Champions of Norrath Review
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Champions of Norrath proved to be an enjoyable, if inconsistent, title. Everything it does right, it does amazingly well. The character creation and RPG advancement systems are both as close to perfect as we've seen. The item drops and gameplay, staples of the dungeon crawl, are featured here so well and so addictively, we may see support groups and Norrath Anonymous meetings popping up. On top of that are the beautiful visuals that Snowblind is becoming synonymous with. But unfortunately there are also some problems: the multiplayer support is spotty and incomplete at best, the AI and pathfinding are almost to the point of buggy, the game occasionally freezes up, and the multiplayer balance is all but broken to the point of annoyance. In short, Champions of Norrath is a great game to grab a friend and play through once or twice, but a lot of dungeon crawl fans like to play these games extensively - looking for the best possible character, armor, and weapons as they play the game to its fullest on every difficulty with every class multiple times - and for that style of play, I simply cannot recommend it, due to the many bugs, inconsistencies, and balance issues. And it's a shame too, because with those problems fixed, Champions of Norrath could be about as close to perfection as it gets.
