Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

With the success of the original PC games in the series, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance was the first Forgotten Realms game that was released onto consoles and the first Dungeons & Dragons game for the Nintendo GameCube. Strangely, this game's sequel was not ported to the GameCube like this one was.

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is a hack and slash style RPG (similar to the Diablo series), although players can jump and block. It uses a the 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons rules, which applies to how characters are developed and what the effects of different statistics are. A trademark to the series, you are able to import your character from a save file into an existing saved game, either overwriting the current game's character, or allowing for cooperative play.

Like other Forgotten Realms games, this game takes place just off of the Sword Coast, in a world called Abeir-Toril (cradle of life), a.k.a. Toril. This is medieval-like time period where magic and powerful beasts exist.

Story
The following is from the game's booklet:

"Have you not heard of Eldrith the Betrayer, the Traitress of Swords, Eldrith of the Westering Sun? That she has been forgotten is an... irony of a sort.

Eldrith was one of the greatest generals of the Sword Coast, commander of the Company of the Bladed Crescent, sworn sword and defender of Baldur's Gate. She served with honor and distinction in the first and last seasons of the Sundering War, the Stillwater Port siege, and finally, the campaign against the Black Horde. In all these battles, she was victorious.

I do not know when pride burrowed into her heart, but it poisoned her. Eldrith had fought too many battles, achieved too many victories, and she had come to see the city of Baldur's Gate as her own..."

Console version features
Console version of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance begins with a choice of three pre-built characters:
 * Vahn, Human Arcane Archer: archer with weapon-related magical abilities.
 * Adrianna, Elven Sorceress: spell caster, limited to smaller weapon classes.
 * Kromlech, Dwarven Fighter: strong melee fighter with limited melee magic.

Once the game has been completed once, a new challenge is unlocked, called the Gauntlet. Choosing to play the Gauntlet gives you the following character and 15 minutes to complete it. After completion of the Gauntlet, a new mode of gameplay is unlocked called Extreme mode, which is much harder than any other level of difficulty in story mode. Upon selecting Extreme mode, the player is prompted to choose a character from a preexisting save to play through the story again in Extreme mode. Upon completion, Drizzt, mentioned above, is then available for play in story mode.
 * Drizzt Do'Urden, Drow Ranger/Fighter: strong melee fighter with two scimitars

Gameplay strategy is different for all characters: the human relies on ranged attacks and stealth, the elf character can cast magic spells, and the dwarf is an all-around fighter.

A local co-op mode is available. The second player can select one of the two unused characters, and plays with the main character on a shared game screen.

Game Boy Advance features
The Game Boy Advance (GBA) version of Dark Alliance featured some noticeable differences from the console versions.
 * There can only be one save at a time, although it can be saved anywhere.
 * There is no playable characters like in the original game. Instead, a human male is playable. A player could choose his class, however (fighter, wizard, archer). After the completion of the game, a new class, titled Elven Fighter, is available.
 * Players cannot import a character to play through the story again, so they must restart at level 1 every time.
 * No multiplayer mode.
 * The town of Baldur's Gate is much more interactive. Players are now able to talk to people, enter houses, and use weapons (to break barrels, etc).
 * The town is split into two sections: North and South. The southern portion cannot be entered at the beginning of the game.
 * New side-quests.
 * Lack of recall potions.
 * Players can no longer jump.
 * Players can switch between melee and ranged combat using the "R" button.
 * Larger enemies will sometimes get trapped behind doorways, allowing the player to shoot them with the bow while staying out of harms way.
 * The white dragon Ciraxis (who was the final boss of Act II in the console version) is absent in the GBA version.
 * The wizard (comparable to the monk in the original game) is no longer as strong and has a lower mana pool.