It sold very well to say the least, and was Blizzard’s first real mainstream success- the Warcraft series started in ‘94, but it wasn't until after Diablo that even casual computer gamers started to notice the now legendary (some would say now infamous) company. This of course spawned a new subgenre (and imitators); the isometric dungeon crawling action RPG. The subject of ‘imitators’ is what brings us to the topic of this article; the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance series on just about every console of the sixth generation, including the Game Boy Advance.
Maybe don't play the Game Boy Advance version.
The game, if you couldn't tell from the title, is an action RPG spinoff of sorts in the Baldur's Gate series first started by BioWare in 1998 on the PC. I say ‘of sorts’ considering it has nothing to do with the storyline or characters, and as we’ll find out the gameplay, and simply has the same city of the titular Baldur's Gate in it.
The game was released on September 4th, 2001, developed by Snowblind Studios. They were a Washington based developer who, at the time, had only made two previous games on the N64; Top Gear Overdrive, and Top Gear Hyper Bike with both being racing games. Not the most illustrious start, but both games were pretty good for what they were, so at least it wasn't a terrible start. They got attached to the next Baldur’s Gate game sometime in 2000 when Interplay announced that a console game ‘based on Baldur’s Gate 2’ had entered production, which again is a strange thing to say considering that game and Dark Alliance are nothing alike and barely connected.
An official confirmation of development came in February 2001, with plans already in place for a sequel should the game prove to be successful. That’s some serious commitment. The demand for a new Dungeons and Dragon game proper was high and particularly for a home console, so it wasn’t some lofty, unfounded hopes that the game would be successful. It had been 7 whole years at that point since a home console had been blessed with an officially sanctioned game being, uh, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Slayer on the 3DO in 1994 which is not something to be remembered, let’s be honest. It had been awhile, and the demand was high. It should be fairly easy to guess at this point in the article that the decision paid off.
Dark Alliance 1; The Humble Beginnings
Even before the official release, the previews were being eaten up by gaming publications. IGN called it ‘the most wanted game by PlayStation 2 owners across the country’ and praised the graphics the previews showed off. In particular, they were greatly impressed with how Snowblind Studios pulled off the ‘much fabled anti-aliasing’ and how it 'downscaled its models from a higher to a lower resolution' which was treated like borderline magic reserved for only the Dreamcast at the time, which is pretty entertaining to look back on now; the passage of time and technology, and all that. All of this magic was due to the custom engine designed by Snowblind for this game.Upon its actual release, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance was met with very positive reception. It won the Annual Interactive Achievement Award for ‘Best Console Role-Playing Game of the Year’, and is estimated to have sold over one million copies across all the different console versions. Sure enough, a sequel did go into development afterwards, but not immediately and not without some troubles.
The game was powered by a custom engine with the creative name of ‘the Snowblind engine’, or an even more apt title; 'the Dark Alliance engine'. It was a work of art, with some contemporary sources calling it the ‘one of the best 3D engines yet devised’. Praised for its lighting systems and character models, the engine was a first in many ways. It was created to allow for proper perspective in a top-down, isometric view which set it above the other Diablo imitators. True technical alchemy; you could even move the camera around.
If you were someone playing this in 2001, this probably blew your mind. I know it blew me away.
The game sees you pick one of three characters: the human archer Vahn, the dwarven fighter Kromlech, and the elven sorceress Adrianna. You kill monsters, delve into dungeons, collect experience and do a whole lot of mashing on the attack button.
This game is also notable for being the first video game to adapt the third edition ruleset of Dungeons and Dragons, which was only a year old at that time. This was an important and influential edition of the aging tabletop game, and breathed new life into the game. The biggest changes the system brought were the simplified attack roll mechanics (the old system used up until then, 'THAC0', was a little arcane) and selectable bonuses characters could choose from called 'feats'. The new system for attack rolls does make its way into this game, as attacking a monster requires a behind-the-scenes die roll to determine success (even if you were right in front of them) but most importantly; feats also make their way into this game, which is what sets characters apart from one another.
