Champions: Return to Arms Impressions - E3 2004

We checked in at the Sony Online Entertainment booth for an advance look at Champions: Return to Arms, the follow-up to Champions of Norrath for the PS2. Like the previous game, the new Champions game will be a hack-and-slash action role-playing game that lets you and up to three other players fight your way through hordes of armies while collecting piles of treasure, weapons, and armor. And interestingly, the new game will also let you import your character from the previous game for use in the new game, complete with your character's experience levels, abilities, and equipment.

Champions: Return to Arms takes place after the events of the first game, in which the god of hatred, Innoruuk, was slain. In the new game, you are summoned by the elf sorceress Firiona Vie (the blonde-haired, blue-eyed elf character who has graced the cover of every EverQuest product for the PC) to collect the fragments of Innoruuk's essence so that the god may be destroyed once and for all. To do this, you'll travel through the various planes of existence first established in the PC game EverQuest: Planes of Power. You'll start in the plane of air, which will also act as a hub area where Firiona Vie will keep you up to date with new mission objectives as you travel across the different planes. Each plane will have multiple areas for a total of about 50 levels, which can be played through multiple times.

You'll be able to jump directly to each new plane from the plane of air, once you've unlocked them. You'll do so from a simple interface that lists each plane in a vertical row, along with three iconic indicators, which will show whether you've recovered the part of Innoruuk's essence from that plane, any medals you may have earned through completion of quests, and any side quests you may have unlocked.

The new game will also introduce two new playable character types, one of which was on display at the show--the Vah Shir berserker. The Vah Shir are a race of giant cat-people (first introduced in the Shadows of Luclin expansion pack for the EverQuest PC game), and the berserker is actually a new character class that was just introduced into the PC game as well. The new game will also feature a new weapon class, throwing axes, though only the berserker may become proficient with it (much like how all classes in the previous game could use bows, but only the ranger class was able to become more skilled with them). The berserker may also summon magical throwing axes and use a series of new magic spell abilities, like a "bloodlust" spell, which causes the character to deal additional damage while glowing red and dripping blood from its weapons. We were able to see a foray into the plane of war in which a berserker made his way through a stony cavern built on red standing stones, while beset by wraiths and kobolds. The game will have a host of new monsters, and some, like the kobolds, will have all-new behaviors.

Like the original game, Champions: Return to Arms will support online cooperative multiplayer for up to four players, and in addition to the all-new character classes, all of the previous game's classes will make a return with new spells and abilities, as well as all-new armor and weapon sets.

Champions: Return to Arms is scheduled for release later this year.