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Or, how about you just go read my thread about Gauntlet Legends and Dark Legacy and bring it back? 23 posts isn't enough for such great games. This atrocity doesn't deserve the attention.But anyway, that's quite an accomplishment, given how extremely low my expectations were!First, disclaimers - 1) I've only beaten three levels, though the first boss (the scarecrow). I will finish it, for sure, probably pretty quickly, but that's all I've played so far. But hey, I just got it yesterday. 2) I haven't played or have barely played most of the modern hack and slash beat 'em ups this is styled after - Onimusha (never played any), Ninja Gaiden (only played the original Xbox one, and even then just for a few minutes), God of War (don't have either, but I have played through the demo of God of War II, anyway.
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. Gauntlet took the traditional dungeon crawl style made popular by the pen-and-paper role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons, and amped it up to an insane degree by tossing billions of monsters at four heroes from a top-down perspective.
Awesome stuff!), etc. As a Gauntlet fan, I'm mostly comparing this to the Gauntlet games, not those.As a huge Gauntlet Legends and Dark Legacy fan, I'd been very interested in Seven Sorrows ever since it was announced. I was never sure if it was really what I wanted (it seemed to be largely ignoring the style of Legends/Dark Legacy for something new even in the early Romero/Sawyer version, when it was supposed to have a good story, more RPG elements, and more. At least, though, with J.E.
Sawyer at the helm I knew it would almost certainly be good. But then, everything fell apart. Internal discord at Midway between Sawyer and John Romero (who was also working on the game at the time)'s RPG direction and a more simplistic hack and slash beat 'em up style advocated by others at the company got worse and worse as time went on, and reports of internal discord began to come out. Soon afterwards Sawyer and Romero left the project, the PC version was canceled, and the alarm bells started ringing loud as it headed straight towards being a generic hack and slash game. By the time it came out I wasn't exactly surprised to see how bad it was. Saddened, but not surprised. Anyway, having finally seen a cheap copy, I got it even though I knew I would almost certainly dislike it.
But it's Gauntlet, so I had to have it anyway. I'd never have paid full price for it, but for cheap, I couldn't resist.The question on my mind was, would I hate it so much that I'd think the $6 were wasted, or would I find some minimum level of fun somewhere that saved it and gave it value.Sadly, I think it's even worse than my lowest expectations.
This game is just miserable, particularly for Gauntlet fans.Yes, fulfilling my expectations (and worst fears), Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows (PS2/Xbox, I got it for PS2) is a miserable, horrible game. If I were scoring it, the only question is, does it get a 20%, or drop into the teens. Yeah, I hate it that much. I have Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. Once I'd at least partially gotten over hating it for not being Baldur's Gate (I knew it wouldn't be, but using that name on a game so different and simplistic is so cruel.), I kind of enjoyed it. Now, I didn't like it nearly as much as, say, Gauntlet Legends or Gauntlet Dark Legacy - indeed, when I got BG Dark Alliance (for GC), one other game I saw was Gauntlet Dark Legacy for GC. And I got Dark Alliance.
I regretted that later (not least because GC Gauntlet: Dark Legacy was kind of hard to find, but BGDA easier to find), and my regret was justified once I got Dark Legacy and, of course, absolutely loved it. Even so though, I did enjoy Dark Alliance 1, and would probably have gotten the second eventually if there had been a Gamecube version. Now that I have a PS2, if I find an affordable copy I'll get it.
Dark Alliance isn't perfect, but it's a solid, fun game. It's nowhere near the disaster than Seven Sorrows is. It has good graphics and music sure, but it also has fun gameplay, competent design, good combat, limited enemies (no enemies ever respawn, ever! The wait times for memory card access were horribly long, and it wasn't deep or complex or, for me, as fun as Gauntlet, but it was fun.
I beat the game, but never did finish the Gauntlet, though. Meaning that special dungeon where you control Drizzt, of course. No saving and lots of enemies, with a melee character. I probably should have mentioned Dark Alliance in that opening section, but I didn't think of it. Detail is good!
