Baldur’s Gate review: Dark Alliance II – Nostalgia in the closet

Originally released on PS2 in 2004, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2 was a rather surprising hack’n’slash, in the continuity of a first title released in 2001, where the PC license par excellence landed on console in a series which reinvented the formula. Exit the RPG to offer on the contrary a hack’n’slash focused on cooperation, where we traveled through two levels inspired by the lore of Baldur’s Gate.

Cooperation in mind

Identical in every way to the 2004 original, the least we can say is that the gameplay of this remaster of Dark Alliance 2 brings us back to familiar territory. Not really interested in any improvement or in the search for a clearer interface, the title is content with an update. level resolution to better match current standards and to make its interface more readable. Apart from that, we find the gameplay of yesteryear, with a hack’n’slash where we have fun happily decapitating certain enemies through a rather linear progression, divided into semi-open levels . We always find the same pleasure, the one that has subsequently been transposed to a certain Diablo 3, with this very simplistic, but somewhat enjoyable approach to mass combat against often defenseless enemies. Unfortunately, and unlike other more recent hack’n’slashes, Dark Alliance 2 suffered from an inaccuracy in the attacks which made certain situations a little frustrating, the fault of a system of attack with the controller where it is sometimes not easy to target (freely, the game does not offer a lock system) a particular enemy when you are cornered. Without reducing the pleasure of the game to nothing, this imprecision is obvious eighteen years later when the genre of cooperative hack’n’slash, including on consoles, has made its way and offered games that can -be more accomplished. Dark Alliance 2, however, benefits from the universe of Baldur’s Gate as a massive argument.

Especially since the adventure remains quite pleasant to do in cooperation, unlike the mode solo where you get bored quickly because of a fairly dispensable story, far from being striking despite the use of Baldur’s Gate lore. The fault may be a rather dated staging, minimalist dialogues that struggle to involve and choices that have little influence. Assignments are taken from NPC soulless, so we rather take advantage of the pleasure of going through a well-known adventure together, like a Proust madeleine, where the sensations of yesteryear compensate for the lack of interest of a game that does not manage to hide its age. This is felt all the more in the confrontations which suffer from a problem of impact and missions which often boil down to doing the same thing. More than the intrinsic interest of the game, which has not changed since 2004, it is above all this very dated aspect of the controls, the interface, the visual aspect or the structure of the game which have tendency to call into question the pleasure of yesteryear. Nostalgia struggles to act.

Back to the past

We are indeed facing a fairly basic remaster. The menus are the same with the same lack of readability, especially on the equipment worn or not, or the very archaic aspect of the use of quick skills with the directional pad. The gameplay, meanwhile, hasn’t evolved an inch, while the game’s graphics are pretty ugly. Conform to those of the PS2 game, with a simple smoothing accompanied by the change of resolution, it is difficult to find the slightest charm. The fault with an artistic direction which only partially exploits the universe of Baldur’s Gate, with some good passages, visually successful, drowned in the middle of a multitude of levels too classic for the genre to be able to get out of the game. eighteen years later, at a time when we have all already gone through many similar games that brought more originality. We also recommend, for owners of Switchto play it in portable mode, the TV mode being rather naughty.

So we come back eternally to the trade of nostalgia: can everything come back as it is? Recently, we tested Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series who suffered from the same problem. That of bringing back these old games without bringing much to them in terms of gameplay or visual overhaul, even more so for titles from the 128-bit era whose 3D has taken quite a bit of time. Unless we are faced with titles that particularly cared about their universe and their artistic direction, we are too quickly reminded of the limits of the time. Video games have come a long way since then and these titles, which weren’t really cult, have taken quite a slap in the face of more recent games. And we’re not just talking about the visual aspect: Dark Alliance 2 could very well age despite its lack of visual inspiration if its gameplay can survive the test of time. But its rigidity and lack of dynamism makes the adventure often soporific, unless you find a cooperation partner who would be driven by the same nostalgia as you.

Conclusion

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2 was a great game in 2004. 18 years later, the title suffers from its long years with a remaster that looks more like a simple port. Blame it on its graphics which have hardly changed and its gameplay identical to the original on PlayStation 2, with its good sides, but also its period rigidity. Not really essential for its history, it only remains a game that was fun at the time for its cooperative mode, which can still be today, but the title also shows that nostalgia is sometimes wrong placed. Great in our memories, Dark Alliance 2 is today a fairly average hack’n’slash, devoid of originality and showing a certain laziness in its progression, with repeating environments and enemies that are never really interesting to confront.

Test carried out by Hachim0n on nintendo-switch from a version provided by the publisher.