Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance Review

Set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance takes place in the Sword Coast and the Western Heartlands, areas in the Faerûn continent of the Forgotten Realms. Each act features a different region of the unique D&D universe.

Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance is a hack-and-slash action RPG, presented in an isometric three-quarter top-down view. Players will explore a plethora of rooms where they’ll kill all enemies, explore each dungeon’s areas to find secrets, gain experience points (XP) to level up and pick up items and gear. Your character can carry a set amount of weight worth of items, so it’s a good thing to drop a weaker gear once you’ve equipped the strongest items.

When booting up the game, you’ll have to select your class: a dwarven fighter named Kromlech), a human archer named Vahn, or an elven sorceress named Adrianna. Once you gain enough XP to gain a level, you’ll be able to attribute a skill point to one of six core attributes: strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, constitution, and charisma. The number of earned skill points will match the level to which you’ve leveled up.

Various classes also mean that each character will have their own unique attacks and spells giving players a bit of replay value. Starting multiple playthroughs can let players decide which class suit their playstyle better and will require a different strategy combat-wise. So for example, in my playthrough, I used Adrianna the sorceress and she had a handful of magic spells at her disposal such as fire, ice, lightning and even calling down meteors.

The main nuisance here is how easy it is to be overwhelmed by the number of enemies attacking you at once. Even on the Easy difficulty setting, I can’t recall a game where my health would drain so fast by being attacked by so many enemies at once. Some boss battles can be infuriating given the number of minions assisting the big bad boss. There’s also an abrupt difficulty spike early on. While the initial dungeon is perfect to get you acclimated to the gameplay, the first boss fight will quickly bring you back down to earth.

Despite being 21 years old, Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance’s visual holds up pretty well despite the technological leap since the sixth generation of consoles. Each area looks unique from one another; there are a few technical hiccups. When booting up the game, the first few screens look blurry/zoomed in. Character models look decent enough but obviously show their age compared to the latest AAA games. The mini-map can either be removed, used over the character, or in the top right corner.

If you’re looking for something to scratch that Diablo itch until Diablo IV in June 2023, Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance does a decent job of it. Despite being an original 2001 game, Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance holds up surprisingly well and is a solid experience. Although the game can feel unfair at times given the number of enemies, using a divide-and-conquer approach will allow you to survive. If you’re looking for a Diablo alternative or to dive into the Baldur’s Gate universe (or looking for a different type of RPG), Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance is the way to go.