Champions of Norrath
| Champions of Norrath | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio |
 Snowblind Studios
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| Publisher |
 Sony Computer Entertainment
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| Senior Developer | Chris Avellone | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
February 10, 2004 June 25, 2004 |
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| platform | PS2 | ||
| Game engine | Dark Alliance engine | ||
| genre | Action RPG , Hack'n'Slay | ||
| Subject | Everquest | ||
| Game mode | Single player , multiplayer | ||
| control | Gamepad | ||
| medium | DVD-ROM | ||
| language | Multilingual | ||
| Age rating |
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Champions of Norrath is an action role-playing game by the American game developer Snowblind Studios on behalf of the Japanese publisher Sony Computer Entertainment . It was released in Europe on June 25, 2004 for PlayStation 2 . The setting is the world of Norrath in the Everquest universe.
action
The game's storyline is prematurely set for the first Everquest -MMO. At the beginning of the game, the game character is asked by the king of the wood elves to help his people fight the united hordes of orcs and goblins. The journey takes the player from the tree city of Kelethin into the underworld of Norrath and finally to the final battle against Innoruuk, the god of hatred.
Gameplay
Champions of Norrath follows the common principles of action role-playing game and is very similar to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, also previously developed by Snowblind . The focus is on action-packed battles and the development of the character with the help of the experience points gained through the battles and the equipment items distributed as loot in the game world. In comparison, the plot remains quite superficial and offers few options for decision-making. At the beginning the player chooses a character from five given archetypes. You can choose from the classes barbarian warrior, ranger, cleric, magician or shadow elf, who have different degrees of understanding of the three types of combat (close combat, long-range combat, use of magic). The player can choose the gender and customize the look through a selection of hairstyles, skin tones and the like. The character values can also be individually adjusted to a certain extent. As in Diablo 2 , some sections of the game world are made up of randomly generated maps. Together with the randomly generated loot items, this should increase replayability. The game also includes a local multiplayer mode and supports online play via the additional broadband adapter hardware.
technology
The game uses the Dark Alliance engine developed by Snowblind for Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and was released on a two-layer DVD-9 , the readout of which by the hardware could sometimes lead to loading pauses.
reception
The game received high ratings in the trade press ( GameRankings : 85.17% / Metacritic : 85 out of 100).
"Champions of Norrath" can playfully convince all along the line and leaves all genre competitors behind. "
“With Champions of Norrath, Snowblind Studios show what a largely thought-out action RPG should look like: Varied levels, randomly generated dungeons and an extensive character development system ensure uncomplicated gaming fun, which both alone and with several players provide countless hours of good entertainment can provide. "
In the following year 2005 Snowblind and Sony released a follow-up entitled Champions: Return to Arms .
Web links
- Champions of Norrath at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c http://www.looki.de/champions_of_norrath_test_a1469_1.html
- ↑ GameRankings : Average rating of the game , based on 71 ratings. Retrieved December 14, 2012.
- ↑ Metacritic : Average rating of the game , based on 51 articles. Retrieved December 14, 2012.
- ↑ http://www.4players.de/4players.php/dispbericht/PlayStation2/Test/3645/2827/0/Champions_of_Norrath.html