From towering robots and hunched-over beasts to winged angels and horned mutants, you have the freedom to create just about anything you can imagine. Does the gameplay inspire the same level of creativity?
The Pros
- Fast-paced action
- Impressive character creator
- Vibrant, cel-shaded visuals
- Promising potential
The Cons
- Repetitive quests
- Eight characters per account
- Balance issues
- Basic PvP
- Confusing crafting system
- Terrible voice acting
Designed by the company originally responsible for the City of Heroes franchise, Champions Online dons the mask, cape, and spandex again for more massively multiplayer mayhem. Chief among its standout features is the level of customization you have over your hero or heroine. Instead of merely spending hours getting just the right look for your crimson-codpiece-clad crime fighter, you can craft new items, acquire a variety of powers from multiple disciplines, tweak their (or a weapon's) appearance and animation, and go beyond the rigid class structure found in competing games. From towering robots and hunched-over beasts to winged angels and horned mutants, you have the freedom to create just about anything you can imagine. Does the gameplay inspire the same level of creativity?
It's Clobberin' Time
You begin your superhero life in Millennium City, which is under attack from an insectoid race called the Qularr. There isn't any alone time with a mentor, showing you the ropes as a superhero and letting you come to grips with your newfound powers. Instead, you are thrust right into the action with the buzzing and bustling of a city under siege. Other areas follow a similar format, offering a community-level quest that involves beating the stuffing out of enemies, collecting doodads and whatnots, and/or defending a hotspot for a certain length of time. At the end of each event, you'll see how your superhero stacked up against others and maybe earn a reward or two.
Other quest types will be familiar to online RPG veterans. You'll gather this many items, kill x-amount of enemies, rescue certain people, and venture into dungeons called lairs. Quest givers, called contacts, have punctuation marks floating above their heads and dole out experience points and stat-boosting loot. While the quests are hardly original, initially there are plenty of things to do to make it feel like you are moving forward with your character instead of grinding experience by killing random mobs. The seven themed regions (snow, city, underwater, desert, moon, etc.) are diverse enough to make you want to explore every nook and cranny, but truth be told, the action doesn't deviate much from region to region. The majority of mobs, for example, can be defeated by alternating between one or two select powers and a blocking move. If you are hoping for strategic battles that will require the full use of your hero's abilities to win, you'll likely be disappointed with Champions Online's combat. It is, however, very solo friendly, which some will appreciate.
Fulfilling Your Destiny
While the combat wades toward the shallow side of the pool, the game can still be fun to play. Again, the lack of traditional classes means you can create your hero the way you want instead of following a narrow tree. Champions Online offers six different frameworks to build your characters, including might, psionic, martial arts, tech, magic, and elemental, but there's nothing preventing you from mixing and matching powers within these frameworks. Another bright spot is the inclusion of perks, which are achievements you complete by defeating enemies, meeting certain characters, exploring areas, and so forth. Perks unlock roles for your character (such as support or offense) as well as costume pieces, pets, titles, and other bonuses. Once you hit level 25, you'll create an arch-nemesis that will become a burr in your britches throughout subsequent quests and lead to character-specific missions.
Divvying Up the Action
Players accustomed to games like World of Warcraft will be surprised to learn that Champions Online doesn't tie you to a specific server, as regions are essentially large instances with a small population cap. Each time you visit a new area, you choose from a list of instances, which serves as a reminder that you aren't playing in a seamless world filled with thousands of players. While you'll be able to see which instances your friends or guild members are currently playing in, it's possible that you won't all be able to meet together in the same area. The limited instance size means it will be more difficult for solo players to find groups for certain quests. It also should be noted that Champions Online feels like a player versus environment game first, and a player versus player game second. The latter takes place in small deathmatch-type arenas where the goal is to eliminate the opposition as quickly as possible.
One of the more controversial design features of Champions Online is the use of "cryptic points" to purchase items on top of the monthly fee. In essence, the developers are taking two bites from the same apple, and you're the Red Delicious. At the time of the game's launch, this content consists of pets for 80 points apiece, which translates in the real world to $1 per toy helicopter or mini companion. Is this process a little cheesy? Yes, but if, as the developers suggest, it's needed to ensure high quality support, then let the nickel-and-diming begin. Just keep it to the areas of cosmetic costume pieces and fluff, or the community blowback will be strong enough to create a tornado.
Hero or Zero?
