An old standard survives the test of time
Earlier in this decade, when the original Baldur's Gate, and Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn, came out on the PC, I enjoyed the game immensely. It was large in detail, long in gameplay, and fulfilling in its entirety. However, I susptected that porting a large PC game into a smaller, single disk experience for a console would be a hard act to follow. Black Isle Studios shattered by expectations, and brought rollplaying to the console with a bang!
The game is much shorter than the PC version of BG2, in terms of total time played (I completed Dark Alliance in about 15 hours, and yet played BG2 for more than 100 hours before completing that game). However, in those 15 hours, you are immersed in a world of sights and sounds that are unmatched by any other Dungeons and Dragons based game on the Xbox.
Combat is fast and frequent, and is the primary way in which to gain experience (of which you can also gain by completing quests). Experience, as is evident in any RPG, is necessary to increase your levels, your offensive skills, and your ability to stay alive. So, get used to swinging your sword and firing off spells, for that is the bulk of the time that you will spend playing the game. Enemies become progressively harder during gameplay, although that is expected in a game that is perfectly linear (of which I will talk about later). However, those ever increasing creatures include such D&D classics as Beholders, Dragons, and Iron Golems! The nice thing is, the game does a pretty good job of getting you prepared with its frequent (but not overbearing) loot "drops", and also does a good job with its "town portal" shopkeep feature (which allows you to head back to town at any particular time to sell off your collected loot and restock on potions and arrows). By the end of the First Act (there are 3 total), I had a few +2 weapons, some ability-augmenting jewelry pieces, and most of my armor pieces had magical properties.
As I hinted at before, play progresses perfectly linear. For example, you can't raid the Thieve's Guild until you kill the rats, because the barkeep doesn't want to give you the secret key until you prove your metal. You can't get into the forest until you kill the drow preistess, because her captive is the only one with a map of the forest. However, the game directs you cleanly from one area to the next, so it is convenient to know that you can't get "lost" in the game by wandering off into something completely different (ala Eldar Scrolls games). To some, that is a problem, but for others, the linearity makes for a clean, fast-paced game.
If anything, this game is more like an "action" game rather than a "roll playing game" but it gets the RPG moniker due to its Dungeons and Dragons license tie-in (as well as that old "gain XP to advance" trait). If you play, or are a fan, of Dungeons and Dragons games (be it the old Baldur's Gate PC standby, or the pencil and paper rollplaying game), you will enjoy this game. Black Isle Studios put out another gem with this product, and it is a proven fact that D&D games produced by these guys are a cut above all other RPG's on the market. A wonderful experience, and worth the money spent on a used copy ($7.99) from your local gaming store.