Hack and Slash dungeon crawl, leveling, and item creation
User Rating: 8 | Champions of Norrath PS2
I picked this game because I was comfortable with the Snowblind game engine and because I enjoyed Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance II (BGDA II). It's a typical RPG format… you create a character (Barbarian Warrior, Wood Elf Ranger, High Elf Cleric, Erudite Wizard, Dark Elf Shadow Knight, all male or female) assign skill points, and crawl through dungeons and open-air battlegrounds, collecting loot and experience points, fulfilling missions to progress through the plot (which is presented in vignettes periodically), and keeping your eyes open for a major upgrade in weapons, armor or magic items from the local shopkeeper. The graphics are interesting, the plot interesting or at least mildly interesting, the music appropriately morose and bombastic, and the settings and NPCs are sufficiently varied to keep things entertaining. The fighting, while pretty repetitive, does require some assessment of each monster (some need to be fought at range, others melee, though it's not always obvious right away) and the Boss fights are usually pretty tough, though when you finally get it right, it seems so obvious and quick you can't understand how it took so long. After a short time playing, the character will have enough money to travel back to a save/shopping point almost at will… not much later, money is almost no issue. One thing missing from BGDA II is the workshop feature… Champions does allow you to mix magic items with weapons or armor, giving those items special powers, but the workshop in BGDA II sometimes lets you remove those magic items (for an considerable price) as time goes on and use them again in better weapons or armor. It made the commitment of the +20 strength magic item less monumental, but also made it easier to build and rebuild interesting and powerful weapons and armor, which I found to be a very enjoyable part of BGDA II. Aside from that, though, Champions is fun and worth the time spent playing it.