Champions Online is a colorful, action-packed title with the finest character creation system yet seen in an online RPG. The repetitive quests, instance population caps, and dearth of group-oriented content are disappointments. There are also the expected issues for a new game, including balancing problems, powers that aren't doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing, frame rate issues, and some content gaps. The good news is that these titles always improve over time, and during its first week, the developers have already announced significant patches to address some of the shortcomings. In its current state, Champions Online improves upon the City of Heroes franchise but lacks the all-important "addictiveness" factor to propel it to must-have status. A few more months of polish are needed to convert nagging doubters into true believers.
Comments
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Maxximus1
This game's mechanics are completely broken, completely. So many bugs still remain 9 months after launch it is shameful to charge a monthly subscription. There is little to no documentation of what your power choices actually do, and 3/4's of them are wrong in what they state. The development team is very small and divided amongst three different mmo's they currently operate, not good for maintenance or customer support. To top it off, it is a hybrid mmo with both a Sub Fee and an Item Mall.
SKIP IT, DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY WITH CRYPTIC, EVER.
artmonster1
and....
if you want to survive..you seem to HAVE to take regen..or you will be constantly frustrated.....I respeced out of many of my toons to regen becasue of this discrepancy.
and dont even try to take an offensive passive......you hit hard...but will die more often than you like to.
...
wneh I canceled my account the rep asked why, and I told him...he said "You know that there will be more content added in three months"...I said..."it should have had at least enough at launch to play....and now you want me to wait three months?."
sorry cryptic..... I have seen a lot of people leave CO....and I am just one of those.
too bad really.
artmonster1
I actually agree with the review.
I had (yes HAD) the lifetime subscription. But I cancelled and got my money back.
I got a hero up to 39 in the month....and another to 28 and six others to 15....
repetative? hell yes....and you better not miss ANY quests along the way..or you will be grinding very low exp mobs to get there.
and my 39 toon? I ran out of Quests alltogether.....so I had nowhere to go for a whole level.
needless to say...this game is broken.
too bad becasue it looks great.....but the bads totally outweighed the goods in my experience..
I wont be back.
fragbot1
It's only been a month and Cryptic has already made quite a few balance fixes and changes, added more quests to help with leveling, and rectified numerous bugs. What's even better is the customer service. GMs are quick to respond to requests and quick to help in any way they can.
So far I have found the game to be very enjoyable. "Repetitive quests" as a negative? Really?? Is this your first MMO or something? And frame issues? Were you playing on a terrible computer with only the nimimum requirements? My computer is nothing fantastic and I run the game at 2-300% graphics settings with no lag. At all. Ever.
As for a "confusing crafting system", not really, no.. if you spend longer than 10 seconds looking into it. I have a character maxed out in Mysticism crafting skill, and I haven't seen anything difficult at all about leveling it or crafting items or finding items to break down... or anything.
Just seems to me this terrible review was hastily written by someone who quite possibly has very little experience with MMOs in general. It's also apparent by the author's description of the pvp system that he never made it past the first tier, since there are two more types of PvP matches introduced at higher levels, neither of which are mentioned at all.
Shame on you, G4. You consider yourself to be enough of an authority on gaming that your review should have weight, yet you don't bother to even play the game you're reviewing. Next time stay off the forums where allt he whiners congregate and actually play the game for yourselves before writing a review... cause this one is complete and utter garbage.
bousquetcm
"If you are hoping for strategic battles that will require the full use of your hero's abilities to win, you'll likely be disappointed with Champions Online's combat. It is, however, very solo friendly, which some will appreciate."
I have to disagree. I am a Level 27 Sorcery/Darkness build and find soloing to be a bit difficult prior to the balance adjustment made a couple days ago. For the most part, it is better to group up, unless you're sweeping the streets. As for strategy, I had a mission to defeat an "Inner Circle" sorcery character and found that i had to go 3 or 4 battles with it, to get down the right combination of my powers to take it out. I couldn't just roll in with my 2 primary powers. I strategically had to use my root, blast, and ranged area attacks, while using a heal tap to regen. It took a bit a timing to prevent the character from calling their pet in the battle or using a heal tap on me
So there are fights when you do have to have a plan going to in.
On top of that, I tried to take on the same character with an Electricity/Sorcery set that did not have a heal tap, and even with my own pet, I kept getting dusted by the character. So,as you play and get deeper into the levels, you do start getting away from the 2 button mashing. I use every power depending on the enemy.
I did have major issues with the ability to solo as a Sorcery character which is why I mixed in Electricity, but since the balance adjustments, I have been able to go back to a full Darkness Character.
I also saw that there is a "Crime Computer" you can call up when you think you have run out of missions, and it will give you a list of missions you haven't touched yet and characters to speak to. I never saw that in EQ (played 2002-2004). As for the fun factor, I am addicted. The only thing I haven't paid real attention to is crafting.
