...
The amount of time theediscerning spent playing Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance was extended by some right b**t**d carefully erasing every saved game from the memory card as a hobby. He should, as the title of this op suggests, learn to stop playing with things he doesn't understand.
That ... Read review
Billed as the role-playing game for people that didn't like role-playing games, the ... more
originalBaldur's Gate: Dark Alliancewas a surprise smash in 2003; now the sequel,Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II, is here to carry on the good fight--almost literally, ...
Postage & Packaging: £1.94 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Baldur's Gate is in turmoil, and only you can stop the war that could drown the Sword ... more
Coast in blood. This strategy guide, written with the full support of the game's developer, shows you the way to vengeance and truth. Comprehensive walkthroughs, step-by-step walkthroughs and maps help you master every level and find secret areas.
TheBaldur's Gateseries redefined and reinvigorated the PC role-playing scene, and now ... more
Interplay brings it to next-gen consoles. But don't be fooled; this isn't a traditional role-playing game, but rather a fun, wall-to-wall action hack-'n'-slash adventure in the mould carved byGauntletand the storiedDiabloseries--one that nonetheless conforms to the third Edition AdvancedDungeons&Dragonsruleset.The game casts you as one of three basic characters: an elf sorceress, a human archer or a dwarf fighter. And from there you're set free inside a hugeDungeons&Dragonsworld replete with dungeons, forests, ice caves and much more. Naturally, it's filled to the brim with horrible monsters, wicked traps, treasures and fabled magical weapons. As you go, you're constantly rewarded with new weaponry, new monsters to fight and experience points you can put into your character stats to get even more powerful. You can swap equipment in an inventory "paper-doll" screen, which are reflected in your onscreen character, so you'll start with simple weapons and a drab look but look like a big, mean superhero by the end of the game.The graphics are simply wonderful and the controls are accurate, responsive and fun to use--necessary for the constant hacking and slashing required. It gets all the more fun when you recruita buddy and play the game in cooperative mode. --Bob Andrews
Postage & Packaging:£1.94 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: Fun game for all with semi-violent tendencies Disadvantages: Might not be as big or varied as it could be
...of time theediscerning spent playing Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance was extended by some right b**t**d carefully erasing every saved game from the memory card as a hobby. He should, as the title of this op suggests, learn to stop playing with things he doesn't understand.
That rule wouldn't apply to us ciaoers, as we can simply understand Dark Alliance, and enjoy it right from the off. Put simply, one has to control one of three players ... ...start in a tavern in Baldur's Gate, and immediately are given a mission from the owners. There are some nasty rats in the cellars, and you have to kill them. Well that's a cinch, so back you go, find more people to talk to ~ there's a drunk who might be interested in a special bottle you may have found down there ~ and more errands.
As soon as you clear the cellars, some idiot tavern owner goes down there and gets sucked into a peculiar ... more
The pallid appearance of theediscerning these days is not just down to the fact that the recent heatwave (nee summer) was too hot for sunbathing. No, it may have something to do with the fact that he has been immersed underground (mostly), guiding a dwarf to riches and baddies beyond his imagination (the dwarf's, not theed's).
The amount of time theediscerning spent playing Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance was extended by some right b**t**d carefully erasing every saved game from the memory card as a hobby. He should, as the title of this op suggests, learn to stop playing with things he doesn't understand.
That rule wouldn't apply to us ciaoers, as we can simply understand Dark Alliance, and enjoy it right from the off. Put simply, one has to control one of three players through a wide spread of locations, smashing vases, boxes and urns in search of loot, and pasting hundreds of bad creatures to the wall in (small) spurts of blood.
It is a shame that you cannot fast-forward the more annoying of the two opening movies ~ when will games designers realise they're not making Hollywood product? But after that you are your chosen character, a lass from the elvish kingdom with some good spells, a human archer, or theediscerning's favourite, a fat dwarf with a couple of cool special attacks and a capacity to bring the most loot back with him once the killing's done.
You start in a tavern in Baldur's Gate, and immediately are given a mission from the owners. There are some nasty rats in the cellars, and you have to kill them. Well that's a cinch, so back you go, find more people to talk to ~ there's a drunk who might be interested in a special bottle you may have found down there ~ and more errands.
