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I had a demo disc with a Dark Alliance 1 demo on it, and was super into it. I played it over and over, and eventually got the game. I played it through many times, but never got the sequel until years later. I never got the Champions games until recently, because as a kid I thought they were exclusively online games, and we didn't have high speed internet for online gaming so I ignorantly didn't bother. Nowadays I have both DA and the Champions duology, both on original hardware and re-releases in the case of DA1&2. I still play them all, and love them to death.
Played all of them except the last two. All of the games were such a horrible experience because of the emulation but Champions was by far the worst. I played Dark Alliance 1&2 and Champions with a friend in co-op on the original Playstation 2 and we REALLY enjoyed them. Much later I used the emulation for them and the only one that didn't had the problems was Dark Alliance 1 and it still had a massive drop in the Black Tower. I picked up the games again after they were released on the PC and yeah my favorite is still Dark Alliance 2 and it was really satisfyingly playing them again without the slowdowns. It also think the second game has almost perfect lvl of balance between the classes, something that Champions in my eyes lacked, like the Dark Knight always felt pretty gimmicky with worse melee and worse spells than their respective classes, and the ranger class felt also pretty weak. I don't know about Return to Arms because I just couldn't suffer through the slowdowns and that's the only one that my friend didn't have on PS2. I remember on some forums back when I tried emulating them that people were always saying that Snowblind engine was never emulation friendly and that no matter what the specs of the PC is it will almost always have bad performance issues in some parts.
Dark Alliance 1&2 are my favorite D&D games of all time. I will never forget farming bosses and reloading with my friends sitting on the couch as a kid eating Pizza Hut and Mt Dew. I also LOVE Champions of Norath...I wish we could get a modern version of all these games. I am so sad we do not have multiplayer in the re-releases.
Wow, really? Everyone always talks about Baldurs gate 2, divinity 2, disco Elysium and so on. I'm a huge crpg fan and didn't even know these Baldurs gate games existed.
I recently bought a refurbished GameCube, and found my old memory card with my lvl 36 dwarf fighter on it. He's so OP that I was playing it on hard mode like it was easy lol
10:24 - the gelatinous cube is an iconic D&D monster. All of the enemies are straight out of the Monster Manual, so I can't really agree that they're out of place(except maybe for the disPLACER beast ha-ha gettit?). 33:20 D&D has many settings - the most popular one is the Forgotten Realms. Baldur's Gate is a city from said setting and Icewind Dale is a region north of this city. All Dark Alliance games are set in the D&D universe.
I think showing a slime and saying "enemies feeling out of place." when in DND the gilantenous cube you show, is in a prime example of a place you'd expect to find them might be a little over sight.
Champions of Norrath and Return to Arms are my favorite action RPGs of all time. They are really great PS2 game in general. A while back I posted in the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance Steam community, asking how likely it would be that the devs would ever make a remaster of Champions of Norrath, and the answer seemed to be that they were interested in doing it but licensing issues made it very unlikely that it would ever happen.
One thing you missed in dark alliance by only playing through once was some special interactions with certain bosses based on playing different classes. For instance the drow has special dialog when talking to the elf player character. Note that the interaction is, if i remember correctly, based on player 1 when playing multiplayer. Though it could also be based on which player triggered the cutscene, i dont honestly remember for certain. Also both baldur's gate and icewind dale are part of Faerun, an expansion to dnd (if you look up a map, icewind dale is in the north west corner and baldur's gate is about halfway down the coast. Even the newest dnd movie that came out last year is set in this world). Drizzt, the dark elf ranger in icewind dale is a secret unlockable character in baldur's gate 1&2 due to his popularity within the forgotten realms novels. The legend of drizzt began with the icewind dale trilogy in 1988 by R.A. Salvatore and now is currently 39 books long.
These games are like comfort food for me. There is something very zen-like, mashing your way through dungeons while collecting loot and grinding levels. There are two more games from SOE that look and play like the Snowblind Studios games: Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom for PS3 and Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade for PSP.
These games have a special place in my heart. Sitting down with my entire family using the 4 way controller spilter and playing champions of norath. I remember my dad found an exploit to duplicate our best gear and we were all rich.
Champions of Norath was the first game I pulled an all nighter for! Back then I had never even had an energy drink. Me and my friend drank a 2L of RC and made peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Good times!
i'm fairly confident that on PS2 you could play as your Champions of Norrath character in Champions Return to Arms. drop-in co-op was also a really cool feature that me and my brothers made use of as teens.
I'm an elder millennial and I still have my original copies of BG: dark alliance 1 & 2 and norrath 1 & 2 for my PS2. All still working, glad I took care of it. They are still some of my favorite games. Naturally, I instantly fell in love with BG3, granted I play that on PC. Also, shout out to the Jak and Daxter series for PS2; they are very sentimental to me :)
My man my man! 💪🏻 Finally you made a review of these! I still own copies of BG: Dark Alliance 1&2, Champions of Norrath and Return to Arms on PS2 and play them through almost every year 😅 absolutely love them, so many childhood memories that makes these games to me LEGENDARY! Thank you for this review 🙏🏻
Just because I'm that guy, Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance and Dungeons and Dragons Dark Alliance actually take place in the same universe, that is, the Forgotten Realms (aka, the dungeons and dragons universe). Baldur's Gate is a city-state in that world, situated on the Sword Coast, which is south of Icewind Dale.
