Game name: Champions Online

Review:

Champions Online is basically a continuation of Cryptic's last MMO, City of Heroes/Villains. The basic concept is the same - you create your Champion and run off to save the world, completing missions for civilians and superheroes alike and killing pretty much any enemy you come across. With the two games being so obviously similar, Cryptic had to make sure that Champions Online was bigger and better and the first way they've done this is by making almost everything customisable.

When you start off and log in for the first time you're presented with the character creation screen and given a plethora of options to make your character look exactly how you want him or her to. I spent about an hour and a half making my first character (an armour-clad Iron Man wannabe) because there are just that many options! It's not enough for Cryptic, however, that you have more costume options available. Now you can customise your powers and weapons too. Take, for example, my power armour character: At the moment he has a few different attacks. Wrist bolters which fire bolts of energy at his enemies, a palm bolter which charges up and fires powerful energy bolts, continuous laser beams which can be fired from his eyes (or helmet visor in my case) and finally an area effect rocket attack which fires 4 waves of micro rockets to bombard the area around my target. All of these powers can be customised in several ways. The first, and most obvious, is that you can change the colour of the energy bolts/laser beams to any colour you wish. It may only feel like a small option but it's a nice addition, ensuring that no character is going to be like any other on the server. For some powers (none of my power armour powers unfortunately) you can choose where they're fired from - head, eyes, chest, hands. Again ensuring that your character is exactly as you want them to be. Powers can also be modified as you level up and gain skill points; you spend your skill points to upgrade your powers or to add different effects to them. The weapons that your character uses can be modified too - a sword character can pick different types of sword or a gun character can choose different guns for when they are using those powers. At first the choice is obviously limited but you can unlock new costume parts through various items and can also buy them using pvp points or perk points. Perk points are awarded for completing perks, these can be anything from defeating a certain supervillain, taking lots of fire damage or discovering a historic location. Unfortunately some perks are missable, something which irks the completionist within me.

Later on in the game you can also create your Nemesis, the supervillain who will hound you throughout the rest of the game. I've yet to get to that stage (I believe it unlocks at level 25) but I'm looking forward to seeing what's available. My only annoyance is that the Nemesis unlocks so late though I suppose it gives people chance to properly learn the game as Nemesis battles are supposed to be difficult.

The powers themselves aren't as numerous as you might think. I'm currently level 16 and only have 4 powers - unlike in most MMOs where I'd have to use 3 or 4 toolbars to hold them all at this point. Throughout the entire game you only earn up to 14 powers and I feel that this is a nice change. Instead of having 30 or 40 powers and only really using 4 or 5 of them I use all of my powers in combat regularly. It also makes it much harder to choose which power to take when you get the option. In most MMOs you can simply pick every power and then decide whether or not they're worth using. In Champions Online you have to pick the power you think will work best with your character and style of play. To this end you are allowed to try powers out before you buy them - to train up your character visits the Powerhouse and gains abilities. If you leave the area then your power locks and you have to pay to respec (it's currently very expensive though the price is going to be lowered soon enough) however there are different training areas in the Powerhouse where you can try your abilities on test dummies so I'd strongly advise people to use that function before they run off and decide they've made a mistake. The game also offers you travel powers: there are the basics such as flight, teleportation and superspeed as well as some I wouldn't have thought of like tunnelling. The flight power has a few different variations such as fire, ice and earth flight (for the different power sets) and also rocket pack and rocket boots powers. You earn your first travel power at level 5 - a nice change from City of Heroes where you had to run around huge expanses for 14 levels before you could finally travel in style.

Stepping away from the costume and power options then, the combat is significantly different from City of Heroes. Combat feels much faster and more fluid than in any other MMO I've played because you're no longer stood watching your character swing his sword at an enemy for 2 or 3 minutes. Your basic power will auto-attack as long as it is toggled on but it is very weak and you will need to use your other powers as well. Your basic power does have an advantage, however, in that it increases your energy while it is being used. You'll often find yourself using your other powers and then switching back to your basic power to regenerate the energy you've just spent. It works well as it makes combat more interesting than just turning a power on and watching your opponent die. The few pvp games I've tried have so far been very frantic though it seems the key to winning is having a healer on your team. To that end I'll only be pvping again once I have a team set up before I enter the hero games arena. I'm very much looking forward to using my teleporting, sword-wielding, gunslinging character in pvp though...

