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> Results: Champions: Return To Arms
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Snowblind Studios made a big name for themselves when they released Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance for the PS2. They broke new ground in action role-playing games on consoles with a fast playing game that had superb graphics and two-player cooperative gameplay. It was no surprise that Sony Online brought the developer in to perform the same magic for their Everquest fantasy setting. The result was a good action-RPG entitled Champions of Norrath that included online game options. Champions: Return to Arms is Snowblind's sequel to the original with some minor additions and improvements. It's not exactly groundbreaking but is worthy of its fine pedigree.
You control a single character created with a variety of abilities that you can then improve as you gain levels of power. As characters gain in levels, each character class can be customized with spells and new abilities depending on their specializations. Combat consists of real-time pressing of buttons to cast spells, attack with weaponry, strafe, or block. Despite a wide variety of actions available, the controls are easy to master. Up to four players can play cooperatively using a multitap or players can join up online where USB headphone support is also provided. The game is designed to be easy to play rather than frustrating, with features like gate scrolls that allow characters to instantly warp back to town to refresh themselves before warping right back to their previous location.  Characters gain levels as the game progresses, reaching the low 20s by the end. Since the game provides three levels of difficulty, characters can be run through the game a second or third time on harder levels for the opportunity to gain more loot and experience. It takes approximately three plays through the game to max out a single character's skills and abilities. The graphics are only mildly improved over previous titles, but this is not a problem since the entire series maintains high standards for both graphics and effects. Thankfully the sound is improved and common voiceover glitches from the original no longer occur. No character is complete without toys to play with and the game generates random magical weapons and armor of varying degrees of rarity as you explore. Thus, many magic items are truly unique to your character and game. In the previous title, it was often difficult to find weapons or armor of an appropriate level as these goods were often quite a few levels weaker than your character. Fortunately, the effective level of found weapons and armor are slightly more in tune with character levels in this game. As before, players can customize their weapons and armor using gemstones and other relics found on their journeys. Armor and weapons have a limited number of slots that can be permanently filled with modifiers making the randomly generated magic items even more unique. The largest change is the storyline. Rather than an ongoing, linear plot, Return to Arms focuses on a series of only slightly connected challenges. Players can further the story or hop into and play through any previously conquered level at any time. Not all the levels are completely linear, as some levels provide a chance to explore small side quests as a reward for excellent performance. The more straightforward linked level design wins great praise from those who want to play the game as a glorified hack-and-slash Gauntlet-style game. This was a good decision because it makes better use of the multiplayer features. A player with a more experienced character can easily hop back to a slightly easier level if a friend comes over and wants to play through a couple levels with her newly-created Iksar Shaman. There is still a very light overarching story, but it doesn't get in the way of the action. Players who demand a deep storyline will be disappointed, but the series isn't geared to that audience. As players complete a level, they unlock a special combat or puzzle oriented area. By solving the puzzle or completing the combat, characters are rewarded with additional skill points, and entry into a special bonus level. It could be an extra dungeon to explore, or perhaps an area where players can interact with special creatures in a fun setting.  Characters made in Champions of Norrath can be imported directly into this game, although many experienced players will want to try out the two new character classes. The lizard-like Iksar Shaman is a magic-using combat class using poison and other spells to help his combat abilities. The cat-like Vah Shir Berserker specializes in close combat and throwing weapons. If you're familiar with the series, you will feel right at home and welcome all the minor changes as improvements. If you enjoy a little fantasy action combat and don't demand a deep plot, you deserve to check this game out because Snowblind Studios has developed an excellent action role playing game engine. Champions: Return To Arms is recommended strongly to any action-RPG fan or fan of multiplayer games. It's good enough that everyone else should give it, or its predecessor, a rental to check it out. 
This is fantasy hack and slash, with quite a bit of killing of evil monsters, undead, and other beasts. It is fantasy violence but the blood and gore defaults to the off position. While the basic concept of the game is fairly violent, the implementation is not very drastic keeping it well within its given T-Teen rating. Unfortunately, many of the female characters are a bit over-endowed and don't always wear what might be considered proper attire for combat. The plotline itself offers characters two options, to serve the god(s) of evil or to help the god(s) of good in battling the evil gods. No matter which path you choose, the good and evil quests are almost equivalent and even the evil quests are not disturbing. Some might find the mythological backdrop of battling gods and subsequent conflicts between demons and other beings to be disturbing, but it primarily lies in the very thin overarching plotline and can be easily skipped. Overall, the game's rating is right on, but it is simple enough that younger kids could play it in a supervised setting.
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