18:39 Ok, I let it slide the first time, but now I must comment... The Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath games were not Infinity Engine games. Infinity Engine was the engine behind the PC original Baldur's Gate I and II, and also Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment. The Dark Alliance engine, used for Dark Alliance I and II, and also Champions of Norrath, Champions: Return to arms and Fallout Brotherhood of Steel was called, surprise, surprise, Dark Alliance Engine. There were other games in a very similar vein, but I don't think they used the same engine. Dungeons & Dragons Heroes, some weird ARPG Justice League game and 2004 The Bard's Tale, which was precisely a satirical piece of Dark Alliance at the time.
It became known as the Snowblind engine cause of the studio but yeah. Bards Tale was indeed made with it. There was also a ww2 game made with it as well
Man, I got a LOT of enjoyment out of the Dark Alliance games back in the day. Especially couch co-op. But it's insane and nearly criminal they're demanding $30 USD for each one, with no improvements. And they never really go on sale - I check pretty regularly.
if you really want to play PS2 titles on original hardware, there are PS2 consoles that are modded to high heaven that can load ISOs via hard drive and output through HDMI being sold anywhere online. although, you can't play them at a higher resolution than an upscaled 1080p
Dark Alliance 1 also has a gamecube version, I played that one together with friends and my brother so many times ^^ Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel was also made with this engine and is really good if you're also a fan of dark alliance. It also introduced a lot of imagery that would be copied to fallout 3 and beyond :)
I was about 12 when Dark Alliance 2 came out. I could not stop playing the thing, did multiple playthrougs, would drag anyone I could for a good co op. Absolute nostalgic. Wanted to get the remastered but I didn't like how they overpriced it.
Dark alliance is the first game I remember playing. My dad and I used to play together after school. I’m 25 now and have played a lot of games. Playing dark alliance with my dad is still the best time I’ve ever had with video games.
In regards to Champions of Norrath, the best thing about those games were the over 10,000 different randomized weapons and weapons, and the ability to slot gems into your weapons.
Umm, if you know Forgotten Realms, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate, Menzoberranzan and Neverwinter are all on the same continent, so technically all games set in these areas are connected in a way.
My wife rarely plays video games but we both played the first Dark Alliance together and it was very fun. She still occasionally mentions it now, which makes me wish there was an equally simple ARPG for the PS5. She doesn't like violence in games but killing rats, slimes and skeletons with fantasy weapons and magic is perfectly ok. Dark Alliance was very cheesy too, and that definitely-not-serious story telling also appeals.
For a similar game you can try The Bard's Tale (2004) which got a remastered version for the PS4 a few years ago. It is lighter on the action than Dark Alliance and more focused on comedy but plays in a similar fashion.
I love Champions returns to arms, i remember playing it with 3 friends when i was like 9 years old and we still remember all of our characters, i had a barbarian max level nad deleted it in front of my friends because i already completed all the game had so it was epic, greetings from Argentina
I've played a few hours of Dark Alliance solo on normal, and it was HARD as the dwarf character. The lack of abilities and resources make the experience really challenging, but not in a fair way, as enemies take forever to die, while I get two or three hits before touching the ground.
You did it! 🎉🎉 im so stoked to watch this. I knew you'd get around to these games eventually. Champions RTA is a certified hood classic, still play it sometimes with a friend of mine.
Dark Alliance 1&2 we're integral games from my childhood. My brother, best friend, and I used to get down on some DA. Reloading and running back to that end Golem for the Onyx Sword lol They also made a Fallout game in the same engine. It's like Dark Alliance but with a Fallout coat of paint.
Dark alliance, PS2, introduced me to RPG and how truly fun a game could be, beautiful graphics, tons of items and skills, co-op, great voice acting, just an absolute diamond that I'll always love. And I realize I have a lot of nostalgia for the game but it really was enthralling to me. First co-op game me and my brother played for days on end, every chance we got. I would love to try the second game. Didn't realize they remade it for PC so I'll be sure to check it out
0:45 Each of the Baldur's Gate titles; are set in the Forgotten Realms, a 'DnD universe' as you put it. 33:23 again, same thing. Icewind Dale; like Baldur's Date, is a place extant within the Forgotten Realms.
Great video! I still regularly play through both Dark Alliance 1/2 and CoN 1/2. Few times you made the distinction between Dark Alliance 1/2 being set in Bakdurs Gate but Dark Alliance 3 being set in Dungeons and Dragons, just wondering what you meant with that distinction since Baldurs Gate is a city in the Dungeon and Dragons universe.
I played the hell out of Dark Alliance 2 - Champions of Norath and Champions return to Arms. I can still remember me and my brother playing together every weekend when we were little boys. (btw 3:58 is Risen BGM Island at Night?)
Thank you for making this video. It's absolutely spot on! For a really fun play through, try the tiger berserker class on call to arms, that class was pretty out there compared to the other classes and made playing in the brink of death a whole new game. Im lucky enough to have a few of these titles still on ps2, howevere im fearful to play them in case i damage them!
Ysuran the necromancer in DA2 and the Erudite wizards in Champions are so fun to play. Very different playstyle than melee. Also, the magic archer classes are very fun, hail of arrows clearing hallways is very satisfying
I had fun playing through Dark Alliance 1 on hard mode. the enemies do a lot of damage for sure, but I found the challenge enjoyable even if I died here and there
I LOVE these games. Played all 4 extensively on PS2. I'm bummed the modern port didn't add a single feature, and how much it costs I don't want to reward that greedy behavior so thanks for the video for my fix!
