Right at the top I’ll refer readers to my original Gauntlet review. It covers the original release in appreciable depth and the Slayer Edition is largely the same. I noticed in the last eleven months that my Steam client downloaded at least 2GB of patches for Gauntlet, so there was a lot of fixing and tweaking and likely some new content mixed in with that. With the Slayer Edition, you get that right off the bat. What’s really cool is that if you already own Gauntlet, the Slayer Edition is a free update, bravo to Arrowhead and WBIE for that.
For my most recent runs through Gauntlet, I was playing on PS4. Unfortunately, I only tested local co-op play very briefly and I did not have any co-workers or friends to play with online, but, what multiplayer (couch or online) that I did play was smooth and stable (obviously your mileage may vary). I spent most of my time with Slayer Edition in single player, something I avoided almost entirely when playing it on PC last year. Clearly, just like with the older Gauntlet titles (Dark Legacy and Seven Sorrows are the ones I’m most familiar with), this is a game best played in multiplayer.
Regardless of whether you play single or multiplayer (with up to three others), repetition is the biggest concern. Nearly everything else — from the four character classes (five if you buy the Necromancer DLC), the controls, the dungeon design, enemy variety, and so forth — is pretty solid. The good news is that dungeons are generally short and it’s not hard to find a good stopping point to take a break at. The game itself isn’t terribly long depending on how good your party is, but expect a good five to seven hours.
New to the Slayer Edition to further expand your playtime is the Endless Mode which is perhaps predictably addictive. Each floor is randomly generated and you can purchase power ups at the start of each floor, but they don’t come cheap. All those piles of gold can be spent quickly if you aren’t savvy, making loot-sharing communication pretty critical in co-op play. The idea of playing perpetually hard and harder dungeons is not terribly appealing to me, but, with the right group of friends on a lazy Saturday, it could certainly be a lot of fun.
If you like the daily tower challenges for Mortal Kombat X, WBIE is doing something similar with the Gauntlet via daily challenges in the Colosseum. As with the Endless Mode, these can net you a lot of gold, but take a commitment that not all players are going to have the time for. Still, if you do, this is a great way to add a lot of playtime and value to your purchase. All of that gold will come in handy to purchase the new weapons and special abilities available to each character too, most of which I have yet to unlock (I tend to focus on the Wizard; he’s the coolest, but also the most difficult to use).
So while the game plays as good as it does on PC, I have to admit that the graphics on the PS4 are not as impressive as I hoped for this re-release. That’s not to say they’re bad or that I experienced technical issues, I did not, but the visual fidelity underwhelms. It’s not a major strike against the experience, but it just isn’t as polished and visceral as I had hoped being a re-release an coming to PS4. Otherwise, Arrowhead and WBIE have done a fine job with this re-release and for those that are looking for a solid co-op experience with friends, Gauntlet: Slayer Edition is an enjoyable experience in bursts.
