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.

 

[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