Champions of Norrath review

Snowblind studios managed to bring the basics of Dungeons & Dragons to an immediate and satisfying console format in Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, a game which has since spawned a startlingly similar sequel based on the same engine. Now though the creators of Dark Alliance have lent their talents to making Champions of Norrath for Sony, yet another fantasy based dungeon exploring game in the exact same vein - is there any point to a game that looks just like a sequel, even though it’s not?

Cut from the same cloth

At first glance the gameplay seems identical to the Dark Alliance games, and it isn’t that far off, with the same routine of killing enough enemies to gain levels so you can spend points on new special abilities and higher attributes, all the while killing enemies and opening chests, hoping to find rarer and more effective magic items and weapons.

Things have changed slightly, however, with more character classes and more special skills to be learnt, skills that advance easier than they did in Dark Alliance. This lets you create a more customised character than you might have done before.

Still, all the tenets of simple game addiction are mapped out, with a slow but constant stream of rewards that you can measure by watching your experience bar go up. The tiny random prize in every chest id like toys from a Kinder Egg and just like chocolate surprises, you can feel a little empty soon afterwards. This does nothing to stop those little moments from being any sweeter when you come back, although for some a full experience is better than this fancy confection of special effects and experience points.

The differences between Champions predecessors, and indeed other games in the genre, seem like small details, but this is a style of game where the details matter most, with character balance more of a holy grail than a +10 sword.

All that glitters

Which is why the gameplay tuning makes the fantasy sheen on top seem a little more hollow. Champions of Norrath is based on Sony’s world-beating online role-playing game, EverQuest. But nothing really stands out about the characters or setting.

The plot seems a typical fantasy contrivance, a pastiche of different fantasy elements with hardly any originality to speak of. An example of this would be the giant spider you battle, called “Shelox”. Although the acting is competently delivered, it’s laden so heavily with cliché that you can hardly bring yourself to concentrate on what the characters say. Stalwarts of the genre though, will read nothing more than a transparent “Bring me item X” or “I sell armour” in the dialogue, without even noticing the rough-hewn edges of plot surrounding them.

Nip/Tuck

Despite the generic setting, there is enough meaningless action and variety in the surroundings to keep you from thinking too much about why you’re killing all these orcs. The locations include dramatic locales like treetop villages under siege and some very organically designed caves, with the quests, similar though they may be, dressed up as attacks on enemy catapults, and even vehicle driving sessions. The sentiment may not be pure, but the scenery sure is fun to look at.

Which brings us to the graphics, which do the job surprisingly well, considering their age. A lot of features and enemy types are repeated throughout parts of the game but they’re detailed enough not to seem too repetitive, especially with the small touches like scattered random debris and rats scurrying around caves giving a great help to the atmosphere. If you’ve played the Dark Alliance games, you may notice that little things like the way the water ripples are exactly the same, but they certainly look good enough. Some of the more advanced shadow effects available these days are missing, but the existing graphics are crafted with enough care that you’d scarcely notice. A particular high point is the level of detail on the characters you create, with their customisable outfits, tattoos and hairstyles.

Boldly going online

The benefit of all these personal accessories is to let people stand out in Champions’ multiplier modes. With both four-player multitap and online games available, what can be a simple single-player dungeon hack becomes a slightly more coordinated, four-player dungeon hack.

Although the core gameplay remains the same, both the social element, either in your living room, or via a headset, adds a new level to the gameplay. This doesn’t however make the grind of killing for experience points any different, or less boring for those who wouldn’t enjoy it otherwise. But it does give treasure-hoarding adventures an excuse to hang out and battle together and the differences between individual character classes have a significant effect on team combat tactics, although not enough of a difference to make too much careful planning necessary. It’s still mostly about who has the biggest and shiniest toys in the end.

Even though Champions of Norrath remains one of the most generic titles ever, it still rides the peak of what may now be a tiring genre. It does nothing new to please anyone who wouldn’t already be a fan of pseudo role-playing action action, but there’s a lot here to please fans. In a very narrow sense, Champions provides a set of features and a whole lot of polish to keep things interesting for its audience and the online modes go a long way in extending things even further. But despite all the flash and pizzazz, immediate thrills are still lacking for those who wouldn’t otherwise consider such a game.