Gauntlet Dark Legacy - Gameplay

Gameplay

Gauntlet Dark Legacy, although an expansion to Gauntlet Legends, is played much differently. In addition to the new characters, players can now fire both slow and fast attacks. The player has an option of performing a slow, strong attack, or a quick, weaker attack, as opposed to Legends, where there is only one type of attack. In Gauntlet Dark Legacy, the player can perform combos by using slow attacks and quick attacks in sequence. Combos are much stronger than normal attacks, and are usually capable of taking out several enemies at once. In Legends, each player has a turbo gauge that refills itself slowly and automatically. This turbo gauge allows the player to use turbo attacks, attacks that are stronger than the normal ones. When the turbo gauge is empty, no turbo attacks can be used until it filled up again. Dark Legacy keeps the turbo gauge, but expands on it, allows two players standing adjacent to each other to perform a combination turbo attack together, usually packing a lot of force (and draining half of the turbo gauge of the player that initiated the combination turbo).

The way a player uses items is also relatively the same as in the first game. The player can gather items from the levels, and then activate them when they please. The items provide benefits and disappear within a set time. In Dark Legacy, items (with the exception of Magic Potions, items that allow the player to use magic in a radius or as a shield) are activated the moment they are obtained with the same duration needing intervention from the player to turn them off in the item menu. They can then be accessed at will. More items are available in the shop in Dark Legacy (with very high prices) and the old items' prices were changed. This places more emphasis on the decision of what item to buy, as usually the player can only afford one or two. Items bought in the shop between levels are activated as soon as the player enters another level and need to be toggled on or off at the players discretion.

In Dark Legacy, the player has the added abilities of blocking, charging, and strafing. Strafing allows the player to constantly face one direction and fire medium-speed attacks. Blocking causes the player's character to stand still in a defensive position for a second or two. Any melee attacks made against the player are negated or do significantly less damage. Charging makes the player run forward with his weapon functioning like a lance while simultaneously blocking. The player can kill the enemies ahead of him while blocking their attacks. However, charging does consume a bit of the turbo gauge each time it is used.

However, the game still has identifiable roots with the original Gauntlet games. The way to go about most levels is to simply run along a designated path, decimating enemies before they can kill you. Like Gauntlet and Gauntlet II, enemies spawn from Generators. Only when the Generator is destroyed will the enemies stop spawning. Some Generators will take multiple hits to destroy; as the Generator is weakened, it will spawn less powerful enemies, until it is destroyed completely. There are some, but very few, levels that have a maze-like aspect to them, and are thus hard to navigate to the exit. Most levels however have the path to the end easily in sight, with separate side paths that are harder to access. Usually these side paths lead to important items, such as a lot of treasure, a Legendary Weapon, or a Runestone. Some levels, such as the first level of a realm, will have a short movie before the level loads. These can either serve to introduce the player to any new types of enemies appearing on that particular level, or to alert the player that a Legendary Weapon is hidden somewhere in the level. Runestones are not hinted at in movies. Food still recovers health in Dark Legacy as it did in Gauntlet II, with the type of food restoring different amounts of health. Treasure is also a rarity in Dark Legacy, as it is used to purchase items at the store. This is a difference from the earlier Gauntlet games, as in their levels treasure was everywhere, and it gave extra points, but it did not serve any other purpose.