WotC Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance Video Game Announcement Trailer

An announcement trailer for Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance premiered at The Game Awards on Thursday evening.

​

Developed by Tuque Games, the studio acquired earlier this year by Wizards of the Coast, the game will be a sequel of sorts in the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance action-RPG series for the Xbox, Playstation 2, and Gamecube. This game, however, will go to Icewind Dale and feature four-player co-op as you take on the roles of Drizzt Do'Urden, Cattie-Brie, Wulfgar, and Bruenor. The game is due for release in 2020.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

If that trailer is at all representative of the actual gameplay, then I don't see this game appealing to many people at all. The graphics and gameplay are awful. Gameplay looks way too chaotic and lacking in any kind of depth. And the graphics... don't think much needs to be said.

No matter what it says about being actual gameplay footage or whatever, we literally know nothing from the trailer about what the gameplay will be like. At most, we learnt what the gameplay graphics will look like, and tbh the idea that those graphics are particularly bad just tells me that people have grown vastly too picky about graphics, to the detriment of gaming.

What's too ridiculous to take seriously is your argument that mechanics aren't really that important, but it's the proper nouns that matter.

I don't think anyone can honestly, and truthfully, argue that a game like DragonStrike and Blood&Magic give the D&D experience just because they take place in a D&D world. The mechanics very in some way from edition to edition, true, but they all stay true to the core chassis (4e was the only one that made the biggest change by going to AEDU, but even then the core mechanics were the same). Trying to dismiss the major difference between a flight simulator and a turn based RPG because "1e had some different mechanics as 4e" is a false equivalency of epic proportion. I'm pretty sure you do know that it's more than just a "distinction without a difference" between a game like Baldur's Gate and DragonStrike.

I'm not arguing that they aren't technically D&D games. I'm arguing that that's all they are, in name only, and the difference matters. Just like putting a Ferrari kit on a Fiero doesn't make it anything like a Ferrari, despite the same logo and name.

If I’m doing the same things I’d be doing in a dnd adventure, with the same sorts of abilities, in a dnd world, how does “it’s not turn based” make it not a dnd game?

And I don’t care about “technically”. I’m not going to use semantics to dance around the difference between “doesn’t feel like a dnd game” and “isn't a dnd game”. That’s the “distinction without a difference” I was talking about.

And yes, a game where you play a dnd dragon (chromatic or metallic, with corresponding breath weapons, etc) in a first person flight simulator and burn towns and collect tribute and fight other dragons, in a dnd world, is a dnd game.

As is a survival game set in Xen’drik where you play an Eberron race but don’t have a PC class because it’s a “normal person surviving in the dangerous dnd wilderness” game.

Or any number of other types of games.

Not every dnd game needs to play like neverwinter nights.

 

[generic]

I wonder... which platforms will this game be released on?

My guess is PC, Xbox, PS5, and Switch.

 

[Ath-kethin]

There has to be someone at Tuque (or whoever produced the trailer) who is now kicking themselves for not speaking up about how awful this whole trailer is. How did this happen? Who thought it was a good idea?

I'm going to reserve judgement about the game itself until we see some gameplay and learn more. But dang, the trailer does nothing to interest me. Especially in contrast with the BG3 trailer.

It reminds me of the D&D movie back in 2000. We came out of the theater and had to ask, "who saw this and said
'yes! That is an accurate and desirable representation of my brand!' afterward?"

I mean, seriously.

 

[Sacrosanct]

And I don’t care about “technically”. I’m not going to use semantics to dance around the difference between “doesn’t feel like a dnd game” and “isn't a dnd game”. That’s the “distinction without a difference” I was talking about.

Maybe you’re used to feeling like your personal opinion is objective fact that everyone else must acknowledge, but to the rest of us, there is in fact a very real difference between saying “this feels like to me” and “this is”. It’s not a technicality. It’s literally the difference between a subjective opinion and an official declaration.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Maybe you’re used to feeling like your personal opinion is objective fact that everyone else must acknowledge, but to the rest of us, there is in fact a very real difference between saying “this feels like to me” and “this is”. It’s not a technicality. It’s literally the difference between a subjective opinion and an official declaration.

