It was just one year ago that Snowblind Studios wowed us with Champions of Norrath, the long-awaited follow-up to their massively successful Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance. Champions of Norrath was a real beauty, but was held back by a few unfortunate (but significant) bugs and framerate problems. Champions: Return to Arms fixes much of these, but in all, RtA may just be the game Champions of Norrath was supposed to be, which hardly gives the game much of a chance to move the genre forward.

Return to Arms really is an incredible game from a technical standpoint. For one, it’s much bigger than the first game in scope. Rather than following one specific path that leads you from level-to-level, RtA instead has a main hub, where you attack levels one at a time after being instructed to do so via the game’s story. New to RtA is the good/evil path through the game, where you can freely choose whether or not you join Firiona Vie in collecting the shards that hold the essence of the Prince of Hate (who you fought against in Champions of Norrath), or Natasla, who seeks to resurrect the mighty god to wreak havoc upon Norrath. The differences are fairly small, resulting in different story cinemas and attacking the game’s levels in a different order. There are a few exclusive side quests available though depending on what path you choose, which is a nice touch, and a good incentive for replay.



Replay, however, has always been a strong point in these types of games, and there’s plenty to be found in RtA as well. Not only can you transport your Champions of Norrath character over to Return to Arms, but the game is host to two new classes, the iksar shaman (lizard man) and the vah shir berserker (cat man). While you can’t choose genders in either of the new classes, you can still customize how you want them to look, and some of their abilities result in some much-needed creative gameplay mechanics, especially on the part of the shaman. All of the classes from Champions of Norrath return, and even have some added abilities. Medallion Rounds are also new to the Champions series, where you can unlock challenges as you finish a level. Defeat the challenge and you can attain some truly awesome rewards.

Return to Arms even offers some player-versus-player content, allowing players to enter and arena and duke it out for bragging rights. You can also team together to take on hoards of creatures in multiple waves. While both modes are fairly simple and shallow, they nevertheless are fun to fiddle around with.

The core of RtA though, remains the same. One part hacking and slashing creatures and barrels, one part stat building, and one part shopping. The fighting seems to be as equally refined as that of the first game, and many of the abilities have been rebalanced to work much better than before. Many fights are more challenging, including the boss fights. While some have some easy patterns to overcome, others can be truly nasty, capable of putting down high-level heroes in two swipes. Even standard enemies, which seem to be slightly more varied than in the last game, can be tough, or have some brutal special attacks that may catch you off guard. This makes for incredibly challenging battles. The game’s levels are expertly crafted, and it feels like a benefit that they aren’t randomly-generated anymore. Four players can still hook up via a multitap, and the improved online content assures a better experience over the Net.

What holds RtA back though, is the almost complete lack of a real story to keep things rolling along. While the story in Champions of Norrath was hardly epic, it was host to memorable characters and a quality plot. RtA just basically tosses your character from plane to plane, and your contact (depending on which path you choose) doesn’t really say much other than where you’re going next and why you’re going there. There are no response trees like that of what was found in Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, and some of the characters reprising their roles from the first Champions game don’t play much of a part in the sequel. The lack of a strong story affects the good/evil path too, as you make the choice very early in the game, and you don’t really have an idea of what’s going on. This leads to the path you choose not really being an important decision in the grand scheme of things. But most important of all, the hacking and slashing gets a bit old after awhile, especially since you don’t have a strong narrative to move the story along.



Graphically, RtA looks even more crisp than Champions of Norrath did, which still looks phenomenal by today’s standards. Beautiful environments are loaded with detail and non-dynamic bump mapping, but unfortunately, Snowblind did happen to recycle some tilesets from the first game. The lighting (both dynamic and non-dynamic) still looks gorgeous and vibrant, and even the Snowblind engine’s trademark water effects return, and are still able to impress. Character models are greatly detailed too, as are all the weapons, creature models both big and small, and the glittering, shiny armor pieces. Even better, this graphical splendor can be enjoyed at a much smoother framerate than in the last game. There is still some slowdown in certain areas, and many times it seems to happen for no reason at all. There are still a few areas of blackout, especially when rotating the camera, but in all, the occurrences are far rarer. Still, the single-layer DVD that Return to Arms comes on should have eliminated the dual-layer DVD problems altogether. Perhaps it can be confirmed then that not all of the problems can be attributed to the dual-layer DVD of the first game in the series.

There are a few more pieces of music to be found in RtA, and each fit the scene (whatever that scene happens to be at the time) nicely. The voiceovers are pretty good, and there are far fewer terrible performances that you may have experienced in Champions of Norrath. Sadly, the dialogue is usually short and to the point, so there is rarely a chance to enjoy a wide spectrum of emotion coming from the game’s characters.

Champions: Return to Arms doesn’t feel like a sequel. The short development cycle, graphics that look similar to the first game (including some recycled tilesets), and the underwhelming story all combine to result in a game that, while great for what it offers, reminds you almost too much of the first title, and that it came much too soon. It actually feels more like an expansion since you can import old characters in and out, which isn’t a bad thing at all, but still lends to the "same" feeling you get when playing. This is still basically the same game as Dark Alliance was, even with all the newly added content. Champions: Return to Arms is technically the better game, but not quite the jaw-dropper it was last year.









Article By: Brendon Hivner