Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance

Good fun with friends, it's a shame that's no longer an option.

RESOUNDINGLY OKAY I picked this game up arising partly from a probably autistic (but very sophisticated and niche) interest in how D&D is interpreted into video game format, regardless of how badly. But I also picked it up because of its then-imminent removal from purchase from the Steam store, and the shutdown of its multiplayer servers. Now that the game cannot be purchased on Steam anymore, you might ask “Oh my god, I can’t believe I missed my shot at playing this obscure and mediocre D&D title – did I miss out?” I haven’t nailed down the specifics of exactly why I subjected myself to getting all 54 achievements over 102 hours of playtime in this particular game and its DLC. Regardless of whether it really was autism, or perhaps the sheer magnitude of my stubborn and indomitable will, something compelled me, and here we are. In my opinion, this game had three things going for it which made it bearable: - Hands down the most fun I had with this game was briefly teaming up with online strangers to farm all the multiplayer achievements before the game servers were permanently closed earlier this year. Not knowing whether I would have the time to organise with a random group to get them, and then actually getting them, was fun. Beyond that, my only experience of the game was singleplayer. And, whilst this game is still entirely playable as a singleplayer experience, I suspect I never experienced the game to its full potential as a result. That said, I also reckon that the mounting terror and apocalyptic urgency of the impending server closedown placing a timer on a clear goal I had set myself, likely made the multiplayer experience I did have more fun than it would have been otherwise.There are also many other games I would rather play with friends instead of this one. I can say quite confidently that I would never have found myself frothing at the mouth, desperately pestering my friends to play this with me, regardless of whether I had the choice of doing so. - The soundtrack was, as seems to be the case with most D&D games, both legitimately cool and beautiful at times, and the composers clearly put love and care into it. It doesn’t compare to the likes of the Baldur’s Gate III soundtrack, which crushes all competition as some of the most evocative game music ever to rattle my little earbones, but I still liked the soundtrack of this one quite a bit – especially “Hagedorn, the Beholder”, the theme of one of the primary antagonists. https://youtu.be/mtz70w92NXI?si=i_LlBi3UNIxpoHvo - I thought the general art direction, environmental design and aesthetic atmosphere was suitably dark, fun and thoughtful, with an appreciable number of genuinely pretty moments. Again, there was clearly some considerable love put into this by the artists involved. Beyond these points, there were a few dark and imaginative moments in its cutscenes, especially surrounding the Verbeeg and what they do to other creatures. The team behind the game did also put time into detailing the lore behind peripheral subjects to the main narrative through collectable objects, which I thought was okay too. Now, the bad points. - In general, the game has less polish than your local UKIP branch. Clunky, awkward movement, inconsistent or wooden character animations, odd and unbalanced leaps in difficulty, not being able to make jumps without cycling through grabbing the ledge 3 times in a row. Not allowing players to hit anything below their current vertical position with 95% of attacks was probably the worst thing. Nothing egregious, but all small annoyances that slowly subtract from your experience over time – like ageing, or paying taxes, things that kind of just slowly happen to you without your consent, and that you can't really avoid. - I occasionally caught the whiff of a game that had once dreamed the grand dream of being a multiplayer D&D Dark Souls. Alas, good whiffs rarely stay good whiffs forever, and often ultimately decay into smelly odours that are categorically not like a multiplayer D&D Dark Souls. Like this game. - The dialogue sounds like it was written by millennials. Quippy, forgettable, usually inane and sometimes cringeworthy. I took massive inspiration from it to write this review, in fact. I'll be fair and say that some dialogue was okay, but really only for the goblin enemies, who are supposed to be dumb and annoying. - Loot is hyped and elevated as something dramatically cool and important, seemingly in lieu of a clearly defined reason to keep playing the game. In reality, it just makes the higher difficulties easier. Many of the different armour and weapon sets are just a recolour of one of three meshes, so an Acid Resistance helm might just be a green reskin of the same mesh used for the Fire Resistance helm, which is coloured orange. These meshes, still shared, also get 'cooler' as the rarity of the item increases, but that shared part of it always felt lazy and rushed. If they wanted to make loot such a focus point, the bosses could have approved making more unique art for it. All in all, an utterly, resoundingly okay experience I'm kind of glad to be done with. I don’t think I could put it more concisely than that.

It's a shame this game is being delisted, I actually had quite some fun with it. If they took the D&D license a bit more serious, and had more monster variety, better AI, I think the game would have done quite well. Anyways, here is my video on the game if anyone is interested: https://youtu.be/4ShIvnCW_RY

Jogo Excelente !!! Vários Pontos positivos Quem acreditou nas críticas negativas , deixou de de curtir um game muito top com os amigos. Esse jogo é qualidade !!!!!!!!! F**** D+

Lord of the Rings: War in the North, but worse.

Unfortunate but the game is just not great. Combat is not smooth and just boring. Finally bring in drizzt and this is what we get ugghh.

неожиданно приятная игра, получше всякой вермы и дарктайда