When a character levels up, they gain an amount of points to invest in feats. These feats are anything from increasing a character’s health, critical hit chance, or armour class to unique special abilities to each character. The sorceress could learn spells to cast such as chain lightning and the classic meteor shower, the archer could learn a variety of different magic arrow attacks, and the dwarf can learn how to hit things with a hammer better, or charge; the dwarf sort of gets the short end when it comes to unique abilities. Characters share the same pool of general passive feats, meaning the one thing that really sets them apart from one another are the unique feats; other than that.
The characters can use more or less the same weapons, with only Adrianna being unable to use two handed weapons- they can even all wear the same armour. Normally I’d fault the deviation from the tabletop game considering Adrianna should only be able to throw darts or use a slingshot going by the rules as written. In any other type of game, this would be a negative but in the context of a more action oriented game such as this it isn’t that big of a negative; it’s adapting the ruleset into a new form while making some necessary changes. Think of the alternative; you play as the sorceress, and you cannot wear any armour or use any weapon above a dagger, or some throwing darts. It would not be a particularly fun experience once you run out of mana to cast spells. Regardless, each of the classes have enough unique abilities to make them still feel unique.
Lizardmen would laugh at me, until I learned Lighting Bolt. Who’s laughing now, you cold-blooded fiends?
The controls are incredibly simple as befitting a button mashing dungeon crawler such as this; you have an attack button, a jump button only used sparingly to get over obstacles occasionally, a block button, a button to use your currently selected ability, and one button to drink a health potion and another to drink a mana potion. You can have a melee weapon and a ranged weapon equipped at once and can switch between them with a press of the d-pad, as well as using the d-pad to change your currently equipped ability. And that’s all. Simplicity.
Look at the light being cast from my magic flamethrower; again, the Snowblind engine was astounding for its time.
As for the storyline, it sees your freshly chosen character saunter into the city of Baldur’s Gate after just arriving, without even any armour or weapons on their back. Within seconds, they are clubbed in the back of the head by some ruffians, robbed, and luckily saved from being presumably killed by the arrival of some guards. They more or less just dust you off, and suggest that you might as well go grab a drink at the tavern literally right next to you; and so begins a storyline that sees you raid a murderous thieves guild, battle a beholder, a whole swarth of bugbears, clear out a mausoleum of undead skeletons, force some dark elves out of a dwarven mine, kill an crystalline ice dragon who was just trying to have a nap and ultimately ending up ascending a magical wizard tower to kill an undead female rage ghost who forged the titular ‘dark alliance’ between the various villains of the game. How does it start? With you getting mugged, then killing rats in a tavern cellar.
Many adventurers have had their start by killing rats of an usually large size in a tavern basement. It is tradition; such is the way.
It’s a hell of an interesting way to start a game, that’s for sure. The game sees you saunter across a variety of different areas and locations, though interestingly you are only in the city of Baldur’s Gate for the first of the game’s three acts; it was still the launching point of the story, so I suppose it still deserves to be slapped onto the game’s title.
I’ve referred to the game as a ‘masher’ at a few points, and that’s accurate in the sense that you are generally going to be hitting the attack button over and over again, but it does not mean the game has a lack of thought put into it. The game can be quite difficult at times. Enemies are numerous, and sprint at you from the second they see you. The game is going to require some strategy, particularly in single player; weaken enemies with your bow as they run up to you then swap to your melee weapon to finish them off, and it is highly recommended to use the environment to your advantage. Funneling enemies through doorways and around obstacles is a strategy that has served me well across my uncountable playthroughs of this game; and never forget the fool-proof strategy- 'run away'.
Luckily, the game is generous with its save points, and you’re never more than 5 or 10 minutes away from one. In addition, you can find or buy ‘recall’ potions that teleport you back to the current act’s city hub from the pause menu. You can’t use them when battling the game’s numerous bosses, but any other point is fair game, even when a gnoll is in the middle of kicking your shins. If you ever get low on health and/or mana, which you will, just port back to town, buy and chug some potions and the head back out; provided you have the gold to afford them, of course.
