Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows Q&A

Game Chronicles had the opportunity to chat with Midway’s Nate Birkholz about their upcoming action RPG, Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. Here’s a bit of what was talked about:

Q: While Gauntlet continuously evolves visually, not much has changed in the gameplay since the 80’s. What new twists can we look for in Seven Sorrows to hopefully break out of this old-school hack-n-slash rut?

A: Well, the real challenge has been in doing just that, taking the gameplay up a notch, while not making things so complex that people can’t just pick it up and play. Gauntlet has always been very accessible, and that basic button-mashing gameplay has led to a lot of the popularity of the series. So we’ve got a bit of a blend of the old and new in Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows.

While the previous entries have been largely about projectile attacks, this game is more about head-on combat. Every character still has a powerful projectile attack, but the ranged combat plays a supporting role to the melee attacks (which we called “Hack” attacks and “Slash” attacks in homage to the classic Gauntlet genre), as well as a launching attack that sends enemies into the air and leaves them susceptible to even more complex attacks. The melee attacks can be chained into combos with different effects, and the game rewards players for using style to defeat their enemies.