Gatekeeper

Game: Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II
System: Playstation 2
Release date: January 20, 2004
Developed by: Black Isle Studios
Published by: Vivendi Games

For a long time the Baldur's Gate games could only be enjoyed by PC owners. That changed in 2001 with the release of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, developed exclusively for the Xbox, Gamecube, Game Boy Advance and Playstation 2. A sequel, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II, was released three years later.

Dark Alliance II is set almost immediately after the events of the first Dark Alliance and introduces five new playable characters: a human barbarian, a Drow monk, a Moon Elf necromancer, a Dwarven rogue and a human cleric. Each has his or her own strengths and weaknesses; some have more magic energy; some have stronger melee attacks. The player's choice is largely dependent on his or her own playing style.

Like its predecessor, Dark Alliance II is a hack and slash RPG which eschews turn-based combat in favor of real-time action. Each character can be equipped with three types of weapons: a one-handed weapon, a two-handed weapon and a ranged weapon. Dark Alliance II introduces the novelty of weapon and item customization, in which players can bring swords, shields, amulets and rings to a workshop and enhance their attributes by adding runestones and gemstones.


Although Dark Alliance II is an extension of the first Dark Alliance, featuring some of the same characters, locations and mythology, it never lives up to the experience of the original; its dungeons, storylines and characters are less dynamic. That said, Dark Alliance II remains an excellent RPG experience, made even more appealing by its cooperative play mode, in which two friends can brave dungeons and fight monsters together.

Dark Alliance II was originally meant to be the second chapter of a trilogy, but Dark Alliance III was cancelled when its developer Interplay went out of business in 2004.

Score: 88/100