CHAMPIONS OF NORRATH
Publisher: Sony
Platform: PS2
Genre: Action/RPG
Rated: TEEN
Available Now
Saying that Sony’s massive multiplayer online PC game “EverQuest” is popular is as much an understatement as saying Howard Dean is excitable. At the end of 2003, more than 430,000 PC players around the world were active subscribers — never mind how many have forcibly removed the digital IV from their systems since the game’s initial release in 1999. At peak times, more than 118,000 players are using avatars to hack and slash dragons together, bonding through online quests and searches for treasure.
With such incredible success, Sony assumed that the game would be an instant home run on the PlayStation 2. But it failed to connect with console gamers on the same level — none of the highs (weddings) and lows (unfortunate suicides when online avatars get zapped from the system) followed “EverQuest” to the console realm. Rather, console gamers were lining up to practice online bang-bang with Sony’s military sim, “SOCOM: Navy Seals.”
Perhaps console gamers rejected it because they preferred their RPGs from Square Enix, makers of the phenom franchise “Final Fantasy.” Or maybe there really is a solid line dividing console and PC gamers — they just prefer different types of games. The last RPG that sold big on the PS2 prior to “EQ’s” fizzle was Interplay’s “Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance,” an action-oriented dungeon crawler that focused more on orc-slaying and less on the talky-talky.
So, Sony commissioned “EverQuest: Champions of Norrath” from Snowblind Studios, the team that developed the original “Baldur’s Gate” vid. It wanted an action RPG that took place in “EQ’s” fictional realm of Norrath, using “EQ” characters, monsters, weapons and rules. Sony even wanted online play, so people could hear through headsets the trademark mouth-breathing that usually accompanies ax swinging and goblin cleaving.
And that’s certainly what Sony, and gamers, got this week, as “Norrath” landed on shelves. But for all the “EQ” hooks in the game, Sony made a very conscious decision to strip the packaging of any reference to the franchise that couldn’t on PS2. Now, it’s just called “Champions of Norrath.” It rolls off the tongue about as well as, “I really liked that last ‘Tomb Raider’ game.”
But will the move end up hurting the game even more than having “EverQuest” on the cover, which seems to be kryptonite to console gamers? Games without franchise names are tough sells now, as mainstream vidders tend to go for known quantities. The best-selling game last month was Electronic Arts’ “Need for Speed: Underground.” A superlative racing game for sure, but it certainly enjoyed the extra juice of the “Need for Speed” prefix.
Of course, what counts most (in a perfect world, not the one where “True Crime” outsells “Viewtiful Joe”) is whether or not “Norrath” is any fun — and it is. In fact, it’s a freakishly addictive game in a way similar to its PC cousin. Gamers crawl through forests and dank dungeons to slap around monsters and uncover rare items.
“Norrath” is also in for some serious competition. Interplay managed to squeak the sequel to “Baldur’s Gate” into retail a couple of weeks before “Norrath” — meaning Sony will have to contend with not only a well-liked brand name, but also the sequel to the game that made the action-RPG popular on the PS2.
And in late March, Square Enix is unleashing “Final Fantasy XI,” the massively multiplayer online version of the world’s best-selling RPG series on the PS2. “Norrath” may need more than a champion to win the day; it may need a miracle.