I rember playing Dark Alliance 1 on the Xbox with my older brother when we were kids. Never finished it since all our controllers broke and we havent found any since. Such a shame
I got to play the original dark alliance games when they came out, and then a couple of years ago a friend who is into retro gaming had Champions of Norrath, which we were really excited about because I grew up playing Everquest and I had introduced him to it. We had a blast on Champions of Norrath, and it made me want to get the sequel and the EverQuest RTS to see how they were.
I do want to say, small correction about the latest Dark Alliance game, Icewind Dale is in the same universe as Baldur's Gate, it's just that Icewind Dale is the farthest north on the continent.
some champions return to arms classes peak at different times. the dark elf gets better once it can finally raise an undead army it's other skills are just going to keep it alive. the wood elf is god tier almost from the start though. the wizard is built for the back line because their skill damage doesn't seem to scale. berserker is like an lower grade wood elf. the shaman is interesting with the knock back skill they get and a pet. however the high elves are just strait healers with low damage numbers. the only reason that high elves are stronger than wizards is because wizards dress in silk and can't carry a 2 handed mace.
In BG1, you're more or less supposed to play Hard with an Imported Character from Normal that already has some levels or gear. Playing on Hard is super difficult otherwise. You can manage with the Mage, but melees really suffer. They did the same with the Champions Games, but added the Level Restriction in those.
Did you use Risen music for this? I just started playing Risen for the first time recently and I think I recognize some of the music. Speaking of that, I can't beleive I didn't try Risen sooner. I'm a huge fan of Gothic 3 and playing Risen now really feels like I'm getting more of what I like about Gothic 3 that I haven't gotten from any other game. But it also makes me wanna replay Gothic 3 again. xD
Yeah he uses risen music quite in bit in many of his videos. I played risen for the first time early 2023 and loved it! Never played any of the gothic games but I know they are remaking the first game for pc and current gen consoles imma try that.
These games are best played with a friend. Also the 1st game had a special level with drizzt do urden. You could enter a cheat code where he says " very well let the cheating begin "
I beat both Dark Alliance and Champions with a cousin and damm, Champion bosses were so freak hard to beat. I remember one final boss that was when you play in the evil side and he is like a angel warrior, 2 hits yo dead.
The Norrath games are so much fun, I'm a bit biased as an Everquest player but I was gutted when DA 1&2 were re released but not the champions games. I'd pay good money to play online multiplayer again on those...
I still have the Dark Alliance 1 and 2, and the two Champions of Norrath games, and still play it from time to time. Great games. Could say that it is one of my favorites on the PS2, but the thing is, that PS2 has soooo many great games that the list of "favorit" games is longer then "didnt like that". ;) Either way, they are realy good if you want that RPG action adventure looting feeling. After playing BG Dark Alliance 1 for my self, I then had the fortune of playing all these with a friend, in co-op. Even playing the first game once more. It was a blast and was mush more fun then singel player. Probably played thrue these games once with each character/class and played thrue on each difficulty, and in Champions of Norrath games, tried almost both good and evil side with each character. Even the secret character in "BG Dark Alliance 2" (Drizzt, famous D&D character). Extra note: I also played that spin-off "Fallout" game for the PS2, called "Brotherhood of Steel". It is in the same style as these games. It is though not in lore canon, and a bit jank. But still fun if you like these types of games, with a friend. And btw, in Champions of Norrath you can be up to 4 player in co-op. Never tried more then 2 though. But that sounds like some straight up arcady action stuff. Cheers.
You played some great games ! Besides the new Dark Alliance, where they managed to integrate the microtransactions really annoyingly, but forgot to finish the enemy ai
yesss, nice my man, but playing the games Couch co-op is the way to go, singleplayer its not the true way lol Edit: Currently the best way to play these games is emulating on a PS3, there you have the beautiful couch co-op. Edit 2: You can import your leveled up character from CoN to CoNRtA, even on a ps3 emulation. Sadly, on the PS3 there is no working emulation of the dark alliance games.
I didn't know importing saves was a thing in those games. Damn, that's actually awesome, especially considering the age of those games. I wish I knew that. I'll keep it in mind for my future playthroughs. I can see myself going back and replaying CoN and RtA.
@@click4gameplay yea, but careful, the import feature works only from CoN to RtA not vice versa. Enjoy the games my man, I started playing these like a week ago and I love em
Baldurs Gate takes place in the same universe as all these games, including Icewind Dale that being the Forgotton Realms Campaign Setting (Except Champtions of Norrath, which is a Everquest Spinoff). Acually I wouldn't call Champions of Norrath a spirtual Successor of Baldurs Gate even if it loosely uses a D&D class system, like many other games do. Pillars of Eternity is probably known as a closer Spirtual Successor and thats what they based their kickstarter campaign on which brought back the CRPG games.
BG Dark Alliance 2 has a special place in my heart as I remember playing the hell out of it on XBOX alongside KOTOR 2. The moment I saw it on the Switch and saw it worked as it did back then! I had to buy it (thankfully I waited for a sale! I'm not made of money now a days to be buying EVERYONE game LOL! That and I'm just not into the FULL PRICE game anymore! I'm willing to wait for a sale for even my FAVORITE games that I WANT to day 1, but don't want to because of my stance! I did put a limit on games I'll buy outside a sale at full price to about 3 a year! As in THREE GAMES NO MATTER WHAT! So I have to choose wisely! And this one appeared AFTER I bought game 3 of that year) and frankly I still love it! I see what Hack and Slashers I played after it like Diablo 3 did better, but I see where they messed up and why these are still better (sometimes streamlines can be good to make them simple and less complicated, but other times it can make the game BORING and uninteresting REAL FAST! As this one has ALOT to do that brought me back to playing it compared to Diablo 3 where I couldn't find the energy to play a different character then my first character. Where I had fun both by myself and with my brothers (and sister) in multiplayer (Save files were FULL of each of us having a character and only using that character! Me and my little sister were stuck with the girls because my little brothers are idiots who don't want to play no "Stinking girl" being young at the time "Girls have cooties" idiots! Me I long passed that stage in 3rd grade and by this time I was at the end of Middle school so I played ALOT of games and a few with female protagonist so didn't care! I was focused on their CLASSES and I was the only one who knew how to HEAL AND SUPPORT unlike the "Leeroy Jenkins BEFORE anyone knew his name" brigade that was my younger siblings that I had to carry! Sad I can't use SOME builds anymore because of lack of Multiplayer or more people to play with! But I'm a solo man!)
