Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance delivers a solid D&D adventure, with exciting combat and a slew of monsters to take down. Though my experience was a bit dulled by crashes and some minor bugs, it certainly didn’t ruin the game for me. Dark Alliance fits in nicely in the pantheon of Dungeons and Dragons games.
It needs work, it's not a ten. But it sure as hell isn't anything less than 6: so my 10 is to balance out the review bombs.
There's a learning curve and patches needed, but it's fun and isn't that what counts at the end? It's got good bones, need polish.
In theory, D&D: Dark Alliance is a decent action rpg with hack&slay appeal. But server problems and bugs are annoying while the chracter development is rather puristic.
I have not given up on Dark Alliance, and I hope they continue to improve and change the game into something great. With some variety, the combat could get better. With some balancing changes or NPC companions, solo play could become viable and fun. Some adjustments to the gear drops and mechanics could deepen that system and improve upon what they started with. I was left frustrated and disappointed with Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, but I will keep coming back to see how it grows in the coming months, and hope to be able to love it in the future.
I wrack my brain trying to figure out Dark Alliance’s strengths, and I’m not coming up with much. The level design works surprisingly well for multiplayer. I was afraid looting would fall by the wayside, but every time a fight would wrap up, everyone would run off in different directions and grab chests before finally moving on. I didn’t feel like things were getting missed. Well, except for the shoes that would pop out of chests some other player would open. Those just rot, forgotten on the ground.
Dark Alliance needs a lot of work to truly warrant a playthrough and can only be recommended in its current state to massive fans of the book series who just want to know what happens in between books 1 and 2. The game itself is a masterpiece to look at, but falls short in the gameplay department, making this a tough sell for anyone who wasn't already going to pick it up and play simply based on its source material.
I honestly cannot understand what some players are criticising about the game. It looks great, the voices and music are really well done and the player will be immediately immersed into the world of the Forgotten Realms. As a D&D nerd, I am blown away how the developers have brought the creatures and the setting to life. It feels like an interactive D&D-movie. The four characters are very well adapted from the novel and feel believable and alive. Using the PC version I did not encounter any severe gameplay-issues right now.
Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance
a Mind of its own
Dark Alliance is an 8 hour long 3rdperson dungeon crawler that can be layed both solo as well as online with up to 4 players, hre you choose one of 4 classes that can be changed in between every mission… youll be running through thse dungeons, taking down enmies, and every once in a while you will gt the coice, set up camp here and regain all ehalth and consumables… and if you die this will be your spawn point, butif you decline to set up camp, the rarity of the loot in this dungeon increases… really having you carfully test your skill and confidence… I played with the more quick bladed assassin as well as the archer, going back and forth each mission so that I didn’t get bred of this game, and I feel this is the best way to play through dark alliance because pof how repettitve it ultimately is, from start to finish its all the same, do this 15- 20 minute long mission, finding chests, defeating enemies if you so choose, to get tp that levels boss and take it down… I was havig an absolte blast most of the time… there are definitely some challenging momnts here, especially from a ouple of its bosses.. and by I couple, I literally mean a couple as for the most part, the ai in dark alliance is awful, they aren’t alive ready foraction, they stand there, waiting to be triggered, which can lead to tons of lack luster fights.. even some bosses will just stand there to die, putting up no fight playing solo… gameplay wise though the combat can be thrilling with each charater feeling vastly different, but my biggest announce with the gameplay is that at least on the playstation 5, the game seemed to have a mind of its own, input combat commands by itself when id try to run or even mid battle… at the nd of each mission youll be given your loot and this is another issue I have with this game.. the loot is just awful here.. ypou don’t get a feeling of what cool item did I escape with, all of it is lack luster and lame, really killing incentive to explore, I was just rushing through these dungeons slaying these brain dead bosses, with only 2 or 3 really fighting back and giving me a challenge…
Overall, I enjoyed Dark alliance, is it game of the year contender? Not even close, but its nowhere near as bad as most are making it seem, its worth running through and playing by yourself or with friends, but there sadly is no life, in the form of content or loot to keep you playing beyond the final boss…
I give Dungeons and Dragons Dark alliance
a 6.5/10
ill get this out of the way now, the biggest problem with this game is the bugs. i play on a base ps4 and my other players are on pros, or ps5 respectfully. we all have had freezing on loading screens, bad framerate and both players and items getting stuck.
that being said, there is a real fun game under it. if your not familiar with the drizzt story, this is not a good introduction, you can get the jests of it through some side comments, but they seemed to leave a lot out, or hinted at, for you to read the books on your own, which i recommend.
gameplay wise, there are 4 characters, you have a barbarian, with a war hammer, a ranger archer, a dwarf paladin, and a dark elf rogue (even though he was not a rogue in the books.) each play different, but you should be aware that there is no dedicated healer, while most characters can get or start with a healing ability, once you unlock more, you can switch it out, to which you will then need to rely on potions.
each character seems to fall into a dedicated roll, and trying to stray from that can be damming. for instance if you run in with your rogue, and try to solo everything, you better get real used to your potion button. as well if your trying to range with your barbarian, your going to be spending a good while on every fight. my advice is to run through the first level with each character and find what you like.
If you are playing solo, or in quick play its also important to find yourself a backup character, this is because in coop, there cant be multiples of the same characters. so no army of dwarves as fun as that will be. but also that means if your main is a popular character, you will find it harder to get into lobbies with them.
the story is not extremely long, and after finishing it, you will just be running through levels again on harder difficulty's, trying to get more loot. imagine this game with the left 4 dead, level replay, and the diablo loot system.
each run is about the same. there are 3 acts that you run through, most have puzzles, a few mini bosses, and a major boss at the end. the last act is normally the shortest and has the final boss in that act waiting. now the first few are just going to be goblins, orcs, trolls, ect. on repeat. but once you start getting to the later levels, the bosses really start to own the show, unfortunately the minions tend to all go down the same, there is very few tactical stratagems to the combat. while there are only 7 chapters, they can all be run through in a few hours, and that with exploring every inch of the levels.
multiple times in each level, after larger fights are finished you will be offered a short rest, where you can get fully healed, and your potions restocked, but at the cost of your loot getting worse. honestly i never needed to use this feature, even on harder difficulty's, if you just drink your potions before opening a small chest, you stay stocked pretty well.
the developers have already said there will be supporting the game with future content, while they said there will be no micro transactions in the game, and free story updates, there is always the possibility of paid content in the future as well.
in closing the game runs bad, but has great potential. the $40 usd price point makes the blow a bit softer, but doesn't make up for the headaches given through all the hours put in. i hope to see more d&d games coming out in the future, as there are millions of story's to be told & re-told.
it should off stayed longer in the oven, and fixed a lot of bad bugs.
Dark Alliance did not feel like a RPG at all. It's a fighting game with some level ups. There is some exploration in the levels, but there is no town, no village, no NPC. The story is delivered though enemies that babbles from far away, and some very difficult to read, tomes and artifacts. The story felt useless and completely incoherent. In single player the game is ok until you hit the locked level, that force you a level of difficulty higher. And the wall is pretty stiff to climb. If you add a bad targeting system, no precision in fighting, long combo that expose you. Yet, the levels are great. The soundtrack is quite decent and the creatures design are real pro. But the game by itself gets boring and frustrating very fast. It isn't assemble like a real RPG should be. I give it a 44%.
SummaryJoin up to 4 friends and battle iconic monsters from Dungeons & Dragons in the new co-op action RPG Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance. Dark Alliance brings to life the world of Dungeons & Dragons in an explosive action RPG filled with real-time combat and dynamic co-op.
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