Champions of Norrath Review
Played on:
PS2
We've seen plenty of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance clones recently. Interplay, publisher of the original, has pushed out a great sequel and a sub-par adaptation in the Fallout universe. Atari released the very fun Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes, and now Sony is getting in on the action with Champions of Norrath: Realms of Everquest. It's based on the world of their hit MMORPG, Everquest, although you'll find little in common between this one and the five-year-old online original.
Sony didn't just hire anyone to make CoN, though. They commissioned Snowblind Studios, the developer of the original BG:DA, to make this one. It seems that Snowblind has had their own ideas of where to take this genre that other developers have been reluctant to do. This game is more complex than ever, and it includes four-player action, online play, and even voice chat support when online - if you have a USB headset. On top of all this, there are five characters to try out (as well as both genders for each one), tons of gameplay, and a huge range of items that can be had.
For these types of games, I find I prefer the PS2 controller - the four trigger buttons allow me easier access to potions than having me reach down for the white or black button on the Xbox gamepad. If you've played any of these games before, most of the controls will be familiar. Gone, though, is the ability to jump; instead, that button is a second hotkey for one of your character's special abilities.
BG:DA2 introduced a nice system to allow you access to several abilities easily, and while Snowblind seems to be the leader in innovation for these games, they fell a bit behind here. The directional pad allows you to choose which of your abilities gets assigned to the circle or triangle buttons, but you can only have two abilities assigned at any one time. Actually assigning these abilities is easier, but it's just inconvenient enough to not be worth doing in the middle of a fight. Basically, you're stuck with having only two abilities to pick from at once unless you just want to juggle them quickly.
The venerable Dark Alliance engine gets another go in Champions of Norrath, and Snowblind has done an admirable job making a visually unique game while working with similar special effects and capabilities. While the frame rate would dip and return pretty often, the graphics are top notch - especially considering this is all on the aging PS2 platform.
The playable characters get some new customizations I didn't expect in a game like this; one can pick from various skin tones or tattoo patterns, hair styles and colors, and facial hair for the males. Much of the armor also looks great - even the junk you pick up near the beginning of the game is pretty cool. Overall, the player characters look excellent, and their animations are top notch.
Some of the monsters will be familiar to those who have played Everquest, but most of them are of your standard RPG fare - spiders, orcs, goblins, and that's just to start. You can zoom the camera in to check out the action, and the monsters look pretty good even like this; I'm impressed. Much the same, the environments you traverse include your usual dungeons, forests, and so many other standard RPG areas, but their presentation is excellent.
If you've gotten sick of Dark Alliance-style games, I'll say right now that this one probably won't make you change your mind. It's an evolution of sorts, and while there are some compelling features like internet play and totally randomized items, the core gameplay is pure hack and slash.
You'll start out in the Wood Elf city of Kelethin, defending it from invading orcs and goblins. You'll traverse some places that will be familiar to Everquest players, but they'll probably only recognize the name. Snowblind has totally reworked many aspects of Norrath to their purposes, so don't expect a nostalgic romp through the old EQ zones.
There are a few attempts at comedy in Champions of Norrath, but as usual, the voice actors kill most of that with disappointing delivery. It's just plain hard to be funny with dialogue in a video game, although I guess I can applaud Snowblind for at least making an effort to be cheesy and funny rather than just plan cheesy.
The best feature in my mind here has got to be the complicated item system; these games are really all derivative of Diablo 2, but none of them have managed to match the complexity of Blizzard's masterpiece action/RPG. Champions takes us one step closer to that, though, by including a ton of item combinations as well as unique items. On top of this, shops will even sell a random selection of items that matches your character's level. One of my biggest pet peeves in the Dark Alliance games has been addressed, but it's taken quite a few games for it.
The included support for both online play and four-player action on the same PS2 is great. The four-player stuff sure is fun, but it requires that all the players not just run around randomly through the game's narrow tunnels. In the end, this isn't really a "party game" like some of the best GameCube titles out there - the reason is simply that one person can hold up everyone else and people get nowhere fast. It basically just doesn't move fast enough for a group of four people playing at once; I can't really blame Snowblind for this, though, as people asked for this feature and they're getting it.
Online play adds a new dimension to the action/RPG genre, although one will find out quickly that it's the exact same game in a slightly different way. The best application I can see for this is to make private games with people you already know; joining in with random people and doing the same stuff you can do in single player just didn't do it for me. Again, this is one of those things that people asked for, and they're finally getting it. It remains to be seen how many people will be playing Champions online after the first week or two.
BG:DA2 introduced an item upgrade system that allowed you to imbue any item with gemstones. While the system was simplified to a great extent, it worked very nicely, and Champions of Norrath has its own system to answer Interplay. This one is even more simplistic, but the large range of item upgrades you can get your hands on helps quite a bit. In the end, I would have liked a more complicated way of doing this and customizing things even more, but I'll take this and be happy.
There are a few technical issues I found with the game. I experienced a couple of hard lockups, and it seems that this is not an issue isolated to just my PS2. The game also includes lots of voice acting, but it can't get the speech started up fast enough; this leads to an almost ten-second delay before the voice starts up for any conversation. It even throws off the lip synching done by the character models - I have to wonder how they managed to let this one through testing, as it did this for just about every conversation in the game for me.
With about 20 to 25 hours of action your first time through, another two difficulty levels on top of that, four-player action, and online play, Champions of Norrath offers plenty of replay for those that want to stick with it. The repetitive combat and somewhat goofy plot might bore you after a while, but you can always pick this game up and mindlessly plow through some monsters for an hour or two.
Sony and Snowblind have put plenty of effort into Champions of Norrath's sound, as the ambient and combat effects are superb. The voice acting is all pretty middle-of-the-road; none of it was really remarkable, but none of it made me cringe, either.
Music is a rare thing in CoN, and it sort of cuts in and out abruptly. On top of this, there aren't very many tracks, and it just seems like the ambient sounds are much better anyway. It wasn't long before I turned the music all the way down, which is rare for me to do with a console game.
Champions of Norrath is Snowblind's evolution of the sub-genre they started with Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. Much-demanded features like online play and four-player action give this one some lasting value, and the game's complex item system means you will always be checking the shops for the next great weapon. This game has little to do with Everquest, but it has everything to do with simple hack and slash action and plenty of features to keep you coming back.
