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Baldur's Gate Coulda Been a Contender...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 17 / 17
Date: January 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance is basically a version of Diablo with a Dungeon & Dragons makeover. While it implements only a small subset of the D&D rules, there are many game elements -- feats, creatures, weapons, attribute buy-up, etc -- that would be very familiar to someone familiar with the D&D rules. All of those rules are implemented in a 3rd-person-from-above-perspective, graphical interface which Diablo seemed to invent, but which is often copied in RPG style games. In my opinion, this is not a negative -- that interface formula has proven to work well for this style of game, and there's no reason to invent an inferior wheel to avoid being labeled a Diablo clone.

Here are the positives of this game:
- Unlike most RPGs that claim to be multiplayer, this game actually allows a second player to participate in the adventure in the main game mode to the same degree as the first player. Usually, "multiplayer" turns out to be some limited, deathmatch mode thrown into the game as an afterthought.
- The water and shadow graphic effects are outstanding. Clearly, the developers thought this as well since you need to wade through water in half the scenes. The way the water ripples, and how the waves propagate and reflect is really quite a nice piece of eye candy.
- You can 'import' a character into the game you're playing, even if it was saved while playing another mission. This ability to develop and then keep your character for other adventures is a great feature. If only there were other, harder editions of Baldur's Gate to reuse my characters, I'd call this the crowning achievement of the game.

But here are the game's negatives:
- The game is very short. At 'normal' difficulty, I'd estimate I only had 10 hours of play time into the game when I suddenly found that I'd defeated the entire game. And that was at a conservative pace... less patient players might finish the entire game in a single sitting.
- There is not much variety in the three character types. Even though you may choose to be a warrior, an archer, or a mage, towards the end, all three are best served by using the very powerful melee weapons that become available along the way. The mage, in particular, does not receive comparable upgrades, and the bows also fell short of their melee counterparts. Baldur's Gate should have implemented D&D-like character creation to create better differentiation between characters. Seems like it would have been easy to do.
- The box sets an expectation that D&D rules are implemented, but they are very loosely and inconsistently applied. There are certainly recognizable D&D elements, but I suspect that hard core D&D fans will be disappointed. It would have been nice if the various creature types had been identified by a label (even though I think I know what most of them were).
- The replies to computer characters ("NPCs") don't seem to affect the story progression in any way. There is really only a single story line to follow, and either you find all the requested items, or you don't. Whether you find everything or not, you can still finish the game. It seems to me that one of the basic premises of D&D is that there can be consequences to your actions, but that is not the case here.

Nevertheless, my son and I had a lot of fun playing this game up until its premature, abrupt end. Had some of the basic negatives been fixed, and if the storyline had been expanded to make the game last for a month of play, this could have been one of the all-time best Gamecube titles. It leaves me wondering which is the bigger crime: 1) the total absence of greatness; or 2) wasted, unfulfilled potential? In the case of #1, I just feel like I wasted some money. In the case of #2 and Baldur's Gate, I think I feel even more disappointed than a mere dent in my wallet. Sigh... Baldur's Gate, you coulda been a contender, but in the end, you turned out to be a bum.

Very Very Good Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 24
Date: November 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This the first D&D game for the Gamecube and is a really good game. Graphics and storyline are incredible. If you have a GCN get it, it is a must have (especialy for the D&D Forgotten Realms players out there). Final word; Get it, get it, get it. :-)

fun but short

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: January 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Baulders Gate Dark Alliance is a very fun game but the story lacking. The Graphics were good and the music was alright. The Only problem with this game is that it is very short and not very challenging (on normal mode). If they made the game longer it would probably be one of the best if not the best game for the Game Cube.

A disappointment to its series.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 13
Date: August 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have greatly enjoyed all previous games I've played in the Baldur's Gate series for the PC, and I expected more greatness from this, only to be severely let down. Oh, it's a decent game, sure, worth renting or borrowing to see if you like it. However, I can't help but feel that it would have benefited from another year or two in development.
For one thing, the game is too darn short! Only three chapters, culminating in a sort of half-climax - it tries to be gripping and dramatic, but it's not. This combined with a total lack of respawning foes means that, in order to "max out" your characters' capabilities, you must play it over and over and over unless you've got a good bit of space on your memory card and are willing to simply play the same area over and over and over.
Secondly, the plot is quite poor. The villain's history is sort of interesting, but they simply leave too much unsaid - exactly what went on that she could not only return from but conquer Death? Are all of the enemies you meet beforehand simply her flunkies? What's the Dragon doing? Your character is given just a teensy bit of backstory, not enough to go on, and the slight differences in NPC response don't really help much.
Third, the graphics. Now, I'm playing on the Gamecube, and the graphics are very well polished, lighting and water effects are great, but in order to be outstanding they needed a few more tweaks. The camera is zoomed just a bit too far out, the Dragon's wings are a bit too small and his legs too stumpy (if he's a juvenile, somebody say it, please!) and everything slows down after I lay four or five Fire Shields. I understand why it does that, but isn't there a hardware addition of some sort to help compensate for it?
And why, might I ask, does the Drow sorceress start to pole-dance her staff? You can't animate that kind of thing on accident, you know.

In short, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance was a major disappointment for me as a BG fan. I can only hope that the sequel is better.
Nice try, Black Isle - but try again.

