The multiplayer dungeon crawler Gauntlet has been released on PlayStation 4, as Gauntlet: Slayer Edition.
The Slayer Edition of Gauntlet will be $19.99, and it’s rated M for blood, gore, and violence. There’s no player-versus-player violence, setting this firmly in the realm of cooperative (not competitive) gaming.
In Gauntlet, players can choose from four classic fantasy character types: the Wizard, the Warrior, the Valkyrie, or the Elf. These characters each have the expected special abilities and strengths (i.e. the Warrior is strong, the Elf is fast, etc). The players make their way through a maze-like dungeon, fighting the baddies and gathering loot. You can go it alone in single-player, or bring in up to three more players to flesh out the party. They can join in online or on the couch right next to you.
The PlayStation 4 version of Gauntlet will feature new weapons and abilities for the characters, as well as new monster types, making this more than a port of last year’s PC version. For the first time, the player can switch their special ability by equipping a different weapon. There are four ability-altering weapons for each character.
There’s also a new way to play called Endless mode. In this version, your goal is to fight your way through procedurally generated dungeon floors, earning as much wealth as possible. In addition to all these changes, the gameplay has been rebalanced to actually make the game harder—the “easy” mode was removed, and the “hard” mode is now “normal.”
So choose your fighting companions carefully.
Gauntlet began as an arcade game in 1985. The Atari arcade cabinet version also supports up to four players. It spawned many, many sequels, and a PC remake of the original game was released on Steam last year. Fortunately for PC players, all the updates from the PlayStation version will make their way to PC in a later update.
