Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance (Gamecube)
Developed by: Black Isle
Published by: Interplay

Grab some 20-sided dice, a player’s handbook, and some fellow geeks… it’s time to saddle up for fantasy and adventure with Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance. Actually, you won’t need any of those things in order to play this game, although you do have the option of bringing one friend along for the ride — all you really need is a Nintendo Gamecube. Dark Alliance is an action/adventure RPG based on the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying system, and set in the popular Forgotten Realms campaign world (specifically in the port city of Baldur’s Gate). To my knowledge, this is something that’s been done more than a few times before, but very rarely with such enjoyable results.

As a traveller in the Forgotten Realms, you have come to Baldur’s Gate in the hopes of fame and fortune. Upon your arrival however, you are robbed by a group of thugs leaving you with no money and no possessions. You learn that this is becoming more and more frequent in the city, and begin to investigate rumours of a new Thieves’ Guild moving into the city. However, there is much more at work than just a Thieves’ Guild… your journey will take you to various locales and bring you into contact with such creatures as orcs, skeletons, ogres, gelatinous cubes, beholders, giants, and even dragons.

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance is not nearly as detailed or extensive an RPG as a game like Neverwinter Nights — Dark Alliance uses a dumbed-down version of the D&D system, with only three different choices for player classes: Elven sorceress, Dwarven fighter, or Human archer. Each class has its own advantages and disadvantages, but there isn’t a huge difference between them. The game is very action-oriented, so there is no need for intricate skills or special player attributes… combat is all that matters. You do however get to customize and upgrade some different “feats” whenever you reach a new level, and these differ between the 3 player classes (ie. the archer can build up enchanted arrow attacks, the sorcerer has a wider variety of spells to choose from, and the dwarf can learn enhanced blocking and attack techniques).

You also get to collect large amounts of items during your dungeon crawling and build up an arsenal of kickass weapons over time. This small added dimension of customization should be enough to keep RPG freaks happy without scaring off casual action/adventure gamers. The most important thing (and the thing that made me most happy) is that you can actually control your attacks in real-time, thus avoiding a tedious round-based battle system. There are some elements of the D&D combat system hidden beneath the surface, such as armor classes and critical hits, but they are mostly transparent to the user.

It’s important to mention that this is an exact port of a Playstation 2 game, so it’s technically a couple years old now and there are no additional features or noticeable differences in gameplay. It’s still enjoyable and doesn’t really feel dated, but the translation didn’t come across perfectly. In particular, the game sometimes has trouble maintaining a smooth frame rate, often stuttering slightly during cinematics and when rotating the 3d camera view during gameplay. Considering that the Gamecube is technically a more powerful system than the Playstation 2, this is just sloppy development. However, the graphics and sound are still very impressive overall. The water ripple effects on puddles are sweet, the particle effects for explosions and magic spells are dazzling, and the facial animations for the cinematics are smooth and natural. Many of the little animations for the enemy creatures are overwhelmingly detailed too… who doesn’t love dismembering a zombie only to have the individual body parts continue crawling towards you? The game is further enhanced by the use of quality voice actors (including John Rhys-Davies, and also Michael Bell, Jim Cummings, Frank Welker, and other veterans of classic cartoons over the years ), and an epic musical score composed by Jeremy Soule.

The multiplayer option is definitely an added bonus, and at times Dark Alliance bares some resemblance to the classic game Gauntlet in this regard. Not enough adventure/RPG games have co-operative gameplay, which is silly because the whole idea of a role-playing game is usually to work with a group to combine your efforts. It’s always nice to have a second sword when you take on hordes of monsters… the only problem is you’ll find yourselves constantly fighting over the fat loot.

The game could have been taken to another level if there were more puzzles and more in-depth story elements, but as it is, it’s still an enjoyable hack and slash affair. Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance seems to have been overlooked or written off by a lot of people, but it’s a definitely a must play for any RPG fans and could also appeal to many others. D&D players will probably appreciate it the most just for the detail and accuracy of the weapons, magic and monsters, but it’s also really quick to pick up and easy to play. What’s more, you should be able to buy it for either the Gamecube or PS2 at a reasonable price, so give it a try. I haven’t been hooked like this on a game for quite a while. — Sean