I'm just going to say it, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance hasn't aged gracefully. Hell, allow me to put all the cards on the table. This is one of games that benefitted heavily from being in the right place at the right time. 2001 was a massive year for the Playstation 2, with a slew of hits covering every conceivable genre. The exception, of course, was a cooperative Hack & Slash RPG. Interplay & Snowblind Studios cooked something up that not only played well but also looked really good. Its water effects are indisputably mind-blowing. Coming back to this game nearly 25 years later though... I can't deny that it doesn't quite gel like it used to. Before getting too wrapped up in the negativity - the one thing that keeps me functional - I must emphasize that the gameplay is still solid. I was compelled to give it the full 8-10 hours it takes to complete a playthrough. Maybe that doesn't mean much when I throw 8-10 hours at whatever random junk that has phat loot, bars to fill, and tiny outfits, but... hrmm. Let's just get on with the review.
Today's story focuses on Adrianna, an Elven Sorceress who's been wandering the Sword Coast for at least a day. She visits Baldur's Gate only to be waylaid by enemies and forget to defend herself. Bruised, broke, but still standing, she visits the nearby bar and gets word that there's a new thieves guild in town. They take orders from a big bad named Karne, who takes his orders from a bigger bad called Xantam. Xantam is in league with the... uh... um... You want to know something? The story disappears shortly after Act 1. Act 2 takes place in the Sunset Mountains. Eventually Adrianna fights a dragon. Its name is not important. After that it's the marshlands of Chelimber, climbing the Onyx Tower, and then a confrontation with Eldrith the Betrayer. If you don't know who she is, then don't worry. The game is kind enough to provide a lore-dump Lenny. He'll share his Eldrith autobiography with confused players. To sum it all up, she's the final boss.
It's rude of me to pretend like I care about the story, but the way everything is slapped together gives the unmistakable impression that Snowblind Studios had to cut corners in order to get their game out during the Playstation 2's most important year. The first act of the game is the densest by far, with a multitude of side-characters and secondary antagonists to encounter. There are even a few optional sidequests. Shame such a neat feature disappears off the face of the Forgotten Realms the instant you reach Act 2. Unless you count bosses, Act 3 doesn't even have three NPCs. In fairness, there is a rich variety of adversaries to contend with. Players can expect to battle all of the D&D favorites like Displacer Beasts, Drow, Ice Giants, and more. Just don't be surprised if the most common engagement tends to be with spiders. Those damn things get everywhere it seems.
The sense of progression is also lopsided. Now, I mentioned Adrianna is an Elven Sorceress, but you wouldn't know it by the way she's dressed. Full-Plate Armor, shield in one hand, axe or sword in the other. Her spellbook is a half-folded piece of paper that has Magic Missile and Ball Lightning scrawled on it. Feel free to check her statistics in the included character sheet. What I want to get across is that Adrianna is a creature of necessity. She was wronged by both this game and the D&D rulebook, so she carves a new path to discover her place in the sun. That place is having strength comparable to that of a dinosaur. Intelligence, Dexterity, Charisma, and especially Wisdom are sucker stats. When facing off against the "Dark Alliance", anyone who isn't built like a brick shithouse might as well not even bother.
More to the point, this game suffers from reverse difficulty. The first couple of hours are the meanest. A sorceress whose starting spell is the damage equivalent of a Florida summer isn't having a good time. Magic Missile is hardly any better, despite the extra bolt that's tacked on every other level-up. I'm not even going to bother mentioning the other spells, because there's really only one that matters. Ball Lightning is absurd in all the right ways. However, unlocking it requires a lot of points, points that won't be had for at least a little while. Until then, Adrianna is a fighter who should've re-rolled. Three arrows in quick succession, a lucky thief, the spider that wouldn't die, any one of these are enough to seal her fate, and they're hardly ever alone.
