• Create your own unique hero, customize his or her look and abilities, and travel fro Faydwer to battle the growing army of orcs

• Play with up to three others through a multitap

• Import other characters into the game, then play solo any time from any location

• More than 100 hours of gameplay per character -- unlimited battles, deadly missions and unbeatable character customization

• Go online & join an existing game, and host your own private games

First, you choose your character. There are barbarian warriors, wood elf rangers, high elf clerics, erudite wizards and dark elf shadow knights. We seem a bit elf happy here, with none of the other interesting races represented. You do get to choose a male or female of each, but the females all look like Playboy models rather than normal human beings (or elven beings for that matter).

You get a tiny bit of customization - hair style, hair/skin color. A few point modifications to your stats and you're set. A quest to fight orcs, and you're all set!

The game is extremely Diablo-like. Your inventory lets you arrange your items tetris-like in a grid, and there is almost infinite variety in the combinations of weapons and armor available. This on one hand is good, but on the other hand, do you really need 80 different types of boots to choose amongst?

The graphics are VERY sweet, with whirling mists, swinging lamps on ropes, and well done body movements. This isn't a splinter-cell reality look, it's more like a 'living cartoon'. There are shadows and glows from lights, the flames flicker quite realistically. Even the menu scenes are very nicely done and get you in the mood.

The sounds are reasonably good, from the clicks of swords to the haunting music in the background. As in all games you can get tired of certain phrases or songs rather quickly, but that's what the mute button is for.

Gameplay itself is very much like other RPGs out on the market. You run around the randomly generated map slashing at everything. Creatures die. You gain experience points and push for the next level up to give yourself more stats. Depending on your character type, you can move along different skill trees to become more advanced at tasks you want to do. Note that unlike other games, if you click on something you're stuck with it. So think carefully before you click.

As enjoyable as this is, there are a few flaws to at least watch out for. One, the random maps are fun, but the randomly positioned save points are either really good or REALLY awful. If they were going to do a random map, they should have just let us save at any time.

Most RPGs let archers have unlimited arrows - but here you have to buy them. Then you're stuck running back for more all the time. Especially for a newbie archer, this really means you don't arch much at all. Not fun.

The bad guys seem to lurk by the spawn points, so if you die, you often come back to life only to watch in anger as your character is slain on the spot. This falls into the Not Fun category.

Also, the camera could use a fair amount of work. There are many times when you're caught fighting and can't see at all what you're doing.

Still, these are just things to keep in mind - the game in general is gorgeous to look at and great fun to play. Because it's random, and because it plays well in multiplayer (both in person and on PS2 Online), this is where it really shines. Much like Diablo was AMAZINGLY fun in an online setting, the Norrath online can keep you having fun for weeks and weeks, if not months and months.

Highly recommended for the RPG fan who wants to play with friends!

30 of 30 found the following review helpful:


Very good  Jan 16, 2005 By Charles Evans "Call me Kevin"
Champions of Norrath is one of the very few video games that I actually enjoy playing AFTER I have already beaten it. The game play is fun and challenging - definitely worth purchasing.

The story line is very very confusing, and too be honest I have no idea what the "Story" actually was. However, to me, this is a pretty minor point. If I want a great story I will watch a movie... I just want a fun video game

Here are some of my highlights-
- Plenty of save points
- Lots of interesting weapons and weapons (all of which are upgradeable)
- The graphics are good enough that you never distracted.
- Parts of the game are very challenging
- Pretty good length - at least 20-25 hours.

Cons-
- The camera angles can be a bit tough to get quite right
- The story line really doesn't make any sense.
- Certain magical powers (like holy hammer) simplify the game considerably.

As a whole - I give the game a five full stars and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys RPSs.


14 of 14 found the following review helpful:


Hours of hack-n-slash fun!  Feb 25, 2004
I played this game with a couple of friends and we kept on for hours, never bored. The graphics are extremely attractive (we'd expect nothing less right?). The characters are very customizable as are the weapons and armor (using special items you can find).

With more than two players you lose camera control, but that is really the only negative thing we encountered with the game.

If you dig hack-n-slash games then I can highly recommend this title.

8 of 8 found the following review helpful:


Champions competition with great fun  Sep 28, 2004 By Tso Haven Hei Wan "Havenough Dupont Randall-Bassols"
Champions of Norrath is a standard hack'n slash action RPG similar to the Baulder's Gate series. Nonetheless, the fun that it brings to the player is far ahead of Baulder's Gate.

