15th June 2003, 10:33 PM
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
for Nintendo GameCube
Published by Interplay and (its RPG division) Black Isle
Developed by High Voltage Software
Released in 2002
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is the console-only action-RPG offshoot of the very good PC RPG series "Baldur's Gate". While the game admittedly doesn't follow the D&D rules all that well, it is a fun game to play by yourself or with a friend if you like this style of mostly-mindless action, in the Diablo or Gauntlet style (but different, of course).
Gameplay: BG: DA is a fairly simple game. You choose one of the three characters -- Elven Mage, Human Archer, or Dwarven Warrior (each with preconfigured stats), and start out. You start easy, killing giant rats in the Baldur's Gate sewers. At the beginning, the game is easiest with the Warrior, medium with the Archer, and hardest with the mage, as would be expected. All of the characters are good, but there is one frusteration -- missile weapons are annoyingly hard to target. Even with the Archers' targeting line while firing, you'll invitably miss several times before you hit anything... and the same goes with missle-like spells that the Mage has. Annoying, and it got me to quickly abandon the idea of using missile weapons or spells of that kind. But other than that, the characters are well balanced and the rest of the weapons are useful. And when you are by yourself, of course, you'd want to be good in melee weapons anyway...
So, you explore the environments. The game is quite linear, and while there are plenty of dead ends its always clear when you have found the correct path, and there aren't alternate paths in most of the game. When there is, its a large open area which has specific exit points you'll have to end up at. But the linearity is okay because it keeps you focused on your goal of advancing. Contributing to that is the fact that once dead, enemies never respawn -- their bodies stay on the ground for the rest of the game. So you can't get much above the level you are supposed to be at and make the game easy. Its great that enemies don't respawn after playing games like Diablo II... you can actually quit the game and load again and not worry about the enemies being back. Unlike that game.
The combat is simple, with a attack button and the d-pad for switching spells and active weapon, and fun. Its not D&D at all, as you have a magic meter and spells take up specific amounts of magic points each time you use them, but for the game's style that kind of magic system is really needed. You'll only complain if you're a D&D purist. And hte weapons and spells are nice, with a great variety of weapons, spells, and special abilities at your disposal.
Whenever you want, you can use a potion that warps you back to the town location, where you can sell items filling up your inventory that you picked up and buy better armor and weapons. Then use the potion again and warp back. Saving is also fairly good, as you can save at save points that are liberally scattered around the game. The only problem is that because of a poor port, it takes a ridiculous amount of time to save. But once done its saved everything as it is at the save station. Of all the supposed problems in the port of this game, this is the only one that I ever noticed. There are enough of them to never make it too much of a chore to get back to where you were, especially with the fact that enemies that you killed are permanantly dead.
When you level up, it gives you a choice of abilities to put points in to. Each character has a unique selection of skills to upgrade, and they range from increasing your hit points to various spells and special abilities. Better ones or higher levels of ones require more points, so you have to choose abilities fairly well -- you won't have anywhere near all of them at the end. Pick what you need.
And if you win the game once, you unlock a Gauntlet where you use famous Forgotten Realms hero Drizzt Do'Urden (there's no Elminster in the game, but I'll take what I can get... :) ) in a very challenging timed dungeon. If you beat it, you unlock the ability to use him in the main game. You can also unlock Expert Difficulty, but I'm not sure if that is done with the Gauntlet of by beating the game on Hard. It is probably the Gauntlet. Because of the Gauntlet and Expert mode, the problem of the admittedly short (it won't take long to beat the main game on any of the three main difficulties) and easy main game (on Easy, the difficulty is VERY low; on Normal, its a bigger challenge but not especially hard.) is negated. 8.5/10
Grapics: For a port of a PS2 game, the graphics are good. They aren't as good as they could be, but they get the job done well and look nice. The water effect especially is very nice looking, with great ripples as you walk. And the slowdown that was supposedly so bad in this game? If there is any, I never saw it. The framerate is steady and the game doesn't run slowly. 8.5/10
Sound/music: Nothing special, standard fare really. The music is okay but not great and the sound effects are good and go well into the game. The only flaw I can think of is that the shopkeepers (all of them throughout the game) talk CONSTANTLY and repeat the same five or so things over and over. It gets very old really fast whenever you're in a shop. 8/10
Single Player: Its harder to be a distance-based character (archer who uses lots of arrows, or mage with longrange spells as a base) in single player, but you'll probably want to be a closerange character anyway because of the poorly done range weapon aiming so that isn't a big problem. Otherwise this mode is fun. Not as good as co-op, but if you lack a friend around its a decent alternative. 8/10
Multiplayer: The game has a 2-player cooperative mode. While its possible to import a character from another savegame on the memory card and thus use a overpowered character in this already easier mode, its not that much fun unless you really want to tear through the game. Its best to start both characters at level one, and this mode is great. The only dissapointment is that you can't do a three player mode with all three heroes. 9/10
Final Notes: This is a well done action-RPG for the Gamecube, It does have flaws -- there are some small problems with the port, the savegames are 29 blocks each (at save points you can choose to overwrite your save or make a new 29 block save on the card), but each save can include 2 characters (in cooperative mode), Drizzt if you unlock him, and both a easy/normal/hard and Expert mode game, so for your main save its not so bad. The long save times can get annoying though. Even so, the game is good, and fun if you like action games with some RPG in them (more RPG then Gauntlet, but less then Diablo), and a wide variety of great weapons and spells. I recomend it to anyone who likes the genre.
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Grapics: 8.5/10
Sound: 8/10
Singleplayer: 8/10
Multiplayer: 9/10
Total: 42/50 or 84/100 is the average of those categories. That's a pretty good score, but it should be a bit higher considering all the factors.
