Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance

About Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance

The game is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of Dungeons & Dragons, and the gameplay is based on the rules of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, which were released in 2000. It is the first video game to implement the real time application of the new rules. It is also the first game in the Baldur's Gate series released on consoles as opposed to just PC and Mac.

The game takes place in the Sword Coast and the Western Heartlands, areas in the Faerûn continent of the Forgotten Realms. Each act of the game takes place in a different region: Act I takes place in the city of Baldur's Gate itself; Act II in the Sunset Mountains; and Act III in the Marsh of Chelimber.

The game begins with Vahn, Adrianna and Kromlech arriving in Baldur's Gate, whereupon they are attacked by a group of thieves led by Karne (Michael Bell). The city watch save the trio and take them to the Elfsong Tavern to recover. There, the bartender, Alyth Elendara (Jennifer Hale), tasks them to clear the tavern's cellar of rats. In the cellar, they discover the thieves are using the tavern's sewer entrance to infiltrate the city. When Elfsong Tavern employee Ethon follows them into the sewers and disappears, they rescue him from thieves, and he directs them to the nearby crypts, where one of the thieves was headed. There, they encounter Fayed (Cam Clarke), a priest of Illmater, who requests their help in stopping the "Orb of the Undead", which has filled the crypts with zombies and skeletons. They destroy the orb and discover the thieves, collectively known as Xantam's Guild, placed it there. Ethon introduces them to Jherek (John Rhys-Davies), a member of the Harpers, a group dedicated to protecting the realms from evil. Impressed with the trio, he invites them to join the Harpers and destroy Xantham's Guild.

After navigating a gauntlet of traps in the sewers, they face and kill Karne; they then find the guild master, the beholder Xantam (Tony Jay). They fight and kill him, and Jherek asks them to enter a portal which Xantam was guarding. The portal transports them to the Sunset Mountains, whereupon they head to a dwarf mining village, which is oppressed by drow elves. They light a signal fire atop a nearby mountain, calling for aid from neighboring dwarven clans, and enter the mines to rout the drow. After killing the drow priestess, they rescue a dwarven Harper, who tells them of another portal in the mountains. He also tells them that troops and monsters are planning to use the portals to move from the mountains into Baldur's Gate, attacking the city from within. The adventurers head to the portal, which is guarded by the ice dragon Ciraxis. They slay him and pass through the portal into the Marsh of Chelimber.