Story
A Dungeons & Dragons adventure set shortly after Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance's cliff-hanger ending, this sequel finds the heroes of the first game captured upon emerging from the portal atop the Onyx Tower. Now, five new heroes will venture forth to rescue the captives and defeat the evil plot that threatens the Forgotten Realms.
Mechanics
Dark Alliance 2 looks and feels identical to its predecessor. It retains the top-down rotatable camera; the combat is direct top-down action with one button for swords and one button for abilities; character statistics still follow the heavily modified third edition AD&D rule set for level progression; the main town is an isolated haven from your actions that you can recall to for buying and selling goods, and even the menus are identical to the first game for character data and inventory. There have been a few significant alterations to this familiarity.
- A new Quick spell button allows players to assign four spells to the d-pad instead of cycling through all their abilities each time they want to use them, making combos much easier to pull off.
- Magic items are now forge-able and breakable. Adding precious stones to a mundane item of sufficiently high quality gives the imbued item magic properties ranging from acid to ability boosters. This is performed by the shopkeep at his workshop for a nominal fee.
- The point tree now has two distinct levels. Where in Dark Alliance it was possible to gain access to immensely powerful abilities simply by saving up points to get them, Dark Alliance II does not allow access to the upper-level abilities until the third act and, when they do become available, they are not nearly as expensive as those in the earlier game.
- When playing with a friend, the gold stash is shared between players and cannot be divvied to keep track of spending. *Beware if you keep untrustworthy friends.*
- Baldur's Gate is the recall hub throughout the whole adventure. There is an overworld map that can take you to distant territories, but you never migrate away from Baldur's Gate as you did in the previous game.
- Each character has a family member to converse with at the Purple Wyrm Inn. For the most part, these relatives will ask for money to help with some strife the family has been through recently and the player will receive experience for being charitable. In the third act, the player must complete their family's quest to gain access to their second-tier abilities.
- Proficiency is now required to wear armor heavier than leather. Armor proficiency can be bought with points like any other ability.
- Intestinal Fortitude has been replaced by Great Fortitude which increases your health regeneration by 2 points per minute instead of granting a percentile boost, making it nearly worthless.
- Dodge gives the player a 1 to AC for each piece of armor they are wearing instead of just a flat 1, making it nearly ridiculous.
Characters
While the first Dark Alliance featured the standard archer, sorceress, and fighter classes, Dark Alliance II gives the player five very different character classes to choose from:
Allessia Faithammer is a cleric of the god Helm. The priests of Helm are protectors and guardians. As such, her abilities are mostly defensive in nature, and she has a strong advantage over the undead. She can cast spells such as Heal Wounds, Divine Strength, Sanctuary, and Turn Undead.
Borador is a rogue, who focuses his attention on accumulating the most wealth that he can. His abilities focus on ranged attacks, and getting past traps. Some of his abilities include Hail of Bolts, Smokepowder Bomb, and Death Blow.
Dorn Redbear is the biggest and toughest of the playable characters. Unlike a well-trained fighter, versed in various fighting styles and weapons, Dorn simply bashes his way through any opposition foolish enough to get in his way. He can use abilities like Barbarian Rage, Hero's Mantle, Toughness, and Animal Friendship.
Vhaidra Uoswiir needs no weapons; her hands are enough to deal with any creature. Monks are quick and deadly with their fists, and focus on quick strikes that can cripple an enemy. Her attacks include Crushing Blow, Arterial Strike, and Sweep Attack.
Ysuran Auondril may be skilled in the black arts of Necromancy, but he is surprisingly benevolent. He can animate the dead, create potions, conjure flaming arrows, and drain the life of his enemies
- Drizzt Do'Urden - Dark Elf Ranger
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