The Diablo of consoles.
·Adding jewels into your weapons/armor/rings to make the game more customizable.
·Good story.
·Probably the easiest action-RPG to get into since Gauntlet.
Bad Idea:
·No Live or System Link play.
·Lag issues.
·Once you figure out how to cheat your character, it's hard not too (I'll explain later).
Overall:
·A really great game, regardless of the few flaws, and probably some of the best co-op around. If you like games like Diablo and don't really have a PC, or a PSX for that matter, this is a must have.
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If you've played Baldur's Gate for the PC, then you'll soon realise this game is nothing like that. Baldur's Gate is a true role playing game, not a hack-n-slash like Dark Alliance. Nevertheless, this game does stand on it's own as a very entertaining game. For an example, when I first got this game, my brother came over and we stayed up all night playing and then some. It was so addicting that every moment for two weeks, we played the game as much as we could until we beat it. Time was like the speed of light, just flying right past us. I review games on fun more than other things and this game is really top-notch fun.
The graphics are not some of the best out there. They have their moments but I guess the real issue is the framerate. When there's too many objects or monsters on the screen, the framerate will go from a smooth 30 to a drastic 5. The character models are highly detailed (which may be a cause for the framerate issues) and the textures are really a treat to the eyes. Nothing is muddy and slopped together. The only downfall on the graphics is the framerate.
Sounds are about average for an RPG like this. There's nothing that really stands out as amazing. Those familiar with EAX sound quality will enjoy the dungeons in this game. It features some great echo effects as well as some terrific sounding surround sound. The music is pretty good but sometimes it gets in the way of the battles by being a bit too loud. You'll probably want to turn it down or if you're like me, have it to almost an ambience.
The true joy of this game is how it's played out. You run around hacking up goblins and beating bosses mainly so you can hit that back button to get your level-up stats you earned from all the combat. After selecting your stats (such as Strength, Intelligence, etc..), you get to choice a special skill for your character class. If you're a dedicated player, you can actually carry your character into harder and harder difficulty levels. Plus you can bring them into multiplayer games with the handy import feature. Speaking of, remember at the beginning when I said something about hacking your character. Well, I'm not going into details because you can get those elsewhere, but you can basically copy all the items in your inventory and make some kller weapons/armor or some serious cash by just dropping everything off.
I'm sure the game you can find this for cheap these days. If you've never played, this is something to check out. I got it when it first came out and I can still pick the game up and play today (usually when the wife is on the PC).
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Violence:
·You kill things a lot. There's a bunch of blood and a drop of gore.