AcidJazz
12-10-2002, 08:48 PM
Introduction:
After spending over 35 hours with Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance I decided to give the game a review based on my experience with it. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is a classic action role playing game similar to well known Diablo series on PC. It is based on 3rd edition of D&D rules, which is used by most games of this genre, so every genre follower should be familiar with them. The game does not hold your attention by it's deep and engaging storyline, which might turn away some gamers, but it wasn't not meant to be another heavy story-oriented RPG and does its job very well as a non-stop hack & slash action.
Gameplay:
In the beginning of the game you get to choose between three characters to play with. They are Human Archer, Dwarfen Fighter and elven Sorceress. Each of these has its own game strategies that heavily affect gameplay, so you might think wisely before picking the one that suits you the best.
Dwarf has strong meelee combat skills, so you'd expect to be engaged in a lot of close range fights with using two-handed heavy axes, maces and swords. The advantages of using Dwarf as your choice are the following: high damage on enemies in close range, good endurance and vitality and fast combat reflexes(taking into account that you are fighting with heavy weapons). However, Dwarf also has several disadvantages, which, in my opinion, overweight the character's pluses. Those are: low dexternity, ranged attacks are average at very best, special attacks aren't really useful. The above makes Dwarf a pretty difficult character to play for beginners. Concentration on meelee combat is the only key for success.
Sorceress is the only female character featured in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. Her primary(and most deadly) weapon is a bow combined with some very strong special attcks(which also distant). She is by far the most difficult character to start your game with. Untill you max out your special attacks strenght, it is difficult to go through the game with having a low class bow as your weapon of choice. Sorceress will die easily when swarmed by several enemies, which radically chages your game strategies when compared to Dwarf. However, after probably 1st Act the gameplay changes to an easier side, allowing you to utilize your special attacks(mainly different types of arrows). Sorceress is an enjoyable character to play Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance with for those who like taking out the enemies one by one from far away.
Last character you could play the game as is Human Archer. Without any doubt this is the most balanced character out of three and he is definitely recommended to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance newcomers. While meelee combat remains archer's strong point, his ranged attacks could be very powerful and deadly for enemies if experience points are assigned wisely. One-handed swords, while in general not as strong as two-handed counterparts, still do a great job of cracking monster's skulls and crushing their bones. Combined with shock arrows to be used for ranged attack, archer is probably the easiest to finish the game for your very first time. Personally, I used this character the most and this will be probably reflected in this review.
So, you pick your character with an intention to lead him to the victory. You would aks: how do role play elements are incorporated in this game..? The answer is simple and it comes from knowing D&D basic rules. Your character gains experience by defeating countless enemies in real time combat. You get different amount of experience points depending on how strong is the enemy facing you. Therefore, killing rats won't give you much experience where huge and strong monsters met later on could give you several hundreds of points. Every time you reach a certain amount of ex. points, you will gain a new level and given points to assign to your character's special abilities. An example of those(abilities) would be endurance(allows you to carry more stuff on you), enchancing your arrows with several special elements(shoc, fire, ice arrows, etc.). Every ability has five levels of efficiency with more points required for every level. For example getting first level in Endurance(thus allowing your character to carry extra 15 pounds) will cost you 4 points and second already 8. Have to add that the higher level you achieve, the more points you receive to spare. Every 4 levels you also get 1 point(this amount always stays the same) to assign to your main skills. Those skills are Strenght, Dexternity, Intelligence and a few others. You should be very careful when assigning points to your character's skills/abililities, as you cannot do a rollback after you accidently put a few points towards something you didn't really need. At least I haven't found a way to do so.
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is spread across three main parts(Acts), with each one having completely different goals, environments and enemies. Each act has about 10-12 levels on average and features 2-3 bosses. You go through dungeons, mountain peaks, swamps, forests, let me assure you that aspect of the game will not bore anyone. Level desing is typical for dungeon crawl games, and is pretty linear for its most part. Some levels will require you to do a fair amount of exploration before finding the exit. On top of that a few levels are absolutely huge and could lost easily, if you do not follow the map closely. Everything else in this department is nothing else than you taking out hordes and hordes of different monsters.
