Gauntlet: Slayer Edition New Feature Details, Free Upgrade for PC

Arrowhead Game Studios’ Malin Hedström has penned a blog post that details the philosophy behind some of the changes for Gauntlet: Slayer Edition, an improved version of the company’s Gauntlet reboot, which is releasing on PlayStation 4 on August 11th. These aren’t the kind of improvements a marketing team would write about on the back of the box, but iterations on the existing systems and content, that should make the overall core experience better

What’s New?

As mentioned previously, we have been working a lot to get more variation in Gauntlet: Slayer Edition. The enemies are obviously a big part of that. In Gauntlet 2014 they just weren’t different enough from each other to make the players change their playstyle in any meaningful way.

In Slayer Edition we have gone through the game and re-evaluated every single enemy in the game, leading to changes in all but two. For some we’ve just tweaked movement speeds and hit boxes, while others have received entirely new ability sets. Some enemies have been removed and some completely new ones have been added. We have also given every enemy (family) (mummies, skeletons etc.), a new lower-tier spawner that only spawns the basic units of that (family.) This means we are no longer limited (all or nothing) options when pacing the game.

The Slayer Edition for Gauntlet doesn’t just include subtle tweaks to the gameplay, but also what looks like a robust number of new additions that the developers talked about at length in a blog post on their official website. A snippet on the new Weapon and Potion abilities:

WEAPON ABILITIES

• Heroes can now change their Weapon Abilities The ones represented by the big shiny icon in your HUD with a cooldown by unlocking and equipping the different weapons available to them in the Shop.

Example:

The Valkyrie’s default weapon set gives her the (Shield Throw)-ability. Equipping the set (Wrath of the Heavens) instead gives her the (Lightning Strike)-ability. This particular weapon set also adds a lightning finishing move to her Light Attacks.

We have been striving to give more depth to, and push the unique feel of each Hero. It felt like a natural step forward to expand on the Abilities, both to explore each character more and to give players more options to their play-style within the scope of their favorite Hero. Since we already had a system for switching weapons in the game, we chose to place the Ability selection within that system, making the choice of Weapon have an actual impact on the gameplay. This means slightly different things for different Heroes. For instance, the Valkyrie can switch out her one attack-ability, but in addition to that, one of her weapon sets also changes her Spear Thrust into a Spear Throw. The Wizard switches out one of his schools of magic (ice, fire or lightning effectively giving him 3 new spells) whilst the Elf switches out both his Magic Bomb and Magic Shot ability.

POTION ABILITIES

• All Heroes now have a Hero-specific Potion Ability high-impact Abilities that cost a Potion to use from the start, replacing one of the Relic-slots.
• More Potion abilities can be accessed by unlocking and equipping Talismans in the shop.

Example:

The Warrior’s starting Talisman gives him the Potion Ability (Improvise), where he throws the potion like a grenade, dealing tons of damage around the point where it lands. Another Talisman instead gives him the Potion Ability (More of Thor), making him grow into a giant, becoming invincible and dealing extra damage with all his attacks.

Finally, I’ll note that, while no precise release date has been announced, the developers have promised a free update to all PC owners of the title:

The PC version will of course also be updated for free for anyone who already owns Gauntlet.