Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows
Added December 21st, 2005 by Sallizar
Introduction:
Besides the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle arcade games, I was always drawn to Gauntlet at the arcade. I think it was the fact that not just one but three of my pals could all join in the virtual carnage. These days my arcade time usually consists of Dance Dance Revolution and light gun games, but whenever a Gauntlet game is present I’m still more than happy to throw some quarters at it. Thankfully, Midway is keeping the franchise alive and well by releasing Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows for the Xbox. I’ve bribed some friends with free food and once again the Warrior, the Elf, the Wizard and the Valkyrie will begin their quest!
Gameplay:
And what a ridiculously conceived quest it is! The game is narrated by the “Emperor” (no, not that Emperor) who at the behest of his six advisors had his four immortal champions crucified on a tree at the center of the world. This is his “first sorrow” or something like that. The emperor feels bad about this and somehow saves the four warriors from their doom. He then asks the four warriors to eliminate his six advisors who have inexplicably become horrifying monsters. These would be sorrows two through seven for those of you keeping score at home. Cliff’s Notes version. Some guy you used to work for tried to kill you, than saved you, blamed it on these six other guys and told you to kill them. Right... Can’t say I ever played Gauntlet for the story though…
Besides the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle arcade games, I was always drawn to Gauntlet at the arcade. I think it was the fact that not just one but three of my pals could all join in the virtual carnage. These days my arcade time usually consists of Dance Dance Revolution and light gun games, but whenever a Gauntlet game is present I’m still more than happy to throw some quarters at it. Thankfully, Midway is keeping the franchise alive and well by releasing Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows for the Xbox. I’ve bribed some friends with free food and once again the Warrior, the Elf, the Wizard and the Valkyrie will begin their quest!
Gameplay:
And what a ridiculously conceived quest it is! The game is narrated by the “Emperor” (no, not that Emperor) who at the behest of his six advisors had his four immortal champions crucified on a tree at the center of the world. This is his “first sorrow” or something like that. The emperor feels bad about this and somehow saves the four warriors from their doom. He then asks the four warriors to eliminate his six advisors who have inexplicably become horrifying monsters. These would be sorrows two through seven for those of you keeping score at home. Cliff’s Notes version. Some guy you used to work for tried to kill you, than saved you, blamed it on these six other guys and told you to kill them. Right... Can’t say I ever played Gauntlet for the story though…
After the asinine explanation for why you’ll be running around slaying hordes of evil minions (since being evil isn’t enough reason to warrant a slaying these days) you begin to roam the first dungeon. For about twenty to thirty minutes I was merrily hacking and slashing my way through the first few levels when lo and behold it’s the first boss! Wait a minute now. I know I have to take out six of these guys right, so six times thirty… That means this game could be over in three hours! Well, not quite that quick but needless to say the game is short. Most gamers should be able to run through it in an afternoon.
If you have an afternoon to waste though, you will be in for some pretty decent multiplayer hack and slash. During gameplay other players can jump in and out at will and with Xbox Live support you should be able to keep a full party. With four players in the game there is never a dull moment. The world of Gauntlet Seven Sorrows is populated by tons and tons of angry bad guys. They even have these nifty generators that keep popping fresh foes out of the ground. While destroying the generators is a good idea over all, leaving one active and knocking out a few extra foes can garner some extra experience points.
Experience points and the gold you’ll find in treasure chests can both be used to buff up your onscreen persona. Experience points are used to raise three rather self-explanatory stats: Health, Magic and Defense. The gold you’ll pilfer from the enemy is used to buy combos and special attacks. I recommend that you grab the special attacks first. Most of the combos require switching from one button to another and after madly pressing just one button for so long you may become confused.
Graphics:
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows is by far the prettiest Gauntlet game ever, but the environments are incredibly linear. Some levels require you to travel all the way to the end to obtain a key, then you’re teleported all the way back to the start of the level and have to once again fight your way back through to reach the correct door. The main characters all look great and when you acquire armor and weapon upgrades it’s reflected on screen. This is one of the few games I’ve seen where the female warrior’s armor starts off skimpy but gets less revealing as it’s upgraded. The enemies are varied across the whole of the game, but each level only sports about three or four different baddies to destroy. Bosses are a bit better looking than the run of the mill enemy, but don’t live up to the elaborate drawings you’ll see of them in the various cut scenes. The game runs incredibly smoothly even with quite a few characters on the screen and the camera zooms out reasonably far when two players decide to travel opposite directions. It’s a notch up from the past, but nothing we haven’t seen before in other hack and slash titles.
