3. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
Developer: Snowblind Studios Sometimes a game comes along that so neatly fills a void in the gaming universe, that it almost seems to come straight from the gamer gods themselves . Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance was one of those games. In late 2001, Diablo II had been conquering the PC gaming world with its phenomenally addictive multiplayer gameplay, and console gamers were itching for a similar experience. Video game consoles were obviously a perfect platform for a game like Diablo II, where the game's local cooperative multiplayer features could really shine. Meanwhile, also over in PC Land, a couple of CRPG's known as Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II had revitalized the genre and were spawning a slew of fantastic new CRPG's like Planescape Torment, Icewind Dale, and the soon-to-be-released Neverwinter Nights. Whoever had the idea of combining these two distinct game styles for a co-op action RPG for the PlayStation 2 deserves a medal. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance took the addictive hack n' slash/loot n' level game mechanics of Diablo II, streamlined them for console interfaces, and set it in the classic D&D universe of the Forgotten Realms, the same world as its PC predecessors. While this had the potential to be a disaster, the end result was a surprisingly fantastic game. It was arguably the best looking PS2 game at the time of its release, with superb character animations, lighting and spell effects. The voice acting was top notch and the variety of enemies you'd do battle with always kept things fresh. The gameplay was satisfying and very fun to play with a friend. Even though the game may have been too short and a bit too easy (your character becomes extremely powerful by the end), it was still a very memorable ride that game console gamers that fix that they were looking for. And for the Baldur's Gate veterans who picked this game up, the incarnations of characters and locations from the PC games was quite the treat. Snowblind Studios, the developers of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, didn't stop here. They upped the ante a few years later with the superb Champions of Norrath, a similar, yet evolved, action RPG that took place in the EverQuest universe and allowed for online gameplay. It's sequel, Return to Arms, was even better. Snowblind Studios became a beloved developer in the PlayStation 2 community after this trio of titles, and expectations were high heading into the seventh generation of consoles. However, their debut game for the 360 and PS3, Lord of the Rings: War in the North, was widely considered a disappointment. Soon afterwards, Snowblind was disbanded and merged with some other studios under the WB Interactive flag. This is a real shame, as quality dungeon-crawling, co-op action RPG's have been scarce on the PS360, and it's unfortunate that Snowblind wasn't given another chance to rectify this. However, it's unlikely that Diablo III would be seeing the light of day on consoles later in 2013 if Snowblind hadn't paved the way for this type of game on the home console platform. For that, Snowblind, we salute you.