The game features quite a few different enemy types, which absolutely need a different approach in order to be defeated. They vary from mentioned above rats killed with one whack of a sword to strong and deadly hulks that will kill you in only two attacks. Enemies depend on environment you play in. So, in a stinky swap you will meet poisonous zombies and lizardmen, and in a dark basement you will be surrounded by skeletons and undead. Some of the most deadly monsters are bigger than others(fair enough) and will require you to concentrate in order to be defeated. From my own experience one should be feared of huge spiders and umberhulks as their attacks are really deadly if not using block properly. Some enemies trow magical attacks at you as well; poison, ice, fire and even shock. These cannot be completely blocked, but block will definately reduce their effect on your character. I would call poison to be the most deadly attack, as you keep losing quite a bit of health for a pretty long period of time after. Bosses seen in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance may seem frustrating at first, but this is only until you find a good pattern to defeat them. As soon as such is discovered, I would not even use one health potion against most of them. Using block becomes a must when fighting bosses.
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance features a wide selection of items and weapons. While this selection isn't quite as huge as Diablo's, it is still great with many different toys to keep you interested. Basic Items could be bought at a store for money earned/collected on the battlefield(have to add that most of your money comes from selling unneeded weapons/items). However, most powerfull and great weapons are to be found in the game. A great example of such is Onyx sword(one-handed, damage 90-120), which is aquired towards the end of the game after defeating Onyx Golem. Each weapon has its own weights, damage and(if applicable) magic enhancement. So, a long sword with +5 fire will put your enemies on fire and a similar sword with +5 ice will freeze them. Magical enhancements could vary from +1(the weakest) to +5(the strongest). Shocking weapons are generally the strongest(and most expensive) ones.
Controls:
Controls in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance are easy to pick up and play, and are the following(default configuration):
Right Trigger - use a health potion(refills health)
Left Trigger - use rejuvenation potion(refills mana)
Left Analog Stick - Move your character around
Right Analog Stick - Move camera(manual control)
A - attack
B - Special Attack
Y - Jump
X - Action (Use/Talk)
D-Pad Left/Right - switch from meelee weapon(sword, mace, axe, etc.) to long-range one(bow/arrows) and back. only works if your character has both equipped.
D-Pad Up/Down - cycle through a list of currently available special attacks(ex: fire arrows, ice arrows, shock arrows, etc.) and set one to be active
White - toggle on-screen map on/off, as well as minimaze it.
Black - Block
Back - Access inventory screen
Start - pause/access in-game menu
From my own experience I will tell you that A button is used the most.
After spending over 35 hours with Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance I decided to give the game a review based on my experience with it. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is a classic action role playing game similar to well known Diablo series on PC. It is based on 3rd edition of D&D rules, which is used by most games of this genre, so every genre follower should be familiar with them. The game does not hold your attention by it's deep and engaging storyline, which might turn away some gamers, but it wasn't not meant to be another heavy story-oriented RPG and does its job very well as a non-stop hack & slash action.
Gameplay:
In the beginning of the game you get to choose between three characters to play with. They are Human Archer, Dwarfen Fighter and elven Sorceress. Each of these has its own game strategies that heavily affect gameplay, so you might think wisely before picking the one that suits you the best.
Dwarf has strong meelee combat skills, so you'd expect to be engaged in a lot of close range fights with using two-handed heavy axes, maces and swords. The advantages of using Dwarf as your choice are the following: high damage on enemies in close range, good endurance and vitality and fast combat reflexes(taking into account that you are fighting with heavy weapons). However, Dwarf also has several disadvantages, which, in my opinion, overweight the character's pluses. Those are: low dexternity, ranged attacks are average at very best, special attacks aren't really useful. The above makes Dwarf a pretty difficult character to play for beginners. Concentration on meelee combat is the only key for success.
Sorceress is the only female character featured in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. Her primary(and most deadly) weapon is a bow combined with some very strong special attcks(which also distant). She is by far the most difficult character to start your game with. Untill you max out your special attacks strenght, it is difficult to go through the game with having a low class bow as your weapon of choice. Sorceress will die easily when swarmed by several enemies, which radically chages your game strategies when compared to Dwarf. However, after probably 1st Act the gameplay changes to an easier side, allowing you to utilize your special attacks(mainly different types of arrows). Sorceress is an enjoyable character to play Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance with for those who like taking out the enemies one by one from far away.
Last character you could play the game as is Human Archer. Without any doubt this is the most balanced character out of three and he is definitely recommended to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance newcomers. While meelee combat remains archer's strong point, his ranged attacks could be very powerful and deadly for enemies if experience points are assigned wisely. One-handed swords, while in general not as strong as two-handed counterparts, still do a great job of cracking monster's skulls and crushing their bones. Combined with shock arrows to be used for ranged attack, archer is probably the easiest to finish the game for your very first time. Personally, I used this character the most and this will be probably reflected in this review.
