Gauntlet - Preview @ GameReactor

GameReactor is the next site to write a preview of the new Gauntlet HD based on an early demo of the game, and a talk with Game Director Axel Lindberg.

The demo we play is specifically tuned for journalists we're told. It's one of those subtle insults we've learned to live with, taking it in our stride. It's rather easy, and nowhere near as challenging as the proper game. And a Gauntlet game needs to be challenging. Arrowhead knows this and while there are plans for different difficulty settings - the idea is that accomplishing something in Gauntlet should mean something. With great ass tingling comes a great sense of accomplishment, if all ends well.

One great design challenge that presented itself was how to build a game that worked both for the solo player and multiplayer, as drop-in/drop-out was a feature that felt core to the experience. And while it's easy to adjust the number of pressure plates players need to stand on, it's harder to design a level where you have to carry an object from one end of the level to another for both a single player and for a team of four where three players can cover the one carrying the object. They're still toying around with a solution for this problem, and we suggested adding legs to the object if there's only one player. Remains to be seen if that's a solution that will make it into the final game.

We were only shown a small slice of the game with no real way of measuring the scope of the game. We imagine that given the arcade heritage, a session/playthrough isn't necessarily all that long. A sequence of adventure/puzzle levels, procedural levels and boss levels that you can play through with a few friends in an evening or perhaps two. Regardless of this the team is still designing and experimenting with new ideas and with a release pencilled in for this summer, it may seem like things should be locked down more.