Getting into character
Readers love Drizzt not just for his bravely or his willingness to risk his life and soul for his friends. They enjoy his introspection. Every book has interludes in which Drizzt ponders his place in existence, the events around him, and the nature of good and evil. How he battles against The Hunter, the part of himself that focuses on pure survival with savage efficiency … especially in the years after he first arrives in Icewind Dale and discovers some people, such as his beloved friends, can look beyond his heritage. Will that introspection be something Tuque is looking to bring to Dark Alliance?
“His inner drama always tries to find a way out. He keeps that at bay. Those kinds of inner struggles are absolutely best captured in R.A.’s books,” Hattem said. “There are certain advantages and disadvantages of each medium, and there’s nothing like a book to be able to go inside the head of a character like that. So we wouldn’t be doing it justice if we tried to bring that experience to the game, because we’d just fall short.”
But this doesn’t mean that Tuque isn’t finding some way to bring out the characters’, well, character beyond their iconic weapons and fighting styles.
“There a lot of ways where the personality for Drizzt and the Companions is going to come through. If you play with your friends, and you have more than one character playing in the game, they are constantly talking to each other, expressing how they feel about the events that are going on in the game. And that’s a way for us to get insight into their personality.”
Which fits with the characters in the books. They often banter as they’re taking on challenges and fighting foes.
Why Icewind Dale
The Icewind Dale trilogy wraps up in 1356 Dale Reckoning (the calendar of the Forgotten Realms), but as of this falls’
Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus campaign, the official Realms timeline is in 1494 DR. Dark Alliance is an original story taking place after
The Crystal Shard, as the group is still in Icewind Dale.
Icewind Dale is a cold, dangerous land. It’s in the far northern reaches of Faerûn. It’s a land of imposing mountains, blistering gales, and snow and glaciers. Many of the hardy folk who live there are clustered in Ten Towns, a group of small burgs. Barbarian tribes also roam the frozen landscape, and dwarves live under Kelvin’s Cairn, supplying Ten Towns with metal goods and weapons.
And it’s also the home to monsters. White dragons, goblinoids, frost giants, and ogres are just some of the malevolent threats in Icewind Dale. And plenty of beasts can ruin your day as well.
“We are definitely showcasing Drizzt and his friends, and the time frame takes place, quite a few years before the current events happening in the books right now, so we’re going back to a time some,” Tuque Games head and founder Jeff Hattem in a video interview. “A little bit after the events of
The Crystal Shard.”
In that story, a
wizard finds the evil artifact
Crenshinibon, a crystal shard with incredible powers and malevolence. He uses it to try to conquer Icewind Dale, controlling the minds of goblinoids, giants, and more and recruiting the
powerful balor demon Ertu as his general.
It’s curious why Tuque and Wizards picked Icewind Dale for the setting of this action-RPG. In Salvatore’s latest novel,
Boundless, Drizzt found himself in a desperate flight against demons and abyssal constructs as his friends once again faced danger at the hands of those seeking power and the death of the renegade drow to appease the evil god Lloth.
Being set so far in the past, I wondered if this signified Wizards of the Coast’s newfound interest in telling stories set in any period of the Forgotten Realms, not just the current timeline.
“Dark Alliance is intended to appeal to existing
D&D fans who already know and love Drizzt and the companions, but it’s also meant to attract new
D&D fans through a different platform and style of gameplay. It made more sense to start earlier in the Legend of Drizzt as an entry point for the newer fans,” said Nathan Steward, the vice president for
Dungeons & Dragons for Wizards of the Coast, over email. “For people who know and love R.A. Salvatore’s work, it gives a new adventure for the companions set in between his novels.
“As for whether or not Wizards is open to telling stories outside the current Realms timeline, we want to work with the most passionate developers on amazing
D&D stories and if expanding that beyond the current TRPG makes sense for the fans, we will gladly craft that adventure.”
A couple of years ago, Stewart told me he would love to see a
D&D open-world RPG. Considering that we’re now seeing Wizards forger ahead with Baldur’s Gate III and this action-RPG revisiting an older timeline, I wondered if this openness was a step in that direction.
“We have a long-term vision for
Dungeons & Dragons and a big part of that future is digital gaming and entertainment. This game, the acquisition of Tuque and the game development, is a major investment in the future of
D&D, and everything we are doing is with purpose and a passion for the brand,” he said. “So, while I can’t speak to this being a stepping stone or a test, I will say that Jeff and his team in Montreal are a very talented group of game developers and they are now part of the
D&D and Wizards family. I don’t see us taking any steps backward, and this game is a huge step forward … just imagine what we can create together in the future.
“The reasons for me are quite straight-forward, The reasons for me are quite straightforward, because we wanted to make a really visceral, harsh game that had an environment, a setting, that is … some of most dangerous places in all of the Realms are in Icewind Dale, and for me, that was the setting that I really like.
