Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance review

Gut goblins galore in this lavish action RPG set in the frosty realm of Icewind Dale.
Dark Alliance is Dungeons & Dragons without the dice rolls. It's an intense, combat-focused action RPG where you slay monsters, collect loot, and fight alongside a party of powerful heroes—but without the usual trappings of a traditional RPG.

[IanTH]

"It's an intense, combat-focused action RPG [...] without the usual trappings of a traditional RPG. There are no walls of dialogue or deep, lengthy quests to be found here. Just a lot of goblins and other foul beasts to kill."

So wait...what even makes this an RPG then? Sounds like the definition is getting used rather loosely here. Guess they're too afraid of scaring away the RPG audience. I mean, I'm sure most wouldn't expect a property synonymous with nearly every facet of a deep RPG to end up being a general action game.

[CYALTR]

Yea, looks more like a dungeon crawler. Hack and slash, looter game. I think the term RPG has different meanings to different people. I tend to agree with you though, "deep dialogue, and lengthy quests" are the definition of RPG for me.

[IanTH]

Yeah, looking at the disagrees, I guess more people have a different definition of RPG than I thought lol. I played the tutorial and one level after it unlocked at 1am (had it pre-installed thanks to PC Game Pass). Very early goings, to be fair, but it feels kind of like mobile hack and slash games. It is very linear, it has little trinkets to pick up out in the open and at the end of barely hidden paths, the way items drop from enemies and chests...

I guess you could say it has some RPG systems - it has loot and it has skills - but so many games use those mechanics these days, they don't exactly typify just RPGs these days. I'll play a bit more, especially since my friend picked it up on Steam, but it definitely doesn't feel like an RPG from my initial hands on. And glad you said something so I know I'm not the only one lol.