Such an incredible disappointment. BG in name only.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 25
Date: November 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

(...) I have gotten hours of enjoyment from Baldur's Gate & Baldur's Gate II for the PC. This game bears no resemblence to them whatsoever. It is purely hack-n-slash. The case claimed "Three customizeable characters." I have no idea what they meant by that. You can be a Human archer, Dwarf fighter, or Human (female) mage. I don't know if stats were pre-programmed or rolled, and I don't care. You can't even pick their names or the color of their clothes. The closest they come to "customizeable" is that when you advance a level you can distribute points to different skills and every fourth level you can add a point to an attribute. But by the time the game is (quickly) over, you should have just about every skill at almost 100% and about 3 points added to different attributes.
This game reminded me of "Diablo" (the first Diablo, the crappy one), without the imagination or "Adventure" for the Atari 2600, with better graphics. It features complete linear progression with no side quests (there are three or four assignments that resemble side quests but are fulfilled entirely in the course of the main quest) and only ten or so NPCs that you can talk to (most of which are in the room where the game begins), three of whom are the people in each area (the whopping THREE areas) from whom you buy and sell stuff. It features a very small city with streets surrounded by buildings you can't enter and filled with people you can't talk to. Anyone who thinks this game resembles D&D at all (asside from the rules, perhaps) must have had a bowl of Jello for a DM (really unimaginative Jello). I could have come up with a more interesting game of D&D rolling my own wandering monsters with a page of blank graph-paper.
I kept playing only because I hoped that it would get better somewhere, it didn't. The last boss was easier than the previous three and the battle with her was over so quickly (hack-heal-hack-heal-hack-slash-slash) that I figured that it was simply an intro into a real battle that I hoped would be the intro into the real game. I was wrong. The game end is a cutscene which at first you hope is going to tell you about the real game awating you but turns out to be foreshadowing of another GameCube Baldur's Gate game. Baldur's Gate for the GameCube came out in 2002 and Baldur's Gate II for the GameCube doesn't yet exist, that should tell you something about the appeal of this game.
If you like hack & slash games, you still shouldn't get this. Black Isle should be ashamed of themselves for putting their name on this product and lowering the quality of an otherwise wonderful Baldur's Gate series.

I spend too much time playing this one

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: February 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The descriptions written by the game's publishers don't praise it enough. Detail of graphics and audio, variation of monsters, ability to play the game different ways (e.g. 3 different characters, choose different skills, play w/ a friend), all make it superb entertainment. I've played it to the end 4 times already, with increasing difficulty it is still 'new' each time.
I hope they port other volumes of this series to GC soon.

One of the best RPG games.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: June 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game, while being somewhat short and simple, is a fun game with very good graphics and is very realistic. Anyone who has read the Forgotten Realms series or enjoys playing RPG, games should consider purchasing this game. It is one of the few games in which you can work together with another player to beat the game. This game can import players from a different file to a new or other game. This means you can take your character and play using that character with a friend on their file. Anytime during the game you can add a second player without having to start at another save point. Also for those who have read the Forgotten Realms: Dark Elf Trilogy, you can enjoy playing the game with Drizzt, the dark elf, by holding the L and R button on the character select screen and release after the game loads. Otherwise you can be an elven sorceress, a human archer, or a dwarven fighter. The game allows you to aquire new skills, grow to higher levels, buy your own arsenal, and customise your own charachter. I highly recommend this game. Unfortunatly, due to the blood and violence it is rated teen.

A MUST HAVE

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: June 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I started this game and didnt stop. with three different charachters to play with, you can play it three times and even on four different difficulties from easy to extreme. Even challenge yourself on the Gauntlet minigame after you have beaten the original. Gain experience and customize your character as you choose. Gain hundreds of weapons such as swords, axes, hammers, spears, halberds, and bows as well as magical armor from leather to full platemail as you progress through the challenging and detailed world of the Sword Coast. Monsters galore! Defeat everything from giant rats to Ice Dragons and Kobolds to Minotaurs. An awesome plotline with a cliffhanger ending that sets up for a great sequel.

Fun Classic D&D Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: January 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is a fun game that brings a lot of the features of classic D&D role playing to the GameCube. It reminds me a lot of classic computer games like Larn with different races and character abilities, experience points, health, and Mana for spells.

I enjoy playing a lot. Your character goes off on quests and meets increasingly difficult foes along the way. It is very addictive and I can play for hours.

The only things that keep this from being a 5-star, can't miss game are the graphics - which have you zoomed out so far you can barely see both the main character and the foes - and the very PC-like look and feel. It doesn't take very good advantage of the GameCube's advanced graphics capability and looks not very different than PC games I played 15 years ago on my 386 with EGA. The very limited attacks - just A button attack, B button cast spell - pale in comparison to even the average Nintendo-64 game.

I would also appreciate a way to tell what kind of monster I am fighting - Giant? Troll? Golem? Who knows? It would add to the story for old D&D-ers.

But with those shortcomings, I do recommend this game and hope they come out with additional GameCube games in the series. When and if they do, I'll be buying. Dark Alliance is faithful in adhering to the D&D genre.

Must own game, but if you have a PS2 or XBox...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: May 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is a fantastic game if you get any enjoyment out of dungeon crawl games, such as Diablo and Dungeon Siege. The fact that two players can play simultaneously through the campaign alone would make it worth buying, and the fantastic graphics, solid gameplay, and ability to customize your character through skills and feats make this game a must own. However, the Game Cube version is arguably the weakest version of this game, which has also been ported to the XBox and PS2. The frame rates, which are constantly maxed out on the other consoles, regularly dip into the jerky range. However, if you only own a GameCube, this is well worth it.

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