Other than that, this is def. on track to unseat WoW.
Ras668
What DEV's don't realize nowadays, is that if you have a game that is capable of grabbing and holding onto players right off the bat, then it's most likely doomed to failure, or at best mediocrity. When CO launched, it was plagued with bugs and horrible balancing issue. By now, many of the bugs have been addressed, but many balancing problems remain. Balancing issues, that for many, make the playing the game not worth the subscription fee. The other, and possibly, most substantial problem with CO is a strong lack of end game content. You can literally make it to level 40 (level cap) by spamming block and one other ability, in a relatively short amount of time. This might be acceptable to a casual gamer, but for anyone else, a week to make it to max level is not fulfilling. And once your there, what is there to do? Very little. Almost all quest can be soloed; for many, even recommended 5 man quests can be completed with a minor amount of effort and time. PvP is lackluster, and once you get beyond tier 2, becomes a mass spam of the same abilities on every character (if they want to be successful at least). Gear that can be acquired through PvP is crap quite frankly, so there's no other reason to PvP but to grief other players. And grief they do, you see the same characters in PvP time after time, with a few dominating the field. This turns many of the "casual gamers", which this game seems to be catered to, away from PvP.
All these problems exist now, and for many people, is enough to get them to cancel their subscriptions at the end of the free month that came with purchase of the game. Yes, these problems may be addressed later, but as in many MMO's, once you a player leaves, they never look back, no matter what. It happened with AoC. It happened with Warhammer, which IMO, was a substantially better game upon launch; more end game content, a more reasonable amount of effort needed to advance to max level, and far superior PvP, but still plagued with problems. And it's going to happen to CO.
CO more than any of these games has come to think of this trial month as more of an extended beta. A time to work out bugs, and balance. These are issues that should be worked out in beta. It has become a poor business practice that companies, not just gaming ones either, have come to think of paying customers as beta testers. Yes, this might save a couple dollars in development, but in the end is counter productive.
Personally, I'll be canceling my subscription at the end of my free month, and I doubt I'll ever give CO another chance. It's sad because I had high hopes for this game.
If your considering purchasing this game, I strongly recommend waiting for 2 or 3 months until some of these issues are addressed. You'll be getting a better gaming experience for your buck. I just hope that there is a community left for you to play with.
marsrvr
Its not all there yet, but I can tell from the bones of the framework that is: the potential's astounding. I'm an old Champions RPG player from the 90's so this is the most natural game mechanics experience I've ever seen...uh...for a game that bends, breaks, or thumbs nose at every rule in my physics book. They've also finally enough sliders in the character creator to be your own Polykleitos. They haven't solved the MMO's inherent mission "rinse, lather, repeat...always repeat" syndrome by any stretch of the imagination. I stopped reading the mish descriptions after about a day because text is too slow a story delivery media to keep up with the pace of the rest of the game. Combat's not the Matrix-Online-style rho-shem-bo elegance I'm hoping for from DC Universe Online (its all Sony proprietary now), but its a step towards a simulator from the single-action press-button-and-wait-for-anim ation style of all other MMO's I'm tired of (left over from turn-based strategy games). The effects like frost breath holds or regeneration aren't up to the comic-book level of "done right by the next frame" effectiveness I'd like to see and with further game balancing I'm actually expecting them to become more feeble. The lift scale's also been linearized from the beauty of its paper-and-dice exponential ancestor. By Champion RPG rights you should be able to hoist trucks with an STR of 45 or so, yet my STR 163 toon hesitates to lift a tractor (should be hoisting all of downtown by then). The environment is sprinkled with respawining throw/chew toys but its as disappointingly indestructible as its been in every MMO before it. Pedestrians no longer shove your super tank out of the way to walk by (like they did in CoX), but now I can't fly through simple trees without getting entangled--and there are more trees than pedestrians. And you can't teleport or tunnel through anything. The sidekicking and exemplaring system is present but currently useless as is street hunting/farming for advancement (worked better in beta). The leveling system is scary the first time your lvl 15 toon gets cold-clocked by a lvl 5 minion, but if that lvl 5 guy spent all his points on 1 big gun...and that's the way it should be...except that they brought back the "no xp for baddies further than 5 levels away" stupidness. I got a million little nits rants and praises to blabber on about the game. You'll just have to play it for yourself. Overall I'd agree with the "3/5" because it all averages out. There are many sparks of brilliance...and big gaping holes of stupidity. Time will iron all that out into one average MMO by the time they "bring it all into balance". I'm in for the ride though. I think they've earned my lifetime subscription. Over the long run it won't be the game that keeps me coming back. It will be the community, and that's slowly forming.
