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Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II (PlayStation 2)

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II review

Game: Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II
Platform: PlayStation 2
Genre: Adventure
Developer: Black Isle Studios

Staff review by Rob Hamilton

June 12, 2010

When it comes to gaming, I usually am reasonably content as long as I'm can kill stuff on a pretty regular basis. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II satisfies that urge. Players can rid the lands around the city of Baldur's Gate of virtually every single being with a pulse (or without...pesky undead). It's glorious! So long, band of goblin raiders! Meet your maker, cave-dwelling troll clan! Back to the soil, army of reanimated corpses! It's pure heaven for the homicidal mind!

*Ahem*

Now that I've calmed down, let's just say that Dark Alliance II has a way of satisfying homicidal urges. The game's a decent bit larger than its predecessor and each of its regions are TEEMING with various enemy types. Players have the choice of five different characters, as opposed to the three available in the original Dark Alliance. As for those original three; they're in a bit of a pickle. After stepping through some magic gate at the end of the first game, they open the proceedings in the sequel by being captured by Mordoc, a sinister vampire boasting both a really deep voice and a plan to take over the world.

So, with our original heroes out of the picture, we need new guys (and gals). A player (or two in cooperative mode) can pick from a barbarian, necromancer, monk, thief and cleric and begin trekking to the city of Baldur's Gate, which will be reached as soon as a clan of goblin bandits has been exterminated and a caravan owner and small village have been saved from the creeps.

Once in Baldur's Gate, you do a few quests which grant you the attention of the Harpers, who then employ you as an ally against the evil Zhentarim. Mordoc illustrates he's smarter than everyone, which proves to be a mistake, as that sort of tomfoolery will DEFINITELY turn your attention towards him. Also, there are a couple of optional areas you can raid for treasure and each character has his or her own specific side quest. All in all, you'll spend a good number of hours killing stuff and collecting treasure.

And by killing stuff and completing quests, you'll gain levels and be able to power up your character even more. You can put points into passive abilities (such as increasing your damage, how much treasure you can hold or how quickly life regenerates), spells and special attacks; which allows you to customize your character to a degree.

Just don't play as the barbarian if you're going solo.

I made that mistake. While other characters seemed to have a multitude of interesting skills, virtually everything this burly brawler could divvy points into seemed to be a passive ability that improved his attack, defense, health, etc. I think he only had either three or four skills that you could actually activate during battle and only one which I really found particularly useful (the bonus attacking ability granted for going into a berserker rage more than makes up for the loss of armor class). A far cry from the vast book of spells that some characters have. Now, I could see the barbarian being a good guy to team with the necromancer in a two-player game, as he'd be great at tearing into foes in melee combat while the frail mage kept out of harm's way and alternated between summoning undead and casting various magic arrow spells. In a solo game, though...

Hack, hack, hack; slash, slash, slash. Mix in the occasional quaffing of health potions and that's what I spent a good dozen or more hours doing. No strategy came into play. I just overwhelmed everything with pure physical might...because that was all I had. Sure, it's realistic to expect a barbarian to be a one-dimensional brute, but that doesn't make controlling him an amazingly awesome experience. Especially if you consider that Dark Alliance II is a pretty repetitive game where the fun is in exploring the various skills and abilities at your disposal and seeing if you can find 1,001 ways to turn an orc into strips of bacon. I had a great time with the barbarian until I'd done a couple of the game's four chapters and the never-ending hacking and slashing started to really wear on me. With a different, more versatile, character, that likely wouldn't become an issue, but when all I'm doing is tapping a button repeatedly to make my guy constantly swing his really big axe with a lot of brute force, I start getting negative impressions about things.

Such as how each type of cannon-fodder enemy is essentially the same. Whether they be goblins, orcs, sahaguins or troglodytes, they only seem to differ in appearance. Regardless of the species, you'll encounter melee fighters, archers and mages. And you'll be fighting them constantly while going through these vast collections of rooms and corridors that tend to only differentiate from each other in how they're drawn (although some, such as the temple of the sahaguins with its Lovecraftian vibe, are cool). If the game gives you a break from those creatures, you'll likely be in a dungeon teeming with countless skeletons and zombies. There are a number of cool larger monsters, such as the Oversized Appalachians (also known as hill giants) and many of the game's bosses, but they are rare attractions amidst the near-infinite horde of more generic foes.

I had a good deal of fun playing Dark Alliance II, but as I was nearing its conclusion, I was more than ready to finish things off and put something else in my PS2. Part of the problem was that I simply was unlucky and picked the least interesting character for a solo quest, but the game also has a bunch of enemies who all act the same littering dungeons that tended to blend together after a while. I can still see me playing it again in the future, though, if for no other reason than to experience combat through the use of a more diverse character that can't rely on mindless aggression. I doubt I'd be noticing the repetitive nature of things if I was being forced to use tactics more complicated than "run up to those guys and swing my axe until I'm the last man standing", but with the barbarian, that's pretty much all you get.

More Reviews by Rob Hamilton
	Vay (Sega CD) And then, right in the middle of all of that are light-hearted elements such as a horribly flatulent fairy who propels you across an ocean with her gas, a rando...
	Captain Commando (SNES) Not only was blood removed from the game, but the boss named "Blood" got his name changed to the less-intimidating "Boots" (to reflect his kick-heavy offense).
	Willow (NES) When you get to a town, count on walking through about 20 screens to find the five or so homes that you can actually enter to find information, items or a place...

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