by:	May 28, 2004

When the original Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance was released, I don’t think anyone could have predicted how popular its engine would be. Other games have already been released using it, and more are still to come. However, this is the only game that actually returns players to Baldur’s Gate. Does it do anything to distinguish itself from the others, and does it really matter?

In many sequels, players resume the role of the character they used in the first go-round. Although role-playing games are the genre where you play the biggest part in the development of your character, they are also the genre that most often breaks that mold. In Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, you could play as a warrior, a ranger, or a sorcerer. That is, someone who hits things, someone who shoots things, and someone who runs away a lot. Oh, and casts spells. OK, I admit it - I played as a sorcerer.

When it comes to Dark Alliance II (DA2), though, you don’t have any of those choices. Instead, you play a character who was on their way to do something about the evil menacing Baldur’s Gate in the original game, but who got there too late and now needs to rescue the original heroes. To make things worse, it turns out that the original heroes unwittingly helped the villain of DA2 by offing the villain in the first game. In a genre full of overused plot devices like amnesia and the random village dweller that turns out to be the prophesied savior of the world, this is a nice change.

In DA2, you can choose from five characters, all pre-built. There is a dwarven ranger, who can learn skills that allow him to do things like place mines and throw bombs. There is a human cleric, who can learn to call down “holy fire” to burn her enemies and who can heal herself and allies. There is an elf who’s a necromancer, who can call up a skeleton to fight for him, and who can cast some spells on his enemies to steal their health or otherwise weaken them. If you’re looking for someone with amnesia who gets to run away a lot, this is your guy, as he’s the closest thing to a traditional spellcaster you’ll see in DA2. There’s a dark elf fighter - a ninja type - who can learn to be pretty effective without any weapons. Finally, there’s the obligatory generic barbarian tank. You can probably make it through the game with any of them, but your choice of character really determines how much fun you’ll have while doing so.

DA2 is basically a hack-n-slash RPG, and the action takes place in real-time. You can access your inventory at any time, and when you do, the action pauses. The controls support this structure very well: A serves as the attack button for whichever weapon you’re using at the moment, B casts your currently selected spell, Y jumps (although that’s not often needed), and X is a generic “action” button. Tapping L on the d-pad cycles the level map from large to small to off, and R changes you between weapon sets. This is a pretty cool feature, which allows you to equip three sets of weapons in your inventory at any time: a ranged weapon, a two-handed weapon, and either one single-handed weapon and a shield or two single-handed weapons. If you opt to dual-wield the one handers, you’ll need to put some skill points into dual-wielding or you’ll suffer some pretty hefty penalties to damage and your chance to hit. Up and down on the d-pad let you cycle through the active skills and spells you’ve learned, and as mentioned, B casts the currently active skill/spell.