Champions of Norrath Review

Snowblind, the developers of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance have hooked up with Sony Online to create the best Diablo-esque console game in years. Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest takes the deep EverQuest mythology and sets it atop a hack and slash dungeon crawl. It's an amazing game... with a fairly bad camera.Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest finally gets the console Role Playing Game concept right. Consoles, for better or worse, do not have keyboards - Champions not only recognizes that, it worships it, delivering one of the best console RPG control layouts ever to grace the Dual Shock controller.

Developed by Snowblind studios, the folks who brought us the fabulously addictive Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance realize what they have in EverQuest. They've got a rich, unique universe, a loyal fan base, and the support of Sony. They also realize that they did things right with Baldur's Gate: DA. It doesn't take a PhD to figure out that combining these two assets could work out well, and luckily for us it does.

Champions of Norrath plays like a Cadillac version of the classic Gauntlet games. You can play with up to four players. You traverse huge levels and dungeons, slaying any and everything along the way. As a reward you get gold, items, and experience, which is used to gain new spells, skills, and attributes. As is par for the course, you'll feel a bit like an arms dealer as you haul weapons you find back to shop to sell, but even a Dark Elf has to Earn a living.

Amazing visuals, and fantastic music, worthy of its own soundtrack CD, help the game out. But a horrific camera keeps a great RPG from being one of the best. Champions of Norrath is amazing both as a stand alone and an online game. Find some friends to play with you, as it's best enjoyed with pals.

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