As soon as you clear the cellars, some idiot tavern owner goes down there and gets sucked into a peculiar metaphorical maelstrom of evil, thieves and a hilarious baddy with lots of eyes. So you then have to go and rescue him. And so it goes, until after a while you have done enough of the tasks that you find yourself in a completely different zone of the world.
This has a bearing on how you play the game. For while near the Elfsong Tavern you can always return there (by foot or by magic potions you find often), and use it as haven, and trade any weapons, armour and gems you find with a verbose fat bloke in the corner.
Once past all the thieves and their assorted baddies, you are now in a different area, outside in the open, and you cannot "recall" to safety. Luckily the game has been made very user-friendly in the amount of save points around the lansdscape.
The whole Dark Alliance experience is user-friendly, though. The controls are simple ~ one stick for moving you, one for moving the camera, when that option is available, one button to attack with your weapon of choice, and so on. It will get a bit more fiddly when you develop more magical skills and wish to toggle between them mid-fight, but all the same, this is a simple game to pick up.
After the initial rats, things progress to manic half-chicken, half-monkey things, and then much bigger blighters to demolish. And while some of the baddies are just silly (lethal blobs of jelly, anyone?), on the whole they are great to look at and satisfying to kill, while the progression in difficulty is perfect.
The system is that used in the old Dungeons and Dragons games, so you gain experience in a decent way, and can add to your skills in a sort of shop too, buying more strength, dexterity, magical or physical health, and so on. This makes your character more rounded, and more capable of fending off the later baddies. The weapons are shown with their hit points aside them, and you can turn on an option to see your damage points fly off the baddies, just as if you were stuck in a student lounge rolling 20-sided dice all night.
The game looks as well as it plays, with lots of varied locations, from the muted blues of the (very hygienic-looking) sewers to the very sparkly ice caves. All the creatures are well-defined, and the graphics are perfectly smooth, and have excellent collision detection ~ never does it appear you are walking through a wall, or getting hit by something half a screen inch away from you.
The music is good too, with some stirring bits, and some eerie patches too. The conversations get longer as one goes through (does that lizard bloke *ever* shut up, or tell you anything of importance?!) but there is never much delay, and this is not a slow loader either.
So what is there to fault? Well, the game is very linear. Do this, then you're given that for going there, to do the other. Yes you can just find the spice box and give it to the intended recipient (if you spot her in the Tavern, that is!) before talking to her, but the errands have to be done in order.
And having smashed the Orb (giving nothing away, worry not) you then have to walk through all the sewers to try and find the secret door to the thieves' realms, which is a bit annoying.
Also, the game is purely hack 'n' slash, really, with very little in the way of puzzles to work out (although how the ice dragon appears to be three levels down inside a mountain when last seen flying around outside might be one). There's a fiddly arcade thingy with platforms at one stage, but again, heaps of save points to this can be soon forgotten.
There are, as with most (if not all) games of this sort, several 'boss' monsters to get rid of ~ at one point, one after the other. These can take more than a couple of tries each, especially that b**ch at the end, but the satisfaction is well worth the effort when they have been cleared.
It has been said that when you have completed the game, which you should do eventually, 'what next'? And that criticism is true. The euphoria of killing Elspeth, or whatever she's called, might not be high enough if you don't realise she is the ultimate baddy in the game, and even if you do, a lot of impact is lost by the dumb movie that follows. Also the fun of looking at your characters without their clothes or armour on is limited, even with the dwarf.
But, completing the game unlocks The Gauntlet, where you play a new character with much better weaponry and a voice like Ewan McGregor playing English, and a timed 15-minute challenge ahead of him. Do that and you unlock a *very* hard level of play, one where each initial rat can kill you, and take about 5 minutes each to slice. Not easy.
But would you wish to go through the whole lot again? Probably not if you weren't as keen, or as inexperienced in this type of game, as theediscerning. As said, he didn't actually mind having to back-track because of some blighter's ignorance.
The two-player option is very good, too. Play with 2 of the three characters together, contrasting skills (the archer with dwarf was what theed and B chose), and having double the killing fun. Experience from kills is shared nearly equally, players can swap finds and carry more, so fewer shopping trips, and when one dies the other simply retreats to the last save, and brings the deceased back to life, albeit at half-strength. Here the graphics can be patchy at updating the landscape, but not to the detriment of the play.
