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Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 | 
 enlarge | From: Interplay
Category: Video Games
List Price: $50.91
Buy Used: $34.73
You Save: $16.18 (32%)
New (7) Used (23) Collectible (1) from $34.73
Avg. Customer Rating:  80 reviews
Sales Rank: 2501
Platform: Playstation2
ESRB: Teen
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Operating System: Playstation 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 72021
UPC: 020626720212
EAN: 0020626720212
ASIN: B00009MVJ7
Release Date: January 20, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Some scratches on disk, but should not affect play. Comes with original case. 100% guaranteed against defects. Contact us within 7 days if there is any defect, and we will gladly refund your purchase. Our standard shipping method is USPS Media Mail.
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| Features:
| • | Rid the land of chaos and monsters as you face a new threat to the legendary city of Baldur's Gate | | • | Five new characters with unique powers and abilities -- they'll accompany you through 40 levels of thrilling action, spread over 4 acts | | • | Master new skills, weapons and magic spells -- all-new spell effects and more detailed environments will bring the combat to life | | • | New item creation system lets players create their own unique magical weapons | | • | Discover hidden areas, secret characters, and hundreds of new items -- from magic potions to magic wands |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II is a return to the addictive hack-and-slash gaming in the world of the Forgotten Realms! Two-player cooperative mode lets both players play on a full screen
Amazon.com Review
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance took co-operative action role-playing to new heights on the Playstation 2 console. Alone, or with a friend, you could tackle giant rats, undead monsters, dark elves, and even a white dragon, as you uncovered a plot against the good city of Baldur's Gate. But the ending indicated there was more adventure to come. Fans were worried that the sequel wouldn't live up to original's promise when the original design team jumped ship to work on Sony's Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest. They need not have worried; Dark Alliance 2 is a worthy successor, retaining the weapons, monsters, Dungeons and Dragons action and rules, sharp graphics, responsive controls, and high adventure of its predecessor. The plot is a bit darker this time, but you're given a wider range of character classes to help face the elevated threats. There's the mighty barbarian, a dwarf rogue, a cleric, the monk (a martial artist), and a necromancer. The quest is huge and there are character-class specific side quests you can embark on--an extra incentive to play again as a different character. The level design tends to be a little too maze-like, and there's lots of boring backtracking, but the annoying jumping puzzles from the first game are gone. The biggest problem with Dark Alliance 2 is that it doesn't measure up to the competition. It's a 2-player game, while Dungeons & Dragons Heroes (on the Xbox) and Champions of Norrath (on the PS2 and Xbox) allow four-player play. Then again if you plan to play solo, or with a single friend, that shouldn't keep you from coming to the city of Baldur's Gate's aid once again. --Andrew Bub
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| Customer Reviews: Read 75 more reviews...
 Now this is a Sequel!!! February 14, 2004
34 out of 34 found this review helpful
Clearly, Black Isle coded this puppy for the fans of BGDA1. There are hundreds of subtle hardcore additions to this sequel. Gameplay has been extended to an average of 14 hours per character getting your characters to level 27. Each character can reach level 40(ie play through game twice on harder difficulty levels) to maximize feats. Any Diablo-style player can easily squeeze 100+ hours out of this game by maxing all your characters stats, feats, weapons, and amour. They added the left-trigger mapping option. This allows you to map 4 feats to your face buttons like Xbox's D&D heroes. Each of the 5 main character classes have hidden quests that allow them to level an extra 3 levels and unlock hidden feats. Gameplay even with 2-player coop is a blazing 60fps without a single drop. You can switch between 2 melee & 1 ranged weapon on the fly. Their is a 2x zoom option for single player. There are now 2 hidden characters from RA Salvatore's Forgotton Realms novels. These include the Drow-elf Drizzt Do'Urden and his assassin arch-nemesis. Each of these characters start at level 16 max at level 40(giving you at least 2 plays through the game with each). Multiplayer options are killer(like BGDA1). You can import or delete characters in the middle of any game. So if your friend leaves...delete his character out of your 2-player game and keep playing single player. There are now 80 levels instead of 40. Usually you have 3 paths to choose from instead of the old linear level-by-level design. There in an overworld map that provides optional side-quests(7 side quests). Item creation system is like that found in Diablo2. This gives you 10,000 possibilities for armour and weapons, thus eliminating the #1 problem with the original game...no new items to discover with each successive play. Each character class plays completely different. Think Diablo2 vs Diablo. Baldurs Gate DA 2 WILL OWN YOU!!!!!
