Dungeons & Dragons Dark Alliance Review (PlayStation 5)

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For our Dungeons And Dragons Dark Alliance Review we show how the world of Dungeons & Dragons comes to life in an explosive action brawler filled with real-time combat and dynamic co-op. Play as iconic D&D heroes and join up to three other friends to battle legendary monsters, earn powerful gear, and unlock new abilities to take on even bigger challenges.

Dungeons & Dragons Dark Alliance Review Pros:

  • Decent graphics.
  • 2.68GB download size.
  • Platinum trophy.
  • Action RPG gameplay.
  • Colorblind support.
  • The controller has two presets.
  • An opening tutorial section that teaches you how to fight and loot.
  • Four characters- Drizzt Do’Urden (Ranger), Catti-Brie (fighter), Wulfgar (barbarian) Bruenor Battlehammer (fighter).
  • Hand-drawn animated cutscenes mixed with in-game scenes.
  • Online and offline support. Set your option in-game and change it on the fly.
  • 3rd person perspective.
  • The Camp is your hub space – the map is used to select campaigns, reward chests, merchants to buy, sell and upgrade loot, and a trophies room.
  • Campaigns have 3 acts with the final one being shorter but a big boss fight.
  • Combo counter.
  • Damage numbers pop on the screen.
  • Six difficulties that tell you the recommended combat score.
  • Your combat score is calculated on gear and stats.
  • Loot has rarity levels.
  • Fast loading times.
  • Some seriously cool-looking armor.
  • Combat has combos, ranged, melee, and an ultimate move along with a handy lock-on.
  • Defensive moves include dash, dodge, block, and parry moves.
  • Can skip cutscenes if you so wish.
  • Break mining points up for crystals that come in rarity levels.
  • Acts will have the main objective with a few optional ones.
  • People will interact with you and call you by your character type.
  • Funny animations for the enemies like ass-hitting and having them run away.
  • Short rest- once you clear an area of enemies a fire will spawn for a limited time. Use it to replenish health/stamina or don’t use it to increase loot rarity level rewards. Using fire for healing will also respawn all enemies.
  • Areas in the game are big and allow you to go multiple ways and find secret routes and rooms.
  • Elite enemies are tougher bigger enemies.
  • If you listen to the enemies they actually call you out by name or race.
  • Enemies react more and can run away or gang up.
  • A hot and cold mechanic that allows you to get warm so you can go through ice fields unscathed.
  • Death resets you back to a checkpoint (fire if activated) or back to the level start.
  • Stamina is in use for combat, Evasion, and using abilities. Enemies get exhausted and can be beaten easier.
  • End of a level breakdown of performance and unlocks rewards.
  • Skill tree to buy new passive abilities.
  • The Journal menu gives details on enemy bios, paintings, relief, tablets, and tomes.
  • Skins act like transmogs and allow you to change the appearance of your gear without adding any stats or bonuses to it. Cosmetic only.
  • Set bonuses are where you get X amount of the same set to activate additional buffs.
  • Gold is used to buy skills in the tree, upgrade equipment, and buy new gear.
  • In-game loot is displayed as a type of gear and rarity level and isn’t revealed until you get back to the camp.
  • Can replay levels.
  • The camp has a test dummy that gives feedback on your attack and damages. (Pro-tip- you can earn the combo achievements here)
  • Excellent voice work.
  • Crystal along with gold is used to upgrade your gear, you need the correct crystal rarity to do so but you can pay to upgrade or downgrade collected crystals.
  • You can replay levels and upgrade to take on harder enemies.

Dungeons & Dragons Dark Alliance Review Cons:

  • Cannot change characters’ names, races, roles, or anything.
  • Lock-on only works with enemies you are facing not where the camera is facing.
  • The first few acts are actually the worst ones of the lot and quite the slog.
  • You are forced to do the tutorial yet the very first level then have you reading all the tutorials again.
  • Hard to see loot especially coins on the floor.
  • You can’t equip and use loot in a game and have to wait until you finish the level or return to the camp.
  • Tries to add Dark Souls-like mechanics and it doesn’t really fit.
  • Enemies will repeat lines and layouts.
  • Combat can get very messy with large numbers especially as lock-on breaks so regularly.
  • Can get stuck in a loop as fire choices are permanent for that level run.
  • Hard to always judge blocking and parrying.
  • Combat is fast but lock-on and fighting movements are slow.
  • The ending is just a cutscene, No credits or congratulations instead you just go back to the hub and carry on.
  • Quitting back to camp loses all earned progress and loot.
  • Combat always feels the same.
  • Levels are very long and you cannot quit out.
  • Everything is heavily scripted meaning you never miss anything and constantly feel guided rather than exploring.

