Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

Baldur's Gate gets an action facelift for its debut on PlayStation 2.

Chart a course between the mindless action of Gauntlet and the RPG elements of Diablo and you'll find yourself in Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance. Bearing no resemblance to the series on the PC except for the name, locales and most of the third edition rules of Dungeons and Dragons, Dark Alliance may upset longtime fans at first. The story unfolds as the town of Baldur's Gate is besieged with a troublesome new thieves guild. Your character seeks to track them down to reclaim stolen gold, but soon realize there is a much bigger problem at hand. A fell shadow is falling over the land and Baldur's Gate is merely one point in a great upcoming conflict that you are now drawn into.

The visuals are flat out gorgeous with environments that are both intricately detailed and quite enormous. The action is viewed from a top down perspective so you can see the entire hordes of orcs and frost giants hot on your trail as well as the witnessing the full extent of the carnage your full scale magic attacks cause. You can get a close up view of your character and other residents through story and menu screens which make you sorely wish for a way to get such a detailed view during battle.

Combat is achieved through straightforward action with most all commands accessible without opening the menu screen. The action is fast and furious although you'll need to employ lots of hit and run tactics until you can find or buy better weapons and armor. Leveling up your characters is easier than traditional D&D style games, but your limited to how much you can get built up since enemies don't regenerate and there aren't many optional sidequests. Another gripe is that it's short for an RPG (about 11 Hours) even if its main focus is action.

The audio holds its own against the graphics with rich orchestral background music and sharp sound effects. The voice overs are extremely well done and help sell the dramatic story. If you simply are not a fan of action RPG's then none of this is likely to win you over and Baldur's Gate purists will have to have an open mind. For the other 90% of PlayStation 2 owners, Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance is absolutely worth checking out and a highly recommended purchase for action RPG fans.

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