But not completely true to the original
Do you remember Gauntlet? It holds a special place in arcade gaming history, but at the same time, it’s almost 30 years old. It seems like the perfect time for a remake, doesn’t it? Magicka maker Arrowhead Games has the opportunity to give people that remember it a chance to play it again, while introducing the younger audience to an all-time classic.
For those unfamiliar, Gauntletis a four-person cooperative, dungeon-crawling, beat-’em-up. The original characters — Warrior, Elf, Valkyrie, and Wizard — all return for this iteration, and only one of each can be played at a time. Each class has a playstyle that defines them and that will dictate your actions on-screen. A Warrior isn’t of much use out of the fray, and the archer-like Elf isn’t too effective trying to melee everyone.
Once you have the combat down, it’s pretty much just a lot of that over and over. Clear rooms, collect loot, clear more rooms. The levels have a certain number of keys in them, the dastardly element in play being that there are more doors to unlock than keys available. Tough decisions have to be made about whether your party wants to go after rooms that feature food for health or ones filled with gold.
The only way that characters can be altered is through the use of relics. Relics can be found or dropped by enemies — most likely bosses. Your party might not necessarily stay so cooperative once this happens. While gold is shared, relics aren’t. They offer stat boosts, and are often the sought-after items by everyone.
That’s Gauntlet. It may seem incredibly pared-down now, but these are the conventions from the 1985 classic. The remake’s set to have a 2014-graphical aesthetic to it, but it’s a lot of the same. However, the game isn’t a true recreation; it’s more Arrowhead’s ideal take on it. So, while the content may feel sort of new, nothing’s ever really that fresh with Gauntlet. And that’s probably just the way that fans would want it.