I still got my original copy of Champions of Norrath to this day and never once could pass the character screen when I tried to pay on my modded ps2 back then. It just couldn't load, even tried returning it and the store didn't accepted. Looking now at the disc... it's all scratched because of the pass of time 😢
I LOVE these games and back when I played them for the first time I was so hooked on them! Baldur's Gate DA is a great start imo and ya the difficulty is one of the weirdest issues with this game. Hard mode is just a bit too hard and its even worse if you play hard mode in coop cus its EVEN HARDER if you can beleive that. Even medium in coop is fairly hard. They seem to take your partner into consideration and make enemys slightly harder. Just stick to medium in this game for the first run. Also you mentioned skipping enemys, thats not a good idea and one of the worst things you can do in this game. You need all the EXP/gold you can get so killing everything you see is vital. Also the sorcceress in this game is BROKEN as hell thanks to a certain skill she has. Shame they didn't fix that for the re-release. Baldur's Gate DA 2 and Champions 1 and 2 are really refined and very little is wrong with them unlike the first game that has a bit of weirdness to it. The 2021 DA is a joke and ya the weird controls don't help. This may be a hot take but I blame Dark Souls for the fact that every god damn action game has to feel slow and sluggish. Good video!
An interesting topic for a video, there are also a couple more arpg's based on DnD like: Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes for the OG Xbox and Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone (from the developers of LoTR: The Two Towers) which were pretty decent.
Correction: Dark Alliance games were NOT developed with Infinite engine, but Snowblind engine.
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I had a demo disc with a Dark Alliance 1 demo on it, and was super into it. I played it over and over, and eventually got the game. I played it through many times, but never got the sequel until years later. I never got the Champions games until recently, because as a kid I thought they were exclusively online games, and we didn't have high speed internet for online gaming so I ignorantly didn't bother.
Nowadays I have both DA and the Champions duology, both on original hardware and re-releases in the case of DA1&2. I still play them all, and love them to death.
Played all of them except the last two. All of the games were such a horrible experience because of the emulation but Champions was by far the worst. I played Dark Alliance 1&2 and Champions with a friend in co-op on the original Playstation 2 and we REALLY enjoyed them. Much later I used the emulation for them and the only one that didn't had the problems was Dark Alliance 1 and it still had a massive drop in the Black Tower. I picked up the games again after they were released on the PC and yeah my favorite is still Dark Alliance 2 and it was really satisfyingly playing them again without the slowdowns. It also think the second game has almost perfect lvl of balance between the classes, something that Champions in my eyes lacked, like the Dark Knight always felt pretty gimmicky with worse melee and worse spells than their respective classes, and the ranger class felt also pretty weak. I don't know about Return to Arms because I just couldn't suffer through the slowdowns and that's the only one that my friend didn't have on PS2.
I remember on some forums back when I tried emulating them that people were always saying that Snowblind engine was never emulation friendly and that no matter what the specs of the PC is it will almost always have bad performance issues in some parts.
You didn't include Baldies Basic, they are part of the baldies gate ip!
Spoiler Alert C4G: Baldur's Gate is set in the D&D universe.
The cubic jelly is not "out of place", it is a classic D&D creature
Never ran into one playing dnd
@@beeboop5158gelatinous cube is very much so classic d&d just cos you never encountered one doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist lol
@@beeboop5158 cubic jelly is one of the most iconic enemy
Dark Alliance 1&2 are my favorite D&D games of all time. I will never forget farming bosses and reloading with my friends sitting on the couch as a kid eating Pizza Hut and Mt Dew. I also LOVE Champions of Norath...I wish we could get a modern version of all these games. I am so sad we do not have multiplayer in the re-releases.
Wow, really? Everyone always talks about Baldurs gate 2, divinity 2, disco Elysium and so on.
I'm a huge crpg fan and didn't even know these Baldurs gate games existed.
@@DieEineMiezethese baldurs gate spinoff RPGs are ARPGs, not CRPGs
Dark Alliance 2 makes me so mad if I forgot to switch my weapons and armour when fighting rust monsters. Good times.
@@DieEineMieze I had only PC so i didn't even know about these ps2 exclusive DnD games)
I recently bought a refurbished GameCube, and found my old memory card with my lvl 36 dwarf fighter on it. He's so OP that I was playing it on hard mode like it was easy lol
Small correction. Both Baldurs Gate and Dark Alliance take place in the forgotten realms universe so the final game on your list is in the same world.
10:24 - the gelatinous cube is an iconic D&D monster. All of the enemies are straight out of the Monster Manual, so I can't really agree that they're out of place(except maybe for the disPLACER beast ha-ha gettit?).
