Gauntlet Dark Legacy – GC – Review

Anyone who frequented
arcades back in the 80’s remembers the addictive and coin gobbling game,
Gauntlet. Midway had recently re – packaged and re – released this top down
classic as a 3-D hack and slash adventure called Gauntlet : Legends on PSX and
Dreamcast, and now has released Gauntlet : Dark Legacy for the PS2 and most
recently … the Gamecube. What’s the big difference? If you are referring to the
80’s version, a lot.  If you are talking about Legends vs. Dark Legacy … not
much at all. PS2 vs. Gamecube? Almost nothing.  Before reading this review,
please understand that the recent Gauntlets have either been a love or hate
relationship with the gamer, and this one is no exception.

The story revolves around
an evil mage who performs a ritual to resurrect a powerful demon in a quest for
power named Skorne. Skorne is brought to the world and kills the mage who
brought him to the material plane, imprisoning the magic user’s soul in hell and
thus preventing any means to immediately send him back. Dark and evil creatures
are released to wreak havoc and enslave humanity … and the end seems near for
the world. In a distant tower another mage by the name of Sumner learns of the
threat which has been released and begins planning to destroy the demon and send
him back to the Abyss from whence he came. In order to do this, a circle of
runestones need to be collected in order to open the portal and allow access to
the monster. He calls upon eight mighty heroes to venture out across the
different regions and restore peace to the land once more … and here begins your
quest.

You start the game by
picking one of the mighty 8 … Archer (formerly the elf), Warrior, Wizard,
Valkyrie, Dwarf, Knight, Jester, or Sorceress, all of whom have their own
personalities and animations.  Each character has varying levels of strength,
magic, defense, or speed based on class, . For example, a warrior or dwarf will
have lots of physical strength to deal damage, but will be very slow in running
or throwing their weapon. A jester or archer will have a high amount of speed,
but their attacks aren’t quite as powerful and it takes more hits to dispose of
certain enemies. In a perfect world, this would be apparent, but I really didn’t
see a whole lot of difference in one or the other since it took 1 – 3 hits to
kill most enemies regardless of who I was using. The speed and magic factors can
be detected though, and can make a difference as you progress through the game.

Gameplay consists of
running through mazes to find the exit (80 of them scattered throughout 8
different worlds), gaining levels,  and hacking your way through an assortment
of monsters, golems, dragons, and mutant humanoids which pour out from
generators scattered around which can be anything ranging from a rotted animal
carcass to a cave entrance. Destroying a generator stops the monsters from
coming out, and gives you the opportunity to explore your surroundings. Pretty
much the same story from both the 80’s coin – op and the Legends version, and
done in 3-D. While dungeon running, you will pick up a various assortment of
items, treasure, and food to aid you on your quest such as giving you more
powerful attacks or refilling your “Turbo Meter”, which can be utilized for
either running from a bad situation or setting off a very damaging attack and
clearing out the path in front of you. Each realm also contains a “legendary
item” which is used in the boss battles at the end of each of these realms and
make it easier to defeat whatever big, nasty being awaits. The legendary items
aren’t a necessity though, and you’ll probably be able to beat the boss without
it when you’ve progressed to a higher level. 

That being said, this is
where the “like it or hate it” issue can be found. The creators stuck to the
original formula which made this popular back in the 80’s … which is hack and
slash. Nothing more, nothing less. I have seen people pick up and play this game
for 9 hour periods, while others will play it for 10 minutes and never mess with
it again. Since you have the same goal throughout each and every level, which is
kill monsters, find treasure, eat food, find the exit, then do it over again in
the next stage, some may find it to be the most tedious and repetitive thing on
the market today. Others, like myself, are die hard Gauntlet fanatics who will
sit and play this game until our eyeballs fall out. I found complete enjoyment
looking for that one door in each world which unlocks a new secret character,
like an Ogre or Unicorn, or rejoicing when my Wizard hit Legend status by going
to level 90. I also enjoy watching my characters level up which will change
their outfits, make them and their weapons bigger, and eventually give you a
familiar to fly over your shoulder and launch an additional attack. This takes
away the repetition and makes it a lot of fun …and very addictive … to play.

