Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II

"Unoriginal and unnoteworthy, but still enjoyable, in the end."

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II is another un-revolutionary game in the long tradition of button-mashing dungeon-crawling role-playing games inspired by such classics as Gauntlet and Diablo. Does that mean the game itself is bad? No. It's just been done ad nauseum now, so don't expect much that's original.

Graphics-wise this game won't impress but won't disappoint. The zoomed-out camera view let the graphics designers cut a bit of corners in terms of detailing the models, but arguably with the gameplay this was an adequate solution, since you get a better view of the battlefield you are crawling around. Regardless, animations are smooth and loading times are reasonable, so there isn't much to complain about.

Music is your standard fade-into-the-background dungeon music, not anything you will want to buy a soundtrack for, as you might with a Square-Enix RPG, but music that will keep fresh and non-repetitive. The sound effects are realistic, but it's really just, once again, standard sword-slash, box-break, metal-clang kind of stuff.

The story is minimal at best, and (surprise, surprise) also lacks any originality. They'll give you a bit of “catch up” story at the beginning to get old players back into the storyline and to give new players a chance from just being completely lost. If you're a fan of the Final Fantasy games' complex storylines, this isn't for you. Most of the time, you'll just encounter people that want you to kill things which will lead you to more people who want you to kill more things, and so the vicious cycle continues.

Gameplay is the game's redeeming factor, despite its unoriginality. Basically, you roam through the various areas of the game accepting quests from total strangers and completing them for gold pieces and other forms of booty. You level up as you go, learning new skills and buying new weapons and armor. Just like any other dungeon-crawler to come out in the past decade, there is a multiplayer option, but it is sadly limited to two players in this game, which tends to be a detracting factor for this game's strength as a “party game.”

However, the leveling up system will prove to be a bit fun. If you've played the more-recent XBox RPG, “Fable,” the system will be familiar. You have a long list of abilities that vary from stat level ups (more health points, more damage) to actual spells that you can use (such as the Barbarian's aptly named “Barbarian Rage”), and each one has different levels you can go through, increasing the effectiveness of the skill. In Fable, you purchased these with experience points you collect from fallen enemies. In this, you get points you can spend with each level-up you get.

There are also several job classes you can choose from, such as the Moon Elf Necromancer and the Human Barbarian. Each one has a different book of abilities and spells that he or she can learn, and therefore you can play through the game multiple times with different characters, as with each character you will need to use vastly different strategies to beat the game. Also, each race has a single different mission that is unique to them, so it is impossible to do everything in one play through, but after beating it once you may not feel the desire to go back and do everything again just to complete that extra mission.

A la the Dark Cloud games, you can also upgrade your weapons (though not nearly to the extent of the DC series) by inserting gems into them, which will give them certain stat bonuses and strengths. It is, once again, not anything new, but adds another layer of things to do to the game.

Does this mean that you should purchase the game? Maybe, maybe not. It's not a bad game to rent first, if you can get your hands on a copy that way, to see how you like it. The game itself will take some time to beat, so you may not be able to plow through it in one rental period, unless you have a lot of free time on your hands. Still, if you purchase the game without playing it, you may feel like you wasted money in the end.

Taken as a whole, the game is good, but simply lacks originality or any real defining characteristics that will make it stick out in your mind. Is it worth a play? Sure. Will you enjoy it? Sure. Just don't go in expecting anything great and you should be satisfied with this game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/05/04