The Facts
- Dungeons & Dragons themed adventure brings third edition rules set of the historic game to Nintendo's next-gen console
- Detailed spell and experience system will offer up one of the deepest RPG experiences yet on the system
- Choose from three different characters and improve them as you see fit, choosing weaponry, armor, special skills, and more
- Detailed sound effects, including Hollywood-quality voice acting and the soundtrack compositions of Jeremy Soule
- Two-player cooperative play, easily one of Dark Alliance's best features
- Complete the game to unlock a new character, The Gauntlet, and extreme difficulty
- No progressive scan support
- No surround sound option
Gameplay
Originally developed by Snowblind Studios, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance was a considerable feat when it released on the PlayStation 2 last year. It's was a totally original D&D based production that surprised fans, becoming one of the most highly acclaimed titles on the PS2 that year. Here we are a year later and Interplay has finally got around to bringing the refined hack-and-slash to GameCube, but does it have enough to make as big of an impact? In terms of gameplay, yes it does -- almost. It's the exact same design and no corners have been cut in this regard. At the same time, Interplay has let Dark Alliance age for too long without making any improvements before porting it to GCN, which is damaging for any game.
Nonetheless, the Dark Alliance is still a splendid accomplishment as to its original intentions. It features a well-conceived engaging story, rewarding hack-and-slash gameplay with an overlying RPG structure, tricky puzzles, incredible and varied foes, awesome weapons, and addictive cooperative play. Running around dungeons and killing things may seem like a worn out concept, but Snowblind's nicely polished Dark Alliance proves that untrue.
You begin the quest by choosing one of three characters: Human archer, Elven sorceress, or Dwarven fighter; they are long range, magical, and close range fighters respectively. So, since they all have unique strengths you must consider what suits you best when you begin. Furthermore, playing cooperatively with a friend is very cool because you can balance your strengths, leading you to depend on each other. You can also play single player and import your character or a friend's character into your quest at anytime. It's a super addition because if you can play cooperatively Dark Alliance is totally captivating.
Naturally the game still unfolds the same regardless of what option. With plenty of story elements behind it, you head into numerous dungeons to slay evil foe after evil foe. Along the way you will gain gold, experience, and pick up weapons. The aforementioned alone is reason enough to play Dark Alliance. How can anyone resist saving up the gold for the Frost Bastard Sword +1 or the Flaming Burst Battle Axe? You can buy and sell weapons at the local shops. Anything you earn in the huge dungeons is yours for barter. You have to use your head, however, as you an only carry so much weight at a time. Furthermore, the experience system adheres to the third edition Dungeons & Dragons rules set. It's the first console title to use that and drastically affects how the game plays; stat points, race-based limits, and armor class calculation all benefit from this. Even if you don't know what it is, trust us that it's a great addition.
As you progress forward through Dark Alliance you'll need to hone your experience and fighting skills, because the enemies ramp up to keep you on your toes. Then, of course, there are the imposing boss figures that will make mince meat of you if you can't manage your health or fight with skill. The artificial intelligence is nothing special, but for a hack-and-slash it works well enough, especially when combined with the beautiful animations. More than anything in the case of the bosses, it requires you to learn patterns and adapt to them -- not a rare thing for bosses. It's all set up very nicely and with each save point you reach, you will probably want to push a little farther, meaning it's going to suck a lot of your time away. It certainly did ours.
The controls are fairly well implemented, too. The GameCube controller, as you probably know, is several buttons short of the PS2's Dual Analog. For basic fighting it's no problem. On the GCN pad the A-button is attack, Z is for blocking, Y is for jumping, and B is for assigned magic. When you need to pick up something you just tap the X-button, and quick healing and mana recovery is assigned to the R and L triggers respectively. Okay, everything works fine up to this point. However, there are two hot buttons that had to be sacrificed: inventory and map. The solution is to tap the Start button for a list of commands; inventory is at the top of the list and map is just underneath it. So, accessing the features can be just as quick. Tap Start followed quickly by A for inventory and Start followed by down on the control stick then A. It may sound more complicated than it really is, but it's simply memorized and the functionality is still there.
Lastly, the camera is still in place and mapped to the C-stick. Because Dark Alliance is viewed from a three-quarters top-down perspective, you'll need to spin it often. The angle is wide enough that it won't get you killed, which is appreciated. There are a few levels that actually lock the camera in place, but it's for the better and doesn't affect the play at all. As a whole, the camera system works fine and suits the style of Dark Alliance. No problems bringing it to GameCube.
What this all adds up to is that even a year later, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is still a stellar game. Everything has been retained gameplay-wise, and the two-player value is still priceless. This is a lot like what Gauntlet wishes it could be. The only real shame is that the GameCube version received the short end of the stick technologically. If the framerate was still in tact, we could recommend Dark Alliance without hesitation. However, because it has been butchered, we should say only if you cannot purchase Dark Alliance for PS2 or Xbox, you should get it for GameCube.
Graphics
Snowblind Studios' original 3D engine is really an incredible achievement. It features cohesive art design, slick texture work, dynamic lighting, destructible environments and, above all, jaw-dropping animations. When it released on the PS2 a year ago, few could believe what Snowblind had pulled off on Sony's stubborn console. A year later, and quite magically, High Voltage couldn't get the engine running smoothly on GameCube. It really is a shame, too, because running it smoothly at 60 frames per second really does make all the difference.
All the original engine content is still there, albeit slowed down. The animations are truly gorgeous and still manage to shine through choppy framerate. Everything from the oversized sewer rats to the creepy gigantic spiders will make your skin crawl. The realism and attention to detail is incredible. The animation team is a cut above the rest in terms of quality. Even the lip-synching is nearly perfect. There really are too many details to cover; particle effects, destructible environments, and drool-inducing water effects still stand out a year later.
High Voltage did not take advantage of GCN's progressive scan output either. So, essentially it's really a downgrade from the PS2 version. Regardless of whether this is a product of a rushed port or simply an inadequacy in programming for Nintendo's next-gen console, it's totally unacceptable given that Dark Alliance is such a high quality game in all other respects.
Sound
Like the rest of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, the sound design got top billing too. It's nice to see that it hasn't turned out compressed or tinny on GameCube, as so many other developers have a habit of doing. The clang of your weapons, crackling torches in the distances, magic casting -- it all sounds wonderful.
The background score is also exceedingly well done. It's often very quiet as you crack heads and slice flesh, but there is a lot of moody music that paces its presence in the background. It's movie quality work, that blends beautifully with the atmospheric white noise and sound effects.
There's no Dolby Pro Logic II support, which would have been nice to further accentuate the environment, but we can't really complain given the attention to quality overall.