Graphically, the game has
gotten a high – rez makeover from the PS2 version. While the overall cartoony –
looking characters don’t look any different, they look a lot cleaner. While this
is a good thing, there wasn’t a whole lot there to begin with and improve on in
the first place. Some levels look very well done and have a lot of environmental
layout, while others can be very bland and boring. For example, the desert stage
contains pyramids, sphinxes,  statues of heroes, and other things which really
add to the overall look. On the flipside, you will wonder where everything went
when you head into the polar region and see nothing but snow, ice, and an
occasional mine cart track. Most of the enemies look really impressive, like
zombies which carry two handed saw-like weapons, and a lot of detail went into
their animations and overall look. Once again, where there is good there is bad,
and when you see how they did others … like ghosts which look like glowing
Kleenexes floating around … you’ll probably wonder what they were thinking.
Still, the main characters look very good, and will change appearance depending
on what level they obtain. They start out looking very ordinary or weak, then
will grow to look like a powerful and downright intimidating presence. Soundwise,
you will be assaulted by very minimal and generic sounding tunes which are
broken periodically by an explosion or jingle when a secret area or item is
found. The character voiceovers are pretty bad, and consist of grunts or
“Mmmmmm” when you find food somewhere (my personal favorite was the Dwarf’s loud
belch after he eats something). The mysterious voice which was found in the
original Gauntlet arcade game now has a body, which is the “Gandolf from Lord of
the Rings” lookalike wizard, Sumner. It’s funny, because his voice doesn’t
really fit his presence at all.

Overall, this game could be
a great purchase, or it may be a terrible purchase, depending on your taste. If
you are a Gauntlet fan from the old school you will definitely feel right at
home. If you like a fast paced dungeon crawler with non-stop action, endless
“hit the switch to open the door” puzzles, and straight hack and slash gameplay,
you will definitely have hours of fun and replay value with the multiple levels
and multiple characters to level up and watch become more and more powerful with
each swing of the axe or flash of a fireball. Even if you aren’t any of the
above but have a group of friends who just need a co-op multiplayer action game,
this one can definitely be a winner. If you like a little more structure or
actual RPG element to your medieval dungeon romping, I suggest you pass this one
up and leave saving the world from Skorne to some other group of  armchair
heroes. 

Gameplay:
7
Easy to control, easy to pick up,
and for some … hard to put down. Getting to watch your existing character grow
and change in appearance as they level up is pretty neat, and having 7 others
and 8 additional secret characters can really add to the experience and fun.
This definitely won’t get beat in a couple of days, and many will find
themselves playing over and over again to try and find everything and level up
as many characters as possible. Some will find it dull, mindless, and tedious
however, and will probably wind up returning it for something else. Definitely
for the hack and slash gamer.

Graphics:
7.8
Some really good polish over the PS2
version, but still not a whole lot which really stands out. Most environments
and monsters look great, while others are just kind of “there” and don’t look
like they got a lot of attention. Overall, not bad though … and I’ve definitely
seen worse.

Sound: 5.6
Definitely below average. The music
is repetitive. Character voiceovers are pretty generic and some are funny
because they are so lame. Other times sounds will come out of nowhere, like
streams which are completely silent until you walk up to them and they’re
suddenly at full blast. Bad … bad … bad.

Difficulty: 8
Easy to pick up and play with or
without the instruction manual. Challenging enough for adults, yet easy enough
for kids. The controls are very simple to figure out and definitely make it easy
to get into. The game will get harder as it goes on, but the characters will
level up and gain the strength to meet the challenge. 

Concept: 7

Definitely a nice modern port of an
80’s arcade classic. It’s similar in gameplay style to games such as Baldur’s
Gate or Diablo, but definitely goes it’s own direction and offers something a
little different. If you own Gauntlet : Legends though, there’s probably not
enough new flash or gameplay elements here to really keep you interested.

Multiplayer: 8.5
Definitely the high point of the
game. Playing as a one player game may tend to get a little boring after a while
if you’re not really the high speed slashing type. Throwing two to three other
people into the mix definitely adds a new twist and can be one of the best
multiplayer experiences out there today.

Overall:
7.3
While it’s hard for me not to give
this game a 9 because I enjoyed it so much, I report the facts and call it as I
see it out of respect for you gamers out there. I definitely don’t want you all
running to the store and picking it up, then hating me for the rest of your
lives because you didn’t like it, so buy with caution. If you are more into
structured RPG’s or adventures with a little more plot, story, and character
interaction … you may want to run to the video store for this one and see if
it’s for you. Keep in mind … this is Gauntlet as it has been and always was,
which is hack and slash fun of the 80’s with a modern graphical look. .