Gauntlet was one of the first video games that I played, and it's successor, Dark Legacy and also Legends, are two of the first games that I managed to beat. I've lost count of the number of hours that I've lost to replaying Dark Legacy, and every run I'm still noticing things I haven't before. In fact, Dream World is one of my favorite places in video games, and the music for the Forbidden Temple still brings back fond memories. Gauntlet Seven Sorrows was released in 2005, and some how, I never got around to getting a copy. So, when I found a copy of Seven Sorrows for the price of $5, I decided to go and fill my Gauntlet collection.
In retrospect, I could have done without it.
In place of the awesome cut-scene showing Skorne killing Garm and an epc world saving plot line, you instead have to help some old man who nailed you to a tree because he realized how bad of an idea it was and because his advisers went evil...
Ok, I could live with that, now just give me the characters I've come to expect from your other titles and-
Oh...your back to only four...
Well, I suppose that could work, so long as the over-world is-
No over-world? No.
O.K. Well then, this game better have some great mus-
OH COME ON...oh wait, this is actually decent.
Coming off of Dark Legacy, you'd expect something more like this:
But, that's ok.
Now, I may be being harsh on the music, but the Sumner's music is the kind of music you'd expect in the background. To top it off, the tracks in Dark Legacy were unique in the fact that they were just trying to do their own thing however they wanted: and were not heavily influenced by Lord of the Rings. And I'm being serious here: everything in Seven Sorrows feels like they just kidnapped the team from Lord of the Rings and had them do it at gunpoint. Now I'll admit, the other Gauntlet games aren't the best thing ever, but they did do whatever they wanted to and didn't care what others thought. This game...
Yeah.
Unlike with the other Gauntlets, none of the enemies stick out in my mind as being overly tough and almost all of them died in one or two hits. The same goes for the bosses: I don't remember getting anywhere close to dieing on any of them, while the first boss in Dark Legacy has killed me more times then I have him.
Come to think of it, and this may just sound like I'm a bad player, but: I still haven't beaten the first Gauntlet. As for Dark Legacy, It took me several days of hard core gaming just to beat the game, yet alone get to max level. Seven Sorrows, I managed to get max level AND beat within the great time span of FOUR HOURS. I've spent more time on one world in Dark Legacy.
And that's another problem with the game, you can't choose your path. With the original Gauntlet, you were more than able to skip levels, and with Dark Legacy you could (dare I say had to?) repeat levels any time you wanted to. With Seven Sorrows the missions are linear, the levels are short, and there are only six worlds.
Oh yeah, did I mention that there are only Sixteen Levels in the game?
No? Well there are.
As much as I've been harping this game, there are some redeeming factors.
First on the list:
Those are some cool enemies. And it's not just the concept art for death that look good:
Considering the number of enemies who can appear on screen at one time, they actually put some detail into the guys, to the point of them having different weapons. The downside to this is that there really aren't that many different types of enemies, but the ones you get do turn out well designed so, kudos.
Another thing I kind of, maybe, sort of like was the whole upgrade system. Unlike the other Gauntlets, you are able to upgrade more than just your stats, and are capable of learning new abilities and spells, which is neat. However:
FOUR CLASSES
The whole system would have worked better if their were more classes to choose from, and if it wasn't so easy to get upgrades.
Final Warning!
All things considered, I got what I paid for for the game. I suppose if I had looked up some reviews first, I wouldn't have had as high expectations and wouldn't be near as harsh on it. In fact, I think them trying to recapture the whole feel of Dark Legacy while trying new things is what caused this game to end up like it did. While there is very little incentive to go and replay the game, if you come across a cheap copy and want to see why there's no harm done.
With that said, I give this game:
7 Lord of the Rings rip offs
Out of
1 Dark Legacy
