Gauntlet (2014)

 PC
User Score
7.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 184 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 101 out of 184
  2. Mixed: 53 out of 184
  3. Negative: 30 out of 184

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  1. BSim500
    Sep 25, 2014
    4
    Was initially looking forward to it, but the controls annoyed me right from the start. No rebindable keys (and you can't use cursor keys - WASD only, "Shift" means "Left Shift" only, etc). Wizard's "combo's" also felt out of place for Gauntlet (which is about simplicity). Gameplay is highly monotonous (and yet I loved original Gauntlet on the Spectrum). I just couldn't get into it. WouldWas initially looking forward to it, but the controls annoyed me right from the start. No rebindable keys (and you can't use cursor keys - WASD only, "Shift" means "Left Shift" only, etc). Wizard's "combo's" also felt out of place for Gauntlet (which is about simplicity). Gameplay is highly monotonous (and yet I loved original Gauntlet on the Spectrum). I just couldn't get into it. Would have given it an 7-8 for overall gameplay, but Gauntlet's poor PC port keyboard support knocks it down to a 4.

    Cursor keys for movement have been around for oh 30 years or so (hint : if you're left handed with the mouse, then your right hand is naturally over arrow keys not WASD)... Come on people, stop tacking on a half-a**ed crippled keyboard bad port job as an afterthought to controllers.    … Expand
  2. adff500
    Sep 24, 2014
    1
    +++ Pros +++
    1. A remake of an arcade classic.
    2. Local and online 4 player co-op. 3. Hordes of enemies. - - - Cons - - - 1. Graphics are very basic (as a PS2 game) and camera is very far (no zoom). 2. Design and lenght of the game is very poor (3 worlds divided in several same looking levels). 3. Controls are horrible and cannot be changed (especially k+m is a disaster).    +++ Pros +++
    1. A remake of an arcade classic.
    2. Local and online 4 player co-op.
    3. Hordes of enemies.

    - - - Cons - - -

    1. Graphics are very basic (as a PS2 game) and camera is very far (no zoom).
    2. Design and lenght of the game is very poor (3 worlds divided in several same looking levels).
    3. Controls are horrible and cannot be changed (especially k+m is a disaster).

    Gauntlet: Nostalgia Quick Cash Edition. This game is unplayable in single player as the difficulty is set for 4 players co-op (4 pack costs 55€). I remember Gauntlet from the golden age of arcades where you had 600 health for 1 credit (coin) and you could enjoy the dungeons for a while. This remake is spitting in your face and is more expensive than a day out in arcade.    … Expand
  3. HaltTheWolf
    Sep 23, 2014
    2
    First off this is not anything like any of the gauntlet games besides its only connection being its a top-down 4 player hack and slash. Let me first review each of the charters.

    Wizard -TooHardDidn'tPlay This class is really over complicated, why would you make the wizard have combos but none of the others? Gauntlet is suppose to be a easy 3 button masher. Warrior - Under-powered    First off this is not anything like any of the gauntlet games besides its only connection being its a top-down 4 player hack and slash. Let me first review each of the charters.

    Wizard -TooHardDidn'tPlay

    This class is really over complicated, why would you make the wizard have combos but none of the others? Gauntlet is suppose to be a easy 3 button masher.

    Warrior - Under-powered Valkyrie

    This class really just feels like a valkyrie that is missing power and getting into battle abilities.

    Elf - The Toothpick Shooter

    This class is the weakest out of all of them. Your main attack does not even do damage to the spawners ... When all the other classes quick attack does...

    Valkyrie - The Only Good Class

    The title says it, this class is actually kind of fun to play. All the classes should of been like this one.

    OVERALL - this game is a very generic boring game. This is unfortunate since I am a huge fan boy of all the other ones that have ever came out. I feel like this was a corporate product to get a quick buck. I would not recommend this game to anyone who likes games that are fun.

