The recently released Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance hasn’t been met with much fanfare. The general consensus is that it launched as a mediocre dungeon crawler with severe bugs and lackluster combat. So, a new patch has just been put out for the game that’s intended to fix a few of the common issues players has had.
The only problem is that no one can figure out exactly what this patch is supposed to have fixed. The notes for patch v1.16 show a list of improvements, but it doesn’t explain what the patch has done leaving many players wondering if it’s done anything at all.
According to the patch notes, this update is supposed to include improvements to the user interface, multiplayer match-making system, camera, and a few other areas where Dark Alliance is lacking. Balance changes have been made and a few bugs have been fixed such as allowing voice chat to remain enabled when returning to the game’s hub area in Kelvin’s Cairn.
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While that all sounds nice, the notes don’t go into detail about precisely what has been patched. It just declares that there have been balance changes and improvements to the UI without saying what they are. This has left many players feeling confused and underwhelmed by the patch. Especially since it also fails to include any of the features that developer Tuque Games have promised to add to the game such as cross-play.
That’s a shame since Dark Alliance desperately needs some major work if it has any hope of retaining its meager audience. The game launched to a tepid response with several reviews giving it less than impressive scores (including one from our own Eric Switzer.) It’s a fairly disappointing result since was supposed to be the spiritual successor to the classic Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance series, but it’s not living up to those lofty expectations. The fact that Tuque Games is patching the game at all is a good sign, but it needs to be better about communicating how they’re improving the game. Otherwise, they risk alienating the player base that is still willing to give Dark Alliance a chance.
Thankfully, Dark Alliance is available on Xbox Game Pass, so if you still have an interest in checking the game out you can do so without dropping any serious cash on it. Hopefully, future patches will be able to enhance its gameplay and fix its bugs so we can finally get a Dark Alliance title worthy of our time.
Source: Eurogamer
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