Dark Alliance II isn't a bad game, but it brings nothing new.
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II is yet another game in the crowded hack 'n slash genre. It follows the same formula laid down by Diablo, and copied by Champions of Norrath, The Bard's Tale, and X-Men Legends. You go from screen to screen, wiping out all enemies in your path. You collect money and items from their dead bodies, level up, and go kill more enemies. This is a formula that works most of the time, but it always runs the risk of getting stale. The first BG:DA avoided that problem, because the visuals looked fantastic, and it was based on the classic Dungeons & Dragons license. Unfortunately, other games have taken this same formula and created some innovations to keep the gameplay fresh. BG:DAII didn't, and the result is a very familiar and dull game that was more of a chore than it was fun to play.
One change to BG:DAII is the introduction of 5 new character classes, including an Monk, Sorcerer, Barbarian, Rogue, and Cleric. In an interesting twist, the heros of the first game have been captured, and it's your mission to free them. Each character does play a bit differently, though some skills are shared across characters. However, you'll probably find yourself gravitating to the better melee characters as it's easier to just smack around your enemies rather than cast a spell and run over and over again. Each character is given a character-specific side mission that unlocks some new abilities as well, which was a nice touch.
The biggest problem with BG:DAII is that the gameplay is exactly the same as BG:DA and Champions of Norrath. Other games in this genre have at least tried to bring something new to the table. For example, X-Men Legends lets you switch through a squad of four and focuses on combos. As bad as the Bard's Tale was, it at least tried to play differently by focusing on summons and timed blocking. BG:DAII just does the same old "block, attack, block, attack" mechanic used before. Two-player co-op is still available, though I didn't find it much more fun than going through solo.
The graphics are ok, being rougly on par with the first BG:DA. Again, other similar games have done more with the graphicsto make their games more interesting. Champions of Norrath, which uses the same game engine as BG:DAII, had a lot more interesting things to look at as well. You spent time on a beach, in a sky fortress, and underwater. X-Men Legends used cell shading to make it look like a comic book. BG:DAII doesn't try anything new. You run through the standard set of dungeons, sewers, woods, and city streets. Also, the production values seemed a lot lower this time around. When you go to your character menu, for example, the character portait looks awful.
The story and missions will definitely give you deja vu. "Been there, done that" is the best way to describe what's going on. BG:DA left on a major cliffhanger, and BG:DAII picks up right where that game left off. However, you'll not find anything really new to the story. Just think along the lines of "big bad guy wants to take over the world."
Overall, there's nothing overly wrong with BG:DAII. It just doesn't try anything new. The gameplay is stale, even with the new characters, and a lot of the locations are just copied from the first BG:DA. I wouldn't recommend this game. There are other, better hack 'n slash games out there.
