&comma; Arrowhead has not simply remade the original <em>Gauntlet<&sol;em>&semi; they&&num;8217&semi;ve also added some 21st century improvements&period; The graphics are now in  full 3D and have some pretty nice lighting effects although the color scheme is mostly made up of bland grays and blacks&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s also more voice acting with the characters spouting cheerful banter as you play&period; Thankfully&comma; Arrowhead decided to ignore gaming&&num;8217&semi;s increased focus on cinematics and has kept the experience appropriately arcade-like&period; There are a few cut-scenes in the game but they are short and all used in the right places&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;67961" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-67961" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;05065216&sol;gauntlet-drab&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-67961 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;05065216&sol;gauntlet-drab&period;jpg" alt&equals;"gauntlet drab" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-67961" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">With the game taking place in dungeons&comma; the color scheme is rather bland&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In terms of the core gameplay&comma; the developers have done a lot right&period; Combat is satisfying and very easy to control&period; The four playable characters each have their own unique fighting styles and changing between them really does provide different experiences&period; Take the two melee characters for example&period; The Warrior is all about getting up close and personal with his enemies&comma; wading into large groups of them and using his spin attack to take out many foes at once&period; The Valkyrie on the other hand has a much greater reach thanks to her spear but is in more trouble when surrounded&period; She also has a block move because of her shield&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The ranged characters play very differently as well&period; Questor&&num;8217&semi;s quick firing bow turns the game into a twin stick shooter&comma; although he can also cause AoE damage with his bombs&period; Choosing Merlin on the other hand turns the game into <em>Magicka<&sol;em> as the spell system in both games is very similar&period; This gives the Wizard 9 different attacks at his disposal&comma; which seems a bit unfair when the other three characters only have 4 or 5&period; Merlin is the hardest character to master&comma; but he&&num;8217&semi;s also the most powerful and the most fun&period; It would be nice if the Elf&comma; Warrior and Valkyrie could have the same level of variety as the combat can get boring when you&&num;8217&semi;re using the same moves over and over again&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Arrowhead seems to have recognized the problem with the simplistic combat and have sought to fix it with varied level design&period; For the most part&comma; they have succeeded in this&period; The game&&num;8217&semi;s levels are split into three different locations comprising of 4 chapters each&period; The three areas each have their own unique environments&comma; enemies and gameplay mechanics&period; One area has levels where you must constantly keep moving to avoid the invincible Death&period; Other new mechanics include levels covered in darkness&comma; so it&&num;8217&semi;s very hard to see enemies&comma; and levels set in volcanoes where you must avoid fireballs and lava&period; The final chapter of each area contains a boss fight which also helps break up the monotony&period; The varied level design doesn&&num;8217&semi;t solve the problems with the game&&num;8217&semi;s unremarkable combat but it does alleviate them somewhat&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;67962" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-67962" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;05065208&sol;gauntlet-boss&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-67962 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;05065208&sol;gauntlet-boss&period;jpg" alt&equals;"gauntlet boss" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-67962" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The boss battles may be few in number but they&&num;8217&semi;re challenging and well designed&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Where the game truly shines is in its multiplayer&period; With four people all playing at once the number of monsters really jumps up and you&&num;8217&semi;ll have to all work together to survive&period; At the same time&comma; each player will also want to get the best score and the most gold&period; This creates a competitive&sol;co-operative dichotomy that really adds to the multiplayer fun&period; The pick up and play approach to combat is a huge bonus here as it means that anyone can quickly join a session and start having fun&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s clear that the developers were focused primarily on multiplayer when designing <em>Gauntlet<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>To their credit&comma; Arrowhead have attempted to add some depth to the game&&num;8217&semi;s combat with the mastery and relic systems&period; Of the two&comma; it is the relic system which is the most important&period; The relics are what you buy with the treasure you collect in every level&period; Each relic offers some sort of advantage when activated&period; One relic summons two illusions to fight with you whilst another increases your movement and attack speed&period; After you buy a relic you&&num;8217&semi;ll also be able to spend more gold on upgrading it&period; Any character can be equipped with two relics at the same time but the game doesn&&num;8217&semi;t let you abuse them&period; The only way you can activate a relic is by picking up potion bottles scattered around the level&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Mastery system is Gauntlet&&num;8217&semi;s version of achievements&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a variety of ways to unlock each Mastery&semi; some require you to kill a boss whilst others become unlocked when you die in a certain way&period; Unlike normal achievements&comma; Masteries have in-game effects albeit minor ones&period;  Buffs such as 6&percnt; extra movement speed or a reduced cooldown for special abilities are just about noticeable but they don&&num;8217&semi;t really add much to the overall experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;67963" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-67963" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;05065159&sol;gauntlet-treasure&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-67963 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;05065159&sol;gauntlet-treasure&period;jpg" alt&equals;"gauntlet treasure" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-67963" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Each player will want to grab all the gold for themselves to get the best relics&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Arrowhead Studios have given <em>Gauntlet<&sol;em> a worthy reboot and for that they should be congratulated&period; The characters are different yet balanced&comma; the level design is interesting and the core multiplayer gameplay is both satisfying and fun&period; Despite the developer&&num;8217&semi;s best efforts&comma; what <em>Gauntlet<&sol;em> really needs is more depth&period;  A greater variety of attacks and a more complex combat system could have removed some of the repetitiveness and boredom that begins to set in by the end of the game&&num;8217&semi;s 7 hour campaign&period; Even with these flaws this is still a title which all <em>Gauntlet<&sol;em> fans should try out&comma; especially if they can get three friends to purchase the game as well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;