Dungeons & Dragons Dark Alliance

[Mordar]

Just saw this announcement.

Doesn't that look...terrible.

Maybe old news, maybe old gamer, but other than skins on any of a litany of fantasy-based button mashers this doesn't scream RPG, much less Dungeons & Dragons RPG.

Classes are Fighter, Ranger, Barbarian and Rogue. Eligible for replacement with "Tank, Ranged DPS, SortaDPSTank and Melee DPS" I suspect.

At least the gold box games had something to offer that tried to emulate D&D. To me this is just a chance to create a fantasy-skinned rockband and be all edgy by having someone flipping you off as they sink in lava.

Of course, I could be wrong...this might not be the trailer for me, and there may be better to come.

But ugh.

- M

[Zevox]

Honestly, that trailer looks immensely better than the announcement trailer. Plus it actually shows gameplay, which doesn't look half bad. Not necessarily great, but at least like it's probably passably decent. I was certainly expecting a lot worse, given how utterly awful that first reveal was.

Though I am confused that the article refers the playable characters by class. Are they no longer Drizzt, Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Cattie-Brie? Because they still look like them, and the reference in the trailer to "the Shard" sounds like it'd probably be referring to Crenshinibon. But I'd expect they'd at least be throwing Drizzt's name around given half a chance, rather than just referring to the characters as generic classes.

[warty goblin]

It kinda looks like a 7/10 action game from like 10 - 15 years ago. I love 7/10 action games, and mourn their extinction at the hands of my least favorite genre, the Soulsalike. So I'm cautiously intrigued.

[Lord Raziere]

It kinda looks like a 7/10 action game from like 10 - 15 years ago. I love 7/10 action games, and mourn their extinction at the hands of my least favorite genre, the Soulsalike. So I'm cautiously intrigued.

I mean....I like Soulslikes, but I have noticed a certain lack of easier action games that I can play when I just want to beat things up and I do miss that.

[Mordar]

Honestly, that trailer looks immensely better than the announcement trailer. Plus it actually shows gameplay, which doesn't look half bad. Not necessarily great, but at least like it's probably passably decent. I was certainly expecting a lot worse, given how utterly awful that first reveal was.

Though I am confused that the article refers the playable characters by class. Are they no longer Drizzt, Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Cattie-Brie? Because they still look like them, and the reference in the trailer to "the Shard" sounds like it'd probably be referring to Crenshinibon. But I'd expect they'd at least be throwing Drizzt's name around given half a chance, rather than just referring to the characters as generic classes.

Yes, you're right. The new trailer was way better than the shaking handcam wanna-be edgerock thing you linked. I...remember the struggles to elevate RPGs out of the "devil inspired thing loner kids do to learn how to be serial killers" label, and now comes this. With the official D&D tag.

Maybe it is some sort of tax deduction scheme someone cooked up.

Yes, I am exaggerating. Mostly. But at least those kids who thought GWAR was the pinnacle of rock grew up and got jobs developing video games.

- M

[Dire_Flumph]

1. Dear Tymora, I'm hoping that's just bad marketing and not the actual tone.

2. Was it just me, or did this look like a follow up to Demon Stone more than Dark Alliance? (Not that I'd complain)

[GloatingSwine]

Though I am confused that the article refers the playable characters by class. Are they no longer Drizzt, Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Cattie-Brie? Because they still look like them, and the reference in the trailer to "the Shard" sounds like it'd probably be referring to Crenshinibon. But I'd expect they'd at least be throwing Drizzt's name around given half a chance, rather than just referring to the characters as generic classes.

Yes. It's Drizzt and his hangers on.

There's an extended look at the gameplay here. The tone of the actual game feels like it's going to be pretty different to the marketing based on the 10 or so minutes of gameplay though.

I am not impressed. The animations look weedy and lack impact and I have never cared about Drizzt. The marketing is baffling as well. Nobody who would be interested in this sort of game with these characters would be impressed by it. It feels like the marketing for a parodic D&D adventure where everything is very silly.

(I liked the old Dark Alliance games, they were a passable if simple Diablo-em-up in D&D trousers.)

[Dienekes]

Yes. It's Drizzt and his hangers on.

There's an extended look at the gameplay here. The tone of the actual game feels like it's going to be pretty different to the marketing based on the 10 or so minutes of gameplay though.

I am not impressed. The animations look weedy and lack impact and I have never cared about Drizzt. The marketing is baffling as well. Nobody who would be interested in this sort of game with these characters would be impressed by it. It feels like the marketing for a parodic D&D adventure where everything is very silly.

(I liked the old Dark Alliance games, they were a passable if simple Diablo-em-up in D&D trousers.)

Hmm, apparently that was the easiest setting and the enemies already look like damage sponges. Yeah, this seems like one of the action games where there’s a lot of visual movement and effects to make it look like stuff is happening but is ultimately pretty shallow.

Not particularly impressed. But I’m willing to be proven wrong here.

[Zevox]

Yes. It's Drizzt and his hangers on.

There's an extended look at the gameplay here. The tone of the actual game feels like it's going to be pretty different to the marketing based on the 10 or so minutes of gameplay though.

