Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance II Reviews

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance II made its way to PC (and modern consoles) a couple weeks back. And if you’d like to know what to expect from this apparently beloved classic now that you can actually play it on a platform suitable for a Baldur’s Gate game, you can check out a couple of reviews below:

Eurogamer Scoreless:

Abilities are greatly simplified, for instance. You’ve got a selection of them you can spend points on (pips, really) as you level up, making them stronger. You don’t get all that dizzying choice of D&D character advancement, so it greatly simplifies it all. It’s also, obviously, not turn-based, but built to be a button-mashing hack-and-slash, with some active abilities while others do sums behind the scenes. And again, this is all commonplace now, but then it wasn’t, and that’s what makes Dark Alliance 2 feel so elbowy and awkward at times – that unrefined feeling of one kind of game being mashed into another but they’re both running at different BPMs. But somehow it works, and that’s a fascinating turning point for games like these.

But Why Tho? 7/10:

There is a really solid experience to find here as long as your expectations are tempered. Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2 has such solid gameplay and player options that it is no wonder it is as revered to this day as it is. Unfortunately, some shoddy aspects of the re-release drag it down.

Dexerto 6.5/10:

The good news is that today, dungeon-crawling games like this are more popular than ever, so Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance 2 could be exactly what you’re looking for. The genre has boomed and this makes an older game feel fresh again, especially to those who didn’t play it the first time around, if you can forgive its imperfections – and some players won’t be able to.

Don’t expect it to compare with the likes of Diablo 3 or Path of Exile, but fans of the genre will be well served by Dark Alliance 2.

MMORPG.com 6/10:

Most aspects of Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance II, such as its clunky combat and linear maps, haven’t aged very well. After playing remasters like Diablo II: Resurrected, Nier Replicant, and Mass Effect Legendary Edition it is clear to see that Dark Alliance II was only given the bare-minimum in remaster treatment. There’s nothing new to see here, just a port of an old classic. For some, I’m sure that this is all that they want or need, but for others I feel that it’s a shame Dark Alliance II hasn’t been modernized – at least a little bit – to bring the gameplay more in line with the times so that it would feel more accessible to newer players. Even still, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance II’s price tag at $29.99 feels too steep for what it is. Unless you’re a diehard fan of the Dark Alliance series, I’d wait for a hefty sale before picking this up.