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Fantastic D&D fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 15
Date: November 25, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game because I was looking for another two-player cooperative game after having played Halo for months, which is an amazing coop game as well as single player. This game allows you to play the entire adventure with two people. The graphics and music are superb. You are allowed to assign the controls any way you like which is a great feature not many games have.

it's a console game...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: December 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Having played Baldur's Gate for the PC, when I picked up this game, I was anticipating the D&D experience -- many character races, tons of spells, highly configurable, optional quests, that kind of thing. When I got into it, still anticipating this would come along even with the limited character choice, I got into the graphics and the easy controls, the interaction with the environment, the jaw-dropping water effects. Finally it dawned on me that this isn't supposed to be a hard-core-gaming RPG, it's a console game. I've had my xbox six months and played a lot of crap -- the xbox is starting to come into its own, but you're really kinda limited when it comes to pc-style games (as opposed to the sports/driving/1st person shooter/stupid game-show parody) that seem to dominate the console). This game is a spectacular, simple, rpg. It's a bit short, but the experience is different with the different characters you can play, so there's some replay value. That's an argument for buying it used, but don't miss one of the good ones for the xbox.

Rebirth On The XBox

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: October 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I saw Baldur's Gate for the PC but never liked the feel and control of the gate. I was a little hesitant to buy it for the Xbox but it was one of the few RPG games out for XBox and RPGs are my ideal type of game.

To my surprise I really enjoyed it.

The game is somewhat linear in the sense that you alway know what to do next as opposed to a open concept were there is no real order of objectives (such a Morrowind). Although this may not appeal to all players I prefer such games because I don't spend all my time gaming and in open concept games I tend to make a lot less progress.

Playing on the Normal difficulty setting the enemies present a challenger without being too extremely difficult to result in massive frustration.

The game is, for the most part, a hack and slash game but does have a small element of Roleplaying to it with interactive character dialogues.

There is a very limited selection of character classes (Fighter, Archer and Mage) but the classes are nicely worked out with ifferent benefits and abilities for each class.

The equipment available in the game is not as extensive as other games (such as Diablo II for the PC) but is still fairly extensive and the game provides good scaling of equipment availability making the characters progress from poor equipment to better equipment.

Best of all, for all you mage lovers, this is one of the first games that I have seen where the magic user can, for the most part, fight by using spells and rely on a weapon as a secondary backup. I love the mage class and in most games the mages are still too dependant on fighting with weapons and only using magic to supplement their attack. Well not in this game, sure you need weapons when you start out but with a little patience you can quickly make a mage that can predominantly fight with spells only.

In my opinion the only thing missing in this game is an way to swap cash between players and the ability to play the game over XBox Live.

All in all I really enjoyed this game and would recommend it to any who likes RPG games.

A great hack-n-slash dungeon crawl for the Xbox

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: August 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance has already been released for the PS2 months earlier, but this doesn't mean that the newly, ported version to the Xbox video game console should be ignored. Developer Snowblind Studios has seemlessly ported the PS2 version over to the Xbox and, using the Xbox's higher graphical processing power, made the game look even better. But graphics alone doesn't make a great a fun and great time for a gamer. This Xbox port also includes the great gameplay of the original PS2 version. The intuitive and easy-to-use control scheme remains intact.

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance still allows a player to choose between three different types of player characters. One can either choose to be a dwarf warrior, a human ranger, or an elfin sorceress. Each type of character has their own advantages and disadvantages and all three could be used to go through the game and finish it. Though I learned after doing so that the best class to pick would be the elfin sorceress. Her high level of magic spells available to her in addition to being able to have some success using a melee weapon makes her slightly better overall. And for the prurient minded gamers out there, the elfin sorceress could be seen in all her near-nakedness glory in the menu-system.

The 3/4 top down viewpoint of the fight makes it easy for th eplayer not to be surprised by enemies and traps as he goes from one dungeon, cave system and, at time, overland area to the next. Similar to Blizzard's Diablo, BG:DA is pretty much the same game as that hack and slash, but using the 3rd edition rules of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and its world of the Forgotten Realms. The city of Baldur's Gate and the surrounding region of the Sword Coast are done beautifully by the Snowblind developers. From the deep, underground mine tunnel complexes of the dwarves to the festering, swamp area of Chelimber.

