Review: "Champions: Return to Arms" (PS2) [updated]

Information

Title

Champions: Return to Arms

Published by

Sony Online Entertainment

Developed by

Snowblind Studios

Platform

Playstation 2

Rating

T for Blood & Gore and Violence

Genre

RPG » Hack & Slash

Plot

Picks up shortly after the end of "Champions of Norrath" with a quest to gather the shards of Innoruuk for good or ill.

High Point

Being able to import your character from "Champioins of Norrath"

Low Point

Mostly the same game-play as any other hack-and-slash RPG.

Context

I am a big fan of the hack-and-slash RPG genre of games and quite enjoyed the first game in this series.

Scores

Story — Adequate (3/10)

The story picks up a while after the events of the first "Champions of Norrath" and you are again enlisted to combat the evil, but this time you also have the option of joining the evil (I have not yet played through this side of the game). The story itself is good enough, but can be ignored without any detriment to the game.

Originality — Quirky (4/10)

As a sequel and a hack-and-slash, I didn't expect much originality. Where it does get original is in the story and settings, though some settings are repeats from the last game. Also new to this game are the challenge levels, once you beat a level you can try for the challenge. If you get all the challenge medals, then you gain access to a powerful weapon (or so I'm promised, I did not achieve all the medals). They also introduced two new character classes, but as I imported my character from the first game, I had no use for them.

Graphics — Standard (5/10)

THe graphics are smooth, though there are occasionally points where you can see the screen build assembled (only right after a load). The view is fairly constrained, so you can't see too much detail on the characters, but what you do see is good. I love that the armor looks different for each character class (even the same piece of armor).

Production — Excellant (8/10)

the game fits together very nicely, the artwork is superb and the voices all fit the characters.

Difficulty — Varying (6/10)

I played through on the easy setting with my character from the first game which means the game started out terribly easy. As I progressed through the game, it got harder and harder (perhaps due a bit to my tendency to only wield loot from ikilling monsters rather than actually buying it). On the other hand, I started playing through again (on the 'evil" path) on the next highest setting and it got very hard pretty quickly. My brother and his girlfriend are playing on that setting and find it a bit easier as they've found some AI bugs to exploit in two-player co-op play which I did not have at my disposal in single-player.

Violence — Heavy (8/10)

You're whole purpose for being is to kill things, and lots of them. There is a bit of gore, but not to the extremes that some games go to.

Overall — Fun (8/10)

I thoroughly enjoyed playing the game even with it's flaws. If you liked "Champions of Norrath" you'll like "Champios: Return to Arms". I hope they keep this series going for a while, especially with the character import, that allows you to really develop your character.