Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

"Who would ever think Diablo could make it to consoles?"

*Before I tell anything, I must tell that this game has EXCELLENT 2 player coop. It is all the features of single player, but with more team play and variety.*

First off, I'd like to say this. I never played an RPG in many many years. I think I grew out of it or something, every RPG I played made me turn off the console. But this game got my attention. That must mean its pretty special.

Feel:
When I first started off, I thought it was a heavily dungeon based game. The layout was plain and square like, and the graphics were average (this game was ported from PS2). And then I realized the complexity of the characters. And thank goodness they talk! I grew tired of reading stupid captions.
The controls were a bit clumsy, but it was perfect for a dungeon based game. And the mystical setting absorbs you into it. I love the story behind the Elfsong tavern, and I love how there are many people who are just minding their own business to talk to. Also, there is a nifty feature that makes your controller rumble every other second, imitating a heartbeat, when your health is low. Cool huh? This game gives you an epic feel, and that is what makes you keep playing.

Gameplay:
The first thing you will notice is ''Diablo 2, Diablo 2''. But then you will find something much more. (Actually, I believe the Baldur's Gate series came before the Diablo series?). Leveling up is much harder and the skills/stats are on a higher scale. And there is a limit to all skills and stats, so eventually you'll get everything (I find this helpful because Im not good at managing). You will find that the action is very basic at first (hack, slash, hack, slash). But then you will know the complexity of it. There are MANY items, which can be inchanted. Sometimes the same item can look different (there are three iron shields). You can bust boxes for gold, which can be used to buy things. But the basicness ends when the enemies get harder. You will need all your wits to avoid traps, archers, melee fighters, casters, etc. all in one. You need to hit and run on the huge enemies, and you can use a splash attack on smaller ones. And not to mention the bosses. The bosses are hard. But their attack pattern is basic, and after losing a few lives you will defeat them. Old school at its best!

Sound:
The sound is just like the sound of every other game. But you can tell the developers spent a lot of time on it. Every word is synced correctly, and the characters speak, and they speak a lot. This adds to the story, feel, and game play. With all Xbox games, it supports surround sound. This is how this game should be played. With all the enemies screeching, arrows flying, shields clanging, swords smacking, and fire burning, the feel is truly atmospheric. The sound is great, but don't all Xbox games have great sound?

Control:
As I said before, the controls are great for a top down dungeon game. The only problem I found was that when you get attacked, you become stunned for a half second. But when your surrounded, its very hard to escape, which can lead to many deaths. But the combo system is very easy to master, selling and using items is a breeze, and everything is between is great, too. The only problem I found was sometimes the angle obscured, or sometimes completely blocks, your character. But who cares, when you can rotate the screen. (This rotation feature is also nifty, because you can peek around corners!).

Longevity:
This game is very long for a console dungeon based game, but short compared to Diablo 2. You should beat it fairly quickly, in about five days of vigorous playing. But then you will want to use all three characters and play it on a harder difficulty. But this game is very well developed. I thought there was going to be only one town, because the one town is fairly large, and it is so well developed that the game seemed like one of those games which only have one ''hub''. But I was wrong. There are three towns, and all of them are very well developed. And once your done with the game, its always fun to pop in a friend for some coop action!

The bottom line:
I suggest this game to everyone who is a fan of either Diablo, Dungeons and Dragons, or Baldur's Gate. This game can be found for a fairly low price now, so grab it while you can. All the pros and the addictiveness of this game cancel out all the cons. This game is a must, even if you are not an rpg fan (like me).

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/01/03, Updated 06/01/03