There are also the cheats available from a simple google search, to unlock the Gauntlet character for play ~ just watch those big blighters drop now! ~ or to make you invincible. You might also wish to repeat so you can experiment with other spells and skills ~ theediscerning's dwarf carried a warhammer with him half the journey but never got round to using the special attack with it (too scared to not use his shield, mostly...).
It took the two discerning players just over 12 mission hours to do the whole Dark Alliance world, but they would never claim to be excellent players anyway. They got a lot of enjoyment, frustration at being killed so easy, and satisfaction from the game, and learnt to take out the memory card after each long evening's session.
For an inexperienced hack 'n' slasher, this game goes very well with the hash 'n' slacker lifestyle, and it's not too gorey or scary for the younger gamer either, as if anyone is worried by that these days... Should you have a bigger knowledge of PS2 games, you might be a little jaded by the small scale of the game, or lack of variation, but this player gives the Dark Alliance a very bright 5 stars.
Advantages: Co-op mode, loads of action Disadvantages: Loading times, repetitive
---Baldurs Gate:Dark Alliance---
---Platinum £20---
---Most game stores---
--Introduction--
I have been playing the Baldurs gate games since they came out on P.C and this is a major change since the older versions. Instead of point and click to move, you just use your analoge and control 1 person instead of a whole party now. The control system is very easy to use, but taking on larger monsters require skill over button bashing.
--Gameplay--
... ...the way through, you have to block sometimes to avoid bigger monsters killing you. You can heal yourself with the L2 and R2 buttons, as long as you have Mana Potions and Health Potions which I found useful so you dont need to keep pressing start to get to your equipment and "use" the potion. There are 3 playable characters, a human archer, a dwarf, and an elf, which are the most common races, however, unlike the other baldurs gates, you can't create ...
ng123 09.04.2004
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2)
Advantages: Excellent graphics and sound, fun to play Disadvantages: Not an indepth RPG, short and linear plot.
Over the last few years I have been very impressed with the Baldur’s Gate series on the PC. Despite many serious flaws with the PC version, it remains perhaps one of the best RPGs to hit the PC and satisfies ardent AD&D fans with the attention to detail and the use of the third generation AD&D rules.
Inevitably, a PS2 game based in the Baldur’s Gate world was released. The developers, realizing that the PC is the platform for ‘serious’ strategy ... ...the PS2. On the PC, a thorough understanding of the AD&D rules, and the advantages and disadvantages of each class and race, really enhanced the game, giving it a true RPG feel. However, perhaps realizing that the PS2 audience was perhaps more inclined to forget about the ‘nitty gritty’ and really want to play the game, the developers changed the way the game was played.
Interplay simplified many of the RPG elements to the game, leaving the player ...
SimonCook 28.01.2003
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2)
Advantages: Addictive Disadvantages: Too Addictive
Its not very often these days that I get into any kind of video game but every now and again one comes along that you just can’t put down. The most recent was Balders Gate Dark Alliance for the PS2, which cost me £39.99 from Blockbuster. Dark Alliance is a role-play game for either one or two players; it was the first Dungeons and Dragons game to be released on the PS2. Balders Gate is a city based in the world of Abeir Toril.
The game begins ... ...one of the greatest Generals of the Sword Coast. Following many victories defending Balders Gate, she had come to see the city much as her own. One day the city was attacked by the Horde, Eldrith and her troops just about managed to drive them away, but this was not enough for her and she wanted to go after them. The Dukes of the city refused her to do so, as they and the people wanted no more fighting. Eldrith defied the Dukes and took with her ...
jackie-b 27.04.2002
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2)
Advantages: Looks pretty, fun and accessible, some nice touches, good voice-acting Disadvantages: Lack of variety, not long enough, rather linear
It seems the success of Baldur’s Gate as a console game has proven a slow-burner – though it has been a hit on the PC, I only recall reading about the console iteration in passing when it was ported to the PlayStation2 in 2001. Though reviews were of a good-not-great nature, the game certainly seems to have gained something of a following in the years following its release. Never one to miss an opportunity, I borrowed a copy of the game ... ...fuss was about. Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance (BG:DA) is in many ways like a modern-day cross between Golden Axe and Diablo. On the one hand, you’ve got the sword ‘n’ sorcery based button-bashing of SEGA’s ageing classic, as well as the choice between a well-balanced male fighter, a female Sorceress and a physically-powerful dwarf – sound at all familiar? The Diablo comparisons will be clearer to PC gamers; most ...
