Gauntlet Legends Brings Back Memories
I admit it. In days gone by, I used to feed quarters into Gauntlet for hours, worried I'd hear that "Blue Elf Needs Food Badly" plea for help. I loved playing the archer - I could lurk around in the background, shooting arrows into the fray, hopefully hitting more bad guys than good.
When I saw Gauntlet Legends hit the shelves, I had to try it. I wondered how it would compare with another fun game - Get Medieval - which has tons of humor and style, and the old 'Gauntlet feel'. Well, it's a mixed bag, depending on what you enjoy in a game.
First off, the bad news. It's not in the same Gauntlet style. The characters aren't the mostly top-down view that you had in Gauntlet and Get Medieval - it's more of a fighter-style view of polygonal characters. The camera zooms in and out on the scene, depending on how far apart the various party members are from each other.
None of the fun and humor of Get Medieval is present. The characters don't say anything at all, they just methodically follow your moves. The Wizard of the story, who you're trying to help, pokes in with suggestions every once in a while, but that's about it. It's you and the monsters.
That said, they did do a nice job of making this game enhanced for new computer systems, and for today's general mentality. Legions of people brought up on the various fighting games will appreciate the graphics, the powerful special moves, and the tracking of character stats and level gains. The graphics are rather nice, with various landscapes of caves, swamps, castles, and more. There are spikes that come up from the floor, spouting jets of flame, familiars that hover at your shoulder, and impressive magical effects.
Green Elf Needs Food Badly!
Gameplay is easy to learn and rewarding. You move through level after level, figuring out combinations of switches to open doors or to move elevator-like platforms. You essentially kill everything in site, working your way towards your goal, but there's little if any bood, and there's no doubt that the orcs and trolls coming at you are truly evil. Your goal is to restore good and order to the world.
You can also gather items and sell them to the wizard when you return from each level, trading in for improvements in your character, or for new items. You can save and restore characters from multiple games, playing with your friends' best characters on an "All Star" team, or running multiple campaigns yourself. You can choose any name for your character, and for each 'style' of character (archer, warrior, etc) there are various photos, to allow great diversity in identification.
I enjoyed this game for the graphics and ease of learning, but I wish it could have been a bit more humor-filled, like Get Medieval was. This small addition of extra personality would have brought a whole additional level of enjoyment to what is a pretty decent game.
Gauntlet Legends Walkthroughs
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