33:20 D&D has many settings - the most popular one is the Forgotten Realms. Baldur's Gate is a city from said setting and Icewind Dale is a region north of this city. All Dark Alliance games are set in the D&D universe.
Couldn’t agree more. A sewer that seems a little too clean with a gelatinous cube roaming about is about as classic as it gets.
I think showing a slime and saying "enemies feeling out of place." when in DND the gilantenous cube you show, is in a prime example of a place you'd expect to find them might be a little over sight.
Champions return to arms had that lizard shaman that could get to insane levels of health regen.
Planar winds
not to mention building him totally on strengh for that giant skill so you easily hit around 5k damage on lvl 70 already :D
champions return to arms was literally my all time favorite PS2 game, god tier game, easily one of the best of the consoles life
We need it back again for sure !.
Champions of Norrath will always have a special place in my heart. It got my mother into gaming and we spent so many hours in coop together.
I had played it with my dad as well and got both games haha.
Same....I'm the mom...I played with my son....💖
Wholesome!
Champions of Norrath and Return to Arms are my favorite action RPGs of all time. They are really great PS2 game in general.
A while back I posted in the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance Steam community, asking how likely it would be that the devs would ever make a remaster of Champions of Norrath, and the answer seemed to be that they were interested in doing it but licensing issues made it very unlikely that it would ever happen.
Champions was my introduction to RPG loot and gear and that's remained one of my favorite genre/gameplay loops to date.
One thing you missed in dark alliance by only playing through once was some special interactions with certain bosses based on playing different classes. For instance the drow has special dialog when talking to the elf player character. Note that the interaction is, if i remember correctly, based on player 1 when playing multiplayer. Though it could also be based on which player triggered the cutscene, i dont honestly remember for certain.
Also both baldur's gate and icewind dale are part of Faerun, an expansion to dnd (if you look up a map, icewind dale is in the north west corner and baldur's gate is about halfway down the coast. Even the newest dnd movie that came out last year is set in this world). Drizzt, the dark elf ranger in icewind dale is a secret unlockable character in baldur's gate 1&2 due to his popularity within the forgotten realms novels. The legend of drizzt began with the icewind dale trilogy in 1988 by R.A. Salvatore and now is currently 39 books long.
Dark Alliance 1&2 hold special places in my heart! Still got to get around to playing Titan Quest. Excited for the upcoming one. Great vid
Thanks for the vid, man! Baldur's Gate is in the D&D universe though. It's a city within the Forgotten Realms, one of the main campaign settings.
Champions of Narath is part of Everquest, not Forgoted Realms.
These games are like comfort food for me. There is something very zen-like, mashing your way through dungeons while collecting loot and grinding levels. There are two more games from SOE that look and play like the Snowblind Studios games: Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom for PS3 and Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade for PSP.
I played both Champion games religiously growing up. Me and my siblings played multiplayer for hours on end
Snowblind's engine made a lot of nice games.
You should've mentioned the amazing water physics, highlight of that engine!
Damn, I had the part about the water, but my stupid ass deleted it somehow.
@@click4gameplay one more correction, it is NOT the infinite engine. That was for original Baldur's Gate.
@@hemangchauhan2864the first isn't a correction tardboy
Xmen Legends 1 and 2 were also bangers
you forgot Demon Stone - its pretty good for its age
I love Demon Stone especially with all the cameos.
You're supposed to use the jump as traversal in dark allegiance 1 & 2! If you're not jumping constantly, the enemies will catch you!
These games have a special place in my heart. Sitting down with my entire family using the 4 way controller spilter and playing champions of norath. I remember my dad found an exploit to duplicate our best gear and we were all rich.
Champions of Norath was the first game I pulled an all nighter for! Back then I had never even had an energy drink. Me and my friend drank a 2L of RC and made peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Good times!
Dark Alliance 1 & 2 take me back to those all nighters with my brother. Good times
there was also Lord of the Rings: War in the North
i'm fairly confident that on PS2 you could play as your Champions of Norrath character in Champions Return to Arms. drop-in co-op was also a really cool feature that me and my brothers made use of as teens.
You absolutely could import your CoN character in RtA. I think it works only with chars that have completed the game at least once.
I'm an elder millennial and I still have my original copies of BG: dark alliance 1 & 2 and norrath 1 & 2 for my PS2. All still working, glad I took care of it. They are still some of my favorite games. Naturally, I instantly fell in love with BG3, granted I play that on PC. Also, shout out to the Jak and Daxter series for PS2; they are very sentimental to me :)
My man my man! 💪🏻 Finally you made a review of these! I still own copies of BG: Dark Alliance 1&2, Champions of Norrath and Return to Arms on PS2 and play them through almost every year 😅 absolutely love them, so many childhood memories that makes these games to me LEGENDARY! Thank you for this review 🙏🏻
Also there are hidden playable characters in Dark Alliance 1 and 2, in 1 there is Drizzt Do'Urden and in 2 there's Drizzt and Artemis 👌🏻
Just because I'm that guy, Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance and Dungeons and Dragons Dark Alliance actually take place in the same universe, that is, the Forgotten Realms (aka, the dungeons and dragons universe). Baldur's Gate is a city-state in that world, situated on the Sword Coast, which is south of Icewind Dale.
Champions 1&2 were my favourite back then. No game had such creative classes like Va Shir Berserker or Lizard
With the last game. It wasn't sluggish imput. It was server lag. Very bad server lag even on offline mode
Champions return to arms is one of my all time favorite games..been playing it on and off for nearly all its existence now :D big favorit
Champions of Norrath hits my nostalgia so hard.. i was 5 or 6 playin this on my sister ps2.. id give anything to go back that time tbh
I measure these game’s tight basic combat against every ARPG.
