Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance II

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February 2nd, 2004 Jason Rybka Leave a comment Go to comments

From Black Isle comes the second installment of the Baldur’s Gate series on the Xbox console, Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance II. In Dark Alliance II you choose from one of 5 heroes to take on the forces of evil that are steadily lurking near the port town of Baldur’s Gate; the necromancer, the rogue, the barbarian, the cleric and the monk. From ettins to goblins, spiritual villains and fiends from other realms; you are tasked with saving the city and discovering who or what is behind the mounting evil. Dark Alliance II features over 80 levels that can be taken on in one or two player cooperative mode. Will you take on the mysterious forces alone and save Baldur’s Gate from its impending doom?

Gameplay

Dark Alliance II is a Dungeons and Dragons style Role Playing Game (RPG) played from a top down perspective where you are given a 360 degree view of everything going on around you. You assume the role of one of five heroes; Borador “Goldhand” the Dwarven rogue, Allessia Faithhammer the Cleric of Helm, Tsuran Auondril the Elven necromancer, Vhaidra Uoswiir the Drow monk and Dorn Readbear the Human barbarian. As with the previous Baldur’s Gate title for Xbox, each character contains there own strengths and weaknesses as well as feats and spells they will gain access to later as the game progresses. When playing with a partner you may want to pick characters that compliment each other; such as a spell caster and a melee character.

From the moment you begin the game you will be given your first adventure by a wounded stranger on a road side, proceeding through this first adventure lands you in the town of Baldur’s Gate, from here you are now in control of your destiny. The town of Baldur’s Gate is home to many travelers and contains its own mysteries to be unraveled, once in town you can visit the inn and take on a quest from one of the many heroes enjoying a beer or resting from a long journey. The order in which you take the quests is completely up to you, giving you more freedom over how your characters proceed along their journey.

Early in the game you will be introduced to the various magical weapons and jewelry that can be found in dungeons and up for sale in town. When at a vendor you can use the workshop to create your own mix of items or take magical ones apart. The ability to custom create items with various strengths and bonuses to particular stats is a necessity as you level and proceed through the game, but save your gold coins as creating items is not cheap. Not only is creating items expensive, it is also difficult at times to locate the stones you need and the quality level of the item you wish to enchant. Items of fine or higher quality are the only ones that are allowed to have stones placed inside to increase their abilities, as shoddy items cannot hold the extended power the magic places in them.

Leveling in Dark Alliance II is a very important part of how your character will develop; applying points to certain feats early on may leave you without the points to appoint elsewhere when they are needed later. Whenever you level you will be able to press the back button and will be taken to a screen to apply your awarded points for that level to feats and spells available to your characters class. The feats in the game often allow your character to do a special attack such as Sunder, which makes enemies easier to hit, though some also build up there stats temporarily or allow them to heal quicker. Placing points in spells will open that particular one to your character, placing more points in it, called ranks, will make that spell cast with great power, allowing it to heal or damage more. Spell and feat points cannot be removed once applied to a character, so be careful when pooling points early on, as 12 hit points may seem useful early on, but will be worthless later in the game.

Control / Playability

The development team at Black Isle did a wonderful job at giving your character access to their abilities, spells etc at the touch of a button. Having the d-pad work to navigate spells, white and black buttons for quick healing, YAXB for fast combat control etc. Master the controls may take some time to learn, about 20 – 30 minutes at most, with the fast action forcing you to learn the short cuts to compete. A useful addition is also the quick spell / feat buttons, by holding the L trigger you can axx up to 4 of your spells and feats at the push of a button, instead of having to navigate through the list. The following are the controls:

Left Analogue: Movement
Right Analogue: Camera Control
L Trigger: Spell Menu
R Trigger: Block / Parry
X Button: Action [Talk / Open]
A Button: Attack
Y Button: Jump
B Button: Magic / Feat
White: Drink Mana Potion
Black: Drink Health Potion
D-Pad Left: Toggle Automap
D-Pad Right: Toggle Weapon
D-Pad Up: Cycle Spells / Feats
D-Pad Down: Cycle Spells / Feats [Reversed]

Graphics / Presentation

The levels in Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance II are magnificent, each of the many locations in the game are fully detailed down to the last crack in the wall or light beaming through a stain glass window. With so many different locations each with their own atmosphere and enemies that perfectly match with the locations, every detail graphically seems covered. Through your journeys to the locations around Baldur’s Gate you will see lairs of dragons, goblin caves, great towers and realms of other worlds.

The characters are also nicely detailed, though harder to appreciate with the camera at maximum height, zooming in will show the small details on each of your many opponents as well as your own character. Each piece of armor your character places on themselves will show in their model as they are hacking and slashing their way through dungeons. Black Isle Studios has done a wonderful job of upholding the level of quality we expect from the Baldur’s Gate series and D&D based RPG’s.

Audio

The background ambiance in Dark Alliance II is nothing great, it is very low key and through many, though not all, of the levels it doesn’t contribute to the mood at all. Luckily the voice acting done is top notch and allows you to get a feel for who the characters are that you are interacting with. The voice acting is dead on for what you would expect by looking at the person talking to you, blending nicely with their movement during rendered scenes. From time to time your characters will also make comments; I found this most useful as your character is always on screen and something such as their voice helps you get attached to the miniature character you have been controlling and assuming the role of.

Replay Value

Just as the last, this installment of the Baldur’s Gate series for Xbox features unlockable characters, this time the game features 2 you can unlock be defeating the game on Extreme. While 2 new unlockable characters with their own special moves, weaponry, feats and classes should be enough to keep anyone going back at least once, the ability to customize items differently when playing in the Extreme mode should also work as a bonus. In extreme mode your jewelry can be upgraded to level 15 for bonuses, though it will be costly, requiring over 100 of each stone used and over 200,000 gold to create the item. Dark Alliance also features 5 standard playable characters that all have their own strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to play through the game in 5 different styles, focusing on acquiring different gear and learning how to use different feats for each; this makes playing the game with each character its own experience. Playing through the game with automap off also leaves many of the hidden areas a secret, forcing you to play through a level more then once to truly unlock everything.

Additional Comments

Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance II features everything you want in an RPG and more, custom item creation, 5 unique characters to play through the game as, 2 hidden characters to be unlocked as you complete the game at higher difficulty levels, 60+ unique and wonderfully detailed levels. The team at Black Isle has created a master piece RPG with their latest Baldur’s Gate title for the Xbox, Dark Alliance II is the great title the first was, with nothing but improvements made. The epic adventure is worth completing numerous times with various characters and I am labeling myself an official Dark Alliance II addict. I have completed the game with 2 of the standard characters and once with one of the hidden characters that I unlocked. If you liked the first Baldurs Gate for Xbox, then Dark Alliance II is guaranteed to be another great addition to your software library.

Overall Score

Overall Score: 9.8/10 [Not an Average]

XBox Solution