Champions: Return to Arms

Champions: Return to Arms is the second addition in the hack n' slash Champions series. Unlike the first Champions, where you merely fought your way from beginning to end, in Return to Arms you have a choice between aiding Firiona Vie, the curvy blonde on the side of good, or Natasla the dark beauty on the side of evil. The hackneyed, good versus evil, plot sums up Return to Arms in a nutshell. It's trite. Nothing new is added to the Champions series. In fact Return to Arms would have been better as an expansion to Champions of Norrath rather than an entirely new game. Being set only a year later doesn't help matters either. Reusing settings, enemies and sound effects is not always a bad thing in a sequel, but in this case it leaves you feeling that Return to Arms is merely cashing in on the success of Champions of Norrath rather than adding anything new or different.

You can import your character from Champion of Norrath or choose from among the preset characters. Return to Arms brings two new warrior classes to those already introduced in Champions of Norrath; Iksar Shaman - the Lizard man and Vah Shir Berserker - the cat man. However, these two offer little more than the Barbarian, Ranger, Cleric or Wizard already bring to the game, and add nothing at all to the overall game. Never-the-less, I chose the cat man, made him into a Leopard by using the costume colour slider and then dressed him in armour that made him look as ridiculous as only a big cat can in clothing. We then set out to choose whether to fight for Norrath, or against her.

The evil God Innoruuk has been destroyed and his spirit cast to the very edges of Norrath. Whether I chose to help Firiona Vie and destroy the shards containing Innoruuk's spirit and rid Norrath of him forever, or if I chose to help Natasla and return him to power, made very little actual difference to the game. The NPCs (Non Playing Characters) we spoke to and the feats we had to perform were similar, but sometimes playing Evil meant a right turn at a crossroad and Good meant I took a left. The only real difference was in who, or what, we fought, but even those foes were merely cliched versions of good versus evil.

A general feeling of disappointment haunted me all the way through Return to Arms and it was something that the scantily clad women couldn't lift, no matter how lovely. Whether it was because I had already visited the majority of the settings, heard the same sound effects and even, on occasions, killed many of the same monsters in Champions of Norrath, I don't know. But Snowblind has been using this same engine since 2001, and it is beginning to fray around the edges. The whole game has a sense of tiredness, of done-it-beforedness and is totally lacking in freshness. Although having said that, the lighting in the dungeons is really something to behold as light rays spill through small cracks in the walls, flames create animated dancing shadows and large dark birds fly from corpse to corpse pulling at entrails. These extra touches try to lift Return to Arms, but everything feels removed from the game and strangely impersonal.

The music, although blending with the action and building well in combat, is unsteady and inappropriate at times. It seems to be initiated by where you are at the time, as opposed to what you are doing. However, the sounds of clinking and falling bottles, whistling wind and death cries are the staple. The voice actors are well chosen for their parts, but they come across mediocre at best.

If you like Action rpgs and buckets of blood with your hack n' slash then Champions: Return to Arms will appeal to you. If you liked Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance then the chances are that you'll like this too. If this is your first foray into a hack n' slash rpg get ready for some fast action and loads of fun, and that is exactly what you will get. Fun! Especially if you utilise the extra player capability and play with four of your friends. The choice of taking your already created character online adds another choice.