Reviewed: April 1, 2002
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Midway

Developer
Midway

Released: March 8, 2002
Genre: Action
Players: 4
ESRB: Teen

6
5
5
7
4.1

Supported Features

There were many successors to Gauntlet but aside from the original I never had the pleasure of playing any of them until about 20 years later when Gauntlet Legends released for the Dreamcast. I was amazed at all the memories this game brought back along with the fun of having up to four players all playing at once - something pretty rare for a console title.

Now another year has passed bringing us more powerful consoles and the next generation in the Gauntlet saga. Gauntlet: Dark Legacy for the Nintendo GameCube is a port of the coin-op version and more recently, the PS2 version of Gauntlet: Dark Legacy. While the the wizards at Midway did an amazing job on the PS2 version, the GameCube version falls disappointingly short in both quality and novelty despite several new GameCube-exclusive features.

Here's the features given in the press release as well as on the back of the game box:

• Hack and slash cooperative action for one to four players.
• Eight Playable Characters: Warriors, Valkyries, Wizards, Jesters, Dwarves, Sorceresses, Archers, and Knights.
• 60 Levels taking you through 8 Magical Realms: Mountain, Desert, Forest, Castle, Ice, Town, Sky, and Dream.
• A challenging adventure full of danger and hidden treasure where you must unlock the ultimate power in order to defeat the evil Garm.
• An extensive display of cinematics that will reveal new chapters of the time-honored Gauntlet adventures.
• Dozens of advanced attack combo moves will enable players to decimate hordes of enemies.

And new and exclusive for the Nintendo GameCube version:

• Updated Inventory System that allows gamers to use pick-ups and power-ups when they want
• All new Power-ups including; Health Amulet, Mikey, Hand of Death just to name a few.
• More than 20 secret characters with 8 different split personalities for you to unlock
• Enhanced graphics and sound remastered for the power of the Nintendo GameCube

While many will argue, and rightly so, that Gauntlet is just mindless hacking and slashing, that has been the core of the series since the original. Anyone who has played the previous games will know this going in, but for those new to the series, Midway has spiced things up giving the game more of an adventure feel.

Gauntlet: Dark Legacy maintains this fundamental core but shifts the style into the 3D world. The levels are much more rich and alive with huge sprawling outdoor levels. The maze element is still present but is cleverly hidden with walls, fences, and paths that loop back on themselves. Maps seem huge, but if you look carefully you can always see where you have been; it may just be above or below you.

The game features an adequate storyline that gives you motivation to acquire the various collectible items and complete the game, but it eventually boils down to a pure arcade experience where you are required to kill everything that moves and take everything that isn't nailed down.

Developing your character is pretty much an automated process. You earn experience as you play the game and your character will increase in levels thus increasing stats and hit points. You have little to no say in this process other than being able to outfit your character between levels with various items you can purchase with your acquired gold.

Combat has improved immensely over the earlier games. You now have combo attacks, blocking moves, shields, magical attacks and many other skills to master during the course of your quest. Your choice of characters will slightly influence the way you approach combat, but for the most part the various characters are statistically even so it doesn't really matter whom you play as; just how fast you can mash the buttons.

The solo experience can wear thin after awhile. After all this game was meant to be enjoyed with one to three other friends. Fortunately, the designers have included the ability to save your progress between each level which means you can save about every 30 minutes.

The big problem is overall visual design. The characters are created with minimal polygons so they are blocky at best. Then they are wrapped in brightly colored textures and placed on a dark and blurry rendered background that only enhances the poor quality of both. The FMV cutscenes are well-rendered, but dark and muddy looking, perhaps in an attempt to blend with the bland backgrounds of the game.

The GameCube engine should have no trouble kicking out some serious framerates for this type of game; however, you are lucky to get a steady 30fps at any given time and depending on how many things are onscreen and which level you are on, this rate may dip into the "seriously jerky level". These problems become apparent even in the opening portal level where you begin the game. Boss encounters are even worse. The larger animated creatures move like flip-book animation with half the pages torn out.

The special effects that include real-time lighting and particle effects that all looked amazing in previous versions of the game are now well below average. There is also some severe clipping problems with the levels that will randomly display or not display textures on the backside of objects whether you can see them or not. This is called Z-buffering and most games and hardware can handle it easily. I can only assume that no time or care was taken in porting this game over to the GameCube. There is simply no optimization for this system whatsoever.

As unimpressive as the sound quality is, the music composition is still excellent, and each area has its own theme. And you always get a chill down your spine when you hear that deep voice boom "Warrior needs food!"

By design, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy is a multiplayer game designed for 2-4 players. Playing with three or four players can also get frustrating at times. The level of zoom in Dark Legacy is much tighter than in previous games, which means your players have to stick close together. It is all too easy to find yourself in need of that piece of meat or magic potion just out of your reach until your friend moves their character closer so you can scroll the screen. Despite these infrequent glitches in the flow of the game, Dark Legacy is an experience best shared with as many people as you can crowd around your console.

If your only gaming option is a GameCube then you might want to rent this game for a quick fix of mindless hack-n-slash, otherwise steer clear of this title. Even the exclusive features of the Nintendo version are not enough to entice the boldest warrior to tackle this title.