Precise hit boxes and dedicated blocking 👍
18:39 Ok, I let it slide the first time, but now I must comment... The Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath games were not Infinity Engine games. Infinity Engine was the engine behind the PC original Baldur's Gate I and II, and also Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment.
The Dark Alliance engine, used for Dark Alliance I and II, and also Champions of Norrath, Champions: Return to arms and Fallout Brotherhood of Steel was called, surprise, surprise, Dark Alliance Engine.
There were other games in a very similar vein, but I don't think they used the same engine. Dungeons & Dragons Heroes, some weird ARPG Justice League game and 2004 The Bard's Tale, which was precisely a satirical piece of Dark Alliance at the time.
It became known as the Snowblind engine cause of the studio but yeah. Bards Tale was indeed made with it. There was also a ww2 game made with it as well
Man, I got a LOT of enjoyment out of the Dark Alliance games back in the day. Especially couch co-op.
But it's insane and nearly criminal they're demanding $30 USD for each one, with no improvements. And they never really go on sale - I check pretty regularly.
if you really want to play PS2 titles on original hardware, there are PS2 consoles that are modded to high heaven that can load ISOs via hard drive and output through HDMI being sold anywhere online. although, you can't play them at a higher resolution than an upscaled 1080p
Dark Alliance 1 also has a gamecube version, I played that one together with friends and my brother so many times ^^
Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel was also made with this engine and is really good if you're also a fan of dark alliance. It also introduced a lot of imagery that would be copied to fallout 3 and beyond :)
old-school voice actrors are amasing.
I was about 12 when Dark Alliance 2 came out. I could not stop playing the thing, did multiple playthrougs, would drag anyone I could for a good co op. Absolute nostalgic. Wanted to get the remastered but I didn't like how they overpriced it.
Dark alliance is the first game I remember playing. My dad and I used to play together after school. I’m 25 now and have played a lot of games. Playing dark alliance with my dad is still the best time I’ve ever had with video games.
In regards to Champions of Norrath, the best thing about those games were the over 10,000 different randomized weapons and weapons, and the ability to slot gems into your weapons.
Umm, if you know Forgotten Realms, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate, Menzoberranzan and Neverwinter are all on the same continent, so technically all games set in these areas are connected in a way.
I was thinking the same thing when he said it. I was like "huhhh? All those are set in D&D"
Champions of Norrath brings back good memories 😊
Oh I remember the tavern owner !
Of course you do.
Bard's Tale was the best - humor and gameplay that was more than mashing buttons.
BG Dark Alliance on Game Boy was great too.
Clicked after seeing Champions in the thumbnail :D . One of the seminal games of my childhood !
My wife rarely plays video games but we both played the first Dark Alliance together and it was very fun. She still occasionally mentions it now, which makes me wish there was an equally simple ARPG for the PS5. She doesn't like violence in games but killing rats, slimes and skeletons with fantasy weapons and magic is perfectly ok. Dark Alliance was very cheesy too, and that definitely-not-serious story telling also appeals.
For a similar game you can try The Bard's Tale (2004) which got a remastered version for the PS4 a few years ago.
It is lighter on the action than Dark Alliance and more focused on comedy but plays in a similar fashion.
All these years I never knew ever quest was part of the DnD world. Just thought one of the artist did drawings for both
I love Champions returns to arms, i remember playing it with 3 friends when i was like 9 years old and we still remember all of our characters, i had a barbarian max level nad deleted it in front of my friends because i already completed all the game had so it was epic, greetings from Argentina
Champions of Norrath is such a memory for me. Playing that game with my dad or brother on PS2
"Can't carry anymore"
I've played a few hours of Dark Alliance solo on normal, and it was HARD as the dwarf character. The lack of abilities and resources make the experience really challenging, but not in a fair way, as enemies take forever to die, while I get two or three hits before touching the ground.
You did it! 🎉🎉 im so stoked to watch this. I knew you'd get around to these games eventually. Champions RTA is a certified hood classic, still play it sometimes with a friend of mine.
I still got Champions of Norrath. Didn't know that there was a sequel.
Dark Alliance 1&2 we're integral games from my childhood. My brother, best friend, and I used to get down on some DA. Reloading and running back to that end Golem for the Onyx Sword lol
They also made a Fallout game in the same engine. It's like Dark Alliance but with a Fallout coat of paint.
Dark alliance, PS2, introduced me to RPG and how truly fun a game could be, beautiful graphics, tons of items and skills, co-op, great voice acting, just an absolute diamond that I'll always love.
And I realize I have a lot of nostalgia for the game but it really was enthralling to me. First co-op game me and my brother played for days on end, every chance we got. I would love to try the second game. Didn't realize they remade it for PC so I'll be sure to check it out
0:45
Each of the Baldur's Gate titles; are set in the Forgotten Realms, a 'DnD universe' as you put it. 33:23 again, same thing. Icewind Dale; like Baldur's Date, is a place extant within the Forgotten Realms.
Played the shit out of Champions of Norrath back in the day!
Great video! I still regularly play through both Dark Alliance 1/2 and CoN 1/2. Few times you made the distinction between Dark Alliance 1/2 being set in Bakdurs Gate but Dark Alliance 3 being set in Dungeons and Dragons, just wondering what you meant with that distinction since Baldurs Gate is a city in the Dungeon and Dragons universe.
I played the hell out of Dark Alliance 2 - Champions of Norath and Champions return to Arms.
