Before I put on my reviewer's cap (which I am told accentuates my cheekbones), I think it is appropriate to take some time and ponder the significance of the Baldur's Gate name with a brisk toddle down memory lane! A game that was said to have revived the PC role-playing game genre in 1998, Baldur's Gate was developed by BioWare, who have since held reign over the pale-faced patrons of traditional role-playing games. This emergency triple-bypass of a game told a gripping tale of Gods and monsters, betrayal and revenge, and many an acts of stalwart heroism set in the AD&D Forgotten Realms universe. Spawning a sequel and expansion packs, Baldur's Gate became synonymous with non-linear gameplay, enormous depth, and other revolutionary feats that I shall refrain from listing in order to arrive at the promised review. But, now we begin to see the weight that the Baldur's Gate name hauls around.

It is at this point that I must reveal (with much glee) that Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, the first console offspring of said license, inherits very little from its lineage. Developed by Black "we are not BioWare” Isle in conjunction with Snowblind Studios, Dark Alliance may disappoint purists who were expecting the same depth as found in the PC games, but for anyone else looking for an outstanding solo (or paired) dungeon romp, you simply must give this title a good solid bash.

Dark Alliance offers the same kind of frantic action as in other quasi role-playing games like Diablo (for the PC enthused) or Hunter: the reckoning (sticking to xbox-friendly examples), and as I discovered through many hours of creature-slaying, it goes several steps further to create a deeper and more enjoyable experience. Players begin the game as one of three characters: a Dwarven Fighter, a Human Archer, or an Elven Sorceress. Many may lament the missing complex character generation feature as found in the original Baldur's Gate, but remind yourselves that this is a very different game where the object is to usher you into the dungeons and to place you in harm's way ASAP! The three characters initially available, plus a fourth unlockable character that is a good surprise for Baldur's Gate veterans, find a good balance and provide different styles of gameplay. Up to two players can join forces and fight your way through the game and, here is the ingenious part, you can import characters from saved games into new adventures with all the experience and items intact (except for the extreme mode which robs you of your equipment). This boosts the replay value of the game enormously as it is possible to (a) take your experienced character and continue the (same) adventure on a higher difficulty level, and (b) start a new single player game with a pathetic newbie and later import an experienced character from another game to join (or even replace) you!

I am sure that you must have noticed by now that no mention has yet been made to the story in the game. This is because I do not wish to focus on the plot unnecessarily as it merely provides players with a (sometimes farfetched) reason to move from point A to point B while killing everything in between. The adventure is quite linear with few optional quests that provide you with some loot and additional experience points. I will, however, commend the creators for the impressive dialogue written and voiced (to every last syllable) for the numerous characters encountered throughout the adventure. Some may consider the copious amount of dialogue a distraction from the disembowelment of evil nasties, but for those looking for more background information to flesh out the world within which the game progresses, a good delicious chunk of it can be obtained from listening to the well-scripted dialogue.

The controls for the game are very well thought out and easy to pick up, as the left analogue stick controls character movement, and the right one rotates the camera, while the buttons are mapped to standard actions such as attacking, spell-casting, and jumping. You can cycle through your equipped weapons (two available) and spells simply using the directional pad. An interesting addition to the standard gameplay mechanisms is present as well, in the form of the ability to block melee/projectile attacks. This may take some time to master, but adds a surprising amount of strategic elements to the game that places itself in better light than other games in the genre. Also, accuracy with a projectile weapon/spell is dealt with nicely in the frameworks of the 3rd edition rules of AD&D, as characters may spend points upgrading several skills when they level up, including an accuracy skill, which draws a line from the character to its victim to assist with aiming. As with other aspects of the game, it is easy to see that the developers spent much time on minor details in order to perfect the experience for players.

Dark Alliance is by no means an easy game. Even on the normal setting, the game can be quite hard early on in the adventure. Therefore it is recommended that you quickly devise some battle strategies (that will doubtlessly still include much potion quaffing) that work better for you or your team instead of blindly charging into battles because the latter will ensure many, many swift deaths, for you. The death factor is amplified in multiplayer and a lot less fun as you can annoy your partner to no end by repetitively loading a saved game after your untimely deaths or forcing them to go it alone until you can be resurrected at the next save point. Speaking of save points, these are always well placed and alleviate much headache induced by the difficulty level of the game.

One minor quip that I feel compelled to mention with regards to the difficulty level is that, as you near the conclusion of the game (that can take up to twenty hours, quite lengthy by any standard), it becomes easier (especially if you are a sorceress) since you become fully decked out with some serious abilities to inflict damage on a mass scale. Compounding this are the easily defeated boss characters (provided you have learned to block) and that last level – oh that last level. The final level, in an effort to provide you with ample ammunition and equipment to face the big evil, stocks all the equipment that you wanted to buy but could not otherwise afford in every chest and barrel. This really destroy the fine sense of balance found throughout the rest of the game, and pissed me off to no end since all the frugal management of my finances became a colossal waste of effort.

The graphics in the game is uniformly excellent and I am willing to go as far as describing it as unrivalled. Major kudos to the development team for imbuing so much life into the characters and their surrounding environments, which vary a whole lot throughout the game, from ice caves to mausoleums to swamplands (and much more) – all rendered with incredible detail and artistry. There are also a good variety of monsters for you to cut through, and all of them exhibit fluid animation (especially in death) and creative design. Other characters also flaunt perfectly smooth animation both during combat and in the numerous in-game cut scenes. Better still, your characters will change in appearance to reflect their equipped gears, and even from a top-down view, one can easily tell what a character is wearing at all times. The amount of detail even extend to item drops when monsters are killed, as you can distinguish a pair of chainmail boots from any other dropped item with little effort through appearance and the sound it makes when dropped on the ground.

My less-than-subtle lead-in brings our attention to the sound department, and I am pleased to inform you that the audio experience in Dark Alliance is close to perfection. The game is void of music for the most part, and relies heavily on some wonderful and detailed ambient noises to accompany players through some beautiful and bizarre locales. The sparse but effectively orchestrated musical score kick in during crucial moments and add much emotional depth to the game.

All the combat sound effects are fitting and satisfying enough that I found myself anxious awaiting my next kill between games just to hear my blade slice through armour and bone (but that could just be me). To give you an example of the amount of attention paid to sound effects in this game, an arrow striking your shield will make a different and easily distinguishable sound to one that strikes your chain armour.