So, you pick your character with an intention to lead him to the victory. You would aks: how do role play elements are incorporated in this game..? The answer is simple and it comes from knowing D&D basic rules. Your character gains experience by defeating countless enemies in real time combat. You get different amount of experience points depending on how strong is the enemy facing you. Therefore, killing rats won't give you much experience where huge and strong monsters met later on could give you several hundreds of points. Every time you reach a certain amount of ex. points, you will gain a new level and given points to assign to your character's special abilities. An example of those(abilities) would be endurance(allows you to carry more stuff on you), enchancing your arrows with several special elements(shoc, fire, ice arrows, etc.). Every ability has five levels of efficiency with more points required for every level. For example getting first level in Endurance(thus allowing your character to carry extra 15 pounds) will cost you 4 points and second already 8. Have to add that the higher level you achieve, the more points you receive to spare. Every 4 levels you also get 1 point(this amount always stays the same) to assign to your main skills. Those skills are Strenght, Dexternity, Intelligence and a few others. You should be very careful when assigning points to your character's skills/abililities, as you cannot do a rollback after you accidently put a few points towards something you didn't really need. At least I haven't found a way to do so.
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is spread across three main parts(Acts), with each one having completely different goals, environments and enemies. Each act has about 10-12 levels on average and features 2-3 bosses. You go through dungeons, mountain peaks, swamps, forests, let me assure you that aspect of the game will not bore anyone. Level desing is typical for dungeon crawl games, and is pretty linear for its most part. Some levels will require you to do a fair amount of exploration before finding the exit. On top of that a few levels are absolutely huge and could lost easily, if you do not follow the map closely. Everything else in this department is nothing else than you taking out hordes and hordes of different monsters.
The game features quite a few different enemy types, which absolutely need a different approach in order to be defeated. They vary from mentioned above rats killed with one whack of a sword to strong and deadly hulks that will kill you in only two attacks. Enemies depend on environment you play in. So, in a stinky swap you will meet poisonous zombies and lizardmen, and in a dark basement you will be surrounded by skeletons and undead. Some of the most deadly monsters are bigger than others(fair enough) and will require you to concentrate in order to be defeated. From my own experience one should be feared of huge spiders and umberhulks as their attacks are really deadly if not using block properly. Some enemies trow magical attacks at you as well; poison, ice, fire and even shock. These cannot be completely blocked, but block will definately reduce their effect on your character. I would call poison to be the most deadly attack, as you keep losing quite a bit of health for a pretty long period of time after. Bosses seen in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance may seem frustrating at first, but this is only until you find a good pattern to defeat them. As soon as such is discovered, I would not even use one health potion against most of them. Using block becomes a must when fighting bosses.
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance features a wide selection of items and weapons. While this selection isn't quite as huge as Diablo's, it is still great with many different toys to keep you interested. Basic Items could be bought at a store for money earned/collected on the battlefield(have to add that most of your money comes from selling unneeded weapons/items). However, most powerfull and great weapons are to be found in the game. A great example of such is Onyx sword(one-handed, damage 90-120), which is aquired towards the end of the game after defeating Onyx Golem. Each weapon has its own weights, damage and(if applicable) magic enhancement. So, a long sword with +5 fire will put your enemies on fire and a similar sword with +5 ice will freeze them. Magical enhancements could vary from +1(the weakest) to +5(the strongest). Shocking weapons are generally the strongest(and most expensive) ones.
Controls:
Controls in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance are easy to pick up and play, and are the following(default configuration):
Right Trigger - use a health potion(refills health)
Left Trigger - use rejuvenation potion(refills mana)
Left Analog Stick - Move your character around
Right Analog Stick - Move camera(manual control)
A - attack
B - Special Attack
Y - Jump
X - Action (Use/Talk)
D-Pad Left/Right - switch from meelee weapon(sword, mace, axe, etc.) to long-range one(bow/arrows) and back. only works if your character has both equipped.
D-Pad Up/Down - cycle through a list of currently available special attacks(ex: fire arrows, ice arrows, shock arrows, etc.) and set one to be active
White - toggle on-screen map on/off, as well as minimaze it.
Black - Block
Back - Access inventory screen
Start - pause/access in-game menu
From my own experience I will tell you that A button is used the most.