![Gauntlet Gauntlet](http://ps2media.gamespy.com/ps2/image/article/677/677422/gauntlet-seven-sorrows-20051219001051293-000.jpg)
The more detail in the review, article, post, or whatever, the better. 'not enough detail' is indeed a common problem.And hey, I did just get it yesterday, as I said. Pretty much as soon as I'd played it I had to write something about the game. And so I did ( oh, and I beat the first boss, not just reached it.). Really, with a game this simple, it doesn't take much to figure out how it works. Describing in detail how it works, and why it is so wrong, was the point of the post. I don't think playing it more will change any of those facts.
Now if I hadn't gotten to the first boss and said something like 'it's all really easy and you never die' while, in good Gauntlet fashion, the bosses actually are something of a challenge I'd be wrong, but I did wait until I got to a boss, at least.For the most part, though, it really took only one level to notice how broken the game was. I know Gauntlet Legends/Dark Legacy's design well, it was pretty easy to compare and see the flaws.Of course I'll play it more and if my opinions change later (very doubtful) I'll say so, but I wanted to do a good summary of all the reasons why this wasn't Gauntlet and how, from a series fan's perspective, they messed up the basic game design and system so horribly badly. You don't need to play the whole game to figure that out. I just needed to describe the game's design, system, and gameplay, and say how they did all those things wrong.Maybe I could have organized it better (clear sections for each category instead of a paragraph with a giant list followed by random paragraphs about specific issues, for instance.), but it's good enough, I think. By the time I realized that I didn't want to have to rewrite half of the thing. Well, to be fair, a lot of those things WERE said before the game radically changed direction and the new team took over and made it the simple, boring game it is.
Of course, even that team leader did say some things that ended up being completely wrong, like 'the combat will be fun' and stuff like that, I believe.Finding some sources for that stuff would be interesting, though. The team failed on every level, but what, exactly, were they saying? If noone else does, I might look that up later. GameFAQs now has the release date set in February.
I don't know what their source for that is, though, but it's definitely not out yet. You're right, it was originally supposed to be out this year, October or December or something like that. It's quietly been delayed, obviously. We haven't heard much of it in a while.
I'm still hopeful but skeptical, pretty much. But we'll have to wait until it actually comes out to see, and it is delayed.The team doing Seven Sorrows was mostly laid off after finishing the game, so they, fortunately, have nothing to do with the DS game. It's being done by Backbone Entertainment, of Age of Empires DS and others. Can they do a good Gauntlet?
We'll see, presuming that the game eventually comes out. But hey, at least it really can't be worse than Seven Sorrows was!
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows Interview
Article Index
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Midway Games recently announced that they are hard at work developing another title in the Gauntlet franchise entitled Seven Sorrows. What makes Seven Sorrows different than past Gauntlet games, however, is that it will be implementing more RPG elements and its development is being spearheaded by two major industry veterans - John Romero (Doom, Quake, Deus Ex) and Josh Sawyer (Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate III [Jefferson]). Since we've been reporting about J.E. Sawyer (and his games) throughout the years that he was with Black Isle Studios, we decided to catch up to the designer and find out what he has in store for us with Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. Here we go:GB: How long has Seven Sorrows been in development? Have you recently reached any major milestones or ran into any unforeseen obstacles?
Josh: Seven Sorrows has been in development for a little over a year. We recently hit our (first playable) milestone, which is intended to present forgive the phrase a vertical slice of gameplay. It isn't polished, but it gives a rough idea of what the game will be like.
Also, we're recording a lot of the voice over lines now. Every bit of dialogue in the game has V.O. (well, except for one mute character), and I'm very happy with the quality and maturity of the actors so far.
GB: With your RPG background and John Romero's action background, what exactly should we expect from Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows? What are your primary goals for evolving the Gauntlet franchise?
Josh: Players should expect a more well-developed Gauntlet. We're trying to keep the core elements of the franchise intact: four-player co-op, easy controls, the classic characters, generators, Death, etc., but we want to give these things more depth.
The action is the heart of the gameplay. People can play it like a masher at low levels, but the fighting system is fairly involved compared to other Gauntlet titles. We have maneuvers that are typically not found in RPGs: trips, block-breaking, grabbing and throwing, counterattacking, juggling, and so on.
