When a game comes out and garners quite a bit of success obviously there is quite a bit of pressure for the sequel to do just as well, if not better, than the original. Dealing with this would be hard enough for a development team who was responsible for the original title. Now imagine if a new studio was brought in and had to live up to heavy expectations having not had the experience of making the first game in the first place. Such was the case for Black Isle as the Dark Alliance torch was passed to them from Snowblind Studios. Happily, Dark Alliance II proves to be a very solid title, if looking a little dated, keeping the engaging action RPG elements of the first game intact while expanding upon its predecessor with new characters and a handy item creation system.