Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 Xbox Review Portland OR

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The land of Aber-Toril and more specifically the city of Baldurs Gate is once again under attack. There arerumours abound that a Dark Alliance is forming in the Western Heartlands whichare preparing to attack the 40,000 inhabitants of Baldurs Gate. You, as one of five heroes, must smash this alliance and also learn about and ultimately visit the famed Onyx Tower.

Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance II in gameplay is identical to games such as Dungeons and Dragons Heroes. The game somewhat turns into a hack and slash game where you wander the lands gaining quests, completing them, and fighting and defeating anything in your path. This can lead to the game becoming repetitive, which basically means if you didn't like previous games like this you're probably not going to like this one. There are many different areas of the land to visit, but some are more difficult to traverse then others. Frequently you will find yourself outnumbered and if you're not at a high enough level, the character will most likely perish and you will be forced to start again or load a saved game.

There is numerous different characters to choose from and they each fall into typical RPG classes. You can choose from classes such as a Barbarian, Cleric, Rogue and others. Obviously theclass you choose is going to change how you play the game. If you choose the Barbarian, you will rely on brute strength but another class such as a Cleric will rely on magic and other things to defeat the raging hordes across the land. Unlike most RPG games, you can't build your character from scratch so depending on which character you choose, will determine your looks and gender. You can't have a female Barbarian and you can't have a male Cleric which may be disappointing to some RPG fans, but there is no doubt that the developers are trying to make the game much more accessible to people who may not traditionally play RPG games.

The game does have traditional RPG elements such as leveling up and different skills but it is definitely a title which almost anyone can pick up and play and get the basics of straight away. This is helped by the controls with the left stick moving the character, right stick controlling and zooming the camera and the buttons performing different tasks. For instance if you press the B button whilst playing as a Barbarian, he will activate Barbarian rage and be stronger for a short period of time. There are concessions that are made at times when using special abilities. For instance in the aforementioned Barbarian rage period, he can't block any attacks so this leaves him quite vulnerable and adds another level of strategy to the gameplay.