[HTML1]
The video game reboot and remake world are some treacherous waters to navigate, dealing out more failures than successes. For every Strider there are plenty of…well…Striders.
It is with that sentiment in mind that we bring news of a Gauntlet reboot, which is currently in development at Arrowhead Game Studios and will be published by Warner Bros. Interactive. The title is targeting a mid-2014 release on Steam and will do its best to capture gamers' nostalgia while also introducing modern gameplay ideas.
Details are relatively slim at this point aside from what's in the announcement trailer above, but we can confirm that this Gauntlet reboot will include the original game's four classes — warrior, wizard, valkyrie, and elf — and it will feature plenty of dungeon crawling.
As far as the game's modern twists, Warner Bros. confirms that the title's dungeons will be procedurally generated and that they will feature unique challenges for groups of up to four players to complete. They wouldn't go so far as to call this Gauntlet reboot a multiplayer rogue-like, but it certainly sounds like it has those elements.
Gauntlet is also one of the first game announcements to make specific mention of the SteamOS and the forthcoming Steam Machines in its press release. How exactly the game plans to leverage Valve's new OS or the power of these console competitors is unclear, but the idea that games will soon start targeting them as platforms is exciting, if a bit weird.
Despite our reservations about this Gauntlet reboot, we have to admit that the choice of Arrowhead Game Studios as developer has us intrigued. Their last title, Magicka, was a sublime reinvention of the dungeon crawler genre, and likely served as a demo reel for how they would approach Gauntlet. The above trailer certainly bares a striking resemblance to Magicka.
That being said, we are talking about one of the seminal arcade titles of any generation — one that has had its fair share of reboots and remakes, many of which were, to say the least, disappointing. In other words, Arrowhead has some pretty hefty shoes to fill, and several generations' worth of gamers hoping they get this one right. We'll see whether they succeed later this year.
How do you feel about a Gauntlet reboot? What do you hope Arrowhead preserves from the original game?
Gauntlet releases mid-2014 on Steam.
-
Source: IGN