Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II

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Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II
Developer(s)	Black Isle Studios, Interplay Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Interplay Entertainment
Distributor(s)	Vivendi Games
Series	Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
Engine	Dark Alliance Engine
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, Xbox
Release date(s)	January 20, 2004
Genre(s)	Role-playing video game, hack and slash
Mode(s)	single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: T
Media/distribution	DVD

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II is an action role-playing game released for the PlayStation 2 on December 2, 2003 (US) and the Xbox on January 20, 2004 (US). It is the sequel to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and was developed by Black Isle Studios. Its gameplay is based on the 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons, and is set in the Forgotten Realms fantasy setting.

Plot

Setting

While the original game focussed on many areas scattered throughout the Sword Coast and Western Heartlands, the second game is predominately based in and around the city of Baldur's Gate. Many areas in the Baldur's Gate region are explored during the game, such as Cloak Wood, Trollbark Forest, The Wood of Sharp Teeth and Wayfork Village. Unlike the previous game, many more areas of Baldur's Gate itself are accessible, although the sewers return as an explorable region. While the Elfsong Tavern can be seen, it is not accessible, instead the player is able to go to the Purple Wyrm Tavern instead. The Old Warehouse, the Firewind Manor, Omduil's Manor, the Church of Helm and Bloodmire Manor are other explorable areas within the city. The High Moor, Skull Gorge, the Battle of Bones and the Keep of Pale Knight, areas lying outside the city, are also accessible. All of the Elemental Planes are also visited (in the first game, only the Elemental Plane of Water featured). The Sunset Mountains and the Marsh of Chelimber, the two main areas of the first game, are only mentioned, never actually featured in the gameplay.

Characters

The game features several new playable main characters; Dorn Redbear, Ysuran Aundril, Borador Goldhand, Vhaidra Uoswiir and Allessia Faithhammer.

Each of them comes to the city of Baldur's Gate for different reasons. Dorn is a human barbarian who comes seeking glory, like his idol and former companion, Vahn (one of the heroes from the first game, all three of whom are missing when this game begins). Ysuran is a necromancer suffering from amnesia who comes in the hopes of finding clues to his past. Borador is a Dwarf who comes for money and fame, in order to release his clan from its debt to elves. Vhaidra is a Drow who comes looking for vengeance against those who wish to destroy her family. Allessia is a cleric who comes in the name of the religion Helm, to spread the word of Helm and advance to become a high-ranking priest.

Dark Alliance II also features the brief appearance of the three characters from the first game: Vahn, Kromlech and Adrianna, although they are not playable characters.

Drizzt Do'Urden returns from the previous game as an unlockable character that can be played after completing the game. Artemis Entreri, Drizzt's arch-enemy, is also an unlockable playable character.

Story

As they journey towards the city of Baldur's Gate, fate brings Dorn, Ysuran, Borador, Vhaidra and Allessia together. Upon meeting on the Trade Way, they realize that ever since the collapse of Xantam's Guild (from the first game), the Trade Way has become increasingly dangerous due to the rise of the Red Fang Marauders, a goblin army. After infiltrating a nearby Red Fang Marauders cave, and freeing the caravan guard Randalla (a non-playable character who also appeared in the first game), they head to Wayfork Village, a nearby fiefdom. There, they rescue the village from being sacked by the marauders and kill their hobgoblin leader, Harnak the Butcher.

Upon entering Baldur's Gate all five need money, so Randalla hires them to investigate a series of murders in the city. They trace the evidence to Bloodmire Manor. At the manor, they learn that Luvia Bloodmire has been combining the body parts of various creatures in an attempt to make a new species. She has been giving her creations to Lady Aragozia Firewind. Also, her first creation, Argesh, has set up the Hands of Glory, a thieves guild faction of the Red Fang Marauders. The heroes kill Argesh, ending the Hands of Glory. They also find the main base of the Red Fang Marauders.

