You don’t need a new IP to set the standards for other hack-and-slash types of games. Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance may be 20 years old but it’s still a force to be reckoned with. Let’s talk!
Baldur’s gate has been around for 20 years now and a lot of PC players will be familiar with the game. However, a couple of years later, Playstation 2 users were the first players to ever experience a Baldur’s Gate game on their console. From that moment on, different games were influenced by Baldur’s Gate’s immersive story and dungeon crawling. Time flew by fast and Baldur’s Gate 3 is still in Early Access but thanks to this port, people recognize the game again and for those who aren’t familiar with the franchise, this port might be the best way to start.
Let’s be real here, the game isn’t a true remaster as there haven’t been too many graphical changes. It’s a game that has aged decent enough to play and to be nostalgic. However, expect some issues with the game as the developers didn’t address these hiccups in the first place. Bugs like body parts coming through the clothing or even mindless NPC’s running around town will be a “normal” thing during your playthrough of Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance.
“You almost instantly die, even to noob enemies in the beginning.”
The game offers many different difficulty settings. These difficulty settings might be a bit unbalanced as you’ll quickly notice that these different settings show too much difference between them. Easy mode is too easy and a walk in the park but the hard mode is really a tough mode. You almost instantly die, even to noob enemies in the beginning. See this as a warning!
The game is divided into 3 important story arcs. The first chapter is all about fighting monsters in the filthy sewer halls beneath the city of Baldur’s Gate. After that, the party goes into the mountains and they’ll end up in the swamp. Every environment distinguishes itself from the others. The mountains are very plain and dusty while the swamp is a lot more greenery and filled with plants. Each environment has a social hub where the player can accept quests from strangers and buy/ sell items from a central shop. It’s up to the player to choose whether he/she follows the main quest or accepts side quests to learn more about the lore, explore the environment, and even get better gear. If you’re just following the main story quests, there’s a lot of content being lost.
Don’t expect a high-quality story or a party of interesting characters. In the end, the story and characters feel a bit uninspired but I can say that the story offers some thrilling and exciting moments if you play the game long enough. Thank God, you don’t need a story to have fun in a game like this. Whacking your way to the top and scoring top-notch loot, is all we care about in these games. Exploring truly feels rewarding.
“You could be walking around for hours before you actually get to your quest objective.”
Talking about exploring, you’ll sometimes end up in a dungeon, and believe me when these dungeons are huge. Each dungeon offers multiple levels filled with different twists and turns. Of course, there’s a mini-map to help you out but this simplistic map can even be chaotic at times. The map also fades away after a couple of minutes, so the chances of becoming lost are fairly high.
I would have loved to see a more modern quest system where players just needed to accept a quest and find a way to the preserved marker or area. Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance will be good for explorers as the game lacks this kind of modern innovation. You could be walking around for hours before you actually get to your quest objective.
“It’s just a lot of fun when you can level up together and tuning our gear that’ll help us push the way to the top!”
The game does offer a lot of recall potions that can help the players out. It’s an item that lets the player instantly teleport to the nearest town where the friendly neighborhood shop owner will lend you a hand to give you the needed items to heal up before you teleport back to the place where you’ve left off. It’s also good to get the chance to prevent over-encumbering and sell some of the unused found items along the way.
It’s also an amazing feature to play this game alongside a friend but it’s unfortunate that there can only be one friend joining your alliance. The game only supports local co-op with one player, instead of three which would have been more convenient because of the fact that the game offers 3 characters in your party. Hopefully, there will be some changes to it. Still, I’m really content that the game offers a co-op gameplay feature. It’s just a lot of fun when you can level up together and tuning our gear that’ll help us push the way to the top!
Conclusion:
Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance is a decent port but don’t expect some amazing remastered version of the game. The game has been tweaked a little bit graphically but that’s it. A lot of things have stayed the same or even felt missing. They could have added a modern version of the tracking system or even implement some new enemies or quests. Truth be told, the game hasn’t changed a bit, not even the bugs but this isn’t always for the worst. The port stays true to the original game and still offers a fun local co-op game to play. If you haven’t already, this is the time to play the game and experience one of the first dungeon-crawling experiences.
