Much fun was had. Arrowhead Games Studio and WBIE teamed up to revitalize the old classic four player dungeon brawler/crawler. Priced just right at $20, Gauntlet can be played single player or even in same screen local co-op, but it’s clearly designed to be played online with up to three others. You need not have played the previous Gauntlet titles to appreciate what’s offered here, and in fact you might be better off if you haven’t. Regardless of what the previous games under the Gauntlet name brought, I can vouch for this one being an addictive, frantic, and challenging dungeon brawler with a bit more strategy than you might expect. That’s not to say you need to be mic’d up with the other players in your party, but, to succeed at the higher levels everyone’s going to need to know their role and do their part.
These roles are split into four distinct character classes, and it’s worth pointing out that in any 2+ player game, you cannot use a class more than once. So you have the Warrior (Thor), the Valkyrie (Thyra), the Elf (Questor), and the Wizard (Merlin). When you first start the game, you are introduced to each in a brief tutorial scenario that sees the four heroes having just discovered an ancient elevator that takes them deep underground. While riding this elevator, one hero at a time is controlled while the other three are temporarily knocked out. It’s here in these brief few minutes that you get to test out each hero. The warrior’s charging shoulder ram is great and spinning blade attack is great for clearing a path or a small room. Thyra’s shield helps her stay right in the thick of things as she spears her way through the crowds, and later on her shield can be tossed about like Captain America’s (hitting multiple foes). Questor is a master with the bow, able to provide volley fire and pinpoint, devestating accuracy with his sniper shot. Merlin can command the power of lightning, ice, and fire to create a variety of offensive and defensive spells. Merlin is the most difficult character to use, and by that I just mean he takes maybe a couple of hours to get completely comfortable with, as his spells are cast with two button + right stick combinations, i.e., X,A, and RS in the direction you want to cast the spell projects an ice ball that expands and slows all enemies down in its path. Sidenote, it’s far easier to play this game with a gamepad (I used a Xbox 360 controller) than to play with the mouse and keyboard.
Regardless of which character class you choose or end up with, it’s reasonable to say as long as you’re playing with some competent players, or hell even just friends who are just getting into the mayhem, you’re in for a good time. The goal is simple: survive the seemingly endless hordes of mummies, skeletons, and all kind of other hellish things in order to stop the evil wizard that brought you here in the first place. As long as one of you is alive, the others can respawn, but there is a timer (fifteen seconds or less typically) that must be accounted for. A shared HUD at the bottom of the screen allows everyone to check on their fellow heroes to see how they’re doing (including their respawn timer), which also makes it easy to divy up the available turkeys (yes, roasted turkeys) which are used to replenish health. These turkeys, as well as the gold that is scattered about the crypts, caverns, and temples you visit, can be inadvertantly and easily destroyed by your attacks, so you have to watch out for that, too. Also, keep an eye out for hidden keys and walls that can be blown up with explosive barrels. These barrels must be carried over by a player to the damaged well, and then they’re struck to ignite them for detonation. Extra goodies await in these secrets that might make the difference between surviving the current floor and having to restart. Oh, and accidentally igniting a barrel your friend is carrying? Yeah that’s kind of funny (most of the time!).
Gauntlet is split up into three areas, each with multiple floors. At the end of each floor, the leading gold collector and the hero with the most kills is shown, and it’s rare that these two are one in the same. Meanwhile any time you play, even if you just die a bunch of times, you are working towards Masteries. Each character has Masteries, in the case of Merlin he has four unique ones while the others have three. There are also common Masteries in the categories of Loot & Food, Death, and for each of the three areas. So for example if you kill 1,000 of a certain kind of enemy in a particular dungeon, you’ll get a 10% damage increase against that particular enemy, making your playthroughs progressively more streamlined. As an example of a unique Mastery, take the case of Merlin. By killing so many of a certain enemy with a certain spell, the cooldown timer for that spell reduces, allowing him to use it again sooner. Masteries can be viewed any time in between games.
While Masteries are earned and never bought, Relics and other upgrades must be purchased with gold. In between floors, you are brought back to the main lobby or nexus area from which any unlocked areas are accessible. There is also a special statue (which multiple players can access simultaneously) that acts as a shop. New boots, armor, other goods, and Relics, which are very powerful abilities, can be bought here, but none of this stuff is cheap. This coincides well with the considerable, but certainly surmountable, difficulty of the game. Some Relic powers include the ability to create a huge ring of fire or to freeze enemies in place (and this is not just for Merlin, it can be used by any character).
Let’s talk about online play and graphics. In my experience, finding a public game to join with three other players never took more than a couple of minutes. I used to see more ‘joined the game too late’ errors than I do now, and I do still sometimes get a “Private Game: Can’t Join” error, but it doesn’t take but a moment to search for another game. Once connected, I was able to play most games error-free, there were a few disconnects, but I suspect it was the host bailing out rather than a glitch with the game. Of note, the first patch for the game was just released too, so like any other game, Gauntlet is not error free.
As far as graphics, they look good, and the game plays well on my aging system that uses a Radeon 4850 1GB. Playing in full screen at 1080p or windowed mode, I experience no graphical problems. There are several options you can set too, including a Quick Setting (Low/Medium/High), Shadows (Low/Medium/High), Ambient Occlusion (Off/Low/High), FXAA, Bloom, Gore, and Classic Mode. Tip: don’t use Classic Mode, it’s pixelated as hell as it’s trying to capture the look of the original Gauntlet from the late 80s, and while that’s kinda neat, it’s not really practical to play in this mode. As far as art direction, the dungeons look nice; not Diablo III nice, but nice enough for the pace you should be playing at, anyway. The variety and sheer number of enemies, as well as all of the colors and effects happening on screen at once is pretty sweet.
And with that, let’s get to the summary…