Cryptic went an odd direction with the graphics, Champions Online looks cell-shaded - something I wasn't too keen on to begin with. The graphics have grown on me though and I do quite like the look of the game. As mentioned before, my character is still somewhat low level so I expect there are a great many things I've yet to discover within the game. I'm not going to tell everyone to rush out and buy this game as I expect it won't appeal to everybody. What I will say, then, is that this is the most fun I've had with an MMO and, while I don't expect it to beat The Old Republic, I'll be playing Champions Online until my Star Wars MMO releases.

Ratings
Graphics: B
Sounds: C (none of the music really stands out for me)
Gameplay: A
Replayability: A

Overall score: B+

(I may have missed something with the review so if anybody has any questions or wants to know anything about the game just post up and I'll answer what I can. I don't do many reviews... )

Awesome! Thanks a ton man. I'd really love to check this game out. Is there a release date yet? And if not, is it possible to get into the Beta?

its out now.

Would you look at that, it came out today.

Yup. Today was release day and the source of much unhappiness for people who played in the beta. Excluding me.

Cryptic released a patch today which 'nerfed' a lot of the passive powers. Basically, it was possible to have characters who were pretty much unkillable - my power armour dude had about 45% damage resistance. Yes, I rocked in pvp! :p

They've changed the passive powers so they don't give you as much of a bonus. I think I'm now at 24 or 25% damage resistance. People have been complaining because it makes the game harder - you can't run into the middle of 10 enemies and kill them all easily. You have to be intelligent about when and where you fight.

I don't mind the nerf, to be honest, though am a bit annoyed they also nerfed my eye laser power... I've found that since the patch people actually want to team up for missions as some can be a lot harder to solo. I'm all for that, makes the game much more fun to me! If I wanted a single-player game I'd have bought one. I got Champions for the multiplayer part of MMO.

If any of you guys get the game then let me know. There's no separation between US and Euro servers as far as I know so I'll happily team up with you if you like.

Orrah....

You played City of heros right? Remember the repetetive levels that were always the same? Remember the way the city felt cheap when you were flying around?

Has all that been improved upon?

Yeah, I remember everything feeling very repetitive in City of Heroes. They've mixed up the quests in Champions to avoid that, you'll find yourself doing a lot of mission arcs and fighting a good few bad guys. I'm quite enjoying the ever-increasing list of perks for defeating the main villains in the game. As with any MMO it's probably better when you group with other players. I've not done a lot of grouping (short of shouting out when I need help with a mission) as the supergroups are all very new and therefore shit. I'll wait and join a half-decent one eventually.

Looking forward to level 25 as that's when I get my Nemesis!

Also, they look to have fixed the problems they caused. Everything works well since the latest patch.

See this is looking exciting, but I'm also looking at the new star wars....even though the other star wars mmo put me off a bit.

But the thought of another city of heros puts me off Champions.

Also....Superheroes....women are much sexier. But I can't pick a woman on an mmo cause I'd be a faggit. But I don't wanna stare at a dude's ass for hours a week....when do you get a cape? Lvl 20 like CoH/V?

Cape can be chosen at character creation this time. You can get more costume parts as you play the game - some have to be bought using 'perk points' (points you get for completing perks) or acclaim (pvp points) and others can be found or created.

Ax, I was the same as you to begin with. I enjoyed City of Heroes but I didn't want a clone of it. Champions Online obviously shares similarities with CoH but it's so much better. I wish they did a trial so you could give it a go and I could show you around.

I have a couple of female characters. Just fancied a change really, simple as that.

EDIT: As for The Old Republic, I'll be getting that on day one. Champions Online is something to tide me over until it comes out. it's fun and there's loads to do. They'll shortly be releasing the first batch of new content which I believe is aimed at end-level players (level 40 is the highest level at the moment) and I wouldn't exactly be shocked if they eventually let you create a villain to play as at some point.