Basically Champions is created with the idea of being a fun multiplayer game. It is a great game to play with when you have up to four players. The single player mode is not bad for you would be able to get the standard satisfaction from an action RPG. You still level up and solve very basic puzzles but when being ambushed by enemies, you would regret coming on to the adventure alone. Some of the boss fights are tremendously difficult when you are in the single player mode. Luckily you could save and reload your adventure at any point to go through the level again and again for a speedy level up. That could help you a bit at the beginning of the adventure.

In terms of battle system, it is basic hack'n slash with the support of a quick spell book menu where you assign your different spells to your convenience. However, since all the other buttons on the controller are already occupied, you would only be able to assing two quick spell or ability at one time. So in case things go bad in a battle, that means your strategy is not working out. Once the quick spell book is full you have to change it from the menu screen. Certain abilities and spell consumes mana, and mana is the only thing that you can use to cast spell, so for magic users, carrying a lot of mana is a must, but this at the same time reduce your load capacity, which in return limits your the number of items that you can carry and sell (for all the hard earning gold). So some strategy is needed if you want to go through the battles and adventure more easily. Also replenishing life by usuing potion takes time too. So if you try to heal in the middle of an ambush, there would be a good chance that you die during the healing.

Different classes - Dark Elf, High Elf Cleric, Wood Elf Ranger, Babarian and Wizards - have their own abilities and spells that you could upgrade throughout your hard earned level up experience. Further, you need to open up certain abilities or reach certain levels before you could open up other abilities or spells in the line. So you have to really plan what you want so that you won't be wasting the ability points that you earned through the levelling up. The maximum level of each ability and spell is 20 and there are quite a number of them for you to master, which keeps the game replayabel in this aspect. Also at the beginning of the game, you can assign a basic 20 upgrade points for your character to customise the style and ability that you want to start the game off with. You can also customise the look of your character and every time you assign or equip new items to the character, it will be shown in the menu screen, which adds to the fun as some of the equipment make them look very silly indeed. :)

You can also assign gems and stones to your weapon and armours to increase certain stats or add certain status effects to your attack. Nonetheless, gems are hard to find and in case you are in a four player game, that could be one of the things to compete for and start arguments. However, not all the gems are useful for they may benefit more to certain classes but this is also the interesting part as throughout the course of the game you could even change a magic user into a striker.

The levels are well design and each area have their own type of enemies. The enemies once got killed will lie on the ground so you know that you have visited this area before. That is something really good as the whole environment in a level looks a like, it is a good indication of showing that you have been here. Also the dungeons are randomly generated, so every time you revisit a place it could be different, which adds the replay value of the game. In terms of puzzles, there aren't a lot and most of them you know what to do through the storyline. It is just that some of the puzzles and missions could be pretty annoying if you just fast forward the conversation when you play it for the first time.

Storywise, the story is quite basic with some twist and turns but the fun you gain from the game is from the customisation and gameplay, which makes the story less important which could be a down side in a way that this is after all a RPG. You couldn't not expect an epic story like the Final Fantasy or Tales of Symphonia, but it offers a different type of enjoyment. Also the way the character communicates with you when his/her load capacity is full is very funny too.

For gamers, this is a definite good choice as a multiplayer RPG and it is great fun going alongside with your commrades to kill orcs and zombies. Nonetheless, there are quite a number of bugs in the game, including frame rate and also the most annoying freezing when you are in 4 player mode (usually happens when you try to get into your inventory. So save before opening inventory when you are in 4 player mode). Once froze you have to restart and all the hard work are gone. Hopefully Ubisoft will pay attention to this in the sequel release. Othe than that it is one of the more promising multiplayer RPG in the market.

8 of 8 found the following review helpful:


Best RPG so far in history!  Apr 04, 2004
This new Everquest game puts the 'G' in RPG! Awesome attacks and skills that can be improved! This game never gets boring with the ability to play online and beat the game again on a harder setting! Without the network adaptor i would probably give this game 4.5 stars because playing online allows you to get help from friends if you are stuck at a certain boss or area. This game is great for anyone who loves LOTR type games, all ages too because the blood feature can be turned off (great feature for people with young children who could also enjoy this game).

Lets re-cap with the ratings here:

Overall 10/10
Graphics 9/10 - not the best, but you can zoom in and out!
Sound 8.5/10 - needs a bit more variety.
Controls 10/10 - SOOOO simple and easy to remember!
Replay Factor 9/10 - you can replay the game on a harder setting but everything is still the same, except harder (duh, lol).

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