Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II | |
---|---|
Xbox Series X/S | |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Action role-playing, hack and slash |
Mode(s) | Single-player, co-op multiplayer |
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II is a 2004
The game is set in the
Dark Alliance II was well received on both platforms, although many critics felt it was not much of an advancement on the first game. A sequel was planned, but was cancelled early in development due to legal problems and the closure of Black Isle Studios after Interplay went bankrupt.
Gameplay
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II is a
At the beginning of the game,
Each of the five characters have their own unique fighting style and their own specific set of spells and feats. Gameplay strategy is thus different for each character. Dorn is a Barbarian, and his feats tend to focus on increasing his brute strength and ability to resist damage, as well as granting him powerful abilities to aid in melee combat, such as the ability to wield two-handed weapons in each hand. Vhaidra relies on unarmed combat, so her feats tend to focus on increasing her speed and
Gameplay is semi-linear; most of the main
The game also features cooperative gameplay with another player. Both players share the same screen, and are thus limited in how far they can move away from one another. In co-op mode, both players get 50% of the experience for each kill, no matter which player makes the kill. Additionally, unlike in the original game, all treasure is shared 50/50 between both players, irrespective of which player collects it.[13]
A new feature in Dark Alliance II gives players the ability to create custom weapons and armor. Players can improve items by using runestones and gems.[14] To increase the strength of an item, at least one runestone must be used. Gems are optional, although adding gems increases the strength further and enhances certain of the items' attributes. The player cannot place more gems on an item than runestones; if the player wishes to place four gems, they must have a minimum of four runestones attached. Each item can have two different types of gem attached at any one time, in addition to the required runestones. There are several different kinds of gem and each has a different effect on different types of item. For example, a pearl attached to a piece of armor gives +1 additional treasure drop, attached to a weapon gives +1 "Improved Critical", and attached to a trinket gives +1 Wisdom.[15]
The game contains four difficulty levels; "Easy", "Normal", "Hard" and "Extreme". Extreme is unlocked once the player has completed any of the other three levels. Extreme mode takes the form of a
Plot
Setting and characters
While the original game focused on three areas in the
The game features five main playable characters; Dorn Redbear, Ysuran Aundril, Borador Goldhand, Vhaidra Uoswiir and Allessia Faithhammer, each of whom has come to Baldur's Gate for different reasons. Dorn seeks fame and glory. Vhaidra has come looking for vengeance against those who have attempted to destroy her family. Ysuran is suffering from
Story
The game begins by revealing that after jumping through the portal at the top of the Onyx Tower, Vahn, Kromlech and Adrianna are taken prisoner by the vampire Mordoc SeLanmere.
Meanwhile, outside Baldur's Gate, Dorn, Vhaidra, Ysuran, Borador and Allessia meet on the Trade Way, and learn that since the collapse of Xantam's Guild, the route has become increasingly dangerous due to the rise of the Red Fang Marauders, a goblin army who prey on travelers. After infiltrating a nearby Marauders cave, and freeing the caravan guard Randalla, the heroes head to Wayfork Village, a nearby fiefdom. There, they rescue the village from the Marauders and kill their hobgoblin leader, Harnak.
Upon entering Baldur's Gate, Randalla hires them to investigate a series of murders in the city. At Bloodmire Manor, they learn that Luvia Bloodmire has been combining the body parts of various creatures in an attempt to make a new species, and has been giving her creations to Lady Aragozia Firewind. Her first creation, Argesh, has set up the Hands of Glory, a thieves' guild faction of the Marauders. The heroes kill Argesh, crippling the Hands of Glory, and infiltrate the main base of the Marauders. There, they defeat but do not kill the Red Queen, leader of the Marauders. They follow her to Lady Arogazia's manor, and learn that Arogazia is a member of the
Impressed with their efforts, Jherek, a member of the
After killing the dragon Baragoth, the
After the five return to town, Jherek enlists them for a journey to each of the Elemental Planes to activate the Elemental Foundations using the four objects they recovered. In each plane, they are attacked by the Zhentarim, who are in control of the Foundations. Luvia Bloodmire and Aizagora attack them, but are defeated. Upon returning from the final plane and speaking to Jherek, they are approached by Kharne. He tells them the Zhentarim no longer wish to reactivate the Onyx Tower, and that the Harpers and the Zhentarim have a common enemy; Mordoc SeLanmere. Mordoc believes he can use the Tower to bring about the downfall of Baldur's Gate, which will please his "allies in the east." His steward, Xanhast, interrogates Vahn, Adrianna and Kromlech, finding they know little of the larger scheme playing out. Kharne, Jherek and the five adventurers storm Mordoc's Keep of Pale Night. They rescue the trio of adventurers, forcing Mordoc to speed up his plans, and relocate the Onyx Tower into Baldur's Gate ahead of schedule.
