Champions of Norrath Review
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Online play is one of the best features about Champions of Norrath. You'll sign in and you can either find some free games or create a private game. The person creating the private game gets to choose the save game they want to use so if you are playing with someone that's farther ahead than you, you'll miss the parts you haven't played. So a good rule of thumb is to use a save game with the lowest common denominator in terms of area finished. Voice chat is supported by Norrath and it helps coordinate with online friends immensely. Telling my buddies what I was doing or that I was in trouble helps expedite the decision process a lot faster. Up to four can play at once and the game does require broadband. Playing with Charlie across the US was ok when his connection speed wasn't fluctuating like crazy with all the college students stealing music. And since you are playing on your own console with your own TV, you are not limited to where the other players are. So you can wander off and do your own thing while your party members do something else. The level of freedom introduced by the online play aspect really takes the multiplayer experience of this type of game to another level. I will say I enjoy t he game a lot more playing cooperatively than solo and having the ability to play online does increase the replay value. If you do want to play together in one room, the game does support four via the multitap. It's definitely not as fun as being on your own machine and being free from the screen constraints. I don't like the fact that you can only join open games and not ones in progress. Having a friend drop out and having to find a save point before exiting the game and bringing the dropped friend back in is pretty annoying. I would've liked the ability to just give a friend the server details and have them join in anytime much like how Diablo II does it.
