

"The game uses some cool ," explained Darren Monahan, a producer at Black Isle Studios. The developers claim that Dark Alliance will never be the same experience each time, through. While fleeing to the city of Baldur's Gate, a kidnapping occurs, and the subsequent rescue attempt embroils you in a quest to thwart a brewing civil war. The game then follows the story of a group of farmers who are forced to leave their pillaged land. You begin the game by choosing one of three character types: a warrior, a sorceress, or a ranger.

"There is no correlation between the stories in Dark Alliance and the PC Baldur's Gate games other than the fact that they both take place in the Forgotten Realms and involve the city of Baldur's Gate," said Ryan Geithman, a programmer at Snowblind Studios. While the story lines of the three original Baldur's Gate games meld together, Dark Alliance shares only its setting with its predecessors. The developers behind Dark Alliance, Snowblind Studios and Black Isle Studios, are committed to giving PlayStation 2 owners the pick-up-and-play ability they crave. But don't think for a minute that the Baldur's Gate series will make its transition without undergoing a major evolution. After three storied installments on the PC (and a fourth on the way), the Baldur's Gate series will have its console coming-out party with Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance for the PlayStation 2. Anyone who's ever thrown a 20-sided die will relish the Baldur's Gate series on the PC-its legit Dungeons & Dragons-based gameplay mechanics will snare the most jaded paper-and-dice quester.
