D&D Dark Alliance - co-op action brawler where you play Drizzt's party

[Robber Baron]

The uninspiring korean MMO tier art direction is the worst offender so far.

 

[Bara]

I feel the Diablo like loot system in a D&D based video game was the worst offender.

Freaking Iceing Death is a "grey" weapon because its his starter blade. What?!

 

[Infinitron]

https://venturebeat.com/2021/03/21/the-d20-beat-smashing-dark-alliances-verbeeg-jamboree/

The D20 Beat: Smashing Dark Alliance’s Verbeeg Jamboree

The Verbeeg Jamboree is ready to have you for dinner.


One of the first things I saw during my late February demo for Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance was a verbeeg. These are a type of giant, known for their resemblances to oversized humans and being vicious marauders.

The portrayal of verbeegs in D&D has varied over the years. Like in the recent Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign or Troy Denning’s The Twilight Giants novels, they’re gangly giants, but they aren’t big fat beasts. In books such as R.A. Salvatore’s The Crystal Shard and in Dark Alliance, they are far more thicker, brutish creatures, focused on eating and plundering the smaller races.

And apparently, they like banjos.

“The verbeeg was playing a Dobro, not a banjo,” a Wizards of the Coast spokesperson said over email.

The slice I saw opened with a group of verbeeg around a cooking fire, singing and carousing and proclaiming how much they wanted to eat dwarves. Large, far, and stupid, the verbeegs reminded me of the trolls Bilbo and the dwarves find in The Hobbit. One strummed this banjo-like instrument, the Dobro, as they sang a terrible song. It was the Verbeeg Jamboree, and it was a party, alright.

For the players. As I went through the level playing Wulfgar with Tuque Games’ Jeff Hattem (guiding Catti-brie), we merrily smashed and slashed goblins, gnolls, frost trolls, and verbeegs. As we slaughtered our way through the demo in this dwarfhold (they wouldn’t tell me which one), I chatted with Hattem about the lore and this slice of Icewind Dale.

“We thought it was really cool to bring them back and reinvent them for 5th Edition,” Hattem said.

I appreciate Tuque’s attention to detail. The goblins look similar to those you see in Baldur’s Gate III from Larian Studios and the 5E books, so it shows that Wizards of the Coast is working with its partners to have a consistent look through not just the books and miniatures but video games as well.

But Tuque is also adding some of its own flavor, as we see with the verbeegs.

“What’s really cool about D&D is that it’s very open-ended. You can make it your own,” Hattem said.

One is the studio’s clever adaptation of D&D‘s short rest mechanic. You can use one to heal up, refill your potions, and lock in the loot you’ve earned … or you can skip it and press on for better loot.

Spoiler

Not the old Dark Alliance

Above: Bruenor Battlehammer is ready to bash some brutes.


Two aspects, however, do disappoint me. Dark Alliance will not have local co-op, which seems to fly in the face of a co-op action-RPG. The most enjoyable aspect of the old Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance games is playing with a friend on the same console.

“We sort of got ahead of ourselves bringing all these characters and environments to life. We just kept making them look better and better, and then had to choose between keeping the fidelity of the game or reigning in the local co-op,” Hattem said.

The other is the loot. I enjoy action-RPGs in which I can decide whether or not to equip gear as soon as I pick it up. Sometimes, switching to a more powerful weapon or a set of armor with better regeneration makes the difference between death and survival. In Dark Alliance, your loot goes to your inventory, and you deal with it at the end of a mission at your base camp. Part of this is due to the “high octane action experience” Tuque is going for, Hattem said. Dealing with gear would take you out of this.

Giant order
After fighting through goblins and gnolls, we finally fought of some of this repulsive giants. My main concern with Tuque’s portrayal of a verbeeg is that it doesn’t differ too much from another brutish lout, the hill giant. Both look big and fat, uncivilized, and brutish.

Tuque’s verbeeg are shorter than hill giants, and while they’re just a gluttonous as their larger cousins, they focus on showing off their kills as well. It’s not just about becoming the fattest member of the group, and thus, the most powerful.

