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Champions of Norrath: Realms of Everquest (PS2)Status: Stopped playing - Something better came alongI started playing this game on Sunday 3 April, 2005 // I stopped playing this game on: Tuesday 18 December, 2012 |
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| Current opinion of this game | ||
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Co-op rules. Hack and Slash co-op rules even more.
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| April 6, 2005 11:24:51 AM | ||
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I bought this with a friend a few months ago and we only just had time to try it out this past weekend. We had both played Baldur's Gate:Dark Alliance together a few years earlier so we were looking for a similar experience (co-op hack-n-slash). This time around, there were three of us playing the game (via multi-tap) and I'm quite surprised by how the experience of playing the game is degraded by "little details". For example, due to technical constraints (totally understandable, this isn't a rant about that), only two players can go through their inventory at a time. This is fine when there are two players...but with three you get the odd-man out problem. Basically, one person has to sit around waiting while everyone else is trying to min-max their inventory, decide what to equip, what to drop, etc. I think that having three people in their inventory at the same time wouldn't really work either...so, what to do? Well, inventory problem could be alleviated by trying to make some of the player tasks easier. For example, we spend some time trying to figure out which equipment is better. Of all the armor crap I'm carrying, which ones get me the best armor rating? Well, if there was a "quick equip" button that did just that... We also spent a lot of time deciding whether we had anything that our teammates could use. You know, "Hey, I have this shield that's +10 armor...anybody need it?". Not only is it not possible to directly transfer stuff to your teammates (you have to drop it, and then they have to pick it up), but it is actually a pain to figure out whether or not they can use it. A few interface tweaks could help with this. If you could transfer something to a friend, the dialogue box could tell you if that item would give a bonus if equipped. Another thing, and this is not a rant against the game, our unfamiliarity with the Everquest system makes the game seem a little less accesible. With Baldur's Gate, we knew the D&D system so we where able to figure out what stuff was good/crap as well as have a grasp of the relative use of many things. In all, we had fun and I look forward to playing some more. |
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kudos for original design to Rodrigo Barria