Now called Mordoc's Gate, the entire population of the city are turned into
Development and cancelled sequel
Dark Alliance II was first mentioned as early as April 17, 2001, when Interplay Entertainment confirmed that if the first game was successful, a sequel would enter development immediately.[17] The game was not officially announced until March 24, 2003, when Interplay revealed they were working on a sequel for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The only information available at the time was that the game would introduce item crafting, have five playable characters and was slated for a simultaneous PlayStation/Xbox release in the winter of 2003.[6] On May 6, IGN published an interview with Kevin Osburn, head of the development team at Black Isle Studios and the game's producer. Osburn revealed the developers had taken on-board criticisms of the first game, and addressed those problems in the sequel, as well as making everything bigger, with more enemies, characters, weapons, locations and quests.[18]
At
On September 29, Interplay announced it had canceled its distribution deal with Vivendi Universal Games, due to alleged breaches of the working agreement and failure of payment. Herve Caen, CEO of Interplay, stated
In the interest of our company and its shareholders, we had no choice but to terminate this agreement. After several notifications to Vivendi of its failure to perform in accordance with the terms of our agreement and, in particular, in refusing to pay Interplay certain monies due following our latest release, Lionheart, we still did not receive the payments owed to us. We are currently evaluating several other distribution options. We fully expect to release two of our strongest titles, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel for Xbox and PlayStation 2 in the fourth quarter.[23]
In October, EB Games and GameStop websites changed the release dates for the game to January 2004. Interplay initially denied the delay, stating it was still aiming for a fourth quarter release, and would distribute the game themselves if need be.[24] Interplay also stated that despite the fallout, Vivendi Universal would still distribute the title and any future installments in the series in Europe.[25] On November 6, Interplay announced it had resolved its legal dispute with Vivendi, and had returned to their prior distribution agreement.[26] On November 12, they officially confirmed that Dark Alliance II would be delayed until early 2004.[27]
On December 8, reports surfaced that Interplay had shut down Black Isle Studios, although Interplay itself made no formal statement.[28][29] On December 16, IGN reported that Black Isle Studios had definitely been closed, and now existed only as a brand under the Interplay label. They reported that when Black Isle's director had quit, the studio was placed under the management of Digital Mayhem, but with the agreement that Interplay would adopt a more hands-off approach. By this stage, Black Isle had already begun work on Dark Alliance III. The title was cancelled after Interplay failed to retain the license to use the Dungeons & Dragons label from Wizards of the Coast, so Black Isle shifted focus to Fallout 3. They handed in a 95% complete demo, including all game functionality. The next day, however, Interplay, who were several million dollars in debt, with just over $1 million in the bank, began to fire people from Digital Mayhem. Two weeks later, all but two members of the Fallout team were fired. This effectively meant Black Isle Studios no longer existed as anything other than a brand. Apparently, staff were told by Interplay that "we will continue to produce titles. If we feel that a title is worth of [sic] the Black Isle Studios' name then it will be released under that brand."[30]
On December 18, Interplay denied shutting the studio, claiming "Black Isle Studios remains open with projects pending, the status of Fallout 3 is under review, and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel will ship on January 13."[31] The very next day, December 19, an anonymous former Black Isle employee confirmed to IGN that the studio had been closed, and that although Dark Alliance II would still be released, Fallout 3 and Dark Alliance III had been officially cancelled.[32]
On January 5, 2004 Interplay announced that Dark Alliance II was complete and would be released for both PlayStation 2 and Xbox on January 20, with Vivendi Universal Games handling North American distribution of the title as planned.
