[HEADING=1]Intelligence Check: Champions Online[/HEADING]
My life can be pretty boring at times. Being a college student in southern Alabama, I'm expected to have camouflage jackets and hunting boots as my daily attire. What a shock it brought to the campus when during Theme Day, where everyone supposed to dress in 80's or 90's attire, I appeared with a Super Mario Brothers 3 shirt, depicting a raccoon Mario tail-whipping a Power-up Block. That evening I went home with a strange adventurous mood. I had broken the social norm and just went for what I wanted to wear. Naturally when I got home, Champions Online was downloaded and waiting for me, my adventurous mood driving me to another horizon.
Champions Online is a recently turned free-to-play MMORPG developed by Cryptic Entertainment and published by Atari. Players assume the role of naturally a superhero tasked with saving the world. Cryptic does a good job of making the player feel like a Hero in a city of...well heroes...wait what? Champions Online has taken a LOT of flak from gamers as being a "City of Heroes" clone. With the ability to piece together a costume, sidekick systems which adjust the player level to match a smaller level group, and all around ambiance of the world, players from City of Heroes will find a lot of similarities. However, I will not be comparing CO to City of Heroes because they are both separate games and deserve to be treated as such. So is it a bird? A plane? A Frog? No, just a review.
Champions Online starts out like any satire hero movie would: All Hell breaking loose! Although clearly a tutorial, I must admit its okay. Characters learn the basics and move on to save the city, simple as that. Admittedly the tutorial did not grab me like Vindictus did and the ending is fairly predictable. One thing bugs me though: The heroes are primarily at fault for the city being in shambles. I want to avoid spoilers, but just know that one small sentence in the plot of the tutorial changed my entire outlook on just what is going on. After the tutorial, players are naturally thrown out into the big city to go wild. It was at this point that I looked in the options and all I have to say is...
If there is anything that Champions Online has, it's options. From control schemes to advanced video, there are tons of entirely optional choices the player can make. Do you like to play in a first person shooter style? There's a pre-set control option for that. Prefer a WoW styled game-play? Knock yourself out. That's just the controls, I haven't even begun about character creation, extra video options, and then to top it all off the key binds are completely customizable. If for some reason the player wants to have travel powers set to the right mouse button then go right ahead. I mention Video Options because one of my favorites is the ability to disable the cartoon outlining. Similar to Borderlands, everything seems to have this thick black outlining around everything. I promise, the game looks much better without it. Cryptic takes one step further by adding a quick-to-change difficulty setting, in an MMO!
Not that Champions Online is really difficult to begin with. As I started slicing away with my Blade character I decided to increase the difficulty to avoid the low level woes that come from one shot killing everything. Once I hit level 10 though, I had to tone down to normal difficulty for a little bit. All of the classes, known as Archetypes, have clear advantages and disadvantages, and no two classes are alike. Equipment is handled differently as well. Instead of players finding that new piece of armor that looks cool, players simply have under-the-hood bonuses that work like gear. The equipment system allows players to boost up on the best gear without looking just like everyone else, a system that is very welcome to a free-to-play gamer like me. Players gain a travel power very quickly. Once I obtained the ability to teleport, I knew I was hooked on Champions Online.
Being hooked though doesn't mean I'm going to start shelling out the big bucks for premium content. Thankfully, Cryptic does not try to pull the famous Turbine stunt and allows free players to quest and level their way up to the maximum level free of charge. Two adventure packs are currently being sold but they are end-game additions and not needed to reach the maximum level. Monthly subscribers gain two extra classes and the ability to custom design a class of their own. Although this idea was considered controversial, I think Cryptic has a valid point. Free players are not locked out of class roles, they just have their new powers handed to them and are forced down the narrow path of the archetype they choose. Cryptic did allow free players a few options though, most importantly the ability to choose which travel power they prefer. Cryptic doesn't plan on stopping free players from reaching the maximum level, but paying players can purchase additional costume options. Don't fret; there are hundreds of costume pieces for free players. If anything, I can personally respect Cryptic for their premium model, meaning I'm more likely to pay for some smaller features down the road. If players happen to be big spenders though, they might consider the $250 lifetime subscription.
