In 2004, legendary game developer Black Isle Studios released what would be its final game, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2. The hack and slash action-RPG was a shift from Black Isle's traditional focus of CRPGs, but that's what made it all the more exciting. Now, in 2022, Interplay is bringing Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 back, remastered for a new generation of Dungeons & Dragons fans to enjoy. The new gameplay trailer for Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 confirms it will be arriving soon.
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 is a faithful recreation of the original hack and slash game from Black Isle Studios. That means that the remaster of Dark Alliance 2 will also include five playable characters, including the human barbarian Dorn Redbear and moon-elf necromancer Ysuran Auondril. Players will experience over 80 levels of content, each filled with classic Dungeons & Dragons villains including hobgoblins, ghouls, and dragons. Naturally, there's also plenty of loot to claim and ways to make one's character more powerful, too.
It wouldn't be a Black Isle game without an intriguing fantasy story. It starts with the original Dark Alliance protagonists being taken prisoner by the vampire Mordoc SeLanmere. The new protagonists begin their adventure with small tasks, clearing out hobgoblins and battling the Baldur's Gate thieves guild. They come together then to prevent the reawakening of the Onyx Tower, a mission that leads them into direct confrontation with Mordoc. Needless to say, things escalate from there.
Much like with the remaster of its predecessor, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 won't have its multiplayer upgraded for its latest release. Instead, it will retain the same 2-player local co-op option it had when it first launched in 2004. Interplay does encourage players on Steam to use the platform's Remote Play feature to create a type of online multiplayer, however. It's also confirmed to work on Steam Deck.
The return of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 does bring back some sad memories. As noted, this was Black Isle Studios' final game before financial issues at publisher Interplay led to its demise. In fact, Black Isle was effectively closed down prior to Dark Alliance 2's launch while the team was hard at work on Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 3.
While Black Isle Studios is gone, leading to the creation of Obsidian Entertainment in its shadow, its games can still be celebrated. The release of remasters of both Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Dark Alliance 2 on modern platforms makes the two hack and slash games widely available for the first time in over a decade.
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 releases this summer for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.