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| Half my weight in armor, the other half in potions. Give me a break. |
Then there's the Potion Economy. If you've played a Hack & Slash RPG in the late 90s to early 00s, then you know all about this. Potions are the life and mana blood of the hero. You can never have too many, but there's always some limitation to keep the game somewhat balanced. In this case, it's carry-weight. Now, I don't know what a Human Ranger or a Dwarven Warrior would do with mana potions, but I will presume they won't use as many as an Elven Sorceress. To put it another way, the person who needs the most potions has the lowest strength. Maybe it's not that big a deal, Adrianna can just fire up a Town Portal and... oh that apparently doesn't exist in this universe.
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance has a potion of recall. Sipping it transports players to the nearest "hub" so they can rest, sell their unwanted gains, and restock potions. Getting back to a safe place is easy, getting back to where they left off is time-consuming. Yeah, there's no potion of re-recall, so players have to run all the way back to where they left off, only this time without even any monsters to kill for extra gold & experience. The early game-tries to be generous with the potions, but there will be times where Adrianna has to drink several in succession to stave off dying or cast her crappy starting spells. The "runback" gets more obnoxious as the game progresses, with the worst instance being the Thieves Guild. I ran out of potions just before Xantam, and that meant redoing all of the jumping puzzles over bottomless pits. It wasn't even necessary because Xantam, like a handful of other bosses, is a chump that's easy to exploit. More on that later.
The first act frontloads almost all of the misery, giving players the impression that it's going to be a hard-fought battle every step of the way. If you're smart, you'll learn Ball Lightning the first chance you get. Don't be like me and put it off until midway through Act 2. This incredible spell creates a ball (of lightning) that travels until it hits a wall, and not a second before. Anything in its vicinity is torn to shreds. On a whim, I'd chuck this beautiful orb down a hall and hear the gurgling screams of a creature 15 seconds later. Jewelry that boosts strength and constitution start to become more prevalent. By this point, the difficulty hasn't fully reversed, but a not-so-squishy mage with a "I've nearly won" button is right on the cusp.
Act 3 is the exact point where the game gives up and lets players eat as many cookies as they want. Chelimber mostly consists of big empty marshes, and that's not just my anti-marsh sentiment poking through. One area in particular is just large... and empty. The dungeons that follow aren't much better. There are hallways, rooms, monsters, and treasure. That's all. Maybe for some that's enough, but you can't expect me to not be disappointed when all I can find is- holy shit! Is that a Shocking Burst Adamantine Handaxe +3 with a damage value of 20-132? Enchanted Full-Plate Armor +3? Rings that add +5 to Strength?! Oh, I must be in Onyx Tower. This is the point-of-no-return final dungeon, so I guess the developers designed it so that players couldn't possibly place themselves in an unwinnable situation. However, this is where the difficulty is fully reversed. The Potion Economy is completely busted. You can't even trip without falling into a Scrooge McDuck's vault worth of potions. Needless to say, everyone should be ready for the climactic battle with the neigh-immortal Eldrith the Betrayer.
... Do I even need to say it? OK. Fine.
Eldrith is an easily exploitable chump. First, a little background. One of the other bosses in Act 3 is a Lizardman of exceptional skill. The direct approach is a bad idea, so you'll want to employ a strategy. The strategy is running behind the boss and slashing them in the back. Stay on their tail at all times, and they'll never be able to turn around to attack you. This also works on the final boss. It looks ridiculous, since both of you will be chasing each other like Elmer Fudd & Bugs Bunny, but it's effective. I've no idea if it's an issue with the pathfinding, flubbed animations, or everything works as intended and I'm just a dirty cheater. In any case, the game has ended, and I have to wonder what so many people saw in the overpowered-lightning-flying-down-hallways simulator.
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance feels like two games in one, except neither of them are finished. The first is rich with atmosphere but lacks a satisfying sense of progression. The second is a freight train of upgrades but takes place in a barren world. Both games exist simultaneously yet never acknowledge each other, like strangers sitting side-by-side on the subway who don't so much as share a greeting. This is not a knock against Snowblind Studios. What they managed to put together is quite impressive. They just didn't get the time they deserved. Then again, when it comes to game development, who ever does?
(Please don't answer that question. I already know about Team Cherry and the 20 years they had to make Silksong. Let me pretend to be profound.)
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