The enemies are designed well and pretty much follows the description of the creatures in the many Forgotten Realms game books and novels. Whether its Umber Hulks, beholders, giants, displacer beasts, etc...the developers did their job well in bringing these varied and dangerous creatures of Faerun to life in BG:DA. Even the many different races introduced and used in the game follows their description in the FR books and guides. The dwarves speak with a heavy Scottish brogue, while elves, both high and dark speak in a high and might English-manner. The voice-acting in this game is also top-notch and I would say some of the best video game VA ever. There's not a false note with any of the spoken dialogue and that just makes the game much more immersive.

Overall, Interplay and Snowblind Studios' Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is a great looking and very fun game to play. It's not as deep and rich as the straight-up rpg that the PC games int he series were well-known for. What Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance does bring is the themes and storytelling of the PC games but in a much more simple, hack and slash dungeon-crawl a la Diablo and Dungeon Siege. For those with an Xbox, but not a PS2 then I suggest they go out and get this game. They won't be disappointed.

fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Okay heres the deal.. if your looking for regular pc baldur gate type game.. then this might not be what your looking for. But its still tons and tons of fun. Just finished playing it 2 player style with my roomate, and with all the fighting over the gold and weapons that drop, and allies dying, I had never laughed so much in my life. You might think that the graphics are terrible, but that will suprise you, when you have a fire sword that mysteriously turns into fire whenever a monster appears, or many other items that are just cool. Give it a chance, you will like it. It might not be what you expect, but still loads of fun.

AWSOME

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: August 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is fun and good for 2 players.It has exceptionaly good graphics.3 diferent levels of gameplay easy,medium, and hard.3 different caracters to choose from:Archer, Dwarf, and scorceres.There is a large solection of weapons including;mourning stars,bows,axes, and warhammers.you can upgrade ur character to make his or hers skills better and more powerful.

One of the best multi-player games I've played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Like another reviewer already said this game rental turned into a purchase. We rented this game for two consecutive weeks before we purchased it.

I was not a big fan of Boulder Gate, but I am a hugh of D&D and RPG's. We had so much fun in this game the graphics a incredibly realistic and the sound is unbelieveable. The controler are very easy to manuver. We purchased the original Boulder Gate for PC and was quite dissappointed. Nothing in compairson to X-BOX version.

Even after finishing the game I started my single player game and am almost done with it. The option of importing characters from previous games make this game more diversified.

I would difenatly recommed this game to anyone who likes RPG's

Excellent - for what it is.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First, I have to admit that I've been out of gaming since atari and early nintendo 1990's. So I may be easily impressed.

Dark Alliance - the drageons, characters, exploration, buying, etc really appealed to me.

I found this to be an exploration type game and destroy everything you could. Yes, you had to do certain things, but I wouldn't have considered them puzzles. The most difficult part of the game was getting over these floating stone circles.

The ablity to upgrade and tryout new armour, weapons, and powers also drew me into this game. What would this do - burn or turn them to ice! For the scale of the game, the graphics were cool and detailed. However, I would have liked to see this world up closer.

If I had any complaints, it would be that towards the end - you felt like everything became repetative and the ending disappointing. I would have liked more puzzles. And, as I found out - circling your enemies was the easiest way to defeat them. The ending was, well, short - I would have expected some sort of 5 minute clip of celebration, reward ceremony, etc at Baldur's Gate.

Recommendation - I would suspect that hardcore gamers would find this simplistic and I bet they have already buzzed through it. However, being a beginner and moving to controllers with more buttons - its a nice dive into a world that kept me coming back and wanting more.

Suprisingly good, one of the best of its genre

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I picked up a copy of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance not too long ago (yah, I know it has been out for a while). Anyway, found the game surprisingly good and much better than expected.

In case you haven't read any of the other reviews or are completely confused, this game is typical hack-and-slash. You guide your charachter from an overhead perspective and control their attacks, blocks and magics. There is little in the way of skill needed here, which is refreshing in its own right. You have only three charachters to select from (Elven Sorceress, Human Archer and Dwarven Rogue), which was my first complaint. Each plays roughly the same, though they have slightly different starting stats and their list of spells/feats (which can be purchased when you level up) are different.

