I first played the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II back in the PlayStation 2 days. A buddy and I hunkered down together in my old bachelor apartment living room, and over a bucket of Natural Light and a few hundred tubes of Pringles, we marched our way through the tunnels and hideouts to the end of the game. We had played the first game together a few years prior, and were delighted at the updated characters and graphics.
A remaster of Dark Alliance II released today, and I've been playing through it on vacation with my son. We're in North Carolina, and it's hotter than blazes, so in between trips to the pool (we're not at the beach until next week) and excursions to the best store on the planet (Antiques & Geeks in Asheboro, NC, by the way) we've been running a Necromancer and Cleric through the paces in the sweet, sweet air conditioning.
I remember back in the day being utterly entranced by the graphics in this game - particularly the realistic way that water swirls around your character as you traipse through cavern lakes. These visuals don't really hold up all that well twenty years later, but the hack-n-slash gameplay is still the perfect antidote for those slow do-nothing hours between vacation activities. Despite the fact that my son continuously picks up all the gold and good gear (why can't my necromancer equip any gear? That's a thing?), we're having a pretty good time teaming up on this low-stakes, offline adventure.
Sometimes you just want a little comfort food in your gaming, and that's exactly what Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II is for me. I'm delighted that I now have it on my Switch, and I'm betting that my son and I are going to roll credits on this bad boy before we head back to Ohio.
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II is now available Steam, Epic and GOG, as well as the Microsoft and Nintendo stores for $29.99. The PlayStation version has been delayed just slightly due to a problem with the PlayStation Store, but it'll be along before you know it.
