Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance


 * See Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (series) for the entire series

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is an action role-playing game developed by Snowblind Studios for the PlayStation 2, and later for the Xbox, Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance, originally released in 2001. It began the Dark Alliance series of games.

The battle system in the game is simplistic, but allows for customizability. The human archer, for example, can assign experience points to enchanting arrows rather than to strength, which will result in more powerful arrows. Likewise, the Elven sorceress is capable of selecting between different spells. However, starting character statistics are preset, and the player may only customize his or her character's statistics through gaining experience points. There are also relatively few non-player characters: the only characters who may be spoken to are those who are part of a quest or sidequest.

Dark Alliance was built on a much more powerful game engine than the PC Baldur's Gate series, which utilized the Infinity Engine - an engine debuting in 1998 which exclusively used sprite characters and static, pre-rendered backgrounds. The Dark Alliance engine allowed for such things as dynamic lighting, real-time shadowing, fully rendered backgrounds and 3d character models. The graphics, in particular, were considered a highlight of the game by many critics. The graphics are so precise that each character can not only change their appearance depending on the armor they wear, but can also be stripped of all their armor, leaving them in their (usually revealing) underwear (this has become the subject of a number of jokes, as well as a glitch during one cutscene in the game, during which if the player is playing as the sorceress in only her underwear, the clothing vanishes and a very DETAILED physique is visible).

Gameplay
The player must choose between one of three (or four) characters:
 * Vahn, human arcane archer: archer with magical abilities
 * Adrianna, elven sorceress: spell caster
 * Kromlech, dwarven fighter: strong melee fighter
 * Drizzt Do'Urden, drow ranger/fighter: fights with two strong scimitars (unlockable)

Gameplay is quite different for all three characters: the human relies on ranged attacks and stealth, the elf character can cast magic spells, and the dwarf is an all-round fighter for those who prefer a head-on approach. Additionally, each character has unique side-quests, allowing for replayability.

Plot
The game starts when the player character arrives in the city of Baldur's Gate, after a dangerous journey. Shortly after arrival the player is attacked and robbed, and is brought to an inn by guards to recover. There, the first hints about a great evil hiding in Baldur's Gate are revealed, and the player can choose to discover more.

The hero goes and clears out a cellar for the innkeepers but, one of the innkeepers went into the sewers to look for the main hero. The hero rescues the innkeeper and investigates the sewers, eventually finding an entrance to the crypts. Upon entering the crypts, the hero finds out that the dead have been awakened and journeyed into the heart of the crypt to destroy whatever caused this. The hero succeeds and meets Jherek, leader of the Harpers, who tells the hero to destroy the thieves guild. The hero kills the leader, Xantam and finds a portal.

This leads the hero onto the Sunset Mountains, where they face the treacherous Wind's Walk, with yetis, ogres and gnolls. At the end of this mountain path, lies the Dwarven Village. They have been locked out of their precious mines by the Dark Elves. They intended to light the signal fire for help by venturing into the mountains, but alas, they didn't return. This leads to the hero heading towards the Burning Eye Mountain, where the hero finds dead dwarves hidden in ice-caves with equipment to light the signal fire. The hero goes up to the top of the mountain to find a frozen dwarf in front of the signal fire, which the hero then lights. The dwarf falls dead, with the mine key at his side. The hero then returns to Torregir. He asks you to go into the mines, and flush out the dark elves. The hero ventures into the mines to fight and meet the leader of dark elves, a female elf with powerful magic. A key falls to her side, to unlock a cell with a dwarf in. This allows the hero to head into a deep forest to find an ice cave. At the end of the forest the hero fights the frost dragon that killed the dwarves in the mountains. After defeating the creature, a portal to the Marshes of Chelimber becomes active.

The hero emerges in a building inhabited by the undead. After leaving, the protagonist will encounter Sleyvas, a humanoid lizard. Eventually, this lizard will lead the hero into the Onyx Tower for a confrontation with its controller, Eldrith. After defeating her, another portal is activated.

In the final cutscene, Sleyvas' true motives are revealed: he wants Eldrith dead so that he and his comrades can gain control of the tower. He also expects the hero to have died in the tower.

Gameboy Differences
The Gameboy Advance version of Baldur's Gate featured some noticeable differences from the Console versions. Probably the most notable is the fact that there can only be one save at a time, although it can be saved anywere. Players also can no longer import a character to play through the story again, so they must restart at level 1 every time. Missing from this port is the multiplayer mode. Other differences include a lack of recall potions and the addition of the "Elf Fighter" class, which combines some middle to high level spells and abilities of the other 3 classes. The town of Baldur's Gate is also much more interactive, as players are now able to talk to people, enter houses, and use weapons (to break barrels, etc.). There are new sidequests, too. The town has also been split into two sections: north and south. The southern portion cannot be entered at the beginning of the game.

Gameplay also makes a slight change. First of all, players can no longer jump. Switching between Melee and Ranged combat is different as well, since the player must now tap R to swap between Melee combat, Archery, and Spells.

One major complaint with this version of the game is that larger enemies will sometimes get trapped behind doorways, allowing the player to shoot them with the bow out of range of harm.