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Aside from being a nicely-crafted hack and slash dungeon crawler, Dark Alliance also had a certain charm. Its personality made it a more lively experience, one that allowed for high replay value. Sporting solid visuals, fantastic music and voice-overs, and a tight control scheme it was the ADD RPG fan's dream come true. With Snowblind leaving to make Champions of Norrath, Black Isle took the reins for Deadly Alliance II - with fantastic results. Upping the character count to five characters - a female human cleric, a male dwarf rogue, a female elf monk, a male human necromancer, and a male human barbarian - the developers also added more subquests, varied environments, and a new weapon-enhancing system. Addressing many of the complaints from the original, Dark Alliance II proves to be a highly addictive title that advances the series in the right direction - despite failing to address a few minor complaints from the original. The advancements here are more design-wise than technological. The graphics and sound, while both good, aren't as impressive as they were in | |||||
Despite
not being a big fan of Diablo, Snowblind and Interplay's Baldur's Gate:
Dark Alliance, a simplified and more arcadey take on Blizzard's advancement
of the Gauntlet formula, found its way into my heart. Telling the tale
of three adventurers - a male human archer, a male dwarf fighter, and a female
human sorcerer - players went on a journey to save the port city of Baldur's Gate
from giant rats, green blobs, and underground crime syndicates. With a linear
style, players were able to get a lean, more streamlined RPG experience; players
could level up their characters, solve minor quests, and travel through a fantasy
world, all with a basic story keeping them informed through non-playable characters
and cutscenes.
the original; however, the voice-overs are still top notch. Some of the most noticeable design changes are the new aiming system for long-range weapons and a new spell menu. Previously, the player had to earn a targeting mechanism, now, that, along with unlimited projectiles, are offered from the get go; since it was already tough to fight back enemies with arrows to begin with, these additions equal the playing field more so than making the game too easy. The new spell system also proves equally useful: players can now assign a spell per face button, accessing that feature by holding down the left shoulder button. There is also a new way to enhance items. While the game calls it creating, the player is really using a trader's workshop to place gems on items that enhance their abilities; one initial stone is required, then two other slots are allowed to place one of dozens of jewels, each providing their own attributes, allowing for dozens of combinations to be created. Only limited by the number of stones, weapons can really become devastating if the player finds the right pair to use. There are other additions as well. Quests now feature many more side quests, which are enjoyable enough to not skip. These can involve the player doing something within a playing area or going to a whole new location; for instance: while clearing a mansion of ghouls, the player can opt to save scared servants or they can choose to put their task on hold to go to a new area to track down thieves. Characters also have unique opportunities as well: the cleric can donate money to the local church, with the proceeds going towards various projects, which are stated when money is paid, and she getting massive amounts of experience in return. With some of the optional quests being pretty large, it always pays to go off the beaten path to get as many goods as possible. Another new addition is the ability to quickly, by way of the directional pad, switch between one-handed, two-handed, and ranged weapons - the original only went from melee to range. The new characters are much more varied than those in the original and a whole lot more fun to use. With such differences, each offer a new way to experience the game: the cleric can go through calling down columns of fire, while the necromancer can raise minions to do his fighting for him. Adding to the fresh experience are environments that are much livelier than the original. Sure, there are a few dungeons, but there are also outdoor levels with villagers needing to be saved and haunted mansions that have to be cleansed of Resident Evil-style skinned dogs and monstrosities of pieced together body parts. There are also a few environmental twists as well: the player can now fall off ledges and even get blown off by gusts of wind. Fans of the original will be happy to know that the core of the game is pretty much the same. Players still need to slash, jump, shoot, and block through waves of enemies, and even take the time to find the occasional lever or two. Baldur's Gate itself is still the home base, keeping in line with the game's simplicity, and the world map is still used to travel long distances, although ambushes are more frequent. Also more frequent is the enemy's tendency to block, so be prepared for a tougher experience. Multiplayer is back, allowing for you and a friend to play through the game sharing half experience for kills and full for quests; the ability to export players to other games is also back, for the gamers on the go. Despite
being thoroughly enjoyable, Dark Alliance II does some have some rough
spots. The story gets a little convoluted - the constant mentioning of the original
three adventurers was well received, though - with characters popping in and out,
along with two or so smaller side stories going on. Jumping is still useless,
except for a few occasions, none of which involves benefits in combat, and combat
itself is still limited to two connecting swings. The streamlined approach does
manage to keep most of the game's limitations acceptable, since this the kind
of RPG that non-fans of the genre would like to play, as well as appealing to
all types of gamers. So the complaints are relatively minor, considering how good
the results are. Overall:
9/10 [ top ] |
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