Reviews / previews
If imitation's the grandest form of flattery, Monolith
must be suffering from hero worship. Get Medieval,
Monolith's second release, is a blatant clone of
Atari's classic multiplayer actionfest Gauntlet. For
fans of both retro gaming and fantasy action, there's
plenty to like here.
Like Gauntlet, GM is a dungeon-crawl shooter where
you and up to three others pick from four characters
(male and female) and lead them through a
monster-infested, treasure-laden evil stronghold. You
view the action from overhead, and the game's sharp
16-bit graphics bring the otherwise simplistic game
into the '90s. Some nicely evocative lighting and
transparency effects enhance the torches and
magic, and the variety of monsters (more than 20)
throughout the 40 levels is impressive. Admittedly,
the nearly endless horde of them seems to use
no-brainer AI routines, often ending up looking like a
chorus line of freaks when they try to follow you from
behind a wall. GM also has a handy random level
generator, and Monolith's announced it's releasing a
level editor on its Web site.
Impressive sound
effects include the
deep clanking of
metal and wet
splats of monsters
exploding, and the
soundtrack
dramatically suits
the carnage. But
most notable are
your characters'
humorous
one-liners, which
give the game a Mystery Science Theater
3000-in-fantasy-drag appeal. It lends a party feel,
which matches the cooperative multiplay perfectly. And this really is a
multiplayer game: Playing alone tends to get redundant and boring after a
while, but the game allows players to mix and match Net and same-machine
players to great effect, and Internet play works nicely.
Get Medieval's main strength is its addictively fun cooperative gameplay.
This is an homage done right.-- Jason DAprile / GamePro
Got an opinion about Get Medieval? Or maybe know a good cheat or strategy? Share it with the world!