“They have ears, all kinds of trophies on them. Skulls and bones,” Hattem said.

Above: This verbeeg wants to spring a trap on the agile Cattie-brie.


And unlike hill giants, verbeeg use traps. The trapper will toss out snares, and another with a spear will take advantage of it. I asked Hattem if this was something Tuque introduced to the verbeeg or something Wizards of the Coast asked for.

“It was a team effort. We worked with them, made some proposals, went back-and-forth. It was a very organic process,” he said.

And you gotta watch out for their puke. One spewed poison on us. I don’t remember reading about verbeeg doing this!

I asked about some other small details, too. Catti-brie wore a pair of googles, and I wondered if these were some special items. Turns out it’s just the sort of gear folks wear in the north to keep the glare of the sun off the snow from their eyes.

Another thing I liked was the ornamentation on a bow we found. It was a piece of common gear, the normal sort of basic stuff you’d just either sell or use for crafting components in most games. But this had a cool design on it, and Hattem said that every piece of gear has some sort of unique design. It goes into the way Wizards and Tuque are trying to create a world that feels alive, even as you slaughter hordes of baddies.

“There’s a certain level of authenticity that we want to respect with the game. I think we’ve found a happy medium of supporting players who want to progress through the game as well as being true to the IP and the characters of the world.”

Verbeegs haven’t had much representation in 5E D&D. They made their comeback in the Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign, which debuted in September. I asked if Tuque picked the verbeeg not just because of their connection to Icewind Dale and the early days of the Companions of the Hall but also because Wizards had just reintroduced the giants to D&D.

“It came more from the fact that we wanted to support where this is in the timeline. We’re about 100 years behind of the event currently in 5th Edition, so we set the game sometime after the events of The Crystal Shard book. [It] featured the verbeeg. They were a key type of monster, so we wanted to showcase them to be true to the books,” Hattem said. “And we also thought that, what was cool was they hadn’t been reimagined for 5th Edition, so we thought it’d be cool to give them our own spin on how they’re being represented.”

Just watch out for the poison puke when you and your friends smash up the Verbeeg Jamboree when Dark Alliance launches for PC and PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

 

[Chippy]

If it was like Shadows of Mordor with different playstyles for each character, I would have really enjoyed it. As it is, it just looks like yet another hack & slash button masher.

 

[Ebonsword]

From what I've seen so far, it seems like Sword Coast Legends was a better successor to the original Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance games than this is.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.ign.com/articles/dark-alliance-beholder-gameplay-boss-battle

Dark Alliance Reveals New 'Beholder' Boss Gameplay Trailer
How Dark Alliance is adapting one of D&D's most famous monsters

The latest trailer for Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, which you can get an excluisve look at above, gives us a better look at how developer Tuque Games is adapting one of D&D's most famous monsters: the Beholder.

"The Beholder is one of the most iconic D&D creatures, so it was an incredible opportunity to bring it to life for Dark Alliance" says Kevin Neibert, Lead Game Designer at Tuque Games. "We looked to the Monster Manual for inspiration, and then gave it our own creative twist. Enter Hagedorn, the Dreamer, and his distinctive chitinous shell."

“The look is definitely a different take on the design most players are familiar with (you can see a comparison between Dark Alliance's Hagedorn and the latest tabletop design below), and is a long way from the original design from 1975 - but Hagedorn isn't just a visually unique monster, either.

"In the [tabletop] D&D lore, each eye stalk has its own magic ability," Neibert explains, "but due to technical limitations, giving each eye stalk an independent animation and effect was well out of scope. As a result, we decided to select the most interesting effects from a gameplay perspective, and use the central eye as the conduit for all of Hagedorn’s abilities."

The tabletop Beholder's eye rays have a variety of powers – from paralyzing enemies to what's basically an insta-kill death beam – and from the trailer above it seems like we'll see a strong variety of these powers brought to bear in Dark Alliance. We also get a good look at the creature's lair, and while we may not see the truly wild lair actions (like a massive cosmic eye opening on a random wall to shoot lasers at players), the team is aiming to keep the feel of classic boss fights from both tabletop and video games.

