Champions: Return to Arms

"Not all that I was hoping for, but it's still good"

My dad had bought this game earlier this year. I had planned on getting it when the price had gotten low enough, but he beat to me to the punch. Oh well. When I had first heard about the game, I was excited, of course. But from what I learned I did not think that this game was worth the price it was when it came out, hence my decision to get it at a much later date -when the price had dropped. So let us begin.

STORY
After Innoruk was defeated, his essence was spread across the planar realms in the form of shards of hate. The evil seeds of hate had also spread and had corrupted the people, even some heroes. Firiona Vie, the damsel of distress whom you saved from the prince of hate in the first game, is one of the only few who remained pure despite the recent events. She commissions you, the champion, to find the shards of hate before the forces of darkness so that they will not be able to resurrect Innoruk. Yep, you guessed it. This is your traditional good versus evil plot. There's nothing too different about it, but I wish more development had went into this area.

CHARACTERS
In addition to the five character classes from the first game, RTA sports two new classes. However, you cannot choose the gender in these classes (they're both male). The first is the Vah Shir berserker. This is a cat-warrior in the mold of the barbarian, but they can fight from long range as well as in close range. They are ferocious fighters, but their fighting style makes them vulnerable in that they cannot take as much damage as they give. Some of their skills are also risky to use if you're not careful. Then we have the Iksar shaman, a lizard sorcerer in the mold of the shadownight. Their pet spells are incredibly useful, and giant growth can give them an incredible advantage in battle, making them stronger and faster than normal. However, they are only average fighters, so you have to take advantage of their magic to take the battle into your hands.

PRESENTATION
Gone are the randomized dungeons that made every game a different experience altogether, replaced with medallion rounds, bonus stages, and a longer story/game overall. Everything is pretty much the same here, with the exception of the medallion rounds and bonus stages. In a plane's medallion round, you have to complete a certain task in the best way in order to receive the champion's medallion (among other things), which will allow you access to the bonus stage. In this stage, you have to fight through hordes of enemies in order to retrieve the bloodstone for that realm. Not all of the bloodstones are in bonus stages, though. Some can be found in certain planes by finding an item that lets you access a hidden stage, or by helping someone in a jam. The side quests are good, but they can be very challenging - almost to the point of frustration. So have some patience when you're doing them. There are much fewer glitches this time around, and the game loads faster as well. It rarely freezes. These problems have been addressed rather well. There should have been more innovation in areas where the presentation is generic and bland, such as the good/evil storyline.

SOUND
There's nothing new to say here, but the music could have been better.

GAMEPLAY
Again, no comment.

REPLAY VALUE
With new character classes, a new level cap of 80, more items, side quests, and more, this game will be sure to hold diehards for quite some time. Those who have seen this kind of thing before might put it down after they beat the game.

FINAL THOUGHTS
It would be best if you rent the game before you buy it. You've probably seen this story before, so it might not hold your interests. Despite it being more of an upgrade rather than a sequel, RTA is still a good game to have when you're itching to beat up some bad guys. It's not everything that I had hoped for, but it's fine.

Score: 8 out of 10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/06