Two Champions: Return to Arms Previews

Both GameSpot and IGN PS2 have put together previews of Champions: Return to Arms, based on an alpha build of the console RPG. Here’s a snip from GameSpot’s article:

One interesting new feature that Return to Arms will add to the series is a sort of branching plot system that will present you with moral choices at various points in the game. The actions you take will, of course, determine the further development of the storyline and your character’s personality. For instance, in the first area we played, we were tasked with confronting an evil warlord on the Plane of War. En route to our encounter, however, we came across a woman who attempted to sway us from going to kill the boss of this area, instead urging us to join the side of evil and merely meet with him to deliver an item. When we accepted, our actual mission objective changed, as did the path we had to take to reach the end of the area. This system could have considerable ramifications for the development of the storyline, if Snowblind has implemented it thoroughly throughout the game.

And a snip from IGN PS2’s article:

Other additions that have been included all around are new spells for the older characters and 30 new levels of advancement to work through that add up to a highest possible level of 80 for all characters. With an estimated 20 hours to complete the story one time through and five different levels of difficulty this comes to a total of 100 hours of gameplay for anyone who wants to take a character from complete newbie to the mot powerful warrior possible. Of course, we’d recommend picking up the first game and going through that once or twice first since once a character has gone into Return to Arms it can’t go back. The new items and spells prevent any crossover once the transition has been made.