Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II is a role-playing game released in the U.S. for the PlayStation 2 on December 2, 2004 and the Xbox on January 20, 2004. It is the sequel to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and was developed by Black Isle Studios and published by Vivendi Games.

Characters
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II includes five new characters instead of the original three, as well as two unlockable characters. Of these, only Drizzt Do'Urden was included in the original game.


 * Dorn Redbear, human barbarian: strong melee fighter
 * Vhaidra Uoswiir, drow monk: unarmed and unarmored melee fighter
 * Ysuran Auondril, moon elf necromancer: spell caster
 * Borador Goldhand, dwarven rogue: able to pick locks and traps
 * Allessia Faithhammer, human cleric: casts healing/protection spells
 * Drizzt Do'Urden, drow ranger/fighter: fights with two scimitars, Icingdeath & Twinkle (unlockable; cannot switch weapons)
 * Artemis Entreri, human assassin: fights with Charon's Claw and a Defending dagger (unlockable; cannot switch weapons)

As the characters progress in the game, they have the option to perform special quests. They trade in money for experience. Once the characters reach Act III, they may perform a unique character transformation quest. The quest varies from character to character:


 * Barbarian - Druid
 * Monk - Assassin
 * Necromancer - Shadow Adept
 * Cleric - Paladin
 * Rogue - Dwarven Hero

Story
The story of Dark Alliance II begins with the three characters from the original game being surrounded and captured by a large group of nightshades and nightwalkers, led by the vampire lord, Mordoc Selanmere. After this scene, players control one of several characters seeking fame, fortune, and other goals. The players eventually learned of Mordoc's plot to restore the Onyx Tower, and they must prevent this by activating elemental foundations in the planes of fire, water, earth, and air.

Sidequests
Each character has his or her own Act IV sidequest that can be unlocked through certain NPCs . These sidequests could only be unlocked if the player gave increasing amounts of gold in exchange for the same number of experience points. The exception to this was Dorn's sidequest, which is unlocked after speaking to a certain NPC in Act III or Act IV. Completion of a sidequest would give the corresponding character extra feats and abilities.

Item creation
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II gave players the ability to create custom weapons, armor, rings, and necklaces through the shopkeeper. Players could increase these items by +1 to +5 (or +15 in extreme, but this can only be done with necklaces, rings, and boots.) using runestones, which were needed for all customizations and increased the item's power. A player could also use gems to add special effects to the items. Two different types of gems could be used on one item. There are several different kinds of gemstones and have a different effect on different types of items such as armour/ weapons.

Critical reception
The game received relatively positive reviews; Metacritic has an average score of 77% based on 44 reviews for the Xbox version and the PlayStation 2 version received an average score of 78% based on 44 reviews.

GameSpot reviewed the PlayStation 2 version of the game and scored it an 8.0 out of 10. IGN reviewed the Xbox version of the game and scored it an 8.4 out of 10.