Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II

"A Worthy Successor In Every Way"

The original “Baldur’s Gate” is still hands down the best RPG available on the PS2 and is a must-have for the other consoles. Therefore it was hard to not get excited about the sequel that fans have been waiting two years for, and I’m happy to say the result is a great successor to the original. Though “Dark Alliance 2” breaks no barriers in its genre, it shows how far a winning gameplay engine can go.

“Dark Alliance 2” picks up immediately after the original where the three heroes whom destroyed the Onyx Tower and ended Eldrith’s reign are captured by an unknown army. Now five new heroes answer Baldur’s Gate’s call for arms against a dark alliance forming in the shadows. If you’ve played the original game you’ll know exactly what to expect from the sequel since the core gameplay is identical. True, “Dark Alliance” is nothing but a dungeon crawler “hack-n-slash” game, but it’s done in a simplistic manner that makes it easily accessible and very addictive. The bottom line is the game still plays great and is just as appealing as it was when released in 2001. The game now offers five playable characters, from your burly barbarian to a necromancer. Each character plays quite different and offers a unique experience for whatever one you choose, making playing through multiple times even more enjoyable. Not to mention there are even more aspects to upgrade your characters which gives you a sense of true customization for your character.

Just as in the original your quest will take you through a variety of locales such as various caves, dungeons, and even a haunted manor. Each area is quite long and pretty varied to keep you guessing as to where you’ll end up next, which makes things all the more addictive. The games new enemies also provide a steady challenge with some rather unique attributes to them; for instance an enemy can devour steel, such as your armor and sword leaving you defenseless.

The game support 2 player co-op as it did in the first, and this adds immensely to the replay value, especially if you have a friend who you played the original with. The game bumps up the difficulty very well making things not too hard or easy. And hey, you can’t really go wrong with co-op if it’s done well, right?

Graphically, the game uses pretty much the same engine as the original, in doesn’t look as fantastic today as it did in 2001, but it still looks pretty darn good. The characters aren’t as well modeled at they were in the original, but the levels still look great and sport some fantastic textures and lighting effects.

“Dark Alliance 2” proves you don’t need anything revolutionary in a sequel if the game already has a winning formula, and “Baldur’s Gate” most certainly does. If you were a fan of the original you should definitely not miss out on “Dark Alliance 2”. Now that the developer “Black Isle” has been disbanded, we may not see another installment to the series. And if this is its final adventure, I’m glad it went out with a bang rather than a whimper.

Pros:
+ Excellent gameplay
+ Easily accessible
+ Great graphics
+ Plenty of action
+ Tons of items and armor to collect
+ Addictive as ever

Cons:
- A four player co-op would’ve been nice
- No downloadable content?

Graphics- 9.0
Gameplay- 9.0
Sound- 9.0
Overall- 9.0

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/11/04