Divided, we're lame. United, we rock!
One of the more memorable moments in Dark Alliance was when I found myself discovering the unique, mercurial water effects. It was a joy, just splashing about and watching the impossibly perfect ripples interact with each other and yet, something was missing. When I discovered co-operative play, that little excursion became an experimentation into glorious obsession.
We're off to see the wizard
Dark Alliance was probably my first proper "dungeon hack 'n' slash" after a brief and embarrassing stint with Diablo when I was younger. In short, I was too afraid to continue; not being particularly fond of the genre at the time didn't help. It was a chance encounter that allowed to me to stumble upon this little gem. Suffice to say, without much else to do, I ended up buying it. Now, one of the things I look for in a game is story—it doesn't have to be the most amazing piece of literature in the world—but I always prefer something solid, entertaining. That wasn't the case with Dark Alliance, so once I began the game, something else ensnared me in its place: the atmosphere. Liberally drenched in a high fantasy universe, all the little sundries in the game world simply leapt out at me. There was a strange tingling feeling I experienced, no doubt helped by the fact that I'd just watched the newly released Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. This was deliciously promising.
Thud!
"Get him! Get him... stop that grindylow!" I yelled to my cousin. I'm sure Gary Gygax frowns down upon me from his mead table in the sky for being completely ignorant of the existence of kobolds, as they're apparently called. I could have gone with gremlins or imps or whatever fantasy creature they most resemble, but with Harry Potter fever rapidly spreading through our household, I had my defence. Similar to the weird and wonderful creatures contained in those pages, my cousins and I discovered a bevy of weird and wonderful (and distinctly more murderous) creatures in Dark Alliance. Big cubes of jelly. Hinkypunks (I swear that's what they look like!). Giant lizards. And *shudder* spiders. These were just some of the beings we faced in our quest to erm, whatever it was. Shapes and sizes of all sorts assaulted us and then, we had some tough boss characters to contend with on top of those. Fights were therefore fast and frenetic as tactics changed on the fly in order to adapt to the battlefield. In the case of spiders, the fights were just frantic.
Each crunchy encounter proved one thing: it was decent to fight by oneself, but together, it was glorious. Strategies emerged from all directions. There were yells for ball lightening. Doors were cautiously swung open so the archer could make short work as the undead literally lined up. There were moments when we fought back-to-back. Then there were the subtler aspects like balancing out inventory spaces, trading weapons and being a downright prick at times. Brilliantly, each character picked up his or her own gold meaning that all times there was this little itch at the back of our minds: sure, we fight as comrades now but that barrel is mine. Sometimes it was exasperating as I held off golems while my partner-in-crime decided to go a little solo with the looting. I could have, of course, asked them later on to help me buy stuff, but during those heated moments one could feel the strain and a competitive nature not particularly endemic to co-operative games back then. There was immense frustration and annoyance at their greed (and they, yours) and yet, camaraderie and relief for their support; these nacreous emotions made Dark Alliance a deeply personal experience.
There and back again
Dark Alliance was a title that probably appeared to me to be a totally incredible experience purely because of the circumstances under which I played it. Sure, it's a simple dungeon hack when you're playing by yourself. With others, it became a mad, mad dash for loot and glory. Provided you've kept each other alive till that point.