Upon infiltrating the base, they defeat the Red Queen, the new leader of the marauders. They then learn that the Queen actually serves Arogazia Firewind, a member of the Zhentarim, who has been using the marauders to try to bring back the Onyx Tower. Along with her associate Karne (a presumed-dead character from the first game), Firewind escapes the heroes and transforms into the Red Dragon Aizagora. Impressed with the efforts of the heroes, Jherek (another NPC from the first game) inducts them into the Harpers. At first Jherek requests they retrieve several elemental objects, as the Zhentarim are also trying to get to the objects. Having successfully finding the objects for Jherek, each of the heroes pursues their own personal quest.

After killing the dragon Baragoth, the druid inside of Dorn is awakened. Ysuran realizes his horrid past and his hate crimes against humans, deciding that he will not worry about the past, but instead build a good name for himself in for the future. Borador frees Gandam's Hold and reclaims the Goblinbreaker name for his clan who begin working on new forges to free themselves from their debt to fey folk. Vhaidra travels to Cloud Peaks and gets her revenge on a murderous black elf who assisted in the fall of House Uoswiir. Allessia frees the Church of Helm in Baldur's Gate from Goreth Vileback, a Cleric of Cyric who attempts to destroy Helm.

After the five return to town, Jherek enlists them once again, for a journey to the Elemental Planes to activate the elemental foundations. Each time they are attacked by the Zhentarim, who are now in control of the foundations. It now appears, however, as if the Zhentarim no longer wish for the Onyx Tower to be activated. The heroes manage to activate all of the foundations and return to Baldur's Gate.

At a small forest near the Battle of Bones, it is discovered that after jumping through the shadow gate at the end of the first game, Vahn, Kromlech and Adrianna were kidnapped by the vampire Mordoc SeLanmere. Mordoc brags about bringing the Onyx Tower back, becoming its new ruler and how the downfall of Baldur's Gate will please his allies in the East. Mordoc's steward, the vampire Xanhast interrogates the three heroes and requests from Mordoc that he be allowed to kill them. Morrdoc refuses, andsubsequently discovers that thw squabbles between the Zhentarim and the Harpers have given him the Onyx Tower. Karne, however, learns of Mordoc's plan and alerts Jherek, who along with the five adventurers storm the Keep of Pale Night and force Mordoc to relocate the Onyx Tower to Baldur's Gate itself.

Baldur's Gate, now called Mordoc's Gate, has its entire population turned into zombies. After rescuing Vahn, Kromlech and Adrianna, all together the ten unlikely allies (the five heroes from this game, the three from the previous game, Jherek and Karne) join forces and attack the Tower. Xanhast seduces Randalla and makes her a vampire that protects the new entrance to the Tower. After defeating both Randalla and Xanhast, they attack Mordoc and manage to kill him. They then destroy the Onyx Heart, supposedly destroying the Onyx Tower for good.

However, the game then cuts to a room in an Ancient Egyptian milieu, where a servant tells a stone sarcophagus that Mordox had failed and Baldur's Gate still stands. The sarcophagus says that Mordoc's failure will not interrupt "my sacred mission", and he orders his servant to prepare the army and ready his sun barge, presumably with the aim of attacking Buldur's Gate itself. As with the first game, this game ends on a cliffhanger.

Development

In March 2003, Interplay announced that they were working on Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox, the game was reported to introduce item crafting to the series and have five playble characters.^[1] At 2003's Electronic Entertainment Expo Interplay showcased the game and revealed three of these characters: a human barbarian, a moon elf necromancer and a drow monk. Interplay stated that if the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions sold well, they would port the game to Nintendo GameCube.^[2]

In September 2003, Interplay announced that it had canceled its deal with Vivendi to be the publisher of its games, due to alleged breaches of the working agreement and failure of payment, and was considering legal action.^[3] In October, Interplay announced that they planned to distribute Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel themselves. EB Games and GameStop websites then advertised the game up for a January 2004 release date instead of 2003. Interplay denied these rumors at first, stating it was aiming for a fourth quarter release.^[4] In November 2003, Interplay announced it had resolved its legal dispute with Vivendi, and had returned to the prior publishing agreements.^[5] In November 2003, Interplay released new screenshots for the game, and announced that Dark Alliance II would not be released until 2004.^[6] A company financial report published in late 2003 suggested that the game (as well as Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel) may be release in January 2004 in some regions.^[7]

In December 2003, Interplay shut down Dark Alliance II developer, Black Isle Studios.^[8] The game was released in January, 2004.