    P.S SCREW THIS METACRITIC FORMATTING.    … Expand
  4. notorious_pog
    Sep 23, 2014
    4
    A friend bought this for me, I played a few hours and never want to touch it again. The controls don't feel very accurate, and the game feels stale and repetitive after the first few levels. This would be fine if it was fun to play, unfortunately it's not.
  5. reviewmasta
    Oct 3, 2014
    2
    Positive
    _____________
    + Warrior chatter is hilarious + Core gameplay mechanics are really, really fun. Love the idea of being locked in a room and spawners coming up spawning endless waves of enemies and lobbing AOE fire bombs into the middle of them with the wizard. Or running into the middle of a huge mob and doing the warriors spin attack and clearing a huge hole in the group.    Positive
    _____________
    + Warrior chatter is hilarious

    + Core gameplay mechanics are really, really fun. Love the idea of being locked in a room and spawners coming up spawning endless waves of enemies and lobbing AOE fire bombs into the middle of them with the wizard. Or running into the middle of a huge mob and doing the warriors spin attack and clearing a huge hole in the group. It's really a shame the map designs don't complement this enough.

    + Decent graphics, but the FXAA isn't cutting it. You can see really bad jaggies.

    + Fun and unique characters, just wish they all had as much complexity as the wizard.

    + Wizard is really fun and probably the funnest character. He has so many magic spells that lets you have many play styles. Can play support or be an aggressive killing machine once maxed out masteries.

    Negative
    _____________
    - Bad camera when playing online multiplayer, you will often get screen locked. The hosts character controls the camera position and centers around him.

    - HUD and kill streak popups cover your character onscreen because they take up 15% of the bottom of the screen! Because when you're running away from hordes and disappear from the screen, lol!

    - A lot of bad map designs and way too repetitive. The run and kill styled maps just kill the fun aspects of this game, the camping and fighting off huge waves of enemies! Dungeon 2 and 3 both have way too much run and kill style maps. Bad map design decision that don't complement the game whatsoever. Sorry to whoever made these maps, but they're seriously some of the worst maps I've ever played for a top down view game like this.

    - Character balance isn't the best

    - The amount of content is way too little for a $20 title

    - Way too much grinding! Devs skimped on the content so they've added over 50+ hours of grinding the same boring masteries over and over! Have fun killing something crazy like 80,000+ different enemy types on every character to get the damage perks so you can play the harder difficulties. It's just awful and makes me not want to even fire up the game anymore.

    - Finding an online game is a nightmare. "connection lost", "game already started", blah, blah blah. Have fun enjoying pressing join game 10 times to get into a game, and when you finally get into one, the character you want to play is already taken! rinse and repeat 2 more times.

    - Puzzles are so brainless and boring. Stand here to spin this thing, crank this lever to release lava, push block to get key. I'm awful at puzzles and didn't even need to think for this stuff. It's just dumb filler puzzles.

    - Difficutlties need to be reworked. "Unfair", the highest difficulty isn't even that hard once your team figures out to focus fire the spawners. Once everyone does this, the game feels like normal mode and becomes way too easy. Most pub players don't know to do this, so I guess it gives the impression of being hard, but the experienced players that have an ounce of strategy know "unfair" is a joke.

    - 99% of the relics are all useless, I'm not joking. Just save your gold and get Ring of Mirrors. It's priced the highest for a reason, it's the strongest. Everything else just seems like a gimmick. Not to mention relics are very rarely used because of they require potion pickups in game. Once people get potions they just horde them until the arena map to spam them to make the arena map easier. A lot of people don't even use them because they forget they have them, that's how gimmicky they are.    … Expand
  6. Catwaffles
    Sep 24, 2014
    0
    By modern standards, the game is ugly, the controller support is bad (the wizard/ranger only shoot at 45* angles) and there's hardly any content. As a diablo style game, it lacks progression. I know it's $20 when most games release at $50, but I've played a dozen "indy" rpgs in a similar vein that release at $15 and they're far better games.

    Some people who played the very old    By modern standards, the game is ugly, the controller support is bad (the wizard/ranger only shoot at 45* angles) and there's hardly any content. As a diablo style game, it lacks progression. I know it's $20 when most games release at $50, but I've played a dozen "indy" rpgs in a similar vein that release at $15 and they're far better games.