To support the action and provide long-term goals for players, we have a light RPG system in the game. Players can buy new combos for their characters and find increasingly powerful equipment to augment their fighting.
Most people play Gauntlet for the action, which is what the heart of the game has always been. For people who want a great story out of their games, we have a separate story mode. It's for one or two players and fully fleshes out the game world and the characters living in it. The player(s) alternate between the three pairs of characters (warrior and valkyrie, wizard and elf, lancer and tragedian) as they go through the story arc. Because the story mode is separated completely from the full-action (advance) mode, the story is quite deep. In terms of scope, it's more on par with a full RPG than an action game.
For multiplayer, we're working a number of new systems to make co-op play more enjoyable. The most obvious feature is our Junction Skill system. It allows the players to create geometric patterns in the environment that unlock magical effects between them. Juggling enemies also allows great opportunities for teammates to intercept targets mid-air with missile weapons. Another cool feature is a quick-chat system. If online players don't have a headset, they can use their shoulder buttons and analog stick to give quick commands in their character's voice. Multiplayer also gives team and individual challenges to characters. If you've played Paper Mario or Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, you probably are familiar with this type of gameplay element. At the beginning of a level, each character gets a challenge (e.g.: Don't use block!). Also, the team gets a challenge (Blue Elf is It! Don't let him fall below 50% health!). If players succeed at their challenges, they get keys. Keys allow characters to open special chests. Special chests always have better equipment drops than standard chests.
One of the coolest features we're adding is something called Perfection Matches. We're very excited about it. Perfection Matches are only available for characters of 45th level and higher. It's an online mode of play in which one player attempts to complete every map in (the best) way possible. (The best) being criteria defined by us, involving statistics ranging from map completion time and amount of damage done to amount of damage taken. Our central server calculates the character's score and stores his or her overall Perfection Rating for that level range. The challenge is staggering, because the generators on the level and the bosses scale in difficulty as though four characters were in the game. Just for completing a Perfection Match, the character receives a permanent (merit badge) next to their name. The top ten for each level bracket have their names displayed on our scoreboard on login, with the ultra-high score character listed as (The Perfect) for that type. So, when a player logs in with their valkyrie, they will see a scrolling scoreboard with (The Perfect Valkyrie) featured at the top.
GB: What engine is being used for Seven Sorrows, and how does its feature list compare to the Snowblind engine used for Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath?
Josh: We are using a highly modified version of RenderWare. Our re-written renderer is beautiful. Seven Sorrows supports up to four players on Xbox and PS2. Online, up to four players can play in the same game with one or two people on a single box. Our camera views in Seven Sorrows are usually much lower and again, forgive the term, cinematic than cameras in DA and Norrath. When the player is running through the plague town of Penrhos, we don't want them looking at a dirt road. We want them to see the sun rising in the sky behind windmills on the moor.
GB: How much of a factor will equipment have in the game? Will magical weapons and armor have random prefixes and suffixes and/or can we expect to see powerful 'unique' items?
Josh: Equipment plays a large role in the game. Characters use five types of equipment: armor (whole suits, not piecemeal), shields, weapons, rings, and amulets. We narrowed the type list down to five because we didn't want the player to spend a large amount of time in their inventory. We want them to focus on the action instead of trying to choose between eight different pauldrons and three types of vambraces. We use a full base item + suffix/prefix system for our random item generation. Color coding of the name instantly tells the player how rare the item is for their level range of drop.
Treasure normally drops from chests, not enemies. To prevent jerks from, well, being jerky, any time one character opens a chest, every character is assured a single drop. The only exceptions to this are special chests, which are only opened with challenge keys. Those chests, players have to race for.
The only truly unique items in the game are held by the title-holders of Perfection Match brackets. If a character is at the top of such a bracket, he or she not only receives a special temporary title in front of his or her name (Hero/Heroine, Champion, Master/Mistress, Perfect), but also becomes the temporary custodian of a useable trophy: a Perfection Item. Perfection Items are always weapons or shields and always have unique, extraordinary models and effects. They cannot be damaged, dropped, or traded, but the moment a character loses his or her title, the Perfection Item goes with them.
It's our little way of saying, (You, sir/madam, are the baddest of the bad. for now.)
View the discussion thread.
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