Inevitably, the free-to-play community was bound to cause some damage. Minor annoyances such as anime and comic book characters being replicated only irritate the main issue: the local chat. Players are unable to chat in local or send private whispers until 20 hours of gameplay. While I can easily understand the restrictions, it did make answering some questions I had a challenge. The mentality of the Local channel is sadly Barrens Chat material, which is about as low an intelligence as possible, and I sadly foresee the social nightclub slowly becoming the next Goldshire Incident. Thankfully, players can join a different channel of the instances, which may tone down on the issues.
Cryptic has definitely done a good thing here. Champions Online brings the thrill of being a superhero to the free-to-play market. Although arguably not the most original idea on the planet, I applaud Cryptic for being creative with the options players are allowed. Players are given a true sense of freedom as to how they want to game to both look and play. Premium members do get a lot of advantages, but they're really bonuses instead of pieces needed to play. Sure, it's never going to topple World of Warcraft or City of Heroes but in all honesty, it's not trying to. Champions Online just wants to be that, Champions Online. My only complaint is the immaturity that the Local Channel displays but that really is just a side effect of going free-to-play. Believe me, there are people of all kinds. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go teleport for a couple hours.
My life can be pretty boring at times. Being a college student in southern Alabama, I'm expected to have camouflage jackets and hunting boots as my daily attire. What a shock it brought to the campus when during Theme Day, where everyone supposed to dress in 80's or 90's attire, I appeared with a Super Mario Brothers 3 shirt, depicting a raccoon Mario tail-whipping a Power-up Block. That evening I went home with a strange adventurous mood. I had broken the social norm and just went for what I wanted to wear. Naturally when I got home, Champions Online was downloaded and waiting for me, my adventurous mood driving me to another horizon.
Champions Online is a recently turned free-to-play MMORPG developed by Cryptic Entertainment and published by Atari. Players assume the role of naturally a superhero tasked with saving the world. Cryptic does a good job of making the player feel like a Hero in a city of...well heroes...wait what? Champions Online has taken a LOT of flak from gamers as being a "City of Heroes" clone. With the ability to piece together a costume, sidekick systems which adjust the player level to match a smaller level group, and all around ambiance of the world, players from City of Heroes will find a lot of similarities. However, I will not be comparing CO to City of Heroes because they are both separate games and deserve to be treated as such. So is it a bird? A plane? A Frog? No, just a review.
Champions Online starts out like any satire hero movie would: All Hell breaking loose! Although clearly a tutorial, I must admit its okay. Characters learn the basics and move on to save the city, simple as that. Admittedly the tutorial did not grab me like Vindictus did and the ending is fairly predictable. One thing bugs me though: The heroes are primarily at fault for the city being in shambles. I want to avoid spoilers, but just know that one small sentence in the plot of the tutorial changed my entire outlook on just what is going on. After the tutorial, players are naturally thrown out into the big city to go wild. It was at this point that I looked in the options and all I have to say is...
If there is anything that Champions Online has, it's options. From control schemes to advanced video, there are tons of entirely optional choices the player can make. Do you like to play in a first person shooter style? There's a pre-set control option for that. Prefer a WoW styled game-play? Knock yourself out. That's just the controls, I haven't even begun about character creation, extra video options, and then to top it all off the key binds are completely customizable. If for some reason the player wants to have travel powers set to the right mouse button then go right ahead. I mention Video Options because one of my favorites is the ability to disable the cartoon outlining. Similar to Borderlands, everything seems to have this thick black outlining around everything. I promise, the game looks much better without it. Cryptic takes one step further by adding a quick-to-change difficulty setting, in an MMO!
Not that Champions Online is really difficult to begin with. As I started slicing away with my Blade character I decided to increase the difficulty to avoid the low level woes that come from one shot killing everything. Once I hit level 10 though, I had to tone down to normal difficulty for a little bit. All of the classes, known as Archetypes, have clear advantages and disadvantages, and no two classes are alike. Equipment is handled differently as well. Instead of players finding that new piece of armor that looks cool, players simply have under-the-hood bonuses that work like gear. The equipment system allows players to boost up on the best gear without looking just like everyone else, a system that is very welcome to a free-to-play gamer like me. Players gain a travel power very quickly. Once I obtained the ability to teleport, I knew I was hooked on Champions Online.
Being hooked though doesn't mean I'm going to start shelling out the big bucks for premium content. Thankfully, Cryptic does not try to pull the famous Turbine stunt and allows free players to quest and level their way up to the maximum level free of charge. Two adventure packs are currