Gauntlet: Dark Legacy
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy is an action RPG that follows up on Gauntlet Legends. The game has classic beat-’em up gameplay and supports up to four player cooperative play.
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Developer: Midway Games West Publisher: Midway Games Release Date: May 1, 2001 Platforms: PS2, GC, Xbox JustRPG Score: 65% Pros: +Great Co-Op play +High replay value Cons: -Repetitive gameplay -Graphics are so-so |
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy Overview
First released for arcades in 2000, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy is a beat em up RPG that supports up to four player co-op mode. The core gameplay is similar to that of its predecessor, Gauntlet Legends. There are four new character classes including the Dwarf, Knight, Jester, and the Sorceress. Dark Legacy also gives players the ability to perform different attacks. Every character has a slow and fast attack. Most importantly, Dark Legacy has the same fast paced gameplay and high replay value. Battle against the forces of Skorne in this classic arcade style action RPG!
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy Screenshots
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy Featured Video
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmWdleCIEDE[/youtube]
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy Review
I’m sure we all remember those trips to the arcade and the hours spent playing Gauntlet Legends. Now Midway has made a port of one of the most fun multiplayer games around. Gauntlet: Dark Legacy is all that you could ask for and more in a Gauntlet port, but it’s still a port. The Gauntlet series seems to lose something once it hits the console.
Believe it or not there is a storyline behind this button-mashing fiesta. The evil mage Garm grew jealous of his older, more powerful brother, Sumner. Garm used the power of the runestones to free a powerful demon named Skorne and his massive army which he hoped to use to take over the realm. But Garm could not control Skorne and he was killed as Skorne’s dark army began its infestation. Skorne hid the eight runestones throughout the eight realms so that their power would never again be used against him. Now, Sumner is calling forth the eight strongest warriors throughout the realms to aid him in finding the runestones. Nothing particularly good or bad in a storyline, and you can find that all out from watching the short cinema before the game. There’s no further storyline development. But, no one really plays a game like Gauntlet for the storyline. That’s like playing Resident Evil for the crappy controls.
You now get to choose from eight default characters (Knight, Valkyrie, Dwarf, Warrior, Wizard, Jester, Archer and Sorceress) and begin your monster killing quest throughout dozens of realms fighting everything from golems to dragons. Leveling up your warrior is quite simple…just run around and kill stuff. Obviously, Dark Legacy is pretty basic in the RPG department. Kill monsters, pick up food and use potions to scare away Death. That’s about all there is to the game. The more you kill the higher your strength, speed, armor and magic become and after a long and repetitive journey you’ll eventually be able to face Skorne. But there are plenty of characters to unlock, lots of new items, magic, stages, monsters, and tons of new character development elements that previous games seriously lacked. One of the coolest additions to the game is that your character changes appearance as you level up. Wohoo!
Graphically, Dark Legacy is an improvement over Gauntlet Legends, but nothing major. There are a few cinemas, but they could’ve used quite a bit of work. Images are clear and the framerate is generally good even with four players. One of the more annoying aspects of the game is the camera and the fact that the screen only wanders so far and party members are constantly stuck behind. This is easily remedied by some backtracking, but it can really be annoying in the middle of a battle.
The sound is pretty poor at times and often all you’ll hear is random grunts and groans. The best feature on the soundtrack would have to be the classic voice that pops up every now and then to let you know “Blue Wizard needs food badly,” or “Red Knight is about to die.” I’ll never grow tired of hearing that voice.
The problem with Gauntlet is that running around for hours and hours killing monsters can only be fun for so long. Placing Gauntlet on a console really took away the urgency that one felt playing it in the arcade. The challenge to the game has always been to get as far as you can with the stack of quarters you’ve got in your pocket. There was a race to make your character the strongest so that you’d be able to continue on to fight another day without losing another 25 cents. Now that’s gone and the new challenge is to stay awake through the same old levels. Sure, there’s different enemies and items, but it all seems the same half the time, and someone can practically beat a level with their eyes closed by just walking around pressing X a lot. The single player mode is a horribly slow experience and not something I care to think about. Gauntlet really is a multiplayer game and if you don’t have a lot of friends then I don’t recommend you buy it. With four players competing for the treasure, potions and most kills, Gauntlet is a much faster paced game and has a new level of excitement. Sure, it’s a bunch of button mashing, but believe me it’s fun.
Gauntlet Dark Legacy is one of the better ports of an arcade game on recent consoles, but if you really want the Gauntlet experience then I suggest going to the arcade. Dark Legacy is worth buying if you’ve got a lot of friends to play along with you, or if you have trouble getting to sleep at night. Despite its flaws it’s a fun multiplayer game filled with non-stop action and lots of new additions that Gauntlet fans will love. Got some gamer friends coming over soon and some time to kill? Rent Gauntlet Dark Legacy.
Final Grade: 65%
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy Screenshots
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy Videos
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmWdleCIEDE[/youtube]