Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance review (Xbox)

You begin your adventure in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance by choosing from one of three different warriors: a human archer, a dwarven fighter, or an elven sorceress. The controls for each of these characters are identical. They all have similar abilities to run, jump, attack, use magic or special feats, and quaff restoration potions or healing potions using the left and right shoulder buttons respectively, quickly restoring their magic energy or health. Guzzling potions, a hallmark of the Diablo series, plays an equally large role in Dark Alliance, as you'll constantly be offsetting the damage you inevitably sustain in battle by keeping an eye on your health meter in the upper left-hand corner of the screen (or feeling the controller rumble in tune to your character's racing heartbeat) and quickly downing a potion whenever your health gets low. Characters can also block using shields if they have them equipped, though you'll find that blocking in Dark Alliance is less important than attacking swiftly and often. Beyond their shared abilities, as you'd expect, these three characters require some pretty different types of tactics in practice. The sorceress is understandably the most vulnerable at first but eventually gains some of the most dramatic abilities. All characters are viable and seem very powerful--almost too much so, as D&D aficionados will note that many of the tougher foes you'll face shouldn't be beatable by just one adventurer.

Though the dungeons in Dark Alliance aren't heavily randomized as they are in the Diablo games, there's still good incentive to play through the game as each of the three different characters. Finishing the game unlocks a great bonus mode, starring one of the most popular characters from the Forgotten Realms, and finishing that mode unlocks a much tougher difficulty setting for you to attempt. Those are some nice extras, but they're there to offset the fact that finishing Dark Alliance the first time through will take from 10 to 15 hours--not a long time for a role-playing game, though those hours are densely packed with action. You of course can also play through the entire game in two-player mode, which provides a fairly different experience from the single-player mode, since the three different characters can now support each other rather than fend for themselves. Your two characters can't leave each other's vicinity, forcing the two players to cooperate, but two-player Dark Alliance is still entertaining.

The game's impressive production values extend beyond its visuals to its superlative audio. The sound effects made by all your foes are just as varied, believable, and incredibly well done as the graphics. A moody orchestral score, composed by the gifted Jeremy Soule, underscores the action all the while and extremely well, alternating its tone between urgent and foreboding. Dark Alliance even has an involving story, revealed in real-time cutscenes using the game's 3D engine or during dialogue with the game's nonplayer characters. The character models shown here are great looking and exhibit articulate facial expressions, spot-on lip synching, and even some body language, and the game sports some expert voice acting to match, performed by some of the most experienced voice actors in the history of the profession. The lengthy monologues delivered by many of the characters you meet can be a real pleasure to listen to, and yet the fast pace of the gameplay stands in very sharp contrast to the long-winded and somewhat superfluous dialogue sequences--so you might be compelled to skip the chitchat and just get on with it. Nonetheless, there can be no denying that Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is an amazing-sounding game all in all.

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance for the Xbox is essentially a perfect port of one of last year's surprise hits. On the one hand, one might argue that the publisher should have pushed for the Xbox version to have some exclusive features in it that weren't available on the PS2 a year ago. On the other hand, Dark Alliance for the Xbox obviously isn't intended for those who've already played it on the PS2. If by chance you've played the PS2 version already, then you already know that Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is a great game. And if you either don't have a PS2 or overlooked Dark Alliance amid the holiday rush last year, then you shouldn't miss this opportunity to get what's easily one of the finest action RPGs ever made.