Product Description

Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest -- In this engrossing role-player, you'll take on unspeakable danger, in a time before the current EverQuest games. An evil army is gathering, unlike anything the world has ever seen before. You'll journey from the elven tree city of Kelethin into the wilds of Norrath to save the land. Your mastery of weapons and magic are the only things keeping you alive, in the face of supreme evil! Use the great new voice-chat feature to plan strategies or just talk trash

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1026 in Video Games
• Brand: Sony
• Model: 8.15E+11
• Released on: 2004-02-11
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Platform: PlayStation2
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .50 pounds

Features

• 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

Game Informer Review

Sony Online Entertainment's newest console addition to the EverQuest universe is impressive indeed. In fact, the amount of content Champions of Norrath offers is almost too much of a good thing (if that's even possible).

Developed by Snowblind Studios, the company behind the original Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Champions of Norrath offers up the deepest dungeon crawling experience in the console universe to date.

Champions' list of features reads like a perfect recipe for success. There are five playable character classes each with a wide variety of customization, including the ability to name your own avatar. All the dungeons in the game, save the city hubs that connect the whole world together, are randomly generated so that each and every time you play the game the experience is different. There are more than 10,000 randomly generated items in the game, and players can even modify them to create their own unique items. The list, as they say, goes on and on.

But perhaps the biggest and best piece of the Champions puzzle is the fact that the game can be played online with friends. Using the Network Adapter, PlayStation 2 gamers can take Champions online to explore and level up their characters. In fact, the game has three different difficulty settings so that you can play it again with your leveled-up avatars.

This title can be played offline as well. In fact, you can insert or remove your character from an adventure any time you want. Play with three friends at Jimmy's house, and when his mom kicks you out for being a deviant, you can download your character to a memory card, and then continue playing with different players online.

All told, Champions of Norrath is a very compelling dungeon crawler. The ability to play online definitely makes it a standout in the sea of recent releases in the genre. However, the game isn't perfect. At times, it bogs down from the sheer amount of content it offers. Sometimes I felt like I almost had too many items to wade through or too many pointless dungeons to clear.

These simple complaints aside, if you love leveling up and searching for the latest and greatest weapon for your characters, you really can't go wrong with Champions of Norrath. It's a solid game that gets even better if you have the ability to go online and set out on adventures with other players from around the world.

Concept:
Use the EverQuest license to create an all-encompassing dungeon crawler

Graphics:
The graphics and effects are top-notch in the genre

Sound:
Obviously done by someone who has watched The Lord Of The Rings too many times (and that's a good thing)

Playability:
It's all about the hack n' slash, however the battles still manage to be fairly challenging

Entertainment:
If you love dungeons and finding items, you can't go wrong here

Replay:
High

Rated: 8.75 out of 10
Editor: Andy McNamara
Issue: February 2004

2nd Opinion:
With four-player online play, and the original Dark Alliance team fueling the development fires, you'd think that Champions of Norrath would be an easy pick over Dark Alliance II. As it turns out, both games excel in different ways and are equally rewarding. Norrath's greatest strength is its ability to make gamers come back for more. Both the online and single-player components have legs. With random dungeon generation, three difficulty settings (which require higher level characters), and over 10,000 items, there's more than enough content here. While both games play very similarly, Dark Alliance II edges out Norrath with little additions along the lines of dual-wielding and sprinting. Norrath is better suited for players who seek extensive multiplayer, whereas Dark Alliance II is the perfect fit for those who simply want a polished adventure to play through once.

Rated: 8.5 out of 10
Editor: Andrew Reiner


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From the Manufacturer
Published by the creators of EverQuest and developed by the team behind Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Champions of Norrath is an Action RPG like none other on the PlayStation 2. Create your own champion, each with unique powers, appearances and skills. Experience an epic adventure filled with powerful action and ominous intrigue. Battle vicious monsters where your mastery of weaponry and spells is the only thing between you and supreme evil.

Champions of Norrath allows gamers to create their own unique hero to journey from the city of Faydwer into the wilds of Norrath to save the land from a gathering army of evil orcs and goblins. Players can adventure alone or with a band of up to three other players either over the Internet or on a single PlayStation 2 with a Multitap. Import player characters into friends' games using a memory card and then take them home to play solo-the play options offer console gamers the freedom to play anytime and from any location. Champions of Norrath offers players more than 100 hours of gameplay per player character, unlimited battles, deadly missions and unmatched character customization in an enthralling fantasy world.

Customer Reviews

Great RPG fun for multi player mayhem
As if the EverQuest juggernaut needed any help, the Champions of Norrath game brings a new chapter to this RPG saga.

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!

Very good
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.

Hours of hack-n-slash fun!
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.