"The arena is made up of a central platform and outer ring," says Neibert. "As the boss fight progresses, Hagedorn becomes increasingly enraged, and begins to lose control ... causing chunks of the outer ring to disintegrate. This puts more pressure on the player, as they have less space to maneuver, and increases the overall intensity of the fight."

I enjoyed what I played of Dark Alliance when I got to go hands-on with it a few weeks ago, and I'm curious to see how Tuque puts their unique stamp on other classic D&D monsters as well. For Neibert, while he's clearly passionate about all of Dark Alliance's 30+ monsters, he can't help but play favorites.

"I think Hagedorn is the most interesting boss in Dark Alliance, and I’m really proud of the talented team of character artists, programmers, animators, VFX artists, and sound designers, who helped bring the Dreamer to life."

For more on Dark Alliance, check out the last gameplay trailer or get a candid look behind the scenes in the studio's first dev diary.

 

[Gargaune]

"We looked to the Monster Manual for inspiration, and then gave it our own creative twist."

Yeah, a wee bit. The sort of twist you give an obstinate lid on a pickle jar.

"In the [tabletop] D&D lore, each eye stalk has its own magic ability," Neibert explains, "but due to technical limitations, giving each eye stalk an independent animation and effect was well out of scope."

I appreciate the candor, but that does shine an uncomfortable light on your development budget. Well, I suppose this won't be a AAA-priced release so you gotta cut the odd corner.

 

[Sacibengala]

"30+ monsters " Wow. I'm impressed

 

[rusty_shackleford]

their beholder looks dumb

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

At least give the IP to Capcom to make a better hack and slash.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

game looks based. racists will add negative tags to this post

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

their beholder looks dumb

Yes, compare for example the beholder Evil Eye from Dragon's Dogma (2012) and Gazer from Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (2013):

 

[nyjsu]

This looks exactly like all the other shit WotC has put out. D&D has really turned into fantasy Avengers rip-off.

 

[Fedora Master]

This is shit and once again has no business being in RPG Discussion.

 

[Infinitron]

Videos we missed:

 

[Fedora Master]

Nobody gives a shit. This doesn't even belong in this forum you retarded dune hopper.

 

[NJClaw]

Nobody gives a shit. This doesn't even belong in this forum you retarded dune hopper.

Hey, apparently it's an RPG:

Plus, there are FOUR playable characters, which means that this is THREE times more RPG than The Witcher!

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Vikings fashion ruins everything.

 

[Thonius]

Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame

 

[Fluent]

dudes...i haven't watched much on this game due to not wanting to see spoilers, but i peeped the wulfgar abilities video...this game looks wicked! i know, i know, it's an action oriented game, but if they add just the right amount of RPG elements, it could be a really cool romp through the D&D world. it brings to mind another good action based RPG, Lord of the Rings - War in the North. that game had really fun action combat but still had enough RPG elements to not be totally mindless. still in all, it will be cool to have an action based RPG or even action game to play around with, while I have tons of other, much deeper titles to balance it out. Gotta get in some head smashing, too, once in awhile.

 

[copebot]

Over the course of the prelaunch marketing it went from something that looked like sub-shovelware to something that looks like a competently put together 3P action game that will be worth at least $20 on sale. Unfortunately with these kinds of games that are just mediocre, they tend to have trouble maintaining a good multiplayer population. Something like Vermintide 2 stays populated for years, but games like this -- and like LOTR WoN -- just lose all their population nearly instantly and become crappy single player games.

 

[Pink Eye]

Why does Fluent talk like a queer who has transitioned towards the female gender?

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Why does Fluent talk like a queer who has transitioned towards the female gender?

Nigga you play monks.

 

[Tyranicon]

Videos we missed:

I have to say, that trailer with the generic arpg moveset with generic anime attack names is possibly the lamest thing I've seen all year.

 

[Chippy]

game looks based. racists will add negative tags to this post

their beholder looks dumb

Yes, compare for example the beholder Evil Eye from Dragon's Dogma (2012) and Gazer from Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (2013):

Is that a black beholder?.