Going back to the days of Gauntlet

I had a lot of fun with this one. I merrily hacked and slashed my way through ghosts and green circles. Eating food, collecting keys, killing ghosts. What an adventure! Oh look, a dead end I cried with glee! I think I'll go check it out. As I waltzed over, the black wall asked me a question. Do I jump in the "pit" or not? I didn't see any other way so I figured why not? Unfortunately, that is where my enjoyment of the game started to crumble like Rome itself. I died... I guess I didn't count on the fact that it seemed like the only way to go and it would naturally take me deeper was wrong.Guess what though!? After you kill 2 skeletons that appear if you go up to a different dead end, you actually have to fall in the pit. Why couldn't I before? What the crap is that!? I can live with that, it must have been my own stupidity right? I should have not jumped in the first place. So I walk along, oh look, another save statue right!? So I walk up and naturally, I save. Bam! Another idiot trap for the unsuspecting gamer. This particular save statue decides to kill you and then you have to repeat the level before the pit even! I'm all for mixing it up a bit and keeping a gamer on his toes, but this is implying that I am going to not be lured by a save point, after fighting hordes of tough enemies and suffering the pit crap.

If you made it through my long memoir of Back to the Gauntlet, great job. Essentially, I hate idiot traps in games. The first save point you see, you are lulled into the false sense of confidence that all savepoints are good. However, one savepoint has the courtesy to kill you for some reason. Stuff like that pisses me off. And it takes a star off the gameplay for being unfair.

It would be nice if the text boxes had some new background than the boring gray, but I'm fine with that. ^_^ The story is pretty dull and hardly exists, but that's ok because some good games don't need a story. Also the game lacks enemy variety. Even the final boss is a giant enemy.

Now that we got the negative stuff out of the way. Let's talk about what rocks! The game has decent graphics, although they lack animation and variety. The lighting is neat so that get's an extra star for graphics. Sound is good, music is average, but the sound effects are good. Ah, the interface. It's not perfect for a main reason. You shoot with space. So when a text box pops up, you will skip it. Also, aiming with the mouse would have made it somewhat easier, but it's fine this way.

Overall, great game, I love Gauntlet. But stray away from being lazy and reusing the same enemy over and over again. Like the goo guys come in different colors and the final boss is a giant demon. Also, idiot traps are just plain bull and should not be included. You've done this before in helmet heads, where if you don't kill all the big enemies in the castle, and then try to get the statue, the statue kills you. I wouldn't have known that. Besides those, the game is really fun, really good. I love Gauntlet, I own Gauntlet Legends Dark Legacy and used to own Gauntlet Legends. This game brings back that wonderful feeling of nostalgia and makes me glad you made it. Overall, 4/6, it has problems, but is a great game anyway.

~Cirrus147