Following more than a year on from the late 2001 appearance of the PlayStation 2 version of Dark Alliance, the eagerly awaited GameCube incarnation of the latest in the Baldurs Gate series, after a series of delays, setbacks and publisher troubles, is finally ready.
You and your family have been driven from your farmland home and have to head off to seek refuge within the walls of Baldurs Gate. But prior to your arrival, thieves who claim to have journeyed from Baldurs Gate mug you for all you have, but more importantly, kidnap your sister too. Your task is to find her and rescue her at all costs. And so begins the tale of Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance.
Developed by Black Isle Studios, the playing world of Dark Alliance has been rendered beautifully. Fully interactive light-sourced environments and a full complement of creepy crawlies and ultimate overlords all help to completely immerse the player in a classic role-playing game.
Dark Alliance combines a variety of game genres including puzzle elements, but combat is perhaps the most prolific gameplay characteristic. You must master a series of weapons and learn new spells to defeat some truly cunning AI demons. Some encounters will see the enemy attacking in numbers, whilst others will see you facing a single deadly foe with tremendous brute force or magic skill. So rest assured, you will be kept on guard throughout the entirety of the games 30 or so levels.
Players can also customise their characters to great detail, and can even specify how a characters experienced is used. Therefore, Dark Alliances characters can be altered to suit any preferred role-playing style. There arent many games like this for GameCube and its refreshing to see something new and challenging for the platform. Will there be a Dark Alliance 2? We live in hope...