Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

The game was published for PlayStation, Xbox and GameCube by Black Isle Studios, a division of Interplay Entertainment, and distributed by Vivendi Universal Games. It is the first video game to implement the real time application of the new rules. A third game was planned, but was cancelled early in development due to legal problems, and the closure of Black Isle Studios after Interplay went bankrupt. The console version of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is a real-time hack and slash/action role-playing game presented in a 3D perspective, with a rotatable isometric three-quarter top-down view. At the beginning of the game, character stats are preset, with the player able to choose from three race/class combinations; a dwarven fighter , a human archer or an elven sorceress . Every time the character increases in level, points are awarded corresponding to that level; i.e. if a character increases to level twelve, the player will gain twelve experience points to spend on the character's spells and feats. For every four levels which the character increases, the player is given one ability point to spend on one of the six core attributes . Each of the three characters have their own unique fighting style and their own specific set of spells and feats. As Kromlech is a fighter, his spells and feats tend to focus on increasing his brute strength and ability to resist damage, as well as granting him powerful abilities to aid in melee combat, such as the ability to swing his weapon in a circle or slam it into the ground to damage groups of nearby enemies. As Vahn relies on ranged attacks, his spells and feats tend to focus on increasing the power of his bow and granting him the ability to fire special types of arrows, such as exploding arrows, ice arrows or multiple arrows. As Adrianna is a sorceress, her spells and feats tend to focus on increasing the power of her magic and granting her numerous new spells, such as the ability to shoot ice or fire from her fingers, shoot a ball of lightning or call down meteors on her enemies. Gameplay is linear, and each main quest must be completed in sequence before the story can proceed, although there are some optional side-quests, which do not have to be completed immediately. Weapons, armor and items are only available for purchase from one location at a time, and become increasingly expensive and more powerful as the game progresses. The HUD features the option to use either a transparent map that covers most of the screen, or a mini-map, with the player also given the option to turn the map off entirely. The game also features cooperative gameplay with another player.