Fight Night 2004 .................................. Xbox Publisher: Electronic Arts .................................. Xbox Developer: EA Sports .................................. Avg Staff Score: 8.3 out of 10 .................................. Buy Now
The Baldur’s Gate series has been around for quite some time with its start on PC which would eventually lead to its existence on console systems. With Dark Alliance making its first appearance on Playstation 2, the series took a turn from its classic RPG/Simulation style of play, into a fantasy dungeon crawler similar to another popular PC title – Diablo. With Dark Alliance soon hitting all three major platforms, it quickly became a cult following that would leave the genre forever changed. With beautiful graphics, a masterful control scheme, and an enthralling story-line Dark Alliance was without a doubt one of the premier games of it’s genre on any platform. That said, the dark forces which plagued Baldur’s Gate are far from finished with their devilish plans. With the previous warriors of Dark Alliance bound in chains and held captive, five new warriors must step up to the task and save the world from darkness. With the first of the series being such an inspiring title to the genre, can the second installment (which had faced numerous delays) live up to its predecessor? Read on to find out.
Gameplay
After being quickly filled in on the journeys of the original three heroes of the Dark Alliance series the game begins with new warriors working their way towards Baldur’s Gate. In starting, the options of picking one or two players is available and, after selecting one of the previous, the game can be played on Easy, Medium, or Hard difficulty levels. The standard options of sound, controller adjustment and the like are also available. One of my favorite options, which is set to off by default, is the ability to show damage text. This option will show exactly how much damage is inflicted, or when NPC characters block incoming attacks. Of course it’s always great to see 254 damage flash up on the screen when you normally hit for 70s, maybe that’s just me. Another nice touch is the ability to customize the controller in almost any facet, allowing any button to be substituted for one another. After tweaking the options and selecting a game type the choice of selecting characters is the next step. This time around fans of the series will quickly notice five all new characters. These characters include the brutal human warrior, the sleek dark elf monk, the dark moon elf necromancer, the sneaky dwarven rouge, and finally the holy human cleric. The character selection this time around is much more open to all sorts of gamers. While the first game featured only one pure spell caster and two melee types, which felt fairly similar; Dark Alliance II seems to feature a much wider variety of gameplay through its available characters.
The game quickly picks up as mentioned before heading towards Baldur’s Gate. After meeting an injured warrior, who was journeying to Baldur’s Gate as well, you quickly learn that her caravan was raided and that the town ahead was being pillaged by goblins. Being brave as always, our heroes quickly head to help the town in need, and from there they become engulfed in quite a tale. Before your ready to face the goblin horde, it is wise however to know the controls:
Left thumbstick – move character
Right thumbstick – rotate camera
D-pad up/down - cycles active spells/feats
D-pad left - toggles automap mode
D-pad right - toggle one-handed, two-handed, and ranged weapons
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