- Publisher: Sony Online Entertainment
- Release Date: Feb 7, 2005
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An entertaining little dungeon-romp, if you aren’t a wizened Snowblind gamer.
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There's a whole new story, working multiplayer, thousands of new items, new mini-games and sidequests, new classes to play, and the ability to play evil and good plot paths. On the other side of the coin is gameplay that most of us have seen before, following the same formula, and not taking any real chances in the process.
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Personally, I had fun with Return to Arms, despite its flaws… until the end. I won’t spoil anything, but after 20 hours, one would expect more than the anticlimax at the end of the journey.
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A solid game, but largely derivative. Pick it up if you haven't played the first.
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A mediocre follow-up to the original Champions of Norrath. Good, but not $50 worth of good.
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games(TM)The almost endless number of weapon, item and location combinations created by its randomly generated environments means you’ll never quite know what lies ahead, while the quest-led action and multiplayer functionality - particularly online - are compelling enough to keep you hooked for hours. [Apr 2005, p.108]
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Comes up short in a number of ways. Would you really notice a big difference between playing the last game again on a higher difficulty and running through the new one with your eyes half-closed? That's the $50 question, and it's one that unfortunately must be answered in the negative.
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This is definitely a genre that needs some serious reinventing.
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The players who'll get the most out of Return to Arms are those who didn't play the last game, and perhaps even gamers who haven't touched a hack-and-slash since "Gauntlet."
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As I paraded through the areas killing similar tiny enemies over and over (even the "big" monsters don't intimidate), it took forever to find any exciting rare items to wield. Without those incentives, things got monotonous. [March 2005, p.123]
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An improvement over Champions of Norrath, but just doesn't do enough to separate itself from the other games which have preceded it.
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Edge MagazineIronically, it’s people who haven’t played Champions rather than veterans who could find the most to like, given that it’s a year’s worth of tweaks and polish on that game’s largely positive foundation. [Apr 2005, p.105]
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New spells and powers don’t mean much once you hop into the game’s single-player campaign, as the action is still mash, mash, mash, mash. The level design is just as it has always been, meaning twisting labyrinth after twisting labyrinth filled with hordes of mindless enemies.
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But there's hardly anything new here. The plot is paper-thin, and lacks a driving sense of humor or drama to keep you interested. The game-play is just as basic as it's ever been, and frankly, if you've played any of its predecessors, you've slashed and spellcast just this way a million times before.
Awards & Rankings
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63
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70
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#70 Most Discussed PS2 Game of 2005
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54
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#54 Most Shared PS2 Game of 2005
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 45 out of 58
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Mixed: 7 out of 58
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Negative: 6 out of 58
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JoshB.May 11, 2005Best rpg game ever!
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IvanF.Feb 24, 2005
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Dec 27, 2012