“I grew up reading R.A. Salvatore’s books with Drizzt Do’Urden, and a lot of the earlier books took place around Icewind Dale, and it’s just very fertile for my imagination.”
Icewind Dale may also be a familiar setting to
D&D video game players. The Icewind Dale isometric RPGs have a good reputation, and Beamdog’s Enhanced version of the first is now on just about every platform out there. It’s also an adventuring zone in the MMO Neverwinter.
Someone’s missing
So far, we’ve talked about all the Companions of the Hall except one —
Regis, the halfling rogue.
“Regis is not there,” Hattem said. “He’s definitely part of the group, but he’s not the character that’s the most athletic or … how can I say — he’s not the guy who’s going to stick his neck out in the middle of things. He usually comes in at opportune times, so he’s not there right now.”
I asked if he would appear as a merchant nonplayer character, someone the Companions sell loot to.
“You know, that could be a good idea for him, where he can go,” Hattem said. “I’m not ready to commit to where he takes place in the game or not. Still, it’s still up for debate whether he’s going to be there.”
‘Putting action back in action-RPG’
A straight translation of the turn-based 5th Edition
D&D system wouldn’t be practical for an action-RPG, so like the old Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance games, this affair will be an adaptation of the rules. “It’s our own system that we’ve built,” Hattem said, noting Tuque is trying to be faithful of
D&D and Salvatore’s characters while at the same time noting “we need to be true to the experience that we’re making, which is a high-octane, dangerous, action game. I think our game stands in a unique place and hits all those checkmarks.”
“From a progression standpoint, we’re putting a lot of emphasis on the momentum of an action.” I brought up if progression would resemble either Diablo II or Diablo III, and Hattem responded that “those games put more emphasis on your stats and your progression in terms of the way you’re built out from a stat standpoint. We’re putting as much emphasis as on the moment-to-moment action. We’re asking players to pay attention to the action aspects of the game. I’d say we’re putting action back in action-RPG.”
This answered confused me. I asked if you’d have abilities such as Wulfgar throwing his warhammer in a whirlwind-like attack; after all, he’s done this countless times in the novels. “That is exactly one of the abilities that Wulfgar has,” he said, noting that while it may be generic to say so, each character has their own set of abilities and role. “Wulfgar is a basher. He’s the guy that does a lot of crowd-control, smashes monsters. Drizzt is more dexterous, and it’s a higher skill cap to play Drizzt to the level in which he can be effective. But he is devastating, quick and nasty, pokey with this two scimitars.”
As you build your characters, you unlock new combat moves and can upgrade them. They also have what Hattem calls “kits” that are based around their skills. Their scope is more limited; they’re “special abilities that you use contextually do deal with challenges thrown at you.” And the final part of progression is in the choice of the weapons you wield.
The other way Tuque wants to bring out the action is by removing the top-downish isometric perspective and using a third-person presentation instead. “I want to make people be a part of Icewind Dale and really witness first-hand how harsh the world is, how bad-ass the monsters are, and it’s not an easy place to survive,” Hattem said.
Monstrous menagerie
Above: Dark Alliance pits Drizzt Do’Urden and friends against the horrors of Icewind Dale.
Image Credit: Tuque Games
Since this takes place after
The Crystal Shard, I was curious if Crenshinibon would factor into Dark Alliance, like it was still lingering around.
“I won’t get into that part today because that that relates more to the narrative aspects of the game. And it’s a really good, astute, precise question that I wouldn’t want to reveal at this point because I don’t want to spoil anything for people,” he said.
Likewise, since he’s still Drizzt’s mortal enemy at this point, I asked if
Artemis Entreri would show up. “Same answer,” he said. Ditto for Errtu the Balor, one of Drizzt’s deadliest foes at this time in the drow’s history.
As for the monsters, Hattem wouldn’t get into specifics, saying that they’d have their own areas as they showcase them. “We’re treating the monsters as importantly as the companions. We get a glimpse at more than just combat, more than just them bashing heroes. We see them in a way as ‘How do goblins get their power from
Maglubiyet [their god]? How do the gnolls get their power from
Yeenoghu [a demon lord]? We’re going a bit more into the lore of these monsters. I think that’s interesting.”
He wouldn’t confirm if my favorite monster from the icy reaches of Faerûn,
the remorhaz, would be in Dark Alliance (though with its powerful jaws, huge size, and scorching back, it feels like a fitting challenge for the heroes in this game).
Friends until the end
Drizzt Do’Urden and his allies have survived dragons, drow, demons, and vengeful gods through the years. And Tuque is going to showcase their fighting spirit in Dark Alliance. But the studio also wants to show how important the friendships, the bonds, between these brilliant warriors are.
“Drizzt wouldn’t have survived any of this if it weren’t for his friends and his allies. One of the main themes I got out of the books was that, no matter how awesome you are, if you can get together with other people who share the same bonds and value system, there’s nothing that can stop you.”
Not even Lloth.