Final score: 86%. Recommended.
for Nintendo GameCube
Published by Interplay and (its RPG division) Black Isle
Developed by High Voltage Software
Released in 2002
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is the console-only action-RPG offshoot of the very good PC RPG series "Baldur's Gate". While the game admittedly doesn't follow the D&D rules all that well, it is a fun game to play by yourself or with a friend if you like this style of mostly-mindless action, in the Diablo or Gauntlet style (but different, of course).
Gameplay: BG: DA is a fairly simple game. You choose one of the three characters -- Elven Mage, Human Archer, or Dwarven Warrior (each with preconfigured stats), and start out. You start easy, killing giant rats in the Baldur's Gate sewers. At the beginning, the game is easiest with the Warrior, medium with the Archer, and hardest with the mage, as would be expected. All of the characters are good, but there is one frusteration -- missile weapons are annoyingly hard to target. Even with the Archers' targeting line while firing, you'll invitably miss several times before you hit anything... and the same goes with missle-like spells that the Mage has. Annoying, and it got me to quickly abandon the idea of using missile weapons or spells of that kind. But other than that, the characters are well balanced and the rest of the weapons are useful. And when you are by yourself, of course, you'd want to be good in melee weapons anyway...
So, you explore the environments. The game is quite linear, and while there are plenty of dead ends its always clear when you have found the correct path, and there aren't alternate paths in most of the game. When there is, its a large open area which has specific exit points you'll have to end up at. But the linearity is okay because it keeps you focused on your goal of advancing. Contributing to that is the fact that once dead, enemies never respawn -- their bodies stay on the ground for the rest of the game. So you can't get much above the level you are supposed to be at and make the game easy. Its great that enemies don't respawn after playing games like Diablo II... you can actually quit the game and load again and not worry about the enemies being back. Unlike that game.
The combat is simple, with a attack button and the d-pad for switching spells and active weapon, and fun. Its not D&D at all, as you have a magic meter and spells take up specific amounts of magic points each time you use them, but for the game's style that kind of magic system is really needed. You'll only complain if you're a D&D purist. And hte weapons and spells are nice, with a great variety of weapons, spells, and special abilities at your disposal.
Whenever you want, you can use a potion that warps you back to the town location, where you can sell items filling up your inventory that you picked up and buy better armor and weapons. Then use the potion again and warp back. Saving is also fairly good, as you can save at save points that are liberally scattered around the game. The only problem is that because of a poor port, it takes a ridiculous amount of time to save. But once done its saved everything as it is at the save station. Of all the supposed problems in the port of this game, this is the only one that I ever noticed. There are enough of them to never make it too much of a chore to get back to where you were, especially with the fact that enemies that you killed are permanantly dead.
When you level up, it gives you a choice of abilities to put points in to. Each character has a unique selection of skills to upgrade, and they range from increasing your hit points to various spells and special abilities. Better ones or higher levels of ones require more points, so you have to choose abilities fairly well -- you won't have anywhere near all of them at the end. Pick what you need.
And if you win the game once, you unlock a Gauntlet where you use famous Forgotten Realms hero Drizzt Do'Urden (there's no Elminster in the game, but I'll take what I can get... :) ) in a very challenging timed dungeon. If you beat it, you unlock the ability to use him in the main game. You can also unlock Expert Difficulty, but I'm not sure if that is done with the Gauntlet of by beating the game on Hard. It is probably the Gauntlet. Because of the Gauntlet and Expert mode, the problem of the admittedly short (it won't take long to beat the main game on any of the three main difficulties) and easy main game (on Easy, the difficulty is VERY low; on Normal, its a bigger challenge but not especially hard.) is negated. 8.5/10
Grapics: For a port of a PS2 game, the graphics are good. They aren't as good as they could be, but they get the job done well and look nice. The water effect especially is very nice looking, with great ripples as you walk. And the slowdown that was supposedly so bad in this game? If there is any, I never saw it. The framerate is steady and the game doesn't run slowly. 8.5/10
Sound/music: Nothing special, standard fare really. The music is okay but not great and the sound effects are good and go well into the game. The only flaw I can think of is that the shopkeepers (all of them throughout the game) talk CONSTANTLY and repeat the same five or so things over and over. It gets very old really fast whenever you're in a shop. 8/10
Single Player: Its harder to be a distance-based character (archer who uses lots of arrows, or mage with longrange spells as a base) in single player, but you'll probably want to be a closerange character anyway because of the poorly done range weapon aiming so that isn't a big problem. Otherwise this mode is fun. Not as good as co-op, but if you lack a friend around its a decent alternative. 8/10
Multiplayer: The game has a 2-player cooperative mode. While its possible to import a character from another savegame on the memory card and thus use a overpowered character in this already easier mode, its not that much fun unless you really want to tear through the game. Its best to start both characters at level one, and this mode is great. The only dissapointment is that you can't do a three player mode with all three heroes. 9/10
Final Notes: This is a well done action-RPG for the Gamecube, It does have flaws -- there are some small problems with the port, the savegames are 29 blocks each (at save points you can choose to overwrite your save or make a new 29 block save on the card), but each save can include 2 characters (in cooperative mode), Drizzt if you unlock him, and both a easy/normal/hard and Expert mode game, so for your main save its not so bad. The long save times can get annoying though. Even so, the game is good, and fun if you like action games with some RPG in them (more RPG then Gauntlet, but less then Diablo), and a wide variety of great weapons and spells. I recomend it to anyone who likes the genre.
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Grapics: 8.5/10
Sound: 8/10
Singleplayer: 8/10
Multiplayer: 9/10
Total: 42/50 or 84/100 is the average of those categories. That's a pretty good score, but it should be a bit higher considering all the factors.
Final score: 86%. Recommended.