If you have an afternoon to waste though, you will be in for some pretty decent multiplayer hack and slash. During gameplay other players can jump in and out at will and with Xbox Live support you should be able to keep a full party. With four players in the game there is never a dull moment. The world of Gauntlet Seven Sorrows is populated by tons and tons of angry bad guys. They even have these nifty generators that keep popping fresh foes out of the ground. While destroying the generators is a good idea over all, leaving one active and knocking out a few extra foes can garner some extra experience points.
Experience points and the gold you’ll find in treasure chests can both be used to buff up your onscreen persona. Experience points are used to raise three rather self-explanatory stats: Health, Magic and Defense. The gold you’ll pilfer from the enemy is used to buy combos and special attacks. I recommend that you grab the special attacks first. Most of the combos require switching from one button to another and after madly pressing just one button for so long you may become confused.
Graphics:
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows is by far the prettiest Gauntlet game ever, but the environments are incredibly linear. Some levels require you to travel all the way to the end to obtain a key, then you’re teleported all the way back to the start of the level and have to once again fight your way back through to reach the correct door. The main characters all look great and when you acquire armor and weapon upgrades it’s reflected on screen. This is one of the few games I’ve seen where the female warrior’s armor starts off skimpy but gets less revealing as it’s upgraded. The enemies are varied across the whole of the game, but each level only sports about three or four different baddies to destroy. Bosses are a bit better looking than the run of the mill enemy, but don’t live up to the elaborate drawings you’ll see of them in the various cut scenes. The game runs incredibly smoothly even with quite a few characters on the screen and the camera zooms out reasonably far when two players decide to travel opposite directions. It’s a notch up from the past, but nothing we haven’t seen before in other hack and slash titles.
Audio:
“Red Elf needs food!” Wait a minute! The only thing red about my elf is the background behind my health bar! The announcer has been present in Gauntlet for ages, but it just doesn’t make as much sense as it used to without the appropriate colors reflected on the character models. My elf is green, not red. Maybe the announcer is color blind. Once you get over the color issues, the announcer does occasionally provide good audio cues to your health. I’ve often wanted such a feature in other games of this ilk like Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance. Only bad thing about the announcer is hearing “You died AGAIN?!” from the other players right after hearing “Red Elf has died”. Damn you announcer for making such a big deal out of my ineptitude!
The announcer aside, the rest of Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows audio is average fair. Background music consists of the standard throw away orchestral fantasy music. Each character grunts and groans their way through combat while their weapons make the appropriate clanging noises. Voice work is fairly well done, but I hardly paid attention because the story is just so absurd.
Controls:
You know those GelTabz covers that you can put on your analog sticks for some added comfort while gaming? Can we get some of those for the face buttons? I haven’t mashed buttons this much since, well, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy. The control scheme is simple enough that an intoxicated chimpanzee could breeze through the game. The A button unleashes a simple slash attack which you can string together into a combo by tapping it repeatedly over and over and over and ……..you get the idea. The X button is a variation on the standard attack that breaks through whatever your opponent is using as a defensive barrier. You’ll use it on occasion when you realize that mindlessly tapping A is having no effect on the mob of enemies that have shields. I had fun using the Y button because it launches your opponent into the air. You can yell “PULL” as you hit Y and then unleash your range attack on the hapless flying foe by hitting the B button.
Blocking is assigned to the left trigger (comes in handy during boss fights and that’s about it) and the right trigger is used to access objects in the environment such as treasure chests, gate cranks, etc. The D-pad gets special mention because it’s set as your instrument of special move unleashing. I hate having to take my thumb off the main movement control to use a special move. It just feels awkward to have to stop moving to fire off the various waves of destruction you’re awarded with through the course of the game. Besides that one minor nitpick and my having to bandage my right thumb for a few days, it’s a classic Gauntlet control scheme that works well for this game. I was expecting a little bit more than the same old button mashing, though.