Better than BG1 January 26, 2004
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
If you loved Baldur's Gate 1...you'll love BG2. They made several improvements in the game that make it more customizable than the last version. First, the levels seem to be longer and there is a wider variety of nearly everything. More enemies, more weapons (which are can be customized for more and different powers),more characters and more missions. You can also choose to play the game in a less linear fashion than the previous one. While the levels load, tips are displayed to help with the game. Players can also hold two weapons at a time and no longer have to hold a quantity of arrows. There are also many more magical spells that the 5 characters can cast. The bottom line is that this game is great.. 5 stars easily.
Great to play with two people! February 23, 2006
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
My boyfriend and I played Gauntlet and the first Baldur's Gate, and we noticed a difference with this one right away. I like the story behind it, and the plot twists (near the end there's a twist that I never expected), but The Boyfriend doesn't so much get into the plot. I always get upset if he plays without me for a while because I miss out on what's going on. He, on the other hand, says "the point is to kill orcs - the plot doesn't matter...). So I was happy with this one because it had a great plot.
I liked the referencing to the first one - there was a job cleaning the sewers, which I thought was cute - the sewers were a mess because of the first adventurers who came through and killed all the rats. I also noticed that the music was the same in that job as it was in the first Baldur's Gate when we were in the sewers.
The music is great - all of these Baldur's Gate and Norrath games have such stunning soundtracks. I could have left it on in the background just to listen.
I liked the fact that we could share money in this game - in the first we couldn't, and I had more charisma (just like in real life!!) so he would drop things for me to sell, and I'd buy things for him because we got better prices. But with being able to share money it didn't make so much of a difference.
I loved the workshop. I made some amazing weapons - it was a lot of fun to think about what sorts of stones you wanted to add.
I also liked that your home stayed in Baldur's Gate the whole time, so you always had the same shop guy.
It took us about a month to finish the game, and I thought that was just about the right amount of time. I'm glad we had two people, though - I think it would have been a lot harder, especially at the end, with only one person.
Great game, gorgeous graphics, awesome music - what more can you ask for?
Baldur's Gate rocks February 4, 2004
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Im 27 years old and I've never been into these kinds of games (Im more of a sports gamer) but the first Baldurs Gate got me hooked, I couldnt wait for the second to come out and Im also hoping for a third. Ive been playing the game for a week now and I only get a couple hours out of the day to play it due to wife and baby. I gave this game 5 stars, not to compare it to any other game (I really dont know how the others are) but I gave it 5 stars based on my enjoyement playing it. I think Vivendi Universal did a great job in making the Baldurs Gate series and the graphics are better than the first, and the game play is basically the same, but I like that, it made this game that much easier to jump right into. If you never have played any of the Baldurs Gate series than pick this one up and give it a shot, its loads of fun and for the parents, this game is less graphic than most Ive seen. Take a grown-ups advice and not a 5 year old with access to a computer, THIS GAME ROCKS!!!
Return to Baldur's Gate. February 16, 2005
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
DARK ALLIANCE: BALDUR'S GATE 2 has a plot that begins fairly soon after the end of the original BALDUR'S GATE video game. At the end of the original BALDUR'S GATE the three heroes found themselves surrounded by giant black creatures after jumping through the "last" remaining gateway portal. The game begins with your character on the outskirts of a village being asked to help a group of travelers who were attacked by orcs. The first stage of the game is more of a prologue and it takes a little while before actually reaching the city of Baldur's Gate. Visiting an inn (one different from the first game), your character is able to talk to some people and begin going on certain quests. Ultimately, your character is to rescue the three adventurers from the first game and defeat the vampire lord.
I really enjoyed playing DARK ALLIANCE. I like action-adventure type of games and tend to play them more because of the story rather than their difficulty. I found DARK ALLIANCE to be a bit more difficult than BALDUR'S GATE. There are a couple of really tough bosses (especially the octopus-face lady in the caves beneath the one castle) which require some critical thinking and strategy to defeat.
There are a few changes in DARK ALLIANCE from BALDUR'S GATE. The player has 5 characters to choose from instead of 3. Though the game is pretty much the same no matter which character you choose, there are side quests that only each character can partake. There are also some characters in the game who won't talk to certain characters. Like the first game, each of the five characters has their own special skills and talents. Personally I liked the dwarf rogue the best because he's able to carry the most loot and has this nifty ability of being able to automatically able to disarm all traps. Another change in the game is the ability to modify weapons into special magical weapons, but it costs a lot of money and jewels to make anything really worthwhile. Another difference is that characters who shoot arrows don't have to constantly buy those arrows; once you have a bow, it remains armed all the time. This saves on both money and the amount of weight being carried around. Some of the levels are the same as in BALDUR'S GATE, but there are many more new ones. The game also takes much longer to beat. Once beating the game, an extreme mode opens up in which you can take your character from the end of your first game and start over at the beginning of the game, but with everything being extremely difficult to kill. If you choose to play extreme mode, your character keeps his experience and levels, but looses all possessions. It's fun to try, but very hard to beat some of the bosses in this mode.