tom1clare 13.08.2006
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2)
Advantages: Beautiful Graphics and animation Disadvantages: Repetitive gameplay, short plot
...the most obvious accomplishment of Baldur's gate:Dark Alliance are its excellent 3D graphics. The camera is rotable 360 degrees and the level of detail in the objects is amazing, ranging from realistic water ripples to hugely detailed landscapes. This game features a great two player mode reminiscent of games such as Gauntlet. The action takes place across a variety of terains including desserts, forest, swamps and dungeons. There are a huge collection ... ...can be found in the deepest dungeons and unexpected boxes. This really adds to the addictiveness of the game as i felt compelled to search every corner of the map for the ultimate weapons. The main limitations of this game has to be the plot and more importantly its length. I know a sequel is being developed but that does not excuse the shortness of this game compared to competitors such as the PC's Diablo 2. It took me around 15 hours to complete ...
dan2bad4u 04.07.2003
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2)
Gameplay/Playability
Graphics
Sound
Value for Money
Similar reviews »
Reviews which might be of interest for "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2)"
Advantages: Story & co-operative game play Disadvantages: Very hard ending
This is the follow-up to the first PS2 instalment ?BaldursGate: DarkAlliance? and continues in the same vein as a Role Playing Game set in the Sword & Sorcery style, with several of the original characters making guest appearances.
It is set in and around the city of BaldursGate, a large mythical land set back in the annals of time and full of magicians, barbarians, goblins and wolves amongst many other mystical beasts. This game continues on from the first storyline which saw you as the victor destroying the black tower of a fallen but once mighty warrior, Eldrith the Betrayer. Basically in this one some rather naughty people want to rebuild the black tower right smack bang in the middle of the city and your job is to stop them via an extensive number of quests.
You can play as one of five new characters: a female Cleric (good ...
Advantages: Great graphics, improved items, new characters, great mutliplayer. Disadvantages: Repetitive Gameplay, odd glitches.
Five new adventurers arrive at Baldur?sGate after the defeat of Eldrith the Betrayer in Baldur?sGate 1. Each has a background to explore and allies within the city. Despite being told that there is no work for adventurers, they quickly find themselves sent on quests and eventually recruited by Jherek, the Harper from the first game, to take on a new evil.
The graphics and sound are excellent once again, and the water effects spectacular. There was one issue on a level: normally you can't run off edges, but on this level the game suddenly changes to characters dying if they run off an edge. We also had a character actually get stuck in a terrain feature and be unable to move, and another be resurrected at a save point only to appear under the floor which forced us to restart. The cut sequences are good, but later in the game some ...
Advantages: addictive game playing Disadvantages: some levels are dark and hard to see
the weapons and armor she can use.
The necromancer is a week fighter but is good with dark magic. He also needs training for some armor and cannot use some weapons.
Unlike some rpg i have played this game plays with one character which did put me off at first . But as the game went on i found it just as good as other games.
The game it's self is based in and around Balder's gate. When playing the game talk to as many people as possible as the may have quest or info on quest for you and make sure you revisit them as some have more than one quest for you.
Weapons, armor, potions and gem stones can be picked up after battle as well as being able to buy them in Balder's gate. Some weapons and armor can be up graded with the help of gem stones. just take them to the trader in balder gate and he will make them of a price.
If you wanted your ...
Similar products and search queries by other users »
Baldurs PS2, Baldurs Gate PS2, Baldurs Dark PS2, Baldurs Alliance PS2, Baldurs Gate Dark PS2, Baldurs Gate Alliance PS2, Baldurs Dark Alliance PS2, Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance PS2, Baldur s PS2, Baldur s Gate PS2, Baldur s Dark PS2, Baldur s Alliance PS2, Baldur s Gate Dark PS2, Baldur s Gate Alliance PS2, Baldur s Dark Alliance PS2
Are you the manufacturer / provider of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2)? Click here