The game uses the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game ruleset, but takes a lot of liberties with it. But for fans of DnD you will see spells, feats and classes you recognize. The use of the DnD rules is not without its flaws though, and of most note is the flaw in the way armor works in this game (or doesn't work). As you improve your armor don't expect to take any less damage when you get hit, it doesn't work that way and armor doesn't absorb any damage. What the armor does is make it harder (supposedly) for enemies to hit you in the first place (yah, you will see them swing at you and have it deal no damage, or you swing at them and see your weapon slice them but don't deal any damage). While this sounds good, the problem is that the enemies you are going up against in the early stages of the game can hit you 99% of the time even with the best armor you could find at that point. In the later stages, the enemies will hit you no matter what, you simply can't get your armor high enough to cause them any concern - the developers of the game actually released a statement acknowledging this. Oh well, you do have a manual block (provided you are using melee weapons) and it works pretty well against most attacks except those of bosses. All armor does is make you look cool and take up a huge chunk of your limited carrying capacity.

Graphically the game looks really good, the colors are clear and vibrant and your charachter model looks good and usually stands out nicely from the surroundings. As you change your equipment you will notice that it reflects on your charachter. Magical weapons also have a nice blue shine and as enemies near some will burst into flame or something similar. The enemies as well look really, really well done, and again, if you are familiar with DnD you will recognize them. The visual representation of your spells is also very well done with bright colors, dancing flames and showers of magical energy - nice! When you strike an opponents you will be rewarded with blood spatter, and smaller enemies like rats can be cut clean in half. Spiders also goo nicely (and can be pretty creepy to anyone who happens to not like spiders).

The gameplay is smooth, no glitches, and the controls are easy. Spell management is a little cumbersome as you have to use the direction pad to scroll through your list of spells/feats to find the one you want to use for the current situation, but simply pressing the B button uses the selected spell, and A delivers your attack. Switching between close and ranged weapons is very simple (press a direction on the D-pad) and pressing the other direction turns the automap on and off. As far as the map is concerned you don't really need it because the game pretty much uses invisible barriers, stones, walls, green foilage, ravines and what have you to keep your from exploring out of the desired area. In all respects the game is extrememly linear, but as you are basically playing for the hack-and-slash aspect, that is not too bad. And you can also have a friend control a second charachter on the screen, which adds to the fun.

As far as sound, that is never too much of a big deal for me, but the voice acting in this game is fine, the spells, blows and weapon effects sound great for the most part, and I didn't really notice the background music, so obviously it isn't a probem either.

I did give the game 5 stars, but it does have some flaws. The graphics are nice and the levels are laid out ok, but not great. And they re-use a lot of the texture tiles and what have you, so in that respect some of the areas have similiar appearance to what you would expect to see on the super nintendo with the same brick tile pattern repated every so many inches (most annoying when you are outdoors and they reuse trees and rock formations). Also, as I mentioned, there are only 3 classes to play as, and each one is somewhat limited in their spells and feats. For example, as the Sorceress I found only a few of the spells to be worth investing in and none of them did more damage than a fine sword and a lot of them take a pretty good amount of magical energy to cast for only a limited effect. Using ranged weapons and spells can also be aggravating as it is not always easy to tell exactly where your character is facing, so they will miss a few times while you try and line them up. This gets harder when you are farther away from your target, or trying to fire diagnally.

Overall I really enjoyed this game. There are a few aggravating spots (like jumping across tiles that fall out from under you) but overall very fun and a great way to burn away the time. If you overlooked it before, give it a try.

Very great RPG!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: November 30, 2002
Author: Amazon User

When my freind introduced this game to me I thought it was the most complicated game! When I got into it the adventure and the monsters they had in the game it was the greatest!!They have an great story to go with it you have to buy this game and see what I mean!!!!You will become a fan very quickly,(EDIT) but it is short I'm still waiting for the seqal, Brandon and I finished it in 17 hours, but just because we where going for a record of my house! Love the hack and slash with plenty of weapons and armor and places. So I'm not changing my ratings though. I always play as the Dwarven (Dwarf) Fighter, he is awsome Always use the Bull Rush!

Sincerily,
Snow Leapord

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