Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest
Snowblind's second hack and slash effort is their best yet, but it hasn't arrived without more than a few problems.
Published: February 22, 2004
I mentioned earlier that there are some delays in the speech when talking to NPCs, but this also includes responses from your character, who will sometimes inform you a full 5-10 seconds after you've pressed a button (and, in some cases as your refilling things) that you're out of mana. It's a jarring experience to say the least, and does cause more than a few snickers at the game's expense. It's too bad, too, because the speech in the game is executed with plenty of bravado. Voice acting old-schoolers like Michael Bell and Tony Jay from the Legacy of Kain games, Tara Strong (Rikku from Final Fantasy X and X-2), Malcolm McDowell, Oded Fehr (probably best known from The Mummy movies), Kevin Michael Richardson and Vanessa Marshall, plus literally dozens more fantastic voice actors all lend some of the most solid voice work this side of a PC RPG.
These same sound hitches in the speech department carry over to composer Inon Zur's work, which is a shame, because the Israeli composer borrows heavily from Thomas Newman and James Horner, but does so with plenty of respect and impressive results. It doesn't take much strain to pick out bits of Titanic, Braveheart, The Shawshank Redemption and even a bit of Danny Elfman's work in Zur's score, but all of them feel entirely at home here, with perhaps only one song that tends to wear out its welcome a bit too early. The changes in score flow fantastically from one act to the next, and again it's a shame that the occasional sound hitch mars the otherwise wonderfully flowing pieces.
Luckily, the sound effects are always dead on, and range from concussive blasts of magic hitting an object to the dull thud of a mace connecting with a animated skeleton to the clang of swords meeting iron. What's more, some of the effects as enemies are felled are equally -- if not more -- impressive than the actual battle sounds themselves, with the clatter of bones falling atop one another after skeletons are rendered inanimate once again, or the crumple of a body with the clang of a dropped weapon resonating off the ground. There are times when the effects don't always sync up with the material they hit (when was the last time you heard a wooden pike clang or an axe sing out with a loud metallic hum as it hit sand?), but overall it's quite impressive.
If it weren't for the problems associated with the disc format SOE decided to put the game on (and for good reason, there's a TON of data to be packed onto the screen), this would probably be one of the most polished and impressive releases yet on the PS2. It's still plenty impressive in its own right, but streaming issues and random crashes hamper the flow of the game to the point where it makes a pretty significant difference in how you play the game. No gamer should have the worry of a random crash looming over their head to the point where they save every five minutes just to be safe; it interrupts the flow of the game itself and does distract from the storyline and pacing.
If you have an older system (newer PS2 models are quite adept at handling the game, by the way), and can tolerate the crashes, there's no reason not to buy this game ASAP. Snowblind has crafted yet another gorgeous, deep and incredibly fun hack and slash game with an entertaining story and plenty of variety. Yes, the co-op elements aren't as well crafted here when four people play as when only two or especially one do, but the single-player experience is probably how most gamers should digest the game the first time though (yes, you can play through the game up to three times, carrying over experience and gold each time, with exponentially powerful weapons, armor and enemies as you go) anyway.
Even with the problems it faces, there's little reason not to run out and at least experience the game first-hand. I'm a little shaky on recommending a full-price buy to those of us who have older PS2s, but if you were lucky enough to get a system for the holidays, there shouldn't even be a question in your mind as to when to pick this up. Go grab this game now, and then head into our forums to organize a little inter-PSX2.com online luv. Who knows, you might just get the chance to slog through Norrath with one of us staffers or even our significant others. Wouldn't that be special?
