When comparing Gauntlet vs Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, the Slant community recommends Gauntlet for most people. In the question“What are the best 4-player local multiplayer games on Steam?” Gauntlet is ranked 4th while Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is ranked 30th. The most important reason people chose Gauntlet is:
Gauntlet offers full controller support that actually works extremely well for an action RPG. This makes for a good game to play on a Steam Machine or living room gaming PC.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro You can easily play the PC game on a sofa with the included full controller support
Gauntlet offers full controller support that actually works extremely well for an action RPG. This makes for a good game to play on a Steam Machine or living room gaming PC.
Pro Bosses offer good bit of diversity to the gameplay thanks to requiring different strategy over the base gameplay
Different bosses require different tactics to defeat them. This creates a good change of pace from the regular hack and slash gameplay as differing tactics will need to be used.
Pro Good co-op options no matter if you want to play locally or online
Gauntlet has support for local and online 4 player co-op. Making for a game that works well for small groups.
Pro Simple character creation with different classes
There are a few different classes available at character creation, each one has it's own abilities that are different from the others. Creating one is quite simple, which makes for a fast way to get into the game and start playing.
Pro Gold Standard for roguelikes
The controls and replayability have been refined over the years. Whether the player chooses to play with Tiles (graphics) or console (ASCII) the game works well even when choosing online or offline play. Either way there is just enough interface to play the game.
Cons
Con Very repetitive gameplay
With a few exceptions, the gameplay and strategy is the same for the entire game. There is very little progression and very few new abilities. The game also seems to gets easier rather than harder, although the new Colosseum mode adds some challenge to the end game.
Con Locked camera
The camera is locked in a single position. This creates confusion while playing in a busy area, as the camera does not stay focused on the player’s character. While a locked camera made sense in the arcade or on home consoles, where only one screen was needed, it really doesn’t make much sense for online multiplayer.
Con Can be rather difficult
The difficulty level is way too high especially when playing with kids.
Con Requires controllers with XInput
You cannot play Gauntlet with PS controllers.
Con Wizard is complicated to use
The wizard character is complicated to use. He has nine spells that can be cast using a number of hard-to-remember button combinations. This results in very few people wanting to play as the character. For online matches, this means there are quite a few three-player games as no one wants to take the role of the fourth character: the wizard.
Con Have to fiddle with controls
Being that the game uses an emulated keyboard on screen it works best on tablet, though is not really the preferred method (but is the only one) since it takes up screen space.