Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is a hack and slash adventure video game set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of the Dungeons & Dragons RPG universe. It was released on several platforms between 2001-2004.

In Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance up to two players take on the roles of one of three mercenary heroes (Human Archer, Dwaven Warrior or Elven Sorceress) who embark on an adventure to save first the city of Baldur's Gate and then the whole Faerun continent from an alliance of evil beings bent on its submission and destruction.

In Dark Alliance players get missions from PCs in local settlements to explore the associated dungeon areas, uncovering plot points and compelling the game whilst hoarding weapons, equipment and loot. The game is played as a top down view hack and slash fantasy adventure game. As players progress they gain experience by defeating enemies and completing tasks. As is the case with many RPGs, this experience allows the characters to 'level up', increasing their stats and gaining skill points which can be spent to gain new abilities unique to each character.

Dark Alliance was not only the first Baldur's Gate game to be released on consoles (rather then just on PC/Mac) but also the first game to implement the 3rd Edition rules of the Dungeons & Dragons RPG system. It boasted several improvements upon previous video game instalments at the time, including advanced 3D graphics and the option to play through the game either with just 1 player or 2 players cooperatively.

The Game Boy Advance version features several differences to the console ports, including no coop mode, only one playable character (Human, although Class can be picked from Fighter, Archer or Mage), several new side quests, no jumping and a new character class (Elven Fighter) is unlocked upon the game's completion.

Dark Alliance was a commercial success, and gained many awards including the 2001 Role-Playing Game of The Year award from Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and appeared on many Top 100 Game Lists.

The sequel Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II was also released in 2004 exclusively on the Playstation 2 and XBox.

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