Developer: Midway
Publisher: Midway
Genre: RPG
Region: NTSC
Format:
Release Date: 12 Dec 05

Score 10 (Best) 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 (Worst)

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Overview

Who would have thought that the ancient Gauntlet series would be making a fresh run on the current-gen consoles. The Gauntlet series have never been one of the mainstream or a hugely popular franchise, but they do attract some decent following. Well let's forget the past and move onto today, where we check out the latest game in the series Seven Sorrows for Microsoft's Xbox. The big question is can Midway manage to take this great series and make another great game? Read our full review to find out!

Gameplay

Back when the Gauntlet series was initially released, I am sure there was some sort of convoluted storyline, which I guess only some will bother to remember. Now twenty years later, the same is happening again, only much more confusing this time around. The one thing I do know is that it's about an emperor who betrayed his guards to try and become immortal and caused a lot of problems once some other people turned on him. Outside of that, the story is a complete awkward mess that makes less sense than The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.

For those of you who may have been out in a cave for the last twenty years and may not know what to expect from a Gauntlet game, Seven Sorrows is a typical and very straight forward hack and slash action adventure that never tries to stray anywhere from this idea. In the game you have four characters at your disposal, all of which have there own strengths and weaknesses. This of course allows trying and hit all gamer's preferences and to keep things a lot fresher than they would be outside of having just one character doing all the destruction throughout.

It's suffice to say that Seven Sorrows plays exactly like you would expect a hack and slash would play. Now this may be disappointing for fans of the series hoping for some upgrades or changes, but hardcore Gauntlet fans will feel right at home. With the constant action of course, come the magical abilities that you use to the d-pad to control. Although I never have been huge on the use of this "magic", it does still give some variety to the game. The one thing I found about the whole game was that it was very easy to get the hang of, and didn't require much of a learning curve for anyone who has played a hack and slash action game before.

Unfortunately Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows isn't without its flaws. The biggest problem is that gamers (me included) aren't as patient with having to do the same thing over and over again, which is a very common occurrence throughout the Seven Sorrows experience. The action in the game seems to work well in terms of the gameplay capabilities, but the actual flow of the game feels like from one level to the next you're playing the same one with a different look.

The only real significant upgrade to this game is the Xbox Live support, which allows you to play online with your friends. The game is also available to play offline with up to four players as well. The one thing I found with the online experience was that although it worked great, and the game is a lot more fun playing with other people, it still wasn't the most exciting experience. You really need to have "real" friends to play with and even when I did play with some of those it still didn't do it for me. In the end, as much as I wanted Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows to be great, the end result is just an average hack and slash game.

Graphics

Visually I really enjoyed what Midway managed to cook up in Seven Sorrows, as it seems as though they tried to go for the classic Gauntlet style, but manage to still make it look like a current game. The environments were very nicely created, with good detail and a lot of variety. I just felt like since the gameplay wasn't all that great, mixing up the environments sure helped. Unfortunately the enemy models looked like they got the "rush job" as they have very little detail at all and just pale in comparison to your four main characters. Overall the visuals are good, no huge complaints, but still some definite room for improvement.

Fun Factor

I can't say I am the biggest Gauntlet fan out there, but I can say that I am a big hack and slash fan. I find it fun to mindlessly swing around huge weapons taking out hundreds of enemies at a time. But at the same token, I know if you want a game to be fun for more than just a few minutes, you need to throw more than just mindless hacking and slashing. Unfortunately that is something that Seven Sorrows doesn't manage to do. It gets the basics down, but doesn't make it into a great long term experience.

Overall

As much as many of you probably wished that this Gauntlet would really get the series back on the map, unfortunately Seven Sorrows was not the game to do this in. The game like, I mentioned before, gets a lot of the basics down very nicely but the final product just isn't what I would consider spectacular. If you are a huge Gauntlet fan, check this game out for a rental. Otherwise there are better games out there to spend your money on.

Gameplay
6.0

Graphics
7.0

Fun Factor
6.0

Overall
6.0

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