Um, no. The statements are essentially the same, and no one is ever going to think you are saying “literally by technical definition”.

Stop derailing with semantics.

I also starred out replying to some literally saying “it isn’t a dnd game”, not “it wouldn’t feel enough like dnd for me to enjoy it” or anything like that.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Um, no. The statements are essentially the same, and no one is ever going to think you are saying “literally by technical definition”.

Stop derailing with semantics.

I also starred out replying to some literally saying “it isn’t a dnd game”, not “it wouldn’t feel enough like dnd for me to enjoy it” or anything like that.

I never said it wasn’t a D&D game. So keep those responses to them then, and not me.

Saying it doesn’t feel like a DnD game is not even close to declaring it isn’t a DnD game. They are not the same. One is an opinion, one is a statement of fact. If you can’t bother to see the distinction, then we’re done here.

 

[Matesamo]

I wonder... which platforms will this game be released on?

My guess is PC, Xbox, PS5, and Switch.

Looks like a fall 2020 release; PS4, Xbox One and Switch. Then Gold editions for PS5 and Xbox Series X early 2021.

 

[Mercador]

I wonder... which platforms will this game be released on?

My guess is PC, Xbox, PS5, and Switch.

My guess is that it will be a DnD reskin of their only other title, so the same platforms, PC/Xb/PS4.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Videogames get old really fast. After some years you can't worry about earning more money.

The best videogame studios would rather to work with their own franchises. It would easier a SRD Open Licence for videogames for an indirect broadcasting.

Movies of marvel comics superheroes failed until the first Blade vampire hunter. Late they learnt to find the right key to create a true blockbusters. Most of Game Workshop adaptations to videogames.... weren't good.
Many official D&D videogames, even from the last years, have fallen in the oblivion. A famous IP isn't enough, to be a succes you have to sell a good work. A brand isn't enough. Even the big videogame studios can fail. Are you interested about playing the Blizzards' Diablo for mobiles, did you like the last Mass Effect or Resident Evil 6?

Today D&D as IP for a videogame has got too many rivals, MMORPGs or CRPGs. This isn't only an interesting lore or background, but also fun gameplay, and the key for this last one isn't easy to be found.

Today new rpg videogames are mixing spellcasters and gunpowder firearms.

* Don't you miss a D&D videogame with "housing" (create a house and adding furnitures like in the sims, or Conan Exiled). Sometimes I would like something like a D&D version of sims medieval+sims, growing vegetables and like this.

 

[dvvega]

Unfortunately the trailer needs better modelling and rigging for the characters.

Apart from that it does evoke the mood it most likely will try to portray - you have to kill everything with really general missions to go on.

The previous two Dark Alliance Games fit that bill as does D&D Heroes.

In addition if you check out Livelock (Tuque Games only other game?) it is most likely the best example of what will come out. I do not see them recreating a game engine or code when they are trying to churn this out for 2020.

They will need a good 3rd person modeller for the game and that trailer will essentially have nothing to do with gameplay whatsoever - especially that move where the dwarf presents his shield and Drizzt leaps off of it.

If you check out their careers page they seem to be looking for modellers so I would not be surprised if these are related to the product - hopefully.

D

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Unfortunately the trailer needs better modelling and rigging for the characters.

Apart from that it does evoke the mood it most likely will try to portray - you have to kill everything with really general missions to go on.

The previous two Dark Alliance Games fit that bill as does D&D Heroes.

In addition if you check out Livelock (Tuque Games only other game?) it is most likely the best example of what will come out. I do not see them recreating a game engine or code when they are trying to churn this out for 2020.

They will need a good 3rd person modeller for the game and that trailer will essentially have nothing to do with gameplay whatsoever - especially that move where the dwarf presents his shield and Drizzt leaps off of it.

If you check out their careers page they seem to be looking for modellers so I would not be surprised if these are related to the product - hopefully.

D

Hey, maybe they’ll get weird and present group moves like that.

But probably not

 

[GreyLord]

I agree, the trailer was made in poor taste. They need to take the individual who decided that this was in good taste behind the barn and rectify their taste to be a bit better.