I can still remember me and my brother playing together every weekend when we were little boys.
(btw 3:58 is Risen BGM Island at Night?)
Thank you for making this video. It's absolutely spot on!
For a really fun play through, try the tiger berserker class on call to arms, that class was pretty out there compared to the other classes and made playing in the brink of death a whole new game.
Im lucky enough to have a few of these titles still on ps2, howevere im fearful to play them in case i damage them!
Brother I have been waiting for you to do Champions of Norrath
Ysuran the necromancer in DA2 and the Erudite wizards in Champions are so fun to play. Very different playstyle than melee. Also, the magic archer classes are very fun, hail of arrows clearing hallways is very satisfying
I had fun playing through Dark Alliance 1 on hard mode. the enemies do a lot of damage for sure, but I found the challenge enjoyable even if I died here and there
I think the hard and normal mode for dark alliance is meant to be played as new game plus. You can import characters and continue levelling them.
I LOVE these games. Played all 4 extensively on PS2. I'm bummed the modern port didn't add a single feature, and how much it costs I don't want to reward that greedy behavior so thanks for the video for my fix!
Dark Alliance 1/2 are such classics. Good memories
Champions return to arms was my childhood. Found a ps2 copy for about $80
dark alliance is one of the nicest couch coop games even today.
I rember playing Dark Alliance 1 on the Xbox with my older brother when we were kids. Never finished it since all our controllers broke and we havent found any since. Such a shame
I got to play the original dark alliance games when they came out, and then a couple of years ago a friend who is into retro gaming had Champions of Norrath, which we were really excited about because I grew up playing Everquest and I had introduced him to it. We had a blast on Champions of Norrath, and it made me want to get the sequel and the EverQuest RTS to see how they were.
I do want to say, small correction about the latest Dark Alliance game, Icewind Dale is in the same universe as Baldur's Gate, it's just that Icewind Dale is the farthest north on the continent.
some champions return to arms classes peak at different times. the dark elf gets better once it can finally raise an undead army it's other skills are just going to keep it alive. the wood elf is god tier almost from the start though. the wizard is built for the back line because their skill damage doesn't seem to scale. berserker is like an lower grade wood elf. the shaman is interesting with the knock back skill they get and a pet. however the high elves are just strait healers with low damage numbers. the only reason that high elves are stronger than wizards is because wizards dress in silk and can't carry a 2 handed mace.
In BG1, you're more or less supposed to play Hard with an Imported Character from Normal that already has some levels or gear. Playing on Hard is super difficult otherwise. You can manage with the Mage, but melees really suffer. They did the same with the Champions Games, but added the Level Restriction in those.
yeah I was thinkin this when he mentioned it. All those games are suppose to be that way it just wasnt added specifically until the Champions games
The Dark Alliance games were fucking incredible
The first dark alliance game was hard AF
The difficulty spikes when you reach the graveyard section.
Man, that section always scared the crap outta me when I was a kid! 😂
Bruh that bossfight with the orb and the skeletons on hardmode is a true test of your gamerism
That over the shoulder camera in the new Dark Alliance looks horrible. These games are meant to be played in isometric view, nothing else works.
Did you use Risen music for this? I just started playing Risen for the first time recently and I think I recognize some of the music.
Speaking of that, I can't beleive I didn't try Risen sooner. I'm a huge fan of Gothic 3 and playing Risen now really feels like I'm getting more of what I like about Gothic 3 that I haven't gotten from any other game. But it also makes me wanna replay Gothic 3 again. xD
Yeah he uses risen music quite in bit in many of his videos. I played risen for the first time early 2023 and loved it! Never played any of the gothic games but I know they are remaking the first game for pc and current gen consoles imma try that.
Baldur's Gate is set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe too...
I second all the comments talking about a remaster for the Champions of Norrath series. Return to Arms was the best arpg of all time. OF ALL TIME
These games are best played with a friend. Also the 1st game had a special level with drizzt do urden. You could enter a cheat code where he says " very well let the cheating begin "
I beat both Dark Alliance and Champions with a cousin and damm, Champion bosses were so freak hard to beat. I remember one final boss that was when you play in the evil side and he is like a angel warrior, 2 hits yo dead.
The Norrath games are so much fun, I'm a bit biased as an Everquest player but I was gutted when DA 1&2 were re released but not the champions games.
I'd pay good money to play online multiplayer again on those...
I still have the Dark Alliance 1 and 2, and the two Champions of Norrath games, and still play it from time to time. Great games. Could say that it is one of my favorites on the PS2, but the thing is, that PS2 has soooo many great games that the list of "favorit" games is longer then "didnt like that". ;) Either way, they are realy good if you want that RPG action adventure looting feeling.
After playing BG Dark Alliance 1 for my self, I then had the fortune of playing all these with a friend, in co-op. Even playing the first game once more. It was a blast and was mush more fun then singel player. Probably played thrue these games once with each character/class and played thrue on each difficulty, and in Champions of Norrath games, tried almost both good and evil side with each character. Even the secret character in "BG Dark Alliance 2" (Drizzt, famous D&D character).
Extra note: I also played that spin-off "Fallout" game for the PS2, called "Brotherhood of Steel". It is in the same style as these games. It is though not in lore canon, and a bit jank. But still fun if you like these types of games, with a friend.
And btw, in Champions of Norrath you can be up to 4 player in co-op. Never tried more then 2 though. But that sounds like some straight up arcady action stuff.
Cheers.