The bosses in particular are challenging encounters, as they should be. There is an element of having to know the game ahead of time with some of them due to some specific ‘gimmicks’; the beholder boss, for example, takes only half damage from any magical attacks, which largely affects only the sorceress and makes her usual strategy of spamming Magic Missile at him next to useless. The final boss as well features a immunity to a specific damage type that will be sure to annoy most sorceress' players once again. The poor elven lass has it a little rough in this game sometimes.
The Lawsuit Era of Early 2000s Game Development
As they promised, Interplay did begin production of a sequel after the game's release. Snowblind Studios had since moved on so to speak, moving forward with plans for a spin-off game set in the EverQuest game series that would follow closely in the style of Dark Alliance. This would become the beloved classic Champions of Norrath in 2004, and its sequel a year later in Champions of Norrath: Return to Arms.Snowblind took their engine with them to make the Champion’s games, but Interplay was still legally allowed to use it due to Dark Alliance being a joint venture; only they would be without the developers that originally started it. Interplay turned to Black Isle Studios itself to develop the game, which wasn’t something they were incapable of; despite being a publisher themselves, they had also developed games, namely the first two Fallout games and several of the Infinity Engine D&D PC games, such as PlaneScape: Torment and the Icewind Dale series. So, they knew what was up.
No news came about this sequel until 2003 with the official announcement, followed by some other worrying news; Interplay wasn’t doing so well financially at this point. They had been suffering for a few years amid the usual industry problems; under-performing titles, a lack of console presence, over zealous acquisitions of studios, and just the sheer volume of competition. In 1998, to avert a bankruptcy filing they went public, meaning any other company could purchase shares and therefore a controlling stake in the company. This would end up happening through the next few years by French game company Titus Interactive; by April 2001, Titus had purchased 71% of Interplay’s business shares meaning they were, for all intents and purposes, the new Interplay.
Interplay at this point, under command from Titus, had to start coming down hard with the dreaded ‘cancellation’ hammer in order to cut costs and stay afloat. One of the victims was Black Isle Studios, unfortunately. They had just finished Dark Alliance 2, and were actually already working on an alleged 95% playable demo of a Dark Alliance 3 that would unfortunately never see the light of day. They showed up to work one day to more or less see the doors padlocked. Interplay tried to deny that Black Isle had been shuttered, and also denied bringing a delay on the yet released Dark Alliance 2; this laster until December 2003 when they finally announced that they had restructured the company, and had in fact delayed the game futher. Despite all the corporate nonsense going on, Black Isle Studios wasn’t actually shut down and instead folded into Interplay proper. They are listed as still being active, though the only project they worked on since this game came out was the HD re-release of both Dark Alliance games in 2021, so I'm not sure that counts.
Amidst the financial setbacks were some lawsuits. Titus Interactive, once they owned Interplay, had assigned Vivendi Universal Publishing as the go to distributor for Interplay’s North American releases to ‘allow Interplay to focus on development’. However, issues soon arose with Interplay citing lack of payment on several games and an alleged ‘breach of partnership’, which of course resulted in a lawsuit in late 2003.
Remember Snowblind Studios? They launched a suit against Interplay in November over a cited lack of payment for games Interplay released and developed using the Snowblind engine, being Fallout: A Brotherhood of Steel, ironically enough Dark Alliance 2, and the GameCube version of Dark Alliance which came out after the initial release and was ported by a different developer. This one was eventually settled in 2005, with the courts deciding that Interplay could continue to publish already made titles with the engine but they could not use it going forward. How did Interplay’s current owner Titus respond? Why, they sued Snowblind Studios, of course. Isn’t the business world fun?
Snowblind was sued for deciding to license their engine to indie developers, with the only game that came out as a result of this being Combat Elite: WWII Paratroopers. The Titus lawsuit went nowhere as they had no legal ground to stand on. Snowblind went on to again use their engine in 2006 for Justice League: Heroes, which is probably the only time someone has ever referenced that game, and then got absorbed into Warner Brothers Home Entertainment.
What ended up happening to Interplay? Well, various offices were shut down by labour law investigators as they hadn’t paid developers, paid out benefits or paid royalties. The CEO at the time had managed to reopen the offices by securing outside funds to pay health insurance to its employees, only for that same day to bring news that Titus Interactive declared bankruptcy. They just could not catch a break. They ended up performing some emergency moves, such as selling the entire Fallout IP to a little company called Bethesda Softworks, and somehow managed to stay afloat to the present day.
