Gauntlet Dark Legacy

Its been a long time since a Gauntlet game has gotten into the limelight. Gauntlet for the arcade used to be one hell of a big deal, mainly because four people could play simultenously in a dungeon crawler. Of course, most games have this now, but most people need to understand this four-player ability was a big deal "Back then".

Now, Gauntlet has taken a back seat to most multiplayer games. The latest game, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, was released around 2001- a good sign that Midway knows the series is pretty much dead. However, it is an interesting game to play.

Essentially, its the same on the console as it has always been. One to Four people go through simplistic dungeons looking for keys, destroying baddies, gaining coins and potions and the like, levelling up, and trying to get through the game. The game itself knows that its repetitive, and makes every effort to ensure that while it is repetitive and can get boring, the system itself is interesting enough to keep at least a portion of players active.



Essentially, you have the choice of a Female or Male character, as well as your stereotypical "Fantasy Characters" like a Warrior or a Valkyrie. There is a "Mage" ability, suprisinly, being as that the only way to cast magic in this game is to use Potions, which brings the question to light: Doesnt that make him useless without potions?

But I digress. The game is pretty fun to play multiplayer with friends who are bored. Of course, it is not splitscreen, so any players who try to run "Out of the Screen" end up jamming the other player(s). This usually isnt so much of an issue as most people would think, because the levels arent expansive enough to warrant extra exploration. In fact, I found most of the time that even if you do have multiple characters, the biggest issue is usually getting that one slowass guy to get a move on through the d***ed level.

Now for issue 1. The game is... *Gasp* repetitive. Through this game, it introduces absolutely nothing new. Granted the game is 3D, but I had the distinct feeling that this game was absolutely no different than the older Gauntlet games. Mash on the attack button, avoid getting hit, use potions, and level up. Its a generic rule of thumb: unless you're a hardcore Fantasy and/or dungeon crawler fan, this game is going to get boring to you. However, I got more entertainment out of this repetitiveness than I got out of games like the Lord of the Rings game by EA. Strange.



Issue 2. This game does not, whatsoever, scale out depending on how many people you have in your party. So, long story short, the more friends you have, the easier this game is. Sure, you can try to make it more difficult via rules like "No Potions" or "No Health Restoration", but when it boils down to it, it is plain limiting. I'd have loved to see a serious setup for people, so having four players would be almost the most challenge.

Issue 3. Playing this game really takes some time. Granted that I sat with a second player and levelled up to level 99, but realistically, the level up system is almost limiting as to where you can go and what you can do. Sure, the baddies in the levels themselves are pushovers. However, it seems as if it is impossible to get anywhere without a decent level when it comes to the boss battles. This might depend on how you play the game- my "Run at it and hit it lots" theory has never really worked well.



Overall, I have to give this game two stars.. I would only recommend this game to people looking for a decent remake of an old game. In fact, this might be considered the cheaper way of playing the old Gauntlet game (Its the same d***ed game). However, if you're looking for a third person action game that is multiplayer, I'd recommend something more akin to the Lord of the Rings games (Though I hate the LOTR series so).

2 star(s) out of 5

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