Overall, I found DARK ALLIANCE to be a fun game and a good sequel to BALDUR'S GATE. Expert gamers will be bored by it, but most anyone else who likes action-adventure/role play games will probably enjoy it.
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The Nintendo Wii goes on sale on Sunday, November 19. Thanks to the inclusion of the simple--but infectiously fun--Wii Sports game, the Wii is the first console in recent memory that lets you have fun straight out of the box. Still, there are a few key Wii accessories you'll want to pick up to maximize your Wii experience--especially if you're buying it as a gift.
Extra controllers: Like all recent consoles, the Wii ships with just a single controller (well, one two-part controller: one Wiimote, plus one nunchuk). But the real fun of the system is playing the head-to-head Wii Sports games such as tennis and boxing. To do so, you'll need at least one extra set of controllers--and again, that's one Wiimote ($28.99) plus one nunchuk ($12.99). The Wii supports as many as four, but just the one extra controller set should suffice--at least for Christmas morning.
Rechargeable batteries: The Wiimote takes two standard AA batteries. They're included--with the Wii, and with the sold-separately version of the controller mentioned above--but avid players may find the juice draining pretty quickly, especially if they keep the nunchuk attached (it draws its power from the Wiimote). Instead of buying an endless stream of costly AAs, consider investing in a set of rechargeables. You can score a charger and four rechargeable nickel-metal-hydride batteries for less than $25.
GameCube controllers: The Wii is fully backwards compatible with the Nintendo GameCube, but there's a catch: to play the GameCube games, you'll need a GameCube controller ($15.99). You can even go wireless with the Nintendo WaveBird ($59.99). If you already have a GameCube, your existing controllers will work just fine--just plug them in to one of the four ports underneath the flip-up panel on the Wii's topside. GameCube controllers should also work with the Wii's "Virtual Console" games--which saves you the trouble of having to buy a Classic Controller.
GameCube memory cards: One other annoyance when playing GameCube games: your progress can only be saved to GameCube memory cards, not to the Wii's internal memory or to an SD card (we're hoping Nintendo fixes this with a future firmware update). Like the controllers, your old GC cards will work just fine--there are two slots right next to the GameCube controller ports. If you don't have any onhand (and you want to save your games on GC titles), you'll need to spring for a $26.90 (2GB) memory card.
Wii Points: One of the big attactions of the Wii is its Virtual Console, which lets you purchase classic games that originally came from the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the Super NES, the Nintendo 64, the Sega Genesis, and the TurboGrafx16. By the end of 2006, at least 30 titles should be available, including Donkey Kong (NES), Super Mario 64 (N64), and Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis). To purchase the downloadable titles, you'll need to use a Nintendo currency known as Wii Points (similar to the Microsoft Points on Xbox Live), which currently have an exchange rate of 100 points per U.S. dollar. You can buy Wii Points directly through the console's online store, or use prepaid cards (2000 Wii Points) available in various denominations.
SD card: If you're close to filling the Wii's built-in 512MB of storage with your Virtual Console games, you can always expand your available space with an SD card. Nintendo sells its own, but any run-of-the-mill card will do. Fairly spacious 1GB cards are available for less than $20--even less with mail-in rebates--and they'll work in plenty of other gadgets as well.
Wireless access point: In addition to the downloadable Virtual Console games, the Wii offers online "channels," including news, weather, and even an Opera Web browser (head-to-head online gaming is said to be coming sometime in 2007). You can get online for free via the Wii's built-in Wi-Fi. To do so, of course, you'll need a nearby wireless access point or router. Alternately, you can plug the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector into any nearby PC on a wired network, and the Wii--plus your Nintendo DS--will be able to use it to get online instead.
Component video adapter: The Wii doesn't have the graphical horsepower to handle high-def graphics, but it can do DVD-level 480p video, which will look considerably better on large HDTVs. To see the Wii's games in 480p, you'll need Nintendo's proprietary component video adapter, which should run about $20. |
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www.seeker-wii.com | |
