Champions of Norrath resembles the PC game Diablo I/II in numerous ways, and each is done succesfully.
The game is great graphically, everything is well done. Though there are a few glitches here and there, it is nothing to get worried about. Models and weapons are very well done, but due to the camera angle, you won't really have any chance to look at them. The camera is almost top down, but varies a little bit; you might be able to see some of your characters shoulder armor, but that is about it. The only place you will be able to see your character well is on the inventory screen and in cutscenes. Cutscenes, for the most part, are very well done. The only problem I had with them is that it will only show the first player's character. Not a big problem at all, but it was somewhat dissapointing. Weapon and spell effects are amazing as well; one of my first swords was fire enchanted and you could see the embers flying out of the flames on it, as well as the black smoke rising from it. Water is also really well done, when you run through it, it will produce waves/ripples that will bounce off of other objects.
I must say, the sound and music fits the game perfectly. The music sounds just like a movie, very similar to that of Lord of the Rings. While it might not inspire you to conquer evil wherever you see it, it is atleast entertaining and easy to listen too. Sound effects are surprising as well, going so far has making armor have their own sound effects (i.e. Ring Mail sounds like chains clinking together as you run).
As I said, the gameplay is much like Diablo; you have one button to attack, and two buttons for spells. Combat is pretty much pressing these buttons as fast as you can while using a potion whenever you need it. It doesn't sound all that fun, but as with Diablo, it actually is pretty entertaining. Watching your character wade through enemies and his sword go from side to side, in other words the graphics, really help to make battles entertaining. Combat will be the biggest part of the game, though the battles themselves do not last that long. This means you really don't need a strategy for battles (though they help) since you can rest and heal right after. If you are looking for hard strategic battles, Champions of Norrath probably will not appeal to you.
The other part of the game is doing quests (which mainly consists of battles), and buying and selling items. The quests are pretty basic RPG quests such as, kill this enemy, destroy x amount of catapults, find a way to open the doors, etc. Though a few unique ones are thrown in as well. Inventory management and buying/selling items is pretty easy, and thanks to a split screen everyone can see the shops and their inventory at the same time. You will use a cursor and only a few buttons to buy/sell/equip items.
The split screen will only be for shops and inventory management however, not in exploring/combat in Multiplayer games. For that, each character will be on the screen, but they cannot move out of it. If you wish to leave an area to sell items or complete a quest, everyone will have to come. A few problems arise because of this, such as one player moving too far and another character getting stuck since he can not move back. It is easily resolved by the first character coming back, but it gets a little annoying.
The camera works pretty well, though it often hides something due to walls covering it up. You, and any other player for that matter, can turn the screen to reveal anything you missed by using the right analog stick though. Since each character shares the same screen, and any person can change it, it often gets a little confusing when two people try to do something at once and no one knows what is happening. The game also includes a mini-map, with two different sizes. Unfortunantly, the mini-map is right in the middle of the screen, and towards the top (which you will usually have your camera turned to so you can run forward) which makes it hard to tell what you are doing. You can easily get it out of the way by pressing the R3 button, but it is annoying none-the-less.
Following all the other similarities to Diablo, the character's skill tree is almost exactly like it. There is a 'tree' of skills that, when spending a point in a certain skill, opens a new branch (a small one at that though) of new skills that can be chosen if the level requirements are met. Many of these skills are extremely smilar to those in Diablo II, though with a different name. As your level increases, so do the points that you can spend on skills. The skill tree allows you to make either a well rounded character using all skills, or a specific character using only a few skills. Because of this, despite only having five characters to choose from, you can make those characters numerous ways giving the game nice replayability.
All-in-all Champions of Norrath is a very enjoyable Hack-n'-Slash RPG that I would recommend to just about anyone. If you have played Diablo and enjoyed it, you will more than likely love Champions of Norrath.