You played some great games ! Besides the new Dark Alliance, where they managed to integrate the microtransactions really annoyingly, but forgot to finish the enemy ai
yesss, nice my man, but playing the games Couch co-op is the way to go, singleplayer its not the true way lol
Edit: Currently the best way to play these games is emulating on a PS3, there you have the beautiful couch co-op.
Edit 2: You can import your leveled up character from CoN to CoNRtA, even on a ps3 emulation.
Sadly, on the PS3 there is no working emulation of the dark alliance games.
I didn't know importing saves was a thing in those games. Damn, that's actually awesome, especially considering the age of those games. I wish I knew that.
I'll keep it in mind for my future playthroughs. I can see myself going back and replaying CoN and RtA.
@@click4gameplay yea, but careful, the import feature works only from CoN to RtA not vice versa.
Enjoy the games my man, I started playing these like a week ago and I love em
Baldurs Gate takes place in the same universe as all these games, including Icewind Dale that being the Forgotton Realms Campaign Setting (Except Champtions of Norrath, which is a Everquest Spinoff).
Acually I wouldn't call Champions of Norrath a spirtual Successor of Baldurs Gate even if it loosely uses a D&D class system, like many other games do. Pillars of Eternity is probably known as a closer Spirtual Successor and thats what they based their kickstarter campaign on which brought back the CRPG games.
absolutely love the Dark Alliance games! 1-2! and Champions of Norrath!😭
BG Dark Alliance 2 has a special place in my heart as I remember playing the hell out of it on XBOX alongside KOTOR 2.
The moment I saw it on the Switch and saw it worked as it did back then! I had to buy it (thankfully I waited for a sale! I'm not made of money now a days to be buying EVERYONE game LOL! That and I'm just not into the FULL PRICE game anymore! I'm willing to wait for a sale for even my FAVORITE games that I WANT to day 1, but don't want to because of my stance! I did put a limit on games I'll buy outside a sale at full price to about 3 a year! As in THREE GAMES NO MATTER WHAT! So I have to choose wisely! And this one appeared AFTER I bought game 3 of that year) and frankly I still love it! I see what Hack and Slashers I played after it like Diablo 3 did better, but I see where they messed up and why these are still better (sometimes streamlines can be good to make them simple and less complicated, but other times it can make the game BORING and uninteresting REAL FAST! As this one has ALOT to do that brought me back to playing it compared to Diablo 3 where I couldn't find the energy to play a different character then my first character. Where I had fun both by myself and with my brothers (and sister) in multiplayer (Save files were FULL of each of us having a character and only using that character! Me and my little sister were stuck with the girls because my little brothers are idiots who don't want to play no "Stinking girl" being young at the time "Girls have cooties" idiots! Me I long passed that stage in 3rd grade and by this time I was at the end of Middle school so I played ALOT of games and a few with female protagonist so didn't care! I was focused on their CLASSES and I was the only one who knew how to HEAL AND SUPPORT unlike the "Leeroy Jenkins BEFORE anyone knew his name" brigade that was my younger siblings that I had to carry! Sad I can't use SOME builds anymore because of lack of Multiplayer or more people to play with! But I'm a solo man!)
Dark alliance was a masterpiece man. You can still play it today and it would feel fresh. A timeless game
Dark alliance, one of my faves of all time! good memories playing with my bro and dad
Champions of Norrath has exactly the same portal system as Diablo. You can use it in the pause menue
Yup, that was an oversight. I only noticed that when I started playing Return to Arms...
man i loved to play Champs! good memories
it was great in co-op with the friend of mine who owned it and the sequel on his ps2 lol.
Strange video. From the title I expected you'd talk about games like Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment, Pillars of Eternity or Pathfinder Kingmaker
I played both the Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance and the "new" one. I missed the two Champions, but I'd like to try them.
dark alliance is set in the Forgotten Realms, same setting as bg and bg dark alliance games.
I played Dark Alliance 2, Champions of Norrath and Champions: Call To Arms.
I wish somebody would make an "Dark Alliance/Champions"-like action rpg!
20:30 when the Elex Soundtrack hits
You could also try out drakan 2. It is very similar to those games but from a classic third person perspective.
I still got my original copy of Champions of Norrath to this day and never once could pass the character screen when I tried to pay on my modded ps2 back then.
It just couldn't load, even tried returning it and the store didn't accepted.
Looking now at the disc... it's all scratched because of the pass of time 😢
I LOVE these games and back when I played them for the first time I was so hooked on them!
Baldur's Gate DA is a great start imo and ya the difficulty is one of the weirdest issues with this game. Hard mode is just a bit too hard and its even worse if you play hard mode in coop cus its EVEN HARDER if you can beleive that. Even medium in coop is fairly hard. They seem to take your partner into consideration and make enemys slightly harder. Just stick to medium in this game for the first run. Also you mentioned skipping enemys, thats not a good idea and one of the worst things you can do in this game. You need all the EXP/gold you can get so killing everything you see is vital. Also the sorcceress in this game is BROKEN as hell thanks to a certain skill she has. Shame they didn't fix that for the re-release.
Baldur's Gate DA 2 and Champions 1 and 2 are really refined and very little is wrong with them unlike the first game that has a bit of weirdness to it.
The 2021 DA is a joke and ya the weird controls don't help. This may be a hot take but I blame Dark Souls for the fact that every god damn action game has to feel slow and sluggish.
Good video!
An interesting topic for a video, there are also a couple more arpg's based on DnD like:
Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes for the OG Xbox and Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone (from the developers of LoTR: The Two Towers) which were pretty decent.