Bassglass
Is CO perfect? Nope.
Is it fun for a bit? For me it is.
I understand the 3/5 as really there are limited zones and the game PvP is not good at all. But the graphic are very slick and I just love the comic book style.
Canid117
So... why only 8 character slots?
sarid
no one will remember champions online once aion comes out
jhoe45
ummm g4 gives CO a 3/5 but WAR a 5/5. retarded. WAR is on the verge of collapse and CO is totally fun to play. It is by no means a game you will play 16 hours a day every day. WHY?? Because there isnt much of a grind. Thank of WOW most of your time is spent in flight or grinding xp and gold. CO is charming and fun and perfect for the gamer that doesnt have his entire life to devote to a single game. This game rocks and should of got a 4/5 and everyone should try it out.
natey_au
I was all very excited about getting this game till I saw "Monthly subscription required"... FAIL!
NortheastMonk
I hope Mr. Roper isn't too pissed over this.
alexatlanta
This is a game that appears very simple on its surface, and until about level 12, it really is a simple game. Where the complexity, and in my opinion the charm derrives is from the ability to make very interesting and unique characters. You have to balance not only stats, but also what skills you chose. The balance of charge ups, damage, buffs, crowd control, etc is challenging since there are no trio of doom (DPS, healer, tank) as such. Sure, you can make a tank, DPS, or healer, but you will often do tasks alone. So, you have to have some utility (Holy utility belt, BatThing!). Thankfully, much unlike Asheron's Call, where everyone eventually devolved into a warrior/sorcerer mode and many skills were ignored, I think the skills prove very interesting in Champions.
I will admit, Champions has no where near the charm of WoW, but it has a nice casual experience that I like. I enjoy playing for 15-90 minutes and feel I accomplished something (a plus in WoW too, but not so much for EQ or Vanguard type games).
This game has a lot of promise. It launched very smoothly. The help ticket system is well thought through. And I really enjoy the character customization. I have yet to see two non-intentionally same looking characters. I just wish there were more civilians. I feel like the game lives in a Mystery Men universe pool party.
AzraelHorn
I was a beta tester for CO the last 6 months and a former CoH player. The customization was really great but to be honest the powers just weren't as fun as CoH's a lot of the time. Like the review said, many just didn't work the way they were supposed to (summons) or just felt pointless (holds). The "repetitive quests" angle is something that all MMO's struggle with, but in this case the problem is with each new character you create EVERYTHING is the same the next time through. You're forced to do the training area each time. You're limited to the same three areas until around lvl 25 or so, and there aren't enough quests to make it so the content doesn't grow repetitive and ultimately boring- especially if you're like me and you like to have several different characters with different power sets and focuses. Towards the end of the beta I only played for an hour or two every other week because I just wasn't excited about it. CoH, even after years of playing, still kept me investing hours at a time at least 4-5 times a week. That's not to say I didn't take breaks from CoH from time to time, but I still kept coming back. CoH is starting to make some changes that fans have wanted for a long time that CO delivers on. If they continue that trend there may be little reason to play CO compared to the established CoH- especially if CoH gives players an option to mix and match powers, which was the real draw for me to CO in the first place. Just my 2 cents.
abelpc
I played this game in beta and I got bored very quickly.. it has promise but regardless of how it looks it has to be compelling. Just not going to play this one.. that is MY preference. Others may like the game but I will wait for the New Star Wars MMO.
deathnotejoe
ill get it when it realeses for 360. im oissed at MS cuz i was really looking forward to playing this with a controller. I HATE KEYBOARDS
SoldierSpider
i think about get it. it look good but i not forsure
Prometheustflx
Just because a lot of the missions are in a relatively similar place does NOT mean that they are repetitive! Most WoW quests are a lot alike but the only reason people don't recognize it is because the two quests that are the same are in different climates. The game is fun... But not so much to become addictive. Cant ask for anymore.
Utmost_NutsZo
I'm a current subscriber and long time COH player. I'm very satisfied with the game at launch. The crafting system doesn't seem complicated to me and this is the first time I've ever done crafting in an MMO.
There are things that need polish, but I wouldn't say mission repetitiveness is one of them. I feel like the missions are fresh - at least thus far. I'd can't argue with the 3/5, I just have different reasons - like the lack of different servers like they did with COH. I'm not a big fan of instances. Also I don't like that you have to craft items to get certain effects on your abilities. This would be fine if the crafted item was put into a separate slot that doesn't effect your stats, but you have to put it in a PRIMARY offensive slot, which reduces your effectiveness.
Overall though, I'm happy with the game and look forward to leveling up a lot of characters.
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