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A good majority of the games I play anymore I play with friends. But at the same time, I enjoy playing coöp far more than vs. Unfortunately, the coöperative market isn't as big as the versus market (cf. any fighting game) let alone the solo one (cf. the majority of games). After enough playing, the excellent Halo II and the despicable Champions of Norrath begin to wear thin, as all games do. And so, turning to an old friend and fellow gamer I sought out a new game to play; and I was directed towards Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, an overhead dungeon action game with character leveling quite like Champions.
After picking up a copy of the now venerable game and plugging it into my console, I noticed a familiar logo: Snowblind; the same group who designed the engine for Champions. Seeing this I feared for the worst. But me fears were unfounded; as I had thought before, the problem with Champions isn't with the engine itself but with the complete lack of project management and the inability to design levels, equipment, or plot. Dark Alliance on the other hand, while clichéd and kitsch—you're playing a game based on D&D afterall, you should know what to expect—, does have good equipment, level design, and "plot". Nowhere do you lack warp points between town and dungeon for hours on end[1]. Nowhere do you have that "I must go here, it's the only place to go" lack of plot, or that "so there's a castle in the catacombs under the lava fields which are beneath the gnomish village in the underworld?!" lack of coherent world design. Nor do you have a world where the flimsiest plether nightie is sturdier than the strongest plate armor. Let alone the circus of the grotesque that is the female cast of Champions.
While the plot of Dark Alliance is nothing to write home about, at least it follows a connected logical course. But the plot isn't what we're came here for, we came for hack n' slash, and Dark Alliance delivers. The enemies are consistently challenging, the equipment upgrades meaningful, the boss fights unique and entertaining, and there's a good selection of special powers to choose from. The game engine isn't as advanced in areas as the one in Champions[2] but the simplicity lets you keep it as a hack n' slash rather than turning it into a dress-up game.
On the whole I'd give the game 3.5 of 5 stars. Entertaining, but low replayability and no unique additions to the genre.
[1] Actually Dark Alliance doesn't have warp points at all, but rather the items you use to warp back to town can be used from in town to warp back to where you left the dungeon.
[2] For example: you can't enchant weapons with little stones you pick up, the feat system is flat rather than hierarchical, you can't modify the graphic for your character (sex, skin/hair color, etc)...
