Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

The console versions of Dark Alliance are a mixture of the action / RPG and hack and slash genres, made in three-dimensional graphics with a top view and a rotating camera, tilted by three quarters ^[6] .

First, the player selects a character of a certain class from three available options: dwarf fighter Cromlech, human archer Van, or elf sorceress Adrianna ^[10] . Each hero has his own set of characteristics (strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, physique, charisma), skills and magic spells ^[11] . Depending on the character chosen, the gameplay changes dramatically, offering the player different fighting styles: Cromlech, who has high strength and health, is well suited for close-range combat, using the bow and arrows, Van attacks enemies from afar, while the witch Adrianna relies on magic in spells, spells fire, ice and lightning, can bring meteor shower on the enemy ^[12] . During the passage, the selected character earns experience points , grows in level, which leads to an increase in his personal characteristics and the emergence of new abilities. To strengthen his character, the player can also use various weapons, armor and objects ^[13] .

The gameplay proceeds linearly , for further advancement it is necessary to carry out the main plot tasks in strict sequence. There are optional quests, but each such quest must be accepted and completed during one specific act. At locations from time to time there are non-player characters with whom the hero can interact to receive new tasks. HUD-interface displays on the screen the scale of lives, mana and gained experience, it is possible to display a mini-map ^[14] .

In addition to the single-player mode, the Dark Alliance provides a cooperative mode for playing together. At the same time, both characters are displayed on one screen - a restriction has been introduced on how far one character can move away from the other. In a cooperative, the player who finishes the enemy gains 60% of the experience, while his partner is given 40%, but the gold that has fallen from the enemy is completely transferred to the person who picked it up ^[11] .

The game offers four difficulty levels: "Easy", "Normal", "Complex" and "Extreme". The last level opens only after the full passage of the game and the completion of the special location The Gauntlet, where Drizzt Do'Urden acts as a game character ^[15] . Passing the extreme mode adds Drizzt as an accessible character in the main story ^{[16] [17]} .

The portable version for Game Boy Advance in terms of gameplay is somewhat different from the original versions. Here the player is deprived of the opportunity to choose a character for himself, only a male person is present, but for him you can still choose a class: fighter, sorcerer or archer (after completing the game, another class “elven archer” opens). If in the original it was possible to load your character for subsequent walkthroughs, then there is no such function here - each time the player is forced to start with the base character. In the portable version there is no cooperative mode, but the city is more interactive, there is the opportunity to talk with many NPCs, go into houses, interact with objects of the environment. The city is divided into North and South, while the southern region is not available at the beginning of the game. Some additional side quests have been introduced. The character cannot jump. Potions are excluded from the gameplay, allowing you to return from the dungeon to the city and back. There is an opportunity at any time to save the game through the pause menu, in-game save points are much less common, mainly in front of act bosses ^{[18] [19]} .

The game takes place on the Coast of Swords and in the Western Lands of the Fairunn continent in the Forgotten Realms universe . The plot is divided into three acts, and each act takes place in a separate region: the Gate of Baldur, Sunset Mountain, Swamp Shelimber.

At the beginning of the story, the main characters Van, Adrianna and Cromlech arrive in the city of Baldur's Gate, where they are immediately attacked by a group of thieves led by Karna (voiced by Michael Bell ). They are in mortal danger, but the situation is resolved by the city guard who came to the rescue, who sends the wanderers to the local tavern. Here, barmaid Eilit Elendara ( Jennifer Hale ) helps them get hold of money by offering a job - cleaning the basement of the tavern from rats. Going down to the basement, the characters discover that a gang of thieves uses underground sewer paths to move freely around the city. One of the employees of the tavern Eaton follows the thieves into the sewer and disappears, the heroes at the request of Eilith agree to find him. During Eaton’s rescue, the squad finds itself in nearby crypts , where one of the criminals took refuge. On the way, they meet the priest Ilmater Fayed ( Kam Clark ) with a request to stop the "Undead Ball", which filled the dungeon with skeletons and zombies. Heroes destroy the ball and find out that behind its activation there is a group of thieves known as the Xantham Guild. Eaton introduces the characters to Jerec ( John Rhys-Davis ), a member of the Harpers fighting evil. Impressed by their skills, he invites them to join his organization and tackle the liquidation of the Xantham Guild. The heroes agree, and Jerec shows them the entrance to the lair of the guild in the sewers. Having overcome a series of traps and obstacles, the detachment meets Karna and kills him, after which he goes to the guild leader, beholder Xantham ( Tony Jay ). He reports that the guild is actually only a small part of something larger. Having defeated the monster, the heroes, at the request of Jerec, follow the portal guarded by Xantham.

The portal takes the characters to the Mountains of Sunset, they fall into the small dwarf mining village, which is at war with the dark drow elves. The signal light kindled on top of the mountain allows you to call for help dwarves from neighboring clans, then the events are transferred to the mines, where there are multiple battles with the elven aggressors. Having defeated the drow priestess, the heroes save the dwarven harper, who informs them of the existence of another portal in the mountains. Also, according to him, the enemies are going to use the portals to attack the Gate of Baldur from the inside. The portal is protected by the dragon of Syraxis, the party defeats him and goes inside.

