Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance is an action RPG developed by Tuque Game. It succeeds Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance II, which also follows the setting of Dungeons & Dragons. Dark Alliance is a four-player co-op battle, although you can choose to play as a single player. It’s an intense action game, with lots of monster-slaying, looting, and brawls.

Dark Alliance differs from a traditional RPG in that there is no bag of quests to swallow all your time; neither are lengthy dialogues. Your job is simply to go out there and send some goblins to hell. 

A standing ovation for the visuals

Dark Alliance doesn’t quite hit the mark in gameplay, but one cannot ignore the ingenuity that comes with the levels. Each area has a distinctive appearance, which gives you so much to explore, from the incandescent forges and abandoned deserts to the dangerous dwarf burrows and secret paths. If you’re lucky, you can find a treasure chest to pick along these paths.

The incredible beauty that comes with each level adds tremendous sparkle to the world of Dark Alliance. More than anything else, it shows that the Dungeons & Dragons-based game isn’t a stranger to the scene. The visual aesthetics also spreads to other characters in the game – both friends and foes. Some of the most pleasurable things you’d see are the combat animations (I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of watching them). It’s also important to mention that the characters’ physical attributes are so detailed that you can hardly miss them.

A co-op game that you can easily slide through

You enjoy Dark Alliance when you opt for co-op play. That’s what the game’s developers intended. With a team of four members, you take on different missions, taking out anyone that stands in your way. As engaging as these missions can be, they aren’t as engaging as you’d expect. Of course, some moments pull your hair to a standstill – like an enemy attacking you randomly. But these scenarios are not enough to keep the adrenaline rushing non-stop.

Although the co-op mode is where Dark Alliance truly excels, you can also try single-player mode. The problem with this is that it’s even less exciting. Moving through different environments with team members in co-op barely stirs up a thrill. You can imagine what you’d get from going through the path on your own. Unless your RPG skills are top-notch, surviving a level on your own is Herculean. One would expect that to be a precursor for some challenge of sorts. Yet, frustration is more like the feeling you get at every attempt. The strengths of your character are hardly diverse, and the weaknesses are glaring.

However, in co-op play, you can fill in what the other is lacking. The complementation of strengths makes it easier to wade through packs of enemies and deal with their boss’s deadly blows. For me, the best moments of the game are when I have to face a mighty boss or times I have to find my way through a heavily guarded area. These moments are not very common throughout the game, though.

You get much more the higher you advance.

Each level you complete unlocks an even more difficult one. So, you get the challenge building up all the way. In addition to new difficulty levels, you also get access to new items and weapons that make gameplay smoother. For example, you can unlock the ability to dish some poison to your opponents during an attack. Also, you get to gain combat moves that allow you to deal with the goblins and demons more effectively. 

That a player can unlock new abilities of their characters gives the game some luster. Instead of being stuck in an unchanging set of skills that culminate in a monotonous play, you can enjoy the variety that comes with being able to combine abilities in different ways. For example, let’s take this scenario: the enemies hit your allies during a game, then the latter dies. You can unlock the ability to raise that ally from the dead. If you combine this resurrection power with a healing ability, your character takes on a different role. This gives the needed variety to the gameplay.

However, you’re going to need enemies that can also take the battle to another level. Otherwise, the lack of unpredictable challenges will make a superman that can raze down an enemy’s camp without blinking. Of course, we need a game that tests our grit and skill. The last thing an action RPG fan wants is a stale battle. 

While it’s engaging to fight the enemies that could bring you to the ground, Dark Alliance could still need some help there. A character can stay on the ground for as long as five seconds after an enemy brings it down—that kind of slows down the game and impacts the player’s interest in the long run. Worse still, your character’s stamina bar is always in a hurry towards depletion. There’s no denying that the enemies, sometimes, can be like a swarm of bees or that come as weird but destructive things. However, does the stamina have to go so fast? 

The Verdict?

Is Dark Alliance a terrible game? We cannot say so, even though there are few issues – when resolved – that could improve players’ overall experience. That aside, Dark Alliance is an excellent tabletop RPG. The game’s co-op play is brilliant and makes up the single-player mode that could be bland and uninspiring. The graphics, combat animations, and character features are detailed and intriguing aesthetically. So, how often will I play the game? I will keep coming back until I find a reason not to.