Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II is a 2004 hack and slash action role-playing game for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Developed by Black Isle Studios, the game was published by Interplay Entertainment, and distributed by Vivendi Universal Games in North America and Avalon Interactive in Europe. It is the sequel to the 2001 game Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. The game is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of Dungeons & Dragons, and the gameplay is based on the rules of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, which were released in 2000. Dark Alliance II is a direct sequel to the original Dark Alliance game, with the story following five adventurers attempting to save Baldur's Gate from a growing evil, and ascertain the fate of the protagonists from the first game. Dark Alliance II was well-received on both platforms, although many critics felt it was not much of an advancement on the first game. A sequel was planned, but was cancelled early in development due to legal problems and the closure of Black Isle Studios after Interplay went bankrupt. The use of the Dark Alliance game engine led to a lawsuit filed by the engine's creators, Snowblind Studios, against publishers Interplay, which alleged the engine had been used in the game without Snowblind's permission. Gameplay Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II is a real-time hack and slash action role-playing game presented in a 3D perspective, with a rotatable isometric three-quarter top-down view. At the beginning of the game, character stats are preset, with the player able to choose from five race/class combinations; a human barbarian (Dorn Redbear), a drow monk (Vhaidra Uoswiir), a moon-elf necromancer (Ysuran Auondril), a dwarven rogue (Borador Goldhand) or a human cleric (Allessia Faithhammer). The player can customize their character's stats through gaining experience points from defeating enemies. Every time the character increases in level, points are awarded corresponding to that level; i.e. if a character increases to level twelve, the player will gain twelve experience points to spend on the character's spells and feats. For every four levels which the character increases, the player is given one ability point to spend on one of the six core attributes (strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, constitution, charisma). Each of the five characters have their own unique fighting style and their own specific set of spells and feats. Gameplay strategy is thus different for each character. Dorn is a Barbarian, and his