Gameplay

The game is a hack and slash action role-playing game, playable in single player, and shared screen multiplayer modes.

Character statistics at the game's beginning are preset, and the player may only customize his or her character's statistics through gaining experience points. Experience points are gained by winning battles, and at specific levels the character gains new ability points to spend on enhancements specific to the character class. The ability choices affect the fighting style of the character. After completing their own unique sidequest, each character in the game, minus the two unlockables, will level up into a prestige class.

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II gave players the ability to create custom weapons, armor, rings, and necklaces through the shopkeeper. Players could increase these items by +1 to +5 (or +15 in extreme cases, although this can only be done with necklaces, rings, and boots) using runestones, which were needed for all customizations and increased the item's power. A player could also use gems to add special effects to the items. Two different types of gems, in addition to the required runestones, could be used on one item. There are several different kinds of gemstones and each has a different effect on different types of item.

The game gives the player the non-optional ability to use companions in certain levels. For example, the characters Karne and Jherek fight alongside the player in the fight against Mordoc SeLanmere. These companions can not level up or gain any abilities. There are also a number of characters that help the enemy fight zombies during the Mordoc's Gate levels, but these are non-distinguishable unnamed NPCs.

Unlike the first game, in which Baldur's Gate was a location that was only featured during one act, the city of Baldur's Gate appears in all but the prologue act (which is set on the Trade Way leading to the city). The city acts as a hub, from which most quests are begun, although few actually take place within the city itself. Rather, they are commissioned from the city, and it is from Baldur's Gate that the adventure's travel to and fro during their adventures. The city also allows access to a world map from which players can go to various locations and participate in sidequests. This gives the game a semi open-world environment.

The game's ruleset is based on a limited set of the 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons rule-set; it includes many more features from the ruleset than the original, such as the implementation of sidequests, a world map, item creation, companions and more enemies from the monster manual.

Critical reception

The game received positive reviews; Metacritic has an average score of 77% based on 44 reviews for the Xbox version and the PlayStation 2 version received an average score of 78% based on 44 reviews.

GameSpot reviewed the PlayStation 2 version of the game and scored it an 8.0 out of 10.^[9] IGN reviewed both the Xbox and PS2 versions of the game, giving them both a score of 8.4 out of 10.^[10]

References

1. ^ "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II announced". http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/bgdarkalliance2/news/6023648/baldurs-gate-dark-alliance-ii-announced?mode=all. Retrieved 18 June 2011. 
2. ^ "Dark Alliance II E3 preview". 16 May 2003. http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/bgdarkalliance2/news/6028246/baldurs-gate-dark-alliance-ii-hands-on-impressions?sid=6028246&mode=previews. Retrieved 18 June 2011. 
3. ^ Justin Calvert (29 September 2003), Vivendi dumped by Interplay, GameSpot, http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6076127/vivendi-dumped-by-interplay 
4. ^ "Interplay denies 2004 release date.". http://www.gamespot.com/news/6076898/fallout-and-dark-alliance-ii-release-date-debacle. Retrieved 18 June 2011. 
5. ^ "Interplay reconciles with Vivendi Universal". http://www.gamespot.com/news/6078266/vu-games-and-interplay-back-together. Retrieved 18 June 2011. 
6. ^ "Dark Alliance II pushed back to 2004". 13 November 2003. http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/bgdarkalliance2/news/6083432/definitely-no-dark-alliance-ii-until-04?mode=all. Retrieved 18 June 2011. 
7. ^ "Dark Alliance II delayed again". http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/bgdarkalliance2/news/6083717/interplay-in-the-red-concedes-possible-game-delays?mode=all. Retrieved 18 June 2011. 
8. ^ "Black Isle Studios shut down". 9 December 2009. http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/bgdarkalliance2/news/6085243/interplay-shuts-down-black-isle-studios?mode=all. Retrieved 18 June 2011. 
9. ^ GameSpot review
10. ^ IGN review