The most difficult thing about creating any sequel is creating a game that can not only stand on its own merits, but also contributes positively to the brand. The Godfather: Part II would be an example of a sequel done right. Dumber and Dumberer, on the other hand, does neither.

While Champions: Return to Arms isn't a Dumber and Dumberer, neither is it comparable with The Godfather: Part II. RtA is very much an extension of Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest, with some derivative elements of recent RPGs thrown in for good measure, but the result lacks the impact of its predecessor.

The premise is fairly straightforward: the Champions of Norrath, that loveable bunch from the last game, have destroyed the god Innoruuk. Naturally, Innoruuk's followers aren't crazy about that outcome, and they seek to recover the shards of his body, in order to resurrect him. Firiona Vie, that icon of all that is good and pure, has recruited you to foil their efforts.

Like Fable and Knights of the Old Republic before it, Return to Arms gives you a good-or-evil option. You can follow Firiona Vie, and save the world, or you can join the revival efforts of Innoruuk's followers, and destroy it. The essential problem with this conceit is that unlike, say, KotOR, the story doesn't build up to such a choice. Within about the first fifteen minutes of playtime, you come across one of Innoruuk's faithful, who promises you wealth and power if only you'll betray Firiona Vie, and work for the forces of darkness.

As a result, your choice affects your story only superficially; you still play basically the same missions, although with slightly different outcomes, and fight most of the same bosses. There's no betrayal consequences, for example; your base of operations simply switches from one Plane to another.

That's not to say Return to Arms is completely without novelty; two new character classes join the previous cast: the vah shir berserker, and the iksar shaman. The primary differences from one class to the next tend to be the class feats available to each. The ranger, for example, can summon arrows, using his mana pool, allowing him to attack from long range without having to make constant trips back to the base Plane to restock. That particular example is an inspired streamlining of the Champions gameplay, although not all of the class feats are quite that useful.

There's also a new sidequest system: when you finish each level, you have the opportunity to earn medals by tackling more difficult tasks within the confines of the level - defeat the Horsemen without using more than a certain number of healing potions, for example. It's a twist on the core gameplay, which has gone essentially unchanged, despite tweaking and refinements, for the last four years. More importantly, the rewards for success are fairly substantial: an increase in your character's stats, unlockable maps for use online, or powerful weapons that are otherwise unobtainable.

It's the multiplayer, in fact, that makes a game like Return to Arms worth playing. That's been true for virtually every such game during the last ten years, but especially so for a game little changed from last year's version.

One change to the multiplayer comes from the fact that your online character is now stored on the server side, preventing you from using the same character online and offline. That's a mixed blessing; one of the charms of Champions of Norrath was the ability to hop online when a level proved particularly problematic, and get a little help from your friends to advance the story.

Of course, there was always the risk of finishing a level that was too advanced for your character, leaving you worse off than you began when you returned to offline play, since the online save overwrote the offline one.

It's also worth noting that there are multiple difficulties in Return to Arms, with each step balanced for a particular level of character. If you've already invested the hours in leveling up a character from the original Champions, you can import that character into Arms and start on one of the more advanced difficulties.

The controls are virtually identical to every Snowblind Studios production of the last three years, with one notable difference: the camera pans altogether too slowly if you play with the camera zoomed-in, and more normally when zoomed out. It's disappointing, because the level of detail on the zoom is excellent, and the zoomed-in view has been my preference in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and CoN: Realms of EverQuest.

The graphics are, naturally, excellent, something we've come to expect from Snowblind. Aside from the aforementioned camera lag when zoomed in, I've had no complaints. The animations are fluid and varied, and I've seen nary an instance of clipping, something that hasn't always been true of games using the Dark Alliance or Dark Alliance 2 engines.

The audio is pretty solid as well. The voice acting is enjoyable, but the script the actors voice is predictable and fairly trite. The sounds of combat are well-done, and the music doesn't get in the way of the gameplay, although when you do hear it, you'll find it enjoyable.

Still, unless you've either got a fetish for all things Norrath, or if you somehow missed out on CoN: Realms of EverQuest - and at $19.99, how the hell have you missed it? - there isn't much here to recommend an immediate purchase. Rent it before you spend the money.