Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance Reviews
Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance is a fun action game to play with friends whose deep combat gets overshadowed by a clunky lock-on mechanic and untimely framerate drops.
Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, which tells the story of The Icewind Dale Trilogy, is a looter slasher that requires Co-op. But, as for the fans of D&D, lacklustre combat and uninspired action will likely not satisfy.
Review in Korean | Read full review
With its frustrating controls, and questionable AI the enjoyment that can be gained from Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance is severely limited. If a player is looking to romp through a strongly realized D&D world, and a classic story of heroes scrambling to stop the legions of evil, it may be worth keeping the game on easy just to enjoy the setting and story. However, if you are looking for a full-fledged action RPG experience there are far better offering out there.
D&D: Dark Alliance is a case for people to hop on board to play the analog role-playing game it’s based on. This video game is so goddamn boring, infuriating, and repetitive, it’ll make you appreciate the intricacies of a live RPG session.
As this is on Game Pass the only thing you’re spending extra is your time. If you have a few friends to play with there are worse ways to go about it, but if you’re looking at this game solo then I’d say it’s a hard pass, free or not.
While there is some depth and enjoyment deep within the heart of the multiplayer experience, Dark Alliance fails to provide the engrossing gameplay experience that is required in order to sustain the sort of long-term community clearly desired by the game’s creators.
The single positive thing Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance does is end, though sadly, not nearly soon enough.
Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance is a lot of fun to play with friends, but it has enough issues to see it fall short of co-op greatness as it stands. A sketchy camera, dumb enemy AI, and some balancing issues can hold the experience back, especially when playing solo. It’s a shame too, because the combat of the game is enjoyable and collecting loot is really rewarding. Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance just needs a little bit of fine-tuning around the edges before it can begin to feel like essential playing.
I don't know who, in my right mind, I would recommend Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance to.
As a whole, I can’t recommend Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance. If you’re attempting to play it on a last gen system, it’s almost impossible to get through. Even if you’re playing it on a current gen system, it’s still not worth your time. It’s simply not fun. It’s so bland and generic that it’s a slog to get through. There are many other co-op action adventure games out there are much more entertaining, such as Diablo III or Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance. And the latter isn’t even that good to begin with.
As a devoted Dungeons and Dragons player, I can respect Dark Alliance for attempting to bridge the tabletop experience and the virtual plane. Unfortunately, the game is lackluster and has more flaws than redeemable qualities.
Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance is an alright adventure, it’s got a fine amount of content and it’s good fun for a group.
Overall, Dark Alliance is a fun game for quick 30-minute sessions with friends. However, I’d personally want it to stay in development for longer so developers would fix some of the game’s issues. It’s highly detailed and beautiful, but that’s the only best quality I could say about it right now.
The fantasy genre is one we’re all familiar with. Whether it be The Lord of The Rings or shows like Netflix’s The Witcher, the genre has found a dedicated spot in modern pop culture. But it’s Dungeons and Dragons that really brought the fantasy genre to the fore, finding favour among the nerdiest of youths and the most famous of Hollywood actors. For a franchise as massive as D&D, you’d think that its adaptations and spinoffs into modern media would hold up pretty well. It’s why I got quite excited about the recently released D&D: Dark Alliance, which seeks to throw players into an epic campaign littered with all the trimmings of D&D’s vast universe. It accomplishes this to some degree, but as a whole, it feels closer to a critical fail than booming success.
Dark Alliance can lean on an enormous amount of lore. Many locations, friends, and enemies make an appearance. the level design is pretty good and challenges to explore. However, the game is held back by bugs and battles that just do not work. The game has huge potential but sadly falls short in execution.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance was meant to be the spiritual successor to the 2001 classic Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance. Built as a hack n slash RPG, Dark Alliance brings to life the heroes of Icewind Dale and the epic story of the Crystal Shard.
There’s room on the market for mindless action, especially when it can be played with friends. I’m glad a game like Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance is on Game Pass because that’s the perfect way to get a group of friends playing together. I just wish that once they gathered, they had something better to play. Unfortunately, despite some parts of the game looking and sounding nice, there’s little else to recommend it. With awful AI, weightless combat, an unengaging story, and loot that feels inessential, the entire game is a slog. The biggest fans of Dungeons & Dragons may find a bit of fun with friends, but they deserve better than this.
I personally find it hard to fault a game when it sports a lower than average asking price on launch, but I cannot recommend this game to anyone. It's been nothing but a frustrating experience all throughout, with no redeeming gameplay qualities. But hey, at least the cutscenes were nice.
A game with solid offensive flow and a great soundtrack that is hobbled by a lack of quality of life features, poorly balanced combat, and atrocious AI.
At its best, Dark Alliance reminds me a bit of the classic arcade game Gauntlet. Those games were a blast to play with friends but were a frustrating experience when attempting to run solo. I have enjoyed every minute of Dark Alliance that I played with other players, whether it was with friends or random online companions. However, the single-player experience of Dark Alliance was miserable, at best, and should be avoided by anyone who wishes to have a fondness for the game.