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Champions: Return to Arms Review - PS2

Hack 'n' slash games have only recently proved worthy of bearing a genre of their own. Spawning the genre on the PlayStation 2, not to mention a plethora of fans of such games, was most notably Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers soon followed, as did Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 and subsequently The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, the two series silently competing with one another. Those who brought us the Dark Alliance series, developer Snowblind Studios, at one point recently slipped in another addition to the genre based upon the famous Everquest entitled Champions of Norrath. While it wasn't well recognised, those left wanting more after the developer's previous series ripped into it, enjoyed it and have been eagerly awaiting Champions: Return to Arms.

Gameplay

I strongly believe that it's safe to say that Champions: Return to Arms is extremely similar to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, which isn't too surprising considering both games were developed by Snowblind Studios. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing considering the enjoyment the latter dished out, it does draw the potential for originality from Champions: Return to Arms and makes you wonder if effort was actually injected into the game or if code was simply copied and pasted from other obvious sources. Despite this drawback, however, the sequel to Champions of Norrath doesn't fail to deliver some incredibly fun gameplay.

Before beginning the game you must select a character from a decent assortment of races and sexes, consisting of the usual creatures from the fantasy genre such as lizardmen and dark elves, each oriented towards certain attributes in order to cater for those who like to take down monsters barbarian style as well as those who like to confuse and dazzle the enemy using an array of spells. Obvious The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind influence ensues as you're given the option to customise your character by changing things such as their fur or hair colour and style and their skin colour.

Once you've got your character up and ready to go you're briefed, well, briefly, by an elven woman. She tells you, basically, that you've got to save the world, demonstrates her mercantile abilities and then throws you through a portal into the first of the game's "planes" or worlds. Each world is satisfyingly varied and comes complete with brand new enemies, played through in typical hack 'n' slash style from a birds-eye view.

As you navigate each world's often cramped areas and paths, slicing monsters into pieces and blowing them up with ignitable barrels and collecting health and mana vials, weapons, armour and other apparel you'll find yourself faced with a simplistic objective or two in order to give the gameplay a goal. Unfortunately these don't often expand upon the game's paper-thin storyline, involving basic retrieval or destruction tasks and the occasional boss or two.

After leveling up by earning experience through the means of defeating enemies you'll be given the ability (continued next page)