Gauntlet Seven Sorrows Review

About Gauntlet Seven Sorrows

Gauntlet Seven Sorrows is an action/adventure role-playing game about four immortal heroes who were betrayed by an Emperor. After serving for many faithful years in the Uricointi Empire by keeping the lands safe from evil, they were trapped in a nexus of energy at the bottom of the world. The lands then became dark and corrupted by the Emperor’s six advisors who had influenced him to betray his loyal servants. Now filled with guilt, the Emperor frees the heroes to stop the evil spreading in the Empire. Your task is to stop the six men (the Sorrows) and bring balance to the lands.

Fun Factor

In Gauntlet Seven Sorrows you will spend the majority of your time in fierce combat. There is a wide selection of combo moves and abilities available to each character. Magic generators create endless enemies unless you destroy them right away. I found this out the hard way. I thought I could just move through areas after destroying the monsters I would encounter. I was wrong. I became surrounded very quickly and there was nothing I could do.

Fortunately, there are ways to push groups of enemies back, like the Mana Blast that knocks them back and stuns (or kills) those in a specific range. Other combo abilities are available later in the game that will give you stronger attacks or combine some kind of energy blast along to enhance your slashing or hacking blows.

Keeping your character alive can be a daunting task. The game gives you a few “lives” before you would have to reload the game or start at the beginning of the last level you encountered. When a character is wounded, you must find food to build up your strength. You will find all sorts of edible items like turkey, ham and cheese. Later in the game, the availability of these items becomes fewer, so putting points into Health would be a good option. Another tip is to make sure you set the game to “autosave” so that if you die unexpectedly, you will not have to go too far back on a level.

Stayin' Alive

Each character offers a different variety of moves depending on their specialties. For instance, the Elf has a Continental Assault that will launch many magical arrows towards his enemies. The Wizard is the only character where all of the combo moves are magic in nature, using different types of energy blasts.

Characters gain levels by successful defeating many enemies. Keep an eye on your green experience bar, once it is filled, your character levels up. You can put points you earn into Health, Mana Regeneration or Attack Strength. Other new combo moves and abilities can be purchased by collecting gold found in treasure chests throughout your journey.

The Sorrows (bosses) in Gauntlet vary from slightly easy to almost impossible. Sometimes it just takes a little creativity to figure out how to defeat them. They seem intimidating, since their size is always much larger than you are. This is when the extra lives really come in handy. If you are unsuccessful in defeating them, you will have to start the last level you encountered.

Difficulty Levels/Modes of Play

This game allows you to play up to four players at once. Choose from the Wizard, Warrior, Elf and Valkyrie. Gauntlet Seven Sorrows has three levels of difficulty: Beginner, Normal, Difficult or Impossible. There is also an option for on-line play, but you will need an Ethernet/modem to get connected.

Graphics/Audio

The graphics in Gauntlet Seven Sorrows are pretty good. Some areas look a little cartoonish, but that shouldn’t deter you from playing this game. Combat moves are simple and look pretty cool. Camera view is not that great (a familiar gripe I seem to have these days), making it difficult to see some important things. Another issue I have with this game is the loading menu. When you load a game, you are taken to a screen where you can choose your character. Unfortunately, you don’t see your version of the character on the screen. The game forces you to scroll down on the specific character to find it. I loaded my game a few times without selecting my 6th level Valkrie character. I was wondering why I was having such difficulty on the later levels until I realized I was playing with a level 1 character!

The music soundtrack is appropriate for the game. It is not too blaring and distracting to deter you from play. However, the sound of sword hacking and slashing can get a little tiring and repetitive. As for vocal dialog, it is well done during the beginning of each major section of the game. It gives you a real feel for the story.

Summary

Gauntlet Seven Sorrows is a hack n’ slash, combo filled, magic blasting, role playing/adventure game. Play alone or with friends on your game console or online as the Wizard, Elf, Warrior or Valkrie hero. Stop the magic generators that create an endless supply of monsters unless they are destroyed. Save the Uricointi Empire from the Sorrows that have betrayed the Emperor and brought destruction and chaos to the realm.