Get Medieval Review

Monolith makes no bones about the fact that Get Medieval is really nothing more than Gauntlet for the PC, and it's a darned good recreation of the game too. If you're old enough to have played Gauntlet, then you know exactly what it's like to play Get Medieval.

Get Medieval is a fantasy hackfest that employs a top-down perspective. It's a fast-paced, arcade-style action game that allows you to choose one of four character classes:  barbarian, warrior, archer or sorceress. Each class has its strengths and weaknesses. The archer, for example, is the fastest character in the game. He can outrun baddies and fire off arrows with machine-gun rapidity. Unfortunately, he's not very powerful, so it takes more than one shot to down his target (without the weapon upgrade). The barbarian has the most powerful attack in the game, but he's as slow as molasses. If he's got a horde of beasties chasing after him, his only option is to use magic or turn and fight like a man.

Interestingly, the female characters, the sorceress and warrior, are the most balanced of Get Medieval's cast. They fall somewhere in the middle in terms of speed and power.

I found I had pretty good luck playing the elven archer. His speed made it easier for me to avoid getting hit by some creatures, and I was easily able to outrun anything heading my way if I was getting low on health and needed to find a power-up before engaging anything nasty. The only problem came when I faced the first boss character. The archer wasn't powerful enough to do a lot of damage in one shot, so I did a lot of running around in circles, which is what the archer appears to be best at.

The pace of the game makes it highly enjoyable, and the superb graphics make it pleasing to the eye. The variety in the monsters and levels keeps the game interesting and makes you want to continue playing. Get Medieval also offers a variety of difficulty levels, ranging from Easy to Torture Chamber. You can also choose to play random dungeons or play the Dragon Quest, which will eventually lead you to the boss of bosses. The dragon is, after all, the reason for the whole thing. Yes, believe it or not, there is a story here. You can check out the details at http://www.getmedieval.com/.

Overall, it's a highly enjoyable multiplayer romp. One of the really interesting aspects of Get Medieval's multiplayer feature is that you can have up to four players on one PC--just like Gauntlet. You can even play two people on one PC and two on another, with the two PCs linked via LAN, modem or Internet. It's a nice little setup. I've only been in a multiplayer game with one other player, so I can't really vouch for the performance of the game beyond that, but we had no problems whatsoever playing over the modem. And we found that we had the most success pairing the female characters. When we paired the male characters, we died early and often.

While the graphics, pace and multiplayer aspect help make this a successful game, one of the game's best features is its sense of humor. These characters are not meant to be serious hero types like you see in Diablo and many RPGs. These characters are parodies of fantasy heroes. The barbarian is modeled after Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan, and many of the comments he makes are either direct quotes from the movie or come from the Saturday Night Live Hans and Franz tag team. All of the characters make snide remarks as you play, and the remarks accurately reflect their personalties. The archer is a mousy smart aleck; the sorceress is a sexy nympho; the female warrior is the cliche of the masculine woman. The characters are all very funny, and you'll find yourself laughing out loud as you try to lambaste the various creatures that attack you.

If you like action games, if you like games with humor or if you were just a big fan of Gauntlet, then I highly recommend Get Medieval. It won't win any awards for depth of gameplay or big innovations, but it's just a darned fun game. Play it with a few of your friends and spend a  hours laughing as you hack your way to the dragon.