A remastered version of the game was released on
Lawsuit
In November 2003,
Soundtrack
A soundtrack for Dark Alliance II has not been released. In September 2013, composer Craig Stuart Garfinkle released an album called Songs of the Dragon, V2 featuring primarily music from the game.[39]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "The Battle Rages (from Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II)" | 1:23 |
2. | "A Cavern of Death (from Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II)" | 2:36 |
3. | "Revelation in the Dark (from Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II)" | 1:44 |
4. | "Mired in Blood (from Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II)" | 1:53 |
5. | "Good and Evil (from Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II)" | 2:29 |
6. | "The Dark Dungeon (from Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II)" | 3:32 |
7. | "Colored in Red (from Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II)" | 3:58 |
8. | "Battle for Redemption (from Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II)" | 1:29 |
9. | "Death for Life" | 0:45 |
10. | "Bump in the Night" | 4:01 |
Reception
Aggregator | Score | |
---|---|---|
PS2 | Xbox | |
Metacritic | 78/100[48] | 77/100[49] |
Publication | Score | |
---|---|---|
PS2 | Xbox | |
Eurogamer | 7/10[40] | |
Game Informer | 8.5/10[41] | |
GameSpot | 8/10[42] | 8/10[43] |
GameSpy | [44] | |
IGN | 8.4/10[8] | 8.4/10[45] |
Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine | [46] | |
Official Xbox Magazine (US) | 7.9/10[47] |
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II received "generally favorable reviews," with the PlayStation 2 version holding an aggregate score of 78 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on forty-four reviews,[48] and the Xbox version 77 out of 100, based on forty-four reviews.[49]
Game Informer's Andrew Reiner scored the PlayStation 2 version 8.5 out of 10, calling it "role-playing bliss." He praised the range of characters, missions and weaponry, the item customization, the non-linear structure and the range of environments. Comparing the game to the original, he called it "a much deeper play with a higher level of interaction."[41]
IGN's Ed Lewis scored the game 8.4 out of 10, writing "Black Isle Studios have made an appropriate continuation of the story, but don't create enough changes that some may feel a sequel deserves." He was critical of the similarity of the gameplay to the first game; "there is still all of the dungeon crawling action that has worked well in the past and still works here, but there's still not enough that's new to truly keep pushing the genre forward. There could be more weapons and more characters, but the real issue is that the world is still a fairly linear adventure with a steady pace towards the end."[8][45]
GameSpot's Ryan Davis scored the game 8 out of 10, writing "Though not as impressive as the original game, Dark Alliance II will surely satisfy players looking for a well-crafted, accessible action RPG experience." He praised the range of missions, and the ability to craft new weaponry, but was critical of the graphics, which he felt hadn't really advanced from the first game. He concluded "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance was an RPG for people who didn't like RPGs, and its sequel does a fine job of maintaining that design philosophy."[42][43] GameSpot later named Dark Alliance II the best Xbox game of January 2004.[50]
Eurogamer's Ronan Jennings scored the Xbox version 7 out of 10, writing "in terms of progression, the only real difference between this and Dark Alliance is that the first game felt like it had better structure to it. In fact, DAII feels more like an expansion pack in that regard, with players sometimes given the option to complete quests in any order they choose [...] It's hard not to be disappointed in Dark Alliance II. However, it's equally hard to criticise such a polished effort. On the one hand, it offers more of the great hack and slash gameplay that no one has emulated properly since the first Dark Alliance. On the other hand, the magic of the original has definitely been diluted, where it really should have been enhanced."[40]
GameSpy's Raymond Padulla scored the PlayStation 2 version 3 out of 5. He praised the differentiation in the fighting style of the playable characters, writing, "the additional variety in Dark Alliance II is one of the few cases where more translates to better." However, he felt that when compared with the original game, "while it is superior in a few ways, it's inferior in others." He was critical of the graphics, writing "there are a smattering of areas and effects that are cooler than the original, but for the most part the visuals look dated and uncreative [...] That isn't to say that the graphics are offensive, but compared to the original -- whose graphics were a strong point -- it's definitely a step down." He concluded "I was convinced that more of a great thing would be an even greater thing. I thought Black Isle would do as fine a job with the series as Snowblind did. I was wrong on both counts. While Dark Alliance II is a good game, it has barely progressed the series."[44] Writing later in 2004, Allen Raucsh said much the same; "Black Isle Studios took over the development chores on this edition, and essentially delivered the same game again. Unfortunately, gamers had moved on [...] In short, while Dark Alliance II was by no means a bad game, it badly needed updating before it could become relevant again.".[51]
In 2015, Ian Williams of Paste rated the game #7 on his list of "The 10 Greatest Dungeons and Dragons Videogames". He commented: "The console market wanted in on the fun after so many years of rad D&D RPGs being on PC either exclusively or first. And that's how a loud, brash, fun as heck hack and slash RPG series set in the Forgotten Realms was born. It's way more Diablo than Baldur's Gate, despite the name. That means, aside from the style of play, you can't design your characters from scratch. But the playable characters offer a wide variety of playstyles, while the customization as you level means that you can fine tune as you go. Topping it off is a co-op mode which is so much fun that even Drizzt showing up can't ruin."[52]
Remaster
Aggregator | Score |
---|---|
Nintendo Life | [55] |
TouchArcade | 3.5/5[56] |
The remastered version of the game received "mixed or average" reviews, according to Metacritic.[53][54]
Mitch Vogel of
Shaun Musgrave of TouchArcade compared the title unfavorably to modern offerings on the Switch such as Diablo III and the Torchlight franchise, citing the no-frills nature of the port and its high price tag as blemishes on a dated experience.[56]
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