Replay:
Kudos to Midway for adding Xbox Live support! Now give me a teleportation device so I can zap people to my living room instead. I’ve been playing various versions of Gauntlet at the arcade or at home for years. The whole draw to me wasn’t really the game itself but having three friends right next to me joining in the adventure. It’s so much better to reach over and smack someone for stealing all the food and gold than to just holler at the thief over a headset microphone. Thankfully you can still play four-player the “classic” way. Honestly, multiplayer is the only reason to play Gauntlet Seven Sorrows at all, let alone more than once. The repetitiveness is mind numbing if you attempt it solo, but add a few friends to the mix and you start to forget that you’re just tapping one button over and over. That is, until you can’t feel your thumb anymore. You might want to make sure at least one of your gaming buddies knows first aid.
“Red Elf needs food!” Wait a minute! The only thing red about my elf is the background behind my health bar! The announcer has been present in Gauntlet for ages, but it just doesn’t make as much sense as it used to without the appropriate colors reflected on the character models. My elf is green, not red. Maybe the announcer is color blind. Once you get over the color issues, the announcer does occasionally provide good audio cues to your health. I’ve often wanted such a feature in other games of this ilk like Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance. Only bad thing about the announcer is hearing “You died AGAIN?!” from the other players right after hearing “Red Elf has died”. Damn you announcer for making such a big deal out of my ineptitude!
The announcer aside, the rest of Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows audio is average fair. Background music consists of the standard throw away orchestral fantasy music. Each character grunts and groans their way through combat while their weapons make the appropriate clanging noises. Voice work is fairly well done, but I hardly paid attention because the story is just so absurd.
Controls:
You know those GelTabz covers that you can put on your analog sticks for some added comfort while gaming? Can we get some of those for the face buttons? I haven’t mashed buttons this much since, well, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy. The control scheme is simple enough that an intoxicated chimpanzee could breeze through the game. The A button unleashes a simple slash attack which you can string together into a combo by tapping it repeatedly over and over and over and ……..you get the idea. The X button is a variation on the standard attack that breaks through whatever your opponent is using as a defensive barrier. You’ll use it on occasion when you realize that mindlessly tapping A is having no effect on the mob of enemies that have shields. I had fun using the Y button because it launches your opponent into the air. You can yell “PULL” as you hit Y and then unleash your range attack on the hapless flying foe by hitting the B button.
Blocking is assigned to the left trigger (comes in handy during boss fights and that’s about it) and the right trigger is used to access objects in the environment such as treasure chests, gate cranks, etc. The D-pad gets special mention because it’s set as your instrument of special move unleashing. I hate having to take my thumb off the main movement control to use a special move. It just feels awkward to have to stop moving to fire off the various waves of destruction you’re awarded with through the course of the game. Besides that one minor nitpick and my having to bandage my right thumb for a few days, it’s a classic Gauntlet control scheme that works well for this game. I was expecting a little bit more than the same old button mashing, though.
Replay:
Kudos to Midway for adding Xbox Live support! Now give me a teleportation device so I can zap people to my living room instead. I’ve been playing various versions of Gauntlet at the arcade or at home for years. The whole draw to me wasn’t really the game itself but having three friends right next to me joining in the adventure. It’s so much better to reach over and smack someone for stealing all the food and gold than to just holler at the thief over a headset microphone. Thankfully you can still play four-player the “classic” way. Honestly, multiplayer is the only reason to play Gauntlet Seven Sorrows at all, let alone more than once. The repetitiveness is mind numbing if you attempt it solo, but add a few friends to the mix and you start to forget that you’re just tapping one button over and over. That is, until you can’t feel your thumb anymore. You might want to make sure at least one of your gaming buddies knows first aid.
Summary:
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows is so short it hurts, especially in the wallet area. Had the game done something revolutionary I may not be so concerned with the length, but it doesn’t. It’s just the same old Gauntlet with a shiny new exterior. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but unless you’re a die hard fan of the series you’re not going to be impressed. Xbox Live support is a great feature, but it still doesn’t beat having a bunch of friends over to play. While it might not make a good stocking stuffer, give Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows a rent and gather some friends and family for some old school holiday smiting.
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows is so short it hurts, especially in the wallet area. Had the game done something revolutionary I may not be so concerned with the length, but it doesn’t. It’s just the same old Gauntlet with a shiny new exterior. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but unless you’re a die hard fan of the series you’re not going to be impressed. Xbox Live support is a great feature, but it still doesn’t beat having a bunch of friends over to play. While it might not make a good stocking stuffer, give Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows a rent and gather some friends and family for some old school holiday smiting.
