Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Gauntlet: Dark Legacy ::
by William the Bloody
I'm a fan of "old-school" Gauntlet. My siblings and I used to play it in the arcades! The three of us, shooting baddies in a maze, trying to find the exit so we could progress to the next maze and find THAT exit... Yeah, the original Gauntlet didn't have much of a plot or point, as the amount of levels was seemingly endless. Seriously, years later, when I got it on Game Boy, I made it well past level 100, with nary and end in sight! Well, Midway Games and PS2 have updated this old classic into a bad ass 3D scrolling came which is just enough like the old arcade version and just enough not.
First of all, it does indeed present us with a plot: The evil mage Garm used the Rune Stones to unleash the demon Skorne to take over the lands. Skorne was too powerful and over came Garm, whom he imprisoned in the underworld. Skorne scattered the Rune Stones across the Eight Realms so that no one else could try to use them against him, and unleashed his evil minions upon the lands. Now, under the guidance of a wizard, it's up to you (and any friends on multiplayer) to collect the 12 Runes Stones and take down Skorne. Pretty straightforward video game plot stuff.
So, eight realms equals eight worlds to play and each world has four levels plus a boss level. But wait, there's more! After you complete these 32 levels (finding the hidden Rune Stones as you go) and defeat all of the eight bosses, you then have to track down and fight Skorne, remember? Once you do, it also seems that he wasn't all you had to worry about...!
The Good: Okay, yeah this game came out in 2001, but I just recently dragged it out for a replay, and you know, it was just as fun now as it was then. It's a few years old, so granted, the graphics aren't as super-hot as the newer games, but they're still darn good! As a fan of the old game, the comparison is inevitable, and I'm pleased with the 3D-scrolling/modernized version! It's got the aspects of the old which appease me greatly: virtually the same character classes to choose from, with a few more of a selection to jazz it up a bit. The original had The Warrior, The Elf, The Wizard and the Valkyrie. The NEW one has these PLUS The Knight, Dwarf, Jester, and Sorceress, AND each of these eight characters is available in four different coloured skins to boot! This is helpful because if you're playing with friends and you ALL want to be Knights, well you can because one can be blue, red, yellow, or green! There are also eight "secret characters" you get by unlocking them after completing a treasure room, in which you must grab all the coins before time runs out (I've managed to unlock four of eight so far...). These characters are all pretty well designed and look good. Also in keeping with the "old school" are elements like the keys (for unlocking doors and chests with possible goodies inside) and potions (used to dispel baddies, mainly Death), food used to restore health, "temporary" magic enhancers like invisibility amulets, reflective shot, and invulnerability (which all wear off eventually) are all still gloriously here, along with fighting the occasionally dragon, and the bad guys jumping out of generators (yes, classically what I remember Gauntlet for is that all the bad guys are coming from somewhere and you must destroy that source or else they'll just keep on coming...)! And yes, many of the bad guys are right out of the old game: you have your typical grunt-based baddie, the guys hurling things at you over walls, even those wizards who turned invisible, and yes, Death makes his appearance, though not as overwhelming in the old version (sometimes you could be virtually surrounded by multiple Deaths, here it's typically one Death per level). I thought it was nice that they added extra motivations to the game other than just killing things. In order to advance to the next world you need to collect a certain amount of a certain number of coloured crystals. Also, golden talismans from killing dragons are needed to open the west and eastern wings of the tower. There are items of legend as well which if found can make fighting the bosses easier by crippling them (each boss has a specific item of weakness... look for clues in the pre-level cinematic for their whereabouts). And of course there are the Rune Stones which are in fact fairly well hidden. I like the idea that you can go back and replay levels and re-fight bosses which is really handy if you miss that Rune Stone on the first go or want to stock up on monies after defeating the boss (the pay off is usually pretty good and that money can be used to buy back health after level completion).
The Bad: The main bosses are overall fairly easy to beat. MOST of them just stand around and throw stuff at you, all you have to do is stand there and shoot right back at them. The voice recording of some of the character dialogue isn't all that good and it's pretty generic stuff (The Falconess, for example says "I like food!" when she eats. Really, couldn't we have tried a LITTLE harder?). The end of game pay off isn't really there, all it does it congratulate you, show you your end stats (number of total kills, amount of gold collected, hours of gameplay, etc) and roll the production credits. There is a bit of a cinematic, but its not very well done. It's okay, but it felt anticlimactic. Oh, and you cannot control the camera angle. The auto scroll is decent on its own, but there were more than a few times where being able to move that camera would have REALLY helped!
All in all, it was still totally fun. Yeah, it was loads easier on the replay, but what game isn't? The graphics aren't "ooooh" inspiring, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. This was still one of those games that I could easily lose myself in for hours on end, prompting a "hey, when did the sun go down?" from me from time to time. The occasional puzzles aren't too difficult and neither are the melee combats, so this won't be a game that you get frustrated with and throw your controller at the console; it's just a fun way to blow twenty or so hours....
A-
