In 1985 the first Gauntlet game was released in arcades and was immediately recognized as a smash hit. Now, twenty years later, it is becoming apparent that Midway lacks the ability to evolve beyond the limitations of its earliest predecessor, and the gauntlet series is quickly turning stale. Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows might seem like a decently fun game when you first turn it on, but 20 minutes later you’ll begin to ask yourself if there is anything more to the game than linear pathways, and effortlessly smashing the X and square button. The truth is once you’ve played the first 5 minutes, you’ve played it all.

Before starting a game, you choose to play as one of four main heroes. It’s a make up of traditional rpg-type characters including a warrior, elf, valkyrie, and wizard. The warrior and valkyrie are the primary melee fighters while the elf is more proficient with a bow, and the wizard casts spells to defeat enemies. The main commands are the same for every character: There is a single button to slash multiple enemies, a button to break through enemy shields, a button to shoot a weapon from a distance, and a button to send enemies flying into the air. Character progression and development throughout the entire game is as basic as it gets. Each character has three stats which include damage, mana regeneration, and health. All of these can be improved through leveling up and investing points into raising them. The one innovative idea that Midway put into the game was giving each character a set of combo moves that could be purchased with gold collected throughout each mission. Unfortunately, this potentially good idea was poorly implemented. While each character might have upward of 20 moves, there is always one move that is more effective than the rest, basically nullifying the other 19.

Each level is comprised of a constant onslaught of enemies hurling themselves at you in droves of 20s. Once the “wow” factor of watching yourself kill 10 enemies at a time with a single slash wears off, the combat becomes very dull and repetitive. Playing solo, you can easily afford to buy every combo move for your character before you even get 50% of the way through the game. You should also keep in mind that 50% of the game means about 1 and a half to 2 hours of play time. It’s no secret that the multiplayer co-op in the Gauntlet series plays a major role in generating the series’ success. Contrary to what most would expect from a Gauntlet game, Seven Sorrows simply doesn’t deliver a fun multiplayer experience. In fact, it’s easier to enjoy the game when playing by yourself. With two people, there’s so much happening on the screen at one time that everything just seems like cluttered mayhem. And as mentioned before, once you the fun of seeing enemy corpses flying all over the place wears off, it gets old. There is no teamwork necessary to breeze by each level. As long as everyone is smashing on the x button, there’s really no situation that is too difficult to handle. The only real challenge in multiplayer is making sure that you loot the gold before your friends do.

The graphics in Seven Sorrows are below average, but this comes as no surprise. Graphics have never been a big part of what made hack n’ slash style games so enjoyable to play. Fun and enjoyable game play could have easily made up for the lack in graphic quality. Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows is an all around below average product. Midway tried to regain the success they had with the first Gauntlet by seemingly remaking it, and adding a few subtle variations to it. The real flaw in the idea comes from the fact that instead of paying a few quarters to play it, we now have to dish out over 50 bucks for about 4 hours of gameplay and zero replay value. On top of that, this isn’t 1985 anymore. It would have been nice to see developers explore new ideas and innovate a little more, rather than recycle very old ones. My recommendation to players wanting a good hack and slash game is to wait for the next Gauntlet and hope they learn from their mistakes, or purchase a copy of Champions of Norrath or Baldur’s Gate.