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Review: Those of you who have played the console-based Baldur's Gate series will have a distinct feeling of deja vu when playing Champions of Norrath ("Champions"). Champions is pretty much your usual RPG fare - choose a character type/class, kill monsters, gain experience points, level up and buy better weapons and equipment. As with any RPG game the satisfaction lies in seeing your characters become increasingly powerful and learn new skills. (Those of you familiar with the Diablo series - I believe the same developers are involved with Champions - will also recongise the "skills tree" - whereby you can allocate hard-won points to learn new fighting skills and magic.) Where I think Champions is a better game than other console RPGs (with the exception of Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic) is its production value - you have a greater choice of characters; they have a more diverse set of skills - both combat and magic - and you can decide down which route your character develops; your character levels up at a fair rate; and enemies are more diverse and generally more challenging. The game's in-play menus are easy to use and if you're playing the two-player option you can modify and manage the characters simultaneously and independently - so each of you can buy weapons and allocate skill points etc. without having to wait for the other. Champions offers an in-built two-player option (a rarity with console games these days as most now require you to go online for multiplayer action). Furthermore, when you finish the game first time round a harder level becomes availabe (with new quests, I think - I'm not sure) and you can import your developed characters and carry on using them - so there's quite a lot of replay value. On the minus side, the graphics are *very* small. Don't be fooled by the screenshots on the back of the game's packaging - your character is nowhere near that size! The game would have perhaps been more atmospheric had the player been given a closer view of the action, as it is, you are sometimes aware that you are an "outsider", looking down on proceedings. Ultimately, I will say that Champions is nothing new to the RPG scene but it does bring a higher standard to the genre (for consoles, at least) and if you like RPGs, you will probably like this. | 
PC & Video Games