Dark Alliance 2; The Dark Ending
This poor game had it rough, is what you can learn from all this. Dark Alliance 2 finally released in January 2004 to some fine reviews. It perhaps didn’t make the same impact as the original did critically, but I think that’s largely due to the advancement of competitors in the 3 year gap between the games and nothing against the game itself, as Dark Alliance 2 is a great game. I would even say it’s my personal favourite of the two games.The game raises the playable character count to 5, and adds in a whole helping of additional mechanics and features. You can play as the human barbarian Dorn Redbear, the drow monk Vhaidra Uoswiir, the moon elf necromancer Ysuran Auondril, the dwarven rogue Borador Goldhand, and the human cleric Allessia Faithhammer.
The character choices are definitely more specific this time around, both in their class and race combinations. They are some unique picks, for sure. Dark Alliance had sort of three general feeling classes, while in this game they made them a little more specific in theme. The only arcane mage this time is a moon elf necromancer, which isn’t a common combination to me and I do miss a more general arcane caster. The drow monk though? Hell yeah, I’ll always take some monk representation.
Overall, the game also had a 'darker' edge to it than the first game's more general adventure story vibe. The character's in Dark Alliance 2 could maybe be described as more 'edgy' for lack of a more scientific term, and even the environments themselves have a dark fantasy feeling to them.
The character’s also each have a unique character questline, which does further help them feel unique. Each character has an NPC somewhere in the game world that is tied to their backstory. When you talk to them, they do what all friends do in real life; hit you up for some money a couple of times. It’s always in service of whatever that character has going on backstory wise, but I can’t lie and say it’s not funny. The only exception to this is Dorn, who doesn’t get hit up for cash. You get experience for doing this so it’s recommended to, so at least you still get something out of being leeched. Later on in the game, each character gets a unique quest that breaks up the game’s story with another added benefit; they gain unique feats after completing it.
Speaking of feats, they are greatly expanded upon this time around and there are more unique ones per character, really helping the characters stand out from one another. From Borador’s various explosive bomb attacks and aptly named ‘ransack’ kick that makes enemies drop more loot if they're killed with it, to Vhaidra’s Stunning Fist and knockdown leg sweeps to Dorn’s ability to dual wield two-handed weapons; every character feels very unique, and has many feats to choose from.
Character’s also now have some unique dialogue when talking to NPC’s, further adding some flavour to them. It’s always entertaining to hear the bloodthirsty drow Vhaidra straight up tell people she doesn’t care until they either give her money, or point her in the direction of the next monster to spam Stunning Fist at. There aren’t any dialogue choices based on your character or anything, but it's still a nice improvement over the first game’s generic responses.
Never change, you beautiful drow karate lady. Imagine trying to fleece a spirit for money.
Enough about the games ‘flavour’, let’s get into the other changes. You can now swap between three different weapon sets, letting you simultaneously wield a ranged weapon, a single handed weapon (or the monk's unarmed fists), and a two handed weapon for more versatility. The best and biggest change, however, is the new hotkey system. By holding a button, you can set up four different abilities to one of the face buttons which lets you use them much more quickly, instead of having to swap between only one at a time in the first game. It’s now an essential control function of the genre, but at this point was a relatively new idea.
Also changed is character’s needing to invest points in the ‘armour proficiency’ feat in order to wear better tiers of armour, with some characters starting with higher proficiency; it doesn’t remove the ability for the monk to wear plate, but you do have to spend some points in it than the cleric would in what I think is a good change that adds some more tabletop game elements into the game.
Not only are there more thieves to mash X at, but they’re also very coordinated martial artist thieves. Also, identical.
