Gauntlet Legends

"BLUE MINOTAUR IS ABOUT TO DIE! (Seriously, can i get a lozenge here or something?)"

When I rented gauntlet legends, i knew it's strength lay in its multiplayer capabilities. Now lemme ask you something. Can I borrow one of your friends? All of mine are idiots and non-gamers! Anyways, having my multiplayer experience ruined, I played single player for the 5 days i had left on the rental. Let's see how it went!

Graphics (System-Wise) 7/10

It seems that midway WANTED all of the switches to be nearly invisible to the naked eye. Whether they're tucked behind a tombstone or right on the redish ground, it's damn hard to see the off-turned switches. This game is needlessly dark and as i mentioned before, there's a lot of switches that you'll hardly see until you backtrack ten miles to find it right on the ground, which conveniently happens to be the exact same color -_- ugh! Character models are okay, but enemies are downright butt ugly. The first stage sports lizardmen(?) who seems to be made out of lego. The second level has...skeletons maybe? some kind of animated knight armor? i still can't figure it out. The town has zombies, but they look more like priests with blades (Level three monsters in the town hold bigass razors that you easily slice off your head). The dwarves on the snowcap level can be up to twice as tall as you...sheesh!

Sound (System-Wise) 5/10

Sound is about the only thing this game gets right...audio wise of course. Sound effects are nice and clear. But then there's the issue of music, there might not be any at all. The nice composures that play in the background are almost silent when you're alone and are drowned out by all the whacks and booms when you're in battle. Whats the point of having music when you can't hear it unless your safe and alone in a corner with the volume cranked to max? Then there's the voices...I'm still not sure if the archer says ''oh! thats better'' or ''oh thats the spot'' when she picks up food...maybe she says ''thats the stuff!'' ah well. Your character's voice is okay but sometimes, things get downright stupid. When your ''narrator'' figure talks, it sounds like god with a really nasty sore throat. YOU ARE EVIL! NOW DROWN! Then there's the demon dude...skorne...yeah he's a jackass, and you cant understand a word he's saying. This is wat I heard if I didn't get everything in the level...''BLAH BLAH BOO BLAH! (something about rune stones...) OBI TRICE BLAH BLAH! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!'' Seriously...it's hard to take a villain who sounds like a total dumbass seriously...

Gameplay (Genre-Wise) 8/10

The leveling up idea was awesome, but the only thing i notice about level ups is that your hp goes up...extra stats dont seem to do jack. I pumped my strength up to 600+ and i still needed to shoot the mountain area level 3 lizardman(?) enemy 3 times to kill him. From a distance anyway. This game is all about melee, so why the archer and wizard? Oh yeaaaaaah...You need friends to enjoy the entire effect of 4 heroes.
Anyways, playing as the valkyrie(female) or the barbarian(male) is all you need in single player. You just take your sword/axe and chop everything into bloody oblivion! While the archer and the wizard do have close range attacks, they're hardly worth it seeing as they attack so damn slowly up close. Speaking of characters, you get 5 extra ones, that is they're all just the regular heroes in different skins...The minotaur, mentioned above, is a barbarian who jumped in a barrel of cow dna, a falconess is a valkyrie with wings, a different outfit and a bird's head. The tigress in what an archer would look like if she were a tiger(duh) and the two wizard ones i have yet to gain are clones of the wizard, duh!
So, as you go along, you have to collect rune stones and activate obelisks. Rune stones help you reach the end of the game while obelisks open new worlds (There's 6 openable worlds). Obelisks are easy to find, usually just hidden in plain sight, while rune stones are deviously hidden in places like graves. In addition to those, you can also get gold(for upgrades and items), food(the only reasonably priced way to restore health), power ups and weapons that considerably weaken some of the bosses, of course, you'll never get these in the world that the boss in question is actually in. You'll also find the treasure room entraces (for unlocking secret characters).
Finally, the almighty ability to save is here so rejoice, your character can never truly permanently die!

Story (Genre-Wise) 2/10

This game suffers from pokemon story syndrome. You, one of the heroes, are forced against your will to kill skorne in order to free some idiot wizard's tower. Of course, the person who SUMMONED the demon was the wizard's brother. Shouldn't said wizard (sumner is his name by the way) do it himself? If he's so powerful, why doesn't he go to the various worlds and do it instead of risking your ass needlessly. Of course, you can't get out of the damn tower, you were just PLACED there. what in the hell? This game falls flat on story...reminds me of an open rpg map on Warcraft 3...

Replayability (Genre-Wise) 6/10

If you have some friends who don't utterly suck at gaming, add 2 points to this score. Problem is, There isn't much to do besides the game itself...

Multiplayer (Varies)

Depends on how skilled your freidns are

Other things...

-Healing without using food costs a LOT, 1000 dollars to be exact. In addition, food is found ONLY in densely monster populated areas and is still scarce. So don't expect your health to exceed the 1000 hp mark throughout the game unless you're really rich. My max hp never went over 1.5k while my max hp was 5k!!! What a rip!
-Take note, the stats sytem isn't as good as you think, the thunder hammer is a better way to invest your dollars as it kills EVERYTHING on screen without trouble, unless you're on a boss.
-Bosses without power ups and the designated weapons to beat them are DAMN HARD! enter with caution!
-Difficulty-wise, GL can be mind-numbingly tough, or mindlessly easy. It all depends on how smart you (and if on multiplayer, you and your friends) are.

Overall 7/10

This game deserves better, but my friends are idiots. Gauntlet is and has always been, a series best played with absurd numbers of people, from its debut way back when in the top-down, mindless annighalation arcade game. well thats all folks. I reccomend a rental for loners cuz the battle system is stand alone in single. But party animals who still appreciate the good ol' N64 will have a hell of a time if they buy. Hardly dissatisfying

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/24/03