    Some people who played the very old gauntlets like the splash from the past, I guess. But even they have to get tired of staring at generic grey walls and floors, right?    … Expand
  7. VoxPaladin
    Oct 1, 2014
    0
    Biggest joke of 2014, and It's not even funny.

    Extremely short single-player, lackluster content, terrible controls, no options for key bindings, underpowered classes and extremely repetitive.

    The co-op is also a joke, net code issues abounding in this stuttery lagfest of hack and slash. Or should I say, trash?

    0/10
  8. arth1
    Sep 27, 2014
    2
    This game is nothing at all like the original. I don't think the developers have even played the original, but based it on the Nintendo DS version. And its "full controller support" only includes XBox controllers. Logitech users are not welcome.
  9. medv4380
    Dec 2, 2015
    0
    Game was in part marketed as eventually having Linux support via SteamOS. I purchased the game as a gift for some friends, and family. They've been able to play it just fine, but the one copy I kept for myself has never been able to run because I've been waiting for the Linux Support, and they coded it in such a way it's impossible to get working in Wine. The whole 20 min Steam says I'veGame was in part marketed as eventually having Linux support via SteamOS. I purchased the game as a gift for some friends, and family. They've been able to play it just fine, but the one copy I kept for myself has never been able to run because I've been waiting for the Linux Support, and they coded it in such a way it's impossible to get working in Wine. The whole 20 min Steam says I've played the game was just a vain attempt to try and get it to work tough Wine like so many other Steam games do.

    As of Last month you could buy Steam Boxes on the Steam Store, but no update as to weather or not support will ever come.

    Since I did get it for some family my brother brought his machine over to attempt to get local multiplayer working. Getting multiple controllers to work on the PC is an out right nightmare, and I'm a Linux Guy willing to pound my head into a brick wall trying to get a game to work with Wine. One control is easy, two is hard, but doable. Four, and you may as well be blood letting to your favored God, or Devil. And that's on a windows box where the game runs just fine.

    As of Today it is Free for PS4 owners with a Playstation Plus account. I will probably be buying 3 additional controllers just so my wife, kids, friends, and family can all play local multiplay the way Gauntlet was intended to be played.

    At least I don't have to toss more money at this game just to get it to work, but the PC version is an unacceptable monster that should be avoided if at all possible.    … Expand
  10. SebboBastian
    Dec 24, 2018
    1
    repetition after repetition... ZZzzZZzzZZzzz to bad. May instead recommend to play Hammerwatch.
  11. MavenUMP
    Dec 31, 2018
    0
    mouse controls are squishy and unresponsive like if you'd have enabled a hundred times vertical sync same time. But what makes the game completely unenjoyable to me is that there is no mouselook option (i know in same-screen it would be impossible but for online play it is a big disappointment that such essential like mouselook is not implemented). So the movement. aiming and camera ismouse controls are squishy and unresponsive like if you'd have enabled a hundred times vertical sync same time. But what makes the game completely unenjoyable to me is that there is no mouselook option (i know in same-screen it would be impossible but for online play it is a big disappointment that such essential like mouselook is not implemented). So the movement. aiming and camera is just very badly designed and controls are sluggish! Controls are EVERYTHING in games if those suck you can throw a game into the trash bin, what i will do now. Avoid!!… Expand

Awards & Rankings

82
#82 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014
65
#65 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
68

Mixed or average reviews - based on 38 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 38
  2. Mixed: 26 out of 38
  3. Negative: 0 out of 38
  1. GameCritics
    Feb 25, 2015
    75
    In an era where action-RPGs are chock-full of skill trees, obscene amounts of loot, myriad spells and skills, the back-to-the-basics approach in Gauntlet is a breath of fresh air.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Dec 13, 2014
    75
    It’s a shame Gauntlet’s visuals are not as wonderful as its gameplay. [Dec 2014, p.75]
  3. Hyper Magazine
    Dec 2, 2014
    70
    Gauntlet needs DLC. Badly. Still, good fun in the short term. [Issue#255, p.54]
See all critic reviews »