A very major addition to the gameplay is the ability to modify weapons and armour through the merchant in Baldur’s Gate, who carries over from the first game. Thanks, Bartley; you’re a real good guy. The crafting of is sort of similar to Diablo 2, where you pay the merchant to add a ‘runestone’ or a gem to an item to increase it’s rank and tier; it even features the same mechanic as Blizzard’s masterpiece where combining certain runes and gems with certain items provides unique effects. You can of course buy these runestones and gems or find them throughout the game, providing a good way to dump any excess money you have to burn and potentially get some good stuff.
You still gain experience and level up, of course, gaining points to spend on feats as you do; this game, however, definitely feels like it’s sped up the process a little bit. You’ll level faster, gain more feat points, and as such hit key abilities at a quicker pace than the first game resulting in a different feel. This was essential, I think, due to the feats being more plentiful and having more ranks in them than previously. Overall, I once again prefer it as it really makes characters feel more unique quicker.
The storyline of this game is a direct sequel to the first, and involves this new group of adventuring weirdos fighting another mysterious evil and specifically trying to find out what happened to the three playable characters from the first game. The game is primarily set in the titular city unlike the previous game, and even has optional areas you can explore outside the city. In the game’s acts you’re often left to your own devices when figuring out what to do next, as they present you with a few different quests you can tackle in any order before advancing. It’s some small details, but it does make the game feel that much more open and fresh.
If you don’t want to jumping roundhouse kick abominations in the face, you’re weird and don’t talk to me.
You’ll delve into sinister swamps, clear out slices of wilderness of innumerable gnolls, investigate some spooky undead infested mansions, battle a goblin marauder army, find four magical elemental macguffin’s, fight a lot of sentient shadows and mummies, encounter a crypt of 'incestous drug addicted ghouls' (I have no idea either), and venture into elemental planes of existence. Though it doesn’t begin with you getting mugged and then killing rats in a tavern basement, it’s a hell of a ride still and the opening this time around is still pretty iconic, seeing your group of weirdos stumble onto goblins raiding some caravans from Baldur’s Gate.
The bosses this time around have generally less gimmicks to them than the first game's, and as well have a relatively lower pool of health. What they make up for in gimmicks, however, is generally massive attacks that knock you silly all over the environment. There is a dragon boss at a point that almost always bounces me around like I'm an elven monk pinball by calling meteor showers and buffeting me with his wings. I recommend employing a healthy amount of blocking against most of the bosses for this reason, as it will make you more resistant to knock-backs.
Graphically, the game is still great as it’s still using the Snowblind engine. Not much in the way of improvement was made for the game, which was a common complaint against the game upon release. In those 3 years since the first Dark Alliance everyone else had caught up on the technical level resulting in this game feeling much more standard graphically. Looking back on it, it’s not an issue at all and again, the game looks great; but back in the early 2000’s, graphics were a major selling point, particularly when it's a follow up to the visual stunner of its day of the first Dark Alliance.
There you have it, both the Dark Alliance games neatly summarized and discussed and you even learned about the crazy world of early 2000’s game companies legal proceedings. Seriously, could Interplay have had it any rougher? They mostly brought it on themselves considering their spending habits, but it’s fascinating to see how bad their luck really was in the early to mid 2000s.
Should you play either Dark Alliance or Dark Alliance 2? Of course I’m going to say so, haven’t you been reading? You made it to the end, why would you ask that? My personal recommendation is the second game for its various gameplay improvements, but the first game has a different vibe going on with it, a certain ‘charm’ that the sequel doesn’t quite channel. Access to either game isn’t overly hard nowadays. Both are available on the PS2 and Xbox if you want to play on original hardware, and the first game is also available on the GameCube and Game Boy Advance (don’t play the Game Boy Advance version). As of 2021, both games are also available on Steam as a re-release done by the reanimated corpse of Black Isle along with Square One Studios; they don’t really have much in the way of improvements or additions other than it being in a slightly higher resolution and supporting modern gamepads, but what else do you need other than that?
These games would be the best action RPG’s the PS2 has to offer…if it wasn’t for the previously mentioned Champions of Norrath series Snowblind Studios put out afterwards. They continue the style of Dark Alliance and further push the Snowblind Engine forward while refining and improving the role playing aspects; absolute masterpieces of hack and slash role playing games, basically, and you’re absolutely right that I’m doing an article on them.
Until next time.