On the otherhand, I have heard MANY calls for a new BG: DA game over the past few years. BGA was one of the games that many hold as one of the D&D games from the past that they really enjoyed.

IF a true sequel or spiritual successor can be made of that, I think there could be an audience for it that will eagerly consume it.

However, they need a better advertisement.

 

[dagger]

I hope no one pre-orders this...

 

[Aldarc]

If I wanted to play an action RPG, there are plenty of good ones to choose from already: Skyrim, Witcher, etc. When I want to play D&D, I want to feel like I'm playing D&D, and that's turned based (or pause-able). It seems like whenever D&D tries to go out genre, it never works well because they simply can't compete with the aforementioned Witcher or Elder Scrolls. Almost like they just think they can skate by on the D&D Brand.

IMHO, the issue is that D&D is far larger than just its system, mechanics, or existence as a TTRPG. It contains a family of franchises, media tie-ins, settings, and variously associated IPs. Also, I don't think that going out of the genre is necessarily the issue. A significant part of the issue is with who (variously) WotC has develop the games for D&D rather than whether they are "in genre" or not.

Video games provide a unique opportunity to explore the settings of D&D in less conventional ways than just another D&D campaign that one could have from sitting down with your friends at the table. So, for example, imagine a video game following the story and perspective of a lowly thief in Waterdeep who gets over their head involved in a conspiracy with various city factions. You can potentially go further in depth and focus in the setting than another bog standard adventure that involves assembling a party of four to five companions in a tavern that go on a turn-based murderhobo rampage across the countryside.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Also, seriously DDO still feels like dnd every time I go back and play it.

I look forward to a real time with pause dnd game, sure, and I wish that Obsidian or someone would make a new isometric dnd game in the general style of the BG games, but better graphics.

However, I’m also excited at the prospect of something like the old Dark Alliance games.

 

[Parmandur]

Also, seriously DDO still feels like dnd every time I go back and play it.

I look forward to a real time with pause dnd game, sure, and I wish that Obsidian or someone would make a new isometric dnd game in the general style of the BG games, but better graphics.

However, I’m also excited at the prospect of something like the old Dark Alliance games.

Baldirs Gate 3 is going that classic full CRPG route: variation in strategy is cool. We'll see how it shakes out.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Videogames allow to explore and test new ideas, for example an adventure set in Ravenloft with a lot of investigation, where some sacred cows are killed, for example a changed list of abilitie scores, or rules about sanity/madness.

In TTRPG industry D&D is the supreme master, but in the videogame market, they are still a little fish, with lots of rivals fighting for a piece of the cake.

Why not a coproduction with Capcom for a new title set in Mystara?

 

[Mecheon]

Why not a coproduction with Capcom for a new title set in Mystara?

I see what you did there

But anyway, seeing as I've got my feet more firmly in the video game side of things than the D&D side, I can confirm the rest of the Internet is ripping a bit into this trailer (It didn't get "Worst Trailer from the event" though, so that's some small mercy.)

Once we actually see gameplay footage we can start paying attention, but this doesn't a good picture paint so far. But, well, great trailers have lead to awful games sometimes, its the gameplay footage that matters.

 

[ddaley]

At most, we learnt what the gameplay graphics will look like, and tbh the idea that those graphics are particularly bad just tells me that people have grown vastly too picky about graphics, to the detriment of gaming

Eh... I grew up playing games like Wizardry, Ultima, Zork, etc... and still play games that would be considered to have "bad" graphics. The the graphics in this game are disturbingly bad. They just look plain awful. You can defend it all you want, but I don't see this game appealing to very many gamers. It'll be in the $5 bin pretty quickly.

 

[Mercador]

I hope no one pre-orders this...

Oh, it will. A DnD logo on anything will sell and they know it. I just wondering how the heck Tuque games was acquired by WotC in the first place, I guess they had a few millions to purchase a studio and were poorly guided. It's quite sad to know exactly where this is going and not being able to do anything about it. Buyers will be displeased, fans will be pissed, WotC corporate will say (again) "no more videogames" and we'll get a videogame drought once again.