Someone forgot their saving roll for this release
There's always something special about returning to those seminal franchises that influenced huge swathes of pop culture. It's why we all smile on the inside whenever that nostalgia wave hits, why Star Wars and Star Trek will always remain popular no matter how often they disappoint their fans, and why Dungeons and Dragons will weather the storm it's going through and the one it has coming. For the future I fear this upcoming Dungeons and Dragons film that's hurtling towards us, because I've seen the first DnD film and I know what to expect. (Also, it's currently called 'The Dungeons and Dragons film'. If the filmmakers can't be bothered to think up an actual title I can't have too high hopes for the total film.) And for the time being the big screw up is none other than DnD Dark Alliance the video game, which has arrived with about as much fanfare and wide spread adoration as the Black Plague.
Let me start by reiterating that this is such a shame. I remember first seeing this game announced and being so excited that the plethora of lore and characters from the prime DnD world were being presented in such an accessible manner, Faerûn was finally approachable by the everyman, but at this point what everyman in their right mind is going to play this DnD game? Hack and slash action without having to pick through stat sheets and the like; casual bliss, no? But that was me then, now I'm even more distraught at all the missed opportunities this game had to harken upon and exemplify all that DnD stands for and represents in clever and involving techniques. This seemed like such a perfect chance to create a dumb slasher that was smart underneath the hood... and yet... that didn't happen. So my question is why it went wrong. But it's too early for that at the getgo, so let's just focus on the things that went wrong themselves to try and determine if I was lying to myself or if there was a good DnD game here somewhere in the depths of Avernus.
First of all comes the most simple downfall to any game out there, and yet a useful smokescreen for others, the game is buggier than a summer afternoon in the Bayou. Now we're all familiar with the Cyberpunk effect where NPCs seem to have chewed on their AI packages such to the point where they're non responsive, but I'm talking about a game where the enemies don't work. Yeah, that's a bit of a problem now isn't it? Enemies don't seem to be able to spot the player unless they stand in front of you for several seconds. Really takes away from the illusion of being 'death defying adventurers' when half your job is stabbing catatonic goblins. Hit responses are as bad as vanilla Fallout 76, drop out is prevalent, load in gear glitches run havoc. Just about everything that could go wrong for an online game has gone wrong, short of a glitch so bad it bricks your console. Anthem still holds the record there. (If, indeed, that bricking glitch was real and not just an anecdote run wild.)
But it all runs much deeper than that, because of course it does. Just as with Cyberpunk, the glitches are what makes the headlines, but behind that is a game that's flawed to it's core and fails on the basic promises we were sold to. However, I will say that Cyberpunk at the very least has great combat, something which cannot be said for Dark Alliance. Enemies are too easy and go down too quickly, even when their AI packages are working, classes lack any role definition so that everybody just ends up being damage dealers for the most part, loot collection in this loot-based game is utterly weak and none representative of the missions that the player is going on, (so harder missions rarely offer better quality loot) and of the several classes that are offered out off the get go, none of them are spell users. That's right, we're talking about a DnD video game with no dedicated magic casters. How do you make that decision? And don't turn around and tell me this is in order to get around spell slots as though this game cares about core DnD rules like that. Weapon rarity wouldn't even exist in a purist DnD ruleset game, so we can rest assured there's no excuse lying in there.
So the game is bad. Pretty bad. But could it have been better? And more importantly, in what ways could it have been better rather than the substandard "Well, if they fixed the bugs-" answer. Well we all have our own opinions to throw this way and that, but in my opinion (which I teased at the beginning) I think the secret might have lied in staying truer to the DnD soul. For example, there exists one mechanic in the game where you can choose to rest between missions, which heals everyone up but resets the multiplier for getting higher tier loot. (Though as I understand it, that multiplier is completely broken anyway at launch.) This would have been a perfect space for recharging spell slots, not just for the non existent mages but for all characters. This would solve the issue of healing spam that some classes can do, because they'd be limited and have to think before each spell, plus it would add a really tangible risk-reward factor as going to score that higher tier of loot might mean going into battle with no spells to back you up at all. There, right away, we've completely evolved the balance of the game to be more conservative but more thoughtful. See how easy that is?
What can we focus on next? How about we go to classes next? Out of the box you have four classes that are tied to four characters from DnD lore, the only one whom I recognise being Drizzt Do'urden, because he seems like the kind of character cooked up in a lab to be cool but overdone to the point of parody. (Oh, so he's a duellist-assassin Drow with silver hair and a 'stab-first ask questions later' attitude? I bet he's plays guitar in his garage band too.) None of them are interesting enough. You have a Dwarf tank, human archer, Drow assassin, and a human barbarian. Where are the shapeshifting Gnome Druids, the fire-raining Tiefling evokers, heck, where is the dedicated support class? (Coming in the DLC? Not good enough) I know that the idea was to create this high-octane action game where everyone could be the damage dealer in the way they wanted to whilst no-one had to play the support, but that's A: really hard to pull of in anyway that keeps combat feeling in anyway deep and B: isn't even really in line with the soul of DnD anyway. Sure, clerics can heal and kickass; but you want one on your team for their versatility. Dark Alliance's line-up, despite the duel classes, lacks any variety, and it makes the game feel one note.
Then there's probably the most unsaveable part of the game; the campaign. It's boring and forgettable, lacks any punch, fixing this would take the most amount of work but I'm going to put myself in the theoretical and not at all realistic position of having unlimited time to shift directions entirely. Because I think the best idea for a DnD game like this, focusing around dungeon diving and looting, would have been to focus development on a sort of Roguelite randomised core game. Sure there can still be the odd narrative driven adventure, but much smaller and mostly saved for DLC efforts, the core game should have been on something more generated; let me explain my idea. The team could have created a basic set of DnD enemies, (Your Gnolls, your Gibberlings, your Kobolds) tilesets of classic DnD locations, (Forests, underground ruins, Dark alleys) and then just fed that into a generator machine to keep churning out quests and loot for the player without having to rely on subpar storytelling. Effort from there could go into making minibosses that are strong on their own right, difficulty scales that change up how many and what enemies spawn and maybe even random special events that chunk random demons into a level, or dimesion door you to a realm from the Nine Hells. Take hints from other games like Diablo, and they way they keep things unique, or just Roguelite games in general, or even Minecraft Dungeons and the way that works. Would it have made a totally different game to the one they were going for? Yes. But I think it would have had much more staying power.
In the end, however, we got what we got and there remains no recourse except to deal with the outcome. And that outcome is another disappointment multiplayer title that, for some inexplicable reason, feels like it fell flat on it's face with looter aspirations. I may be imagining things there, because who can really confess to knowing intent this early on, but I smell another failed looter and it's starting to get ridiculous at this point. These aren't easy games to make, so I can't see why everyone and their mother keeps trying for it and failing. It reminds me of the MMO boom after WOW; just a lot of failed ventures and aspirations shot far above ability. Dark Alliance probably doesn't have a road to recovery ahead of it after a launch this poor, (but I'd love to be proved wrong) and so DnD fans will have to hope for other DnD universe games to get their fix. Good thing the next major game is Baldur's Gate 3 then...
