An interesting genre in gaming, perhaps because of its staggering in-genre variety, is the RPG. Some come as beat-em-ups with NPC interaction; others as turn-based systems; yet others take tabletop systems, and attempt to turn them into real-time systems. Very rarely does one encompass the fun of free-flowing pencil and paper roleplaying, but fans of the Ultima series, the Final Fantasy series, and any number of Dungeons & Dragons licenses have kept the genre going since the early days of computer gaming and Zork.

For most of the time, gamers have alternately either praised underwhelming or overly time-consuming titles (Treasure of Tarmin on the old Intellivision, the Pool of Radiance series, the Elder Scrolls games, or the Final Fantasy series) as being the epitome of roleplaying games. To a point, they're right - but the first Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (and also Microsoft's title Dungeon Siege and the ancillary Interplay title Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes) showed gamers another way, a game that could incorporate a certain amount of mission-based roleplay while still giving plenty of hack-and-slash action.

Enter Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2, the next addition to this series in the D&D setting of Forgotten Realms. New to the series is a set of five possible adventurers, all ripped from the pages of Wizard of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 (d20) system - a barbarian, a monk, a necromancer, a rogue, and a cleric. New too is full d20 system compatibility, including usable in-game "Feats" that are highly impressive. Overall, it's a great package and worthwhile title.