Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest (Sony PlayStation 2, 2004)

Humans and elves are fighting a losing battle against orcs and goblins and other bad guys in the world of EverQuest, and they need a champion to turn the tide of battle their way. As you battle your way through this fantasy world, your quests change from hunting down an orc chieftain to saving the very universe. This is a basic hack and slash RPG with a fleshed out storyline and a great replay value. The gameplay will be familiar with anyone who's played Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance or the Diablo games.

In the beginning choose your form of champion from five character classes - barbarian, ranger, cleric, wizard, and shadow knight with a gender choice. You can even decide on the look of your champion, from long haired nobleman to mohawked tattoo canvas. The rest is pretty straighforward - fight your way through hordes of bad guys while completing various quests, exploring various dungeons, and buying and selling weapons and armor. Once the game is finished, you can replay it at two higher difficulty levels which gives you a nice amount of replay value. You can import your character as he was when he finished the previous level, with most of the weapons, armor, items, and cash that he had in his inventory. The menus are basic and easy to navigate

Along the way you pick up a staggering amount of items, weapons, and armor (there are ten thousand randomly dropped items!), and at some point you exceed your carrying limit. The handy gate scrolls that you purchase or pick up after fights allow you to teleport back to the last store you were in to sell the items for some much needed cash. Raising your experience allows you to "spend" points on the attributes and specific skills of your choice. This game also offers multi-player capability for up to four players online. The graphics of the game are excellent, and the variety of your destinations make playing a pleasure. There are small interconnected islands surrounded by water with deep caves to explore; sky high marbled battlements in the clouds; mysterious underwater caves to explore; dark shadowy dungeons with walls that can be broken through; peaceful calm forests and grassy plains; burning fire pits with innovative transportation; blood-splashed decaying stone walls and floors; and many other intriguing scenarios. This detail applies also to your foes, from the orcs and goblins to giant spiders, huge lumbering giants, pesky bees, formidable bear-type creatures, and ghostly wraith-like mini-bosses. You have the option of zooming in during play, which allows you to see the fine detail put into every aspect of the game. The soundtrack is beautiful and well nuanced, and relates well to the present action. There were at times some noticeable bugs on both the screen and sound. These were not major, more like a mild irritant, but it did take away some of the enjoyment of the game at times.

PROS: In-depth and varied gameplay with quests that increase in scope and difficulty; satisfying basic hack and slash gameplay; phenomenal graphics with exquisite attention to detail in both screen and sound; high replay value.

CONS: Several screen and sound bugs that detract from game enjoyment.

SUMMARY: Added together, these components make for a tremendously satisfying gaming experience that all should enjoy. You can also replay as a different fighter class and gender class. All in all, this is a great little game that any gamer should enjoy. My rating: 9/10.

This game is a gem among titles. It is bursting at the seams with character options and much resembles a Diablo II (copyright of Blizzard Entertainment) style dungeon crawler. With four classes to choose from (and gender preference IS available), and each class possessing its own skill tree, one can specialize in any NUMBER of combinations of powers, abilites, and features so that no two characters need ever be alike! Choose from tanks to wizards and let your friends join in as a complimentary match to slay your enemies. Levels are set in the traditional overhead (or ceiling) view which makes it very easy to see and destroy your enemies. Up to four players can play together at any given time and players can be spontaneously added or dropped from any campaign just by accessing the start menu! (I LOVE this feature.) The plot is the only thing that may be considered by some to be "lacking" but honestly dungeon crawlers are like first-person shooters; you don't play it for the story, you play it for the gameplay. This hack and slash them, blow their face off with fire, grab as many items and equipments as you can rave party is well worth paying good money for. thumbs up in my book.

Reason why I gave this an average because the game plays perfect but was very upset that it wasn't the original. It was clean and every worked fine. I have played this game before and I have it, I just wanted a new original black label one. Everything about the game is great, whether you are playing online or just playing casual offline. You get to create many different characters of male or female forms of Barbarian, Ranger, Erudite Wizard, Cleric and Shadow Knight. I would relate this game to Hack and Slash type of rpg. Highest level is 50 and you can transport your character to the second one called Champions Return to Arms. Both have their good ups and downs. Many rare items to collect and differents spells to get. If you are into Hack and Slash and Diablo type games, this is the game for you.

A very solid role-playing fantasy game for fans of single player as well as multiplayer rpgs. A great journey through the world of Norrath for those who don't want to spend money every month to play the other incarnations of Everquest. Definitely for fans of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, both were worked on by Snowblind Studios. The online element is a tad sketchy, as playstation's online servers aren't always perfectly reliable...however, when it does work, it can be quite an engaging experience, one you'll enjoy traveling through many times over. Worth the money, by far.

Great fantasy game; can either play single player or multi-player (up to 4 with the proper PS2 plug in) and still enjoy it greatly. Once you've finished playing the game on the easiest setting, you can take your same character and play again, defeating harder enemies and gaining even better armor. Characters from this game, the first in the series, can be imported into the second game, along with their gear. Not much gore is shown, however, the game is full of combat. Can choose between several classes/races of characters each with unique abilities, weaknesses, weapons and armor.