DARK ALLIANCE

It’s D&D, but with more death and fewer dice

- Fraser Brown

NEED TO KNOW

RELEASE June 22

DEVELOPER Tuque Games

PUBLISHER Wizards of the Coast

LINK darkalliance.wizards.com

Tuque Games’ Dark Alliance is D&D for the impatient. It’s got the setting, characters, and language of D&D, but they’re draped over an action game that will see you fighting without ever worrying about dice rolls. Kill goblins, grab loot, admire your new cloak – it’s about the simple pleasures.

Though technically the third game in the Dark Alliance series, the slate has been wiped clean for its PC debut. Previously a top-down action RPG exclusively for consoles, Dark Alliance is now a third-person action game where clicks have been replaced by combos.

As celebrity drow Drizzt Do’Urden, I rush around Icewind Dale, dodging, leaping and backstabbing with the goblin body count rapidly rising. While I button bash my way through the mostly linear mission map, there’s still an RPG working away under the hood, but things likeability scores and feats have been reshaped around a game that’s mostly pure action.