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.

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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.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Nah. Some opinions merit some light derision.

And there is no “winning” internet arguments about preferences, which is all any of this is.

Video games aren’t dnd. Period. They’re an adaptation.

If the game tells a story about dnd characters in a dnd world using dnd tropes and dnd enemies and rewards you with dnd items and character abilities, but you refuse to admit it’s a dnd game because it...isn’t turn based, then you’re being silly.

I never said it wasn't a D&D game. I said it didn't feel like a D&D game, and to many that matters. I'm not dismissing them as being wrong grognards. And if literally the only similarities are the proper pronouns, then that in fact is name dropping.

 

[Fenris447]

A lot of folks get way too worked up about little crap like that. “Oh no they changed Tifa’s cup size! OMG how can I maintain immersion in a trailer with rock music! How dare they change Harry Potter’s eye color!?!!!?!?!”

You're not entirely wrong, but I think setting the right tone, especially with your very first marketing push, is very important. Whoever designed that trailer seems remarkably out of touch with both modern gaming communities and the D&D community. The tone is just...wrong for everybody.

Life is much more satisfying when one chills the hell out, and just like...enjoy stuff or ignore it.

Truth. Which is why as bad as this is, I'm not going to spend any energy wringing my hands over it. Well, no more energy than typing about it in an online forum. If the game ends up great, then I'll have a great game to play. If not, oh well. Maybe next time.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I never said it wasn't a D&D game. I said it didn't feel like a D&D game, and to many that matters. I'm not dismissing them as being wrong grognards. And if literally the only similarities are the proper pronouns, then that in fact is name dropping.

I think Gyor is being dismissed as a whiny Grognard cause he said only certain genre's can be D&D games and has insulted many games including well liked classics for not falling into his narrow mold.

 

[Mercador]

Isch, sérieux, ça fait peur.

"La guerre des tuques" guys, turn this game in a ARPG VR game or something. Work with Larian perhaps, they have a studio in Quebec City.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I never said it wasn't a D&D game. I said it didn't feel like a D&D game, and to many that matters. I'm not dismissing them as being wrong grognards. And if literally the only similarities are the proper pronouns, then that in fact is name dropping.

That seems like a distinction without a difference, to me.
Again, if it’s set in a dnd world, and uses dnd tropes, themes, and yes names, to tell a dnd story, it’s a dnd game.
The mechanics change from edition to edition, and every single dnd game ever made has deviated from the mechanics in some way.

Dismissing the setting, characters, items, enemies, etc, as “just name drops” is too ridiculous to take seriously, IMO.

You're not entirely wrong, but I think setting the right tone, especially with your very first marketing push, is very important. Whoever designed that trailer seems remarkably out of touch with both modern gaming communities and the D&D community. The tone is just...wrong for everybody.

Truth. Which is why as bad as this is, I'm not going to spend any energy wringing my hands over it. Well, no more energy than typing about it in an online forum. If the game ends up great, then I'll have a great game to play. If not, oh well. Maybe next time.

Yeah it’s a bad trailer, for sure.

It’s like they wanted to go for something like this and then decided for no reason that putting go-pros on the ends of weapons would make it cooler somehow, and it went downhill from there.

Which...honestly tells us literally nothing about the game. It’s a marketing guy’s dumb idea.

 

[Mercador]

Yeah it’s a bad trailer, for sure.

It’s like they wanted to go for something like this and then decided for no reason that putting go-pros on the ends of weapons would make it cooler somehow, and it went downhill from there.

Which...honestly tells us literally nothing about the game. It’s a marketing guy’s dumb idea.

It tells already a lot for the studio unfortunately (for us).

 

[oreofox]

When I saw a new Dark Alliance game, I was intrigued. Then I saw the trailer, and it vanished. It might be a good game, it might be as bad as the trailer. And I probably won't care until the game is almost released and I remember it exists. Though, it looking like you play predetermined characters (Drizzt (ugh), I assume Bruenor, and I don't know or care who else) doesn't give bonus points for this game.

 

[Hurin70]

It’s like they wanted to go for something like this and then decided for no reason that putting go-pros on the ends of weapons would make it cooler somehow, and it went downhill from there.

Which...honestly tells us literally nothing about the game. It’s a marketing guy’s dumb idea.

You make a good point that we don't know much, but I think the trailer does tell us a little more about the game: it tells us that the graphics are going to be cartoony, and the animations clunky. That's part of what is turning me off personally.

DnD is a big IP, and it could have been given to a AAA developer. But part of the problem WotC has had with their videogames in recent years is that they have been handing the license to obscure developers who bit off more than they can chew.

I'll wait to see what the rest of the game is about to make a final judgment. I like metal, I like action games, I've liked many of the Dark Alliance games, and I have no problem considering this a DnD game, so I am right in their core demographic. But what I've seen so far has me the opposite of excited.

 

[Retreater]

I liked Dark Alliance well enough on PS2. I could also go with a beam 'em up like Chronicles of Mystara.
I know I'm in the minority, but I'm not a fan of the Divinity games. I can't find my way through them. They seem too obtuse for me. Of course, I was raised on console games, not CRPGs.

 

[thom_likes_gaming]

I'm in the 'not impressed at all' camp. FPS stuff makes me motion sick these days (bye bye everything Elder Scroll et al), the graphics are underwhelming (might be early stage, so possibly forgivable) and I completely fail to see how they want to make this into an RPG. All over, looks like I'll be sitting this one out.