5 Games to Play Before Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance
Dungeons qne Dragons: Dark Alliance is currently in development, the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and its sequel. Many fans of the old games and of Dungeons and Dragons in general are waiting to see what this new Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance has in store.
Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance is a third-person RPG featuring characters from R.A. Salvatore's series of novels The Legend of Drizzt; its four playable characters are Drizzt himself, plus Catti-Brie, Bruenor Battlehammer, and Wulfgar. And luckily, there are a few games that players can explore in the meantime to prepare for the release of Dark Alliance.
First up is the acclaimed game Baldur's Gate, which has an Enhanced Edition that recently became available on consoles including the Switch, in addition to PC and Mac. As such, even though the game first released in 1998, it's extremely accessible for the gamers of today.
Baldur's Gate is the first installment of a three-game saga following the Bhaalspawn; the child of a god who seeks to understand their nature and stop one of their half-siblings from starting a war to end all others. It comes with a colorful cast of companions, including the irreplaceable Minsc, and contains quite the epic narrative. Not only that, but Baldur's Gate has remained well-loved through the years, which is why, despite its age, it deserves to be remembered and played now, and in the future. Plus, Drizzt Do'Urden makes an appearance in the game, and the player character can assist him in his quest. It's a nice introduction to Dark Alliance's main character through the video game format.
Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn blows the original out of the water. With all the fantastic RPGs that have released in the years since this one, BG2 is still lauded as one of the best RPGs of all time, and rightly so. Therefore, those sold on BG1 should absolutely follow it up with BG2, which follows the Bhaalspawn in an even more desperate and high-stakes venture: a quest to save their immortal soul.
New and returning characters in BG2 are better than ever, and one of the returning characters is, in fact, Drizzt. He and his companions (the same companions who will be playable in Dark Alliance) have a cameo in the game, and can even end up assisting the player character of BG2 in fighting one of the main enemies of the game. It's a fun venture to take with Drizzt, and a solid continuation of his introduction in BG1.
There's no Drizzt cameos in Neverwinter Nights, but that's no reason to disregard it. NWN, like the previous two games, takes place in the same world as Dark Alliance will, the Dungeons and Dragons world of Faerun, and it too has an enhanced edition that'll work perfectly on today's PCs and Macs, despite the game itself originally releasing just two years after BG2 in 2002.
Neverwinter Nights follows the story of the player character as they seek the cure to a horrible illness that has brought the city of Neverwinter to its knees, the Wailing Death. It's great fun, and the Enhanced Edition comes with both of its expansion games, as well as a toolset that allows players to create their own adventure modules using NWN's engine and assets.
Planescape: Torment, though it's another Dungeons and Dragons-based game, doesn't take place on the same plane of existence as the other three. Rather, this game uses the Planescape setting, and takes place largely in the planar city of Sigil. It probably has the least to do with Dark Alliance on this list, but it's a D&D game all the same, and it's another game, like BG2, that is lauded as one of the best RPGs ever made. Torment released in 1999, and its incredible story helps it to endure through the years; now, Torment has an Enhanced Edition that players can purchase to play the game using current-generation technology.
Finally, there's Icewind Dale. The main appeal of playing this game before Dark Alliance releases, besides the fact that it's another game based on DnD rules, is that it's actually set in the same area that Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance will be. Drizzt's original stomping ground is located to the far northwest of Faerun, in an area called Icewind Dale. While Drizzt isn't the focus of the game Icewind Dale, it's a great introduction to the region that'll be featured in Dark Alliance.
Icewind Dale allows players to build their own party of adventurers, and confront an evil stirring underneath the Spine of the World. Thus, anyone who wants to get to know the setting of Dark Alliance before actually playing it should check out Icewind Dale, along with the other games on this list.
Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance is set to release for PC and consoles sometime in 2021.
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