Champions: Return to Arms Pre-E3 Preview

IGN PS2 has put together a two-page preview of Champions: Return to Arms, the upcoming sequel to this year’s PS2 action RPG, Champions of Norrath. Check it out:

As for the game itself, there will be two new races to choose from as well as the original five from Norrath. The only race that’s been revealed so far is the Vah Shir, a race of cat people who excel as warriors. One of the skills of the Vah Shir is Blood Lust where they will be able to fight faster and hit for more damage. In a nice touch, this skill causes blood to fly off of the Vah Shir as they attack. Every swing of a weapon sends drops of blood sailing off into the air. The Vah Shir will also get a Berserker skill where they will increase in speed and power when their health drops below 25%. This is a tricky skill to use, as our demonstrator only got to show it for the few seconds before his death, but promises to give these fighters a better chance as they’re getting close to shuffling off their mortal coil.

The Vah Shir specialty in Return to Arms will be the throwing ability, especially throwing axes. As the Vah Shir level up, they will be able to improve their throwing skills as well as summoning axes that fall from the sky. Instead of having to pick up weapons off of slain opponents or running back to the shop over and over, axes can be summoned that will fall on the ground. They can also develop a skill to lighten the weight of the axes in order to carry more at once. This keeps fighters with projectile skills in the game longer than before.