In the Swamp, Shelimber is greeted with heroes by Sleivas ( Kevin Michael Richardson ), a representative of a local tribe of cannibals. He tells them about the Onyx Tower and the Eldritch the Traitor ( Vanessa Marshall ) hiding there, who vowed to take revenge on the Gate of Baldur. He also reports that members of his tribe, led by Raptor Sesst, are in the service of the Eldrit. Trinity follows through the swamps, defeating the army of lizards and defeating Sesst himself. Next, Slavas takes them to the Onyx Tower, which can only be reached through the spontaneous water plan. Inside, the heroes overcome hordes of soldiers and on the penultimate floor they meet the ghost of Keledon ( Dwight Schultz ), a former colleague of Eldrit. He explains that the Eldrit in the past faithfully served the Gate of Baldur, in battles with the Black Horde she gained a reputation as the greatest general. Once, during the defense of the city, she began to pursue the retreating Horde troops in violation of orders, but did not calculate her strength and found herself with her squad trapped in the gorge. The military commander sent a request for reinforcements to the city, but help did not come, and her army was eventually defeated. With the remaining troops, Eldrit attacked the Gates of Baldur in a rage, but here too was defeated. City soldiers chased her to the Sheliber Bolot and killed her here, however, her fury was so high that Eldrit somehow returned to life and captured the Onyx Tower, where she gained access to the portals. Seeking retaliation, all this time she planned a massive attack on the Gate of Baldur, joining a dark alliance with the Xantham guild, drow elves and the Sessta tribe. According to Keledon, a victory over the Eldrites will lead to the destruction of the Tower and the liberation of all ghosts languishing here, while the heroes most likely will not be able to get out of here alive. Despite the warning, the characters nevertheless rise to the top and defeat the antagonist - she repents of her actions before death and apologizes. The tower begins to crumble, and the heroes desperate enter the portal located here, not knowing where he will lead them.

After the destruction of the Onyx Tower, the true intentions of Slavas are revealed: he insidiously used heroes to eliminate Eldrites on the orders of his mysterious master. The lizard reports to the owner that the heroes died in the tower, and Eldrit no longer interferes with the implementation of the plans. At the same time, a trinity of characters is in an unknown forest and is immediately attacked by some dark creatures. At this cliffhanger, the game ends.

For the first time, the development of the Dark Alliance became known in November 2000, when representatives of Interplay Entertainment told IGN that the port of the original Baldur's Gate for the Dreamcast set-top box was canceled, and a new game for PlayStation 2 based on Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn was launched . There was little information about the new project, it was only reported that the developers of the original BioWare did not participate in production, the game was given to the development of Snowblind Studios ^{[20] [21]} . The official announcement of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance took place in February 2001. Fergus Urkhart , production director at Black Isle Studios , announced the high hopes placed on the game, as well as that their project will appeal to both console players and RPG lovers. Snowblind director Ryan Geytman added that the game is being developed from scratch to maximize the full potential of PlayStation 2 ^[22] . Later in April, Interplay management promised to immediately begin creating a sequel if the first part is successful ^[23] .

The game was first shown at E3 in May 2001. The IGN observer present there wrote a very positive review about her, noting the highest quality graphics and expressing the opinion that soon the Dark Alliance would become one of the most coveted games among all owners of PlayStation 2 ^[24] .

In development, the new Dark Alliance Engine was used, created specifically for this game and subsequently used for several other PS2 games, such as Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel ^[25] and The Bard's Tale ^[26] . The engine allows you to maximize the implementation of a more advanced PS2 graphics processor than previous platforms, allows you to bring dynamic lighting, real-time shadow display, three-dimensional character models and environments to the game ^[27] .

In November, the publisher stated that the game was almost ready and would be released soon ^[28] . The release took place on December 4 in North America and December 14 in Europe ^{[29] [30]} .

Porting

In the wake of the success of the PlayStation 2 version in May 2002, Interplay announced the creation of a port for the Xbox , which is being developed by Snowblind ^{[31] [32] [33]} . Later that month, a demo was released, while the release itself took place on October 22 ^{[34] [35]} .

In September 2002, a version for the GameCube was announced by High Voltage Software ^{[36] [37] [38]} , the game was released on November 20 ^[39] .

Finally, in February 2004, DSI Games released a version for the Game Boy Advance portable platform. The port was created by the Magic Pockets team ^[18] .

Interplay's management also considered porting the game to a personal computer , Fergus Urkhart and David Perry contacted the Polish CD development team Projekt , which was just known for its work in the field of PC games. Sebastian Zelinsky, who had previously collaborated with Interplay as the publisher of his Mortyr game, was appointed project manager , while Adam Borovsky, who had previously been involved in the storyboard of feature films, was hired. Development tools were sent from London to Poland, and work on the port began. However, literally immediately Interplay announced the cancellation of development ^[40] .

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance has been warmly received by critics on all four platforms. Based on an analysis of 29 reviews, Metacritic gave the PlayStation 2 version a score of 87 points out of 100 ^[53] , the Xbox version received 83 points based on 25 reviews ^[54] , the GameCube version received 79 points based on 10 reviews ^[52] , version for Game Boy Advance - 76 points based on 17 reviews ^[51] .

The game was a commercial success, for stationary consoles more than a million copies were sold ^[57] . In 2001, she was awarded the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences , winning the “Best Role-Playing Game” nomination - she bypassed such a venerable favorite as Final Fantasy X ^[55] . The IGN portal in its list of the hundred best games for the PlayStation 2 placed the Dark Alliance in 66th place ^[58] .

Reviews

• David Smith. Review (PlayStation 2 ) . IGN (December 3, 2001). Date of treatment January 29, 2011. Archived March 17, 2012.
• Gerald Villoria. Review (PlayStation 2 ) . GameSpot (November 27, 2001). Date of treatment January 29, 2011. Archived March 17, 2012.