Spawning a genre is something that few titles can actually lay claim to themselves. Gauntlet is one of the few titles that can proudly place itself in such a category. Not only that, but the franchise can boast that it spawned forth one of the largest genres in existence today, the hack 'n slash action title. From the genre's birth in the eighties, we've seen countless titles in the genre, many being bad, decent, and a select few excellent. It is now 2006, and Gauntlet is back, with two industry rock stars, John Romero and Josh Sawyer (of Doom and Icewind Dale fame, respectively), contributing to what we have before us today: Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. Does having two of gaming's development all stars adding their support in any way bring one of gaming's most beloved franchises up to speed with the action titles of today? Read on to find out.

It slices! It dices!
Unlike every other Gauntlet title, Seven Sorrows features a fleshed out story, along with the dungeon crawling you were expecting. In a nutshell, the Emperor of an unnamed kingdom had four trusted heroes who performed his bidding. Despite their good deeds, the Emperor happened to be a greedy prick, and wanted the one thing he could not have: the heroes' immortality. After listening to the advice of his six advisors, he ended up crucifying the four heroes to an enormous tree which happens to be conveniently located at the bottom of the world. Long story short, these advisors turned on the Emperor. Using what powers he did gain, he destroyed the tree and freed the heroes, thus alleviating one of his "seven sorrows." With our heroes free, the Emperor begs them to rid him of his six remaining sorrows, his six advisors who have now transformed into all sorts of strange entities and are wreaking havoc unto the world.

It's at this point that you'll begin your quest and choose which character you'd like to play as. Gauntlet staples like the Warrior, the Elf, the Valkyrie, and the Wizard are all immediately available to select from. The characters have some differences between each other, but each feels somewhat similar to the others for the most part. This can be seen as a weakness and a strength, as it makes changing from character to character less aggravating, while it can also be seen as a lack of depth.

The levels themselves aren't entirely long, but if you have 30 minutes to kill, a level or two of Gauntlet can make the time slip by. As expected, the action is fairly mindless, and you'll end up cutting a swath through swarms of enemies in every level you encounter. The path to the end of a level is about as linear as you'll see in any game. To be entirely fair to Gauntlet though, you certainly can't chastise a hack 'n slash title for its lack of intelligent gameplay. The game knows exactly what its setting out to do, and accomplishes its goal.

As you progress through each level, you will "level up," which basically means you'll get to purchase a new skill or weapon at the end of each level you finish. This system works, but I can't help but feel that it could have been implemented a little better. As a whole, Gauntlet ends up feeling like Diablo lite.

It's good to slay together.
Gauntlet was known specifically for it's co-operative multiplayer during its time as an arcade king. In Seven Sorrows, you can have four player action on the same television, and as is expected with any multiplayer Xbox title nowadays, Seven Sorrows features the obligatory Xbox Live functionality.

With the multiplayer you and three friends, be they on a couch next to you or many time zones away, will be able to progress through the single player campaign. This mode, while equally inept as its single player counterpart, is made a little more fun with friends, if only for the "Holy crap dude, you just cut him in half!" and "Stop taking all the damn food, I need health, you horrible person!" moments. Such is the environment granted with social gaming, and Seven Sorrows feeds off of it.
Multiplayer runs parallel with the single player: same dumb combat, but fun with a buddy or two.

Behold thine graphics!
Technologically, Seven Sorrows is nothing to gawk over. The title would have been astounding had it been released two years ago, but against the heavy hitters available for Xbox today, it doesn't look impressive at all. Artistically, however, the game astounds. Common enemies have a creative look to them. Bosses especially look unique and ungeneric. The game's art direction shines brightly under the layer of old paint that are the graphics.

That epic sound
The sound design of Seven Sorrows is average at best. The music is good. The tunes aren't going to have you humming them along at school or work, nor is it so wretchedly awful you opt to mute the television and listen to a CD instead. Sound effects fall into this same category as well. They won't blow your mind, but they won't make you wish you were dead either.

Final Verdict
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows is a decent hack 'n slash. Nothing less, nothing more. The story feels tacked on, the gameplay is fairly rudimentary, and the graphics and audio aren't particularly fantastic. That said, if you and your gaming buddies are looking for a change of pace from the weekly Halo 2 or Ghost Recon 2 sessions, then giving Gauntlet a rent is hardly a bad idea, as the social experience this game brings to the table is excellent. And that my friends, should be the cure to your final sorrow.