Champions : Return to Arms

Champions: Return to Arms is a PlayStation 2 action role-playing game from Snowblind Studios, released in North America by Sony Online Entertainment in February 2005. Set in the fantasy world of EverQuest, it follows 2004's Champions of Norrath and reshapes that series' dungeon-crawling formula around a new conflict. Innoruuk, the Prince of Hate, has been defeated, but fragments of his power—the Shards of Hatred—remain scattered through the Planes of Power. A hero can aid the forces seeking to erase those shards or join the attempt to restore the fallen deity, making the central allegiance choice part of the adventure rather than just background lore.

Viewed from an elevated, diagonal perspective, the game is built around direct hack-and-slash combat. Players lead a single adventurer through hostile fantasy regions, cutting through monsters, using class abilities, gathering equipment, and completing quests for experience. Character advancement steadily expands a hero's capabilities, while weapons, armor, gold, and other finds encourage repeated exploration of the game's combat spaces. The result is an RPG focused on immediately readable battles and loot-driven growth, with the EverQuest setting supplying the creatures, magic, and planar destinations.

Seven race-and-class heroes are available. Returning archetypes include the warrior, ranger, cleric, wizard, and shadow knight, while Return to Arms adds the Vah Shir berserker and Iksar shaman. The berserker is a melee-oriented fighter who can throw axes, whereas the shaman brings dark magic to the party. Players who completed Champions of Norrath can also bring an existing character forward, giving the sequel a direct connection to the previous PlayStation 2 quest. The campaign's good and evil routes share the broader mission of pursuing the shards but alter story elements and objectives, giving the alignment decision a tangible role in how the journey unfolds.

Cooperative play remains a defining part of Champions: Return to Arms on PS2. Up to four people can tackle the story together locally with the console's multitap accessory or online, allowing a party to combine different combat styles and magic. Snowblind also expanded the multiplayer side with a redesigned online lobby, voice-chat support, and friend-list features. Beyond the cooperative campaign, the game includes competitive head-to-head battles for as many as four players and an arena mode built around successive enemy waves, equipment use, gold, and additional lives. These options make the same characters useful across both collaborative and competitive sessions.

Return to Arms was made specifically for PlayStation 2; it was not a port from the PC EverQuest MMORPG, despite sharing that universe. Sony Online Entertainment published it in North America, while Ubisoft handled the European release. Its place in Snowblind's catalogue is also clear: the studio had already adapted a fast, controller-friendly action-RPG approach for Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance before applying it to Norrath. For players looking for a PS2 fantasy action RPG with character building, a sequel-friendly imported save option, branching allegiance, and four-player dungeon crawling, Champions: Return to Arms remains the second chapter of the Champions of Norrath story.