I am not impressed. The animations look weedy and lack impact and I have never cared about Drizzt.

Eh, yeah, that gameplay preview is less impressive than the trailer left me hoping it could be. Animations could definitely use improvement (especially on those Goblins when they're getting hit - it's one thing that Ogres or whatever those are don't react when they're not taking any hitstun from hits, quite another that the Goblins barely react when they are), and it doesn't really feel like the attacks do anything different from each other, it's just different animations for the same basic sword-swing. Enemies also seem surprisingly passive. I think there's also some kind parry mechanic going on with Drizzt, judging by the sound effects when he blocks certain attacks, but it's very unclear what it's doing, if anything, or if it's just a misleading sound effect. Also, Cattie-Brie's arrow shots really feel weak.

Kind of weird that they seem to be doing some magic too, Drizzt has never been the spellcasting kind of Ranger, even though Rangers have had magic since at least 3E. And I think Cattie-Brie even did some at one point (around the 5 minute mark), which is extra weird since she's not a spellcaster of any sort.

There also might be framerate issues, though it's hard to tell if that's the game, the recording, or my PC's playback of the recording.

The marketing is baffling as well. Nobody who would be interested in this sort of game with these characters would be impressed by it. It feels like the marketing for a parodic D&D adventure where everything is very silly.

Speak for yourself. I quite like both my over-the-top, often silly action games, and D&D, and would have no problem mixing them. Granted though the Drizzt books definitely don't feel like the sort of stories that'd fit that tone, so it'd be an odd choice there.

[Mordar]

Kind of weird that they seem to be doing some magic too, Drizzt has never been the spellcasting kind of Ranger, even though Rangers have had magic since at least 3E. And I think Cattie-Brie even did some at one point (around the 5 minute mark), which is extra weird since she's not a spellcaster of any sort.

[grognard]AD&D. Druid spells and MU spells![/grognard]

- M

[Keltest]

[grognard]AD&D. Druid spells and MU spells![/grognard]

- M

Having said that, it didn't come online until like level 9, and I don't think Drizzt had that many ranger levels.

[Zevox]

[grognard]AD&D. Druid spells and MU spells![/grognard]

- M

Hence "at least." 3.5 is the earliest edition I played, so I can't speak to anything prior to that.

[GloatingSwine]

Speak for yourself. I quite like both my over-the-top, often silly action games, and D&D, and would have no problem mixing them. Granted though the Drizzt books definitely don't feel like the sort of stories that'd fit that tone, so it'd be an odd choice there.

Sure, you could do a "Borderlands meets D&D" game. Borderlands even did it. But you wouldn't do it with Drizzt. You'd take the piss out of Drizzt in it.

[Zevox]

Sure, you could do a "Borderlands meets D&D" game. Borderlands even did it. But you wouldn't do it with Drizzt. You'd take the piss out of Drizzt in it.

I believe that's what I said, yes? Granted I don't know anything about Borderlands besides that it being an FPS meant I was never interested in it, and I don't know what "take the piss out of" means, but from context, it sounds like that all probably adds up to the same thing I said in the quote you have there.

[JadedDM]

To 'take the piss out of' something means to make fun of it.

And I'm sort of looking forward to the game. I played the old Dark Alliances way back in the day. Although where's Regis? I mean, I get why he isn't included in the playable characters, but you'd think he would turn up in cutscenes or something. (Unless they're just not showing him in the marketing for some reason.)

[Mordar]

Hence "at least." 3.5 is the earliest edition I played, so I can't speak to anything prior to that.

For sure, understood. Hence the [grognard] mode

- M

[Man_Over_Game]

From what I can tell so far, it's lacking what makes these sort of brawlers fun: Enforced Teamwork.

Without some sort of triggers that work off of your allies, the game gets stale and doesn't feel as rewarding. It essentially becomes a highscore race, where you're all trying to deal as much and receive as little damage as possible, and all just happen to be focusing on the same targets.

Most folks probably never got a chance to try it, but the Dragon Age: Inquisition multiplayer did cooperative brawler combat well, essentially playing like miniature MMORPG raids where you worked with the strengths of your team to take down specific targets and take advantage of eachothers powers, buffs, and debuffs.
A similar, more recent example of this is Vermintide (although that one has less to do with abusing buff/debuff mechanics and instead revolves around using your strengths around each other while compensating for each others' weaknesses).

It's important to have those multiplayer-required mechanics in place, as the most unpredictable component of almost any game is the human element. When the AI and the enemies become predictable enough that you can't learn more by playing against them, you can still learn more by learning to play around other people, and the greater gain you get from adapting around each other, the higher the skill ceiling, and the more reason people have to keep playing.

But I'm not seeing indicators, or enemies turning green for a Poison someone can leverage, or them having aura effects underneath them to show that they're "flatfooted" for the next incoming Critical Attack or whatever. And it's clearly not a super-fluid engine like Vermintide (which is basically fantasy, role-based Left 4 Dead).

It just looks like generic damage and overly-spinny animations. And I might be jumping the gun, but I'm willing to be that that basically describes the game in a nutshell. Good for 4 hours, or a single weekend, whichever's shorter.