 

Related Post: Fantasy Empires Review (Steam)

Dungeons & Dragons Dark Alliance:

Official website.

Developer: Tuque Games

Publisher: Wizards Of The Coast

Store Links-

PlayStation

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8.2/10

Summary

The following text is taken from when we originally reviewed the game at launch: A game that has Dungeons and Dragons in it must bring the game to your big screen, dungeons and Dragons mean adventure, amazing stories, and combat to be proud of. I found none of that in Dark Alliance and it kills me. It honestly feels like a generic adventure game that got filed under Dungeons and Dragon’s name by accident. Straight away it wound me up as it wouldn’t let me do one of the core Dungeons and Dragons mechanics, I couldn’t create my own character, I had to pick one of only four characters and if you wanted to be a female then you have one character to be no ifs buts or changes. Get past that and the combat tutorial introduces you to the fast frantic almost Devil May Cry-like combat. It’s impressive and does have its moments but it does also ruin itself with a dodgy lock that only works a certain way and breaks the lock on way too easily. Then you get to see the camp which acts as the hub. Here you take on quests, upgrade/buy/sell gear, look at trophies, and take on dummy targets. It’s pretty plain but it does the job so I can’t complain too much. Loot, this is a huge part of not just Dungeons and Dragons but also the adventure genre, it’s the reason to keep going. In Dark Alliance it is done a different way, you open a chest and get told what rarity it is and what part of gear it is. Once you finish the level and return to the camp you can then cash in your loot to find out what you actually got. Again in Dungeons and Dragons, you can freely equip/drop the gear and share it with your party but in this game, you cannot do any of that until you finish the level and you cannot share items. I just don’t understand why it’s a Dungeons and Dragons game when it does so much not in Dungeons and Dragons. The game is very repetitive, and looks nice but with the same pool of enemies over and over, the same general layout it’s all very same. To be honest, the game feels scripted for everything, the enemy will always either be in a group together you see from the distance or they will spawn out of the hatches that are clearly shown on the floor. I just got so tired of going through the same enemies, having to do long levels that are dragged out for no reason, and having no way to take a break really, I just don’t get it. But just in case you thought I was done, No! They add in a clear copycat potion-drinking animation from Dark Souls and have the fire/short rest mechanic work like a cheap not-all version of Dark Souls bonfires. So to be clear I found Dark Alliance to be a basic adventure game, shoehorned in Dark Souls ideas, and in no way uses the Dungeons and Dragons name properly. I actually forgot it was a D&D game! The font and pop-ups that happen at the end of the level are actually a direct rip from a D&D free-to-play mobile game and that puts a thought in your head. Overall I was just bitterly disappointed and any fun I had dwindled after a few hours.

Ok so coming back and playing the Playstation version this time, I found I understood the game more and what they were going for. Yes the combat is fast and furious but it is spread out with a lot of downtime, You can only reveal and equip new loot from the camp and the loot is minimal but that’s the D&D way! Think about it, In the tabletop game you don’t earn loot and immediately put it on, In exploration is not really fast, It’s slow and methodical with a lot of depth just like the game here. Combat is very messy though with its lock on but again if you think like the game and how it plays out, You can easily just say you got a bad roll or you have the Wheaton curse. Doesn’t excuse it and it is a real downer but I managed to finish the game again. The worlds are just fantastic and the first two acts are not the best I still believe are the worse ones as the later levels look better, Have more atmosphere and space for the world to breathe. I still have no desire to go back after finishing it but I really enjoyed coming back again after so long as a lot of little updates and improvements have been made. I swear there are more loot, weapons, and enemy encounter variations. Now is the time to go back and with the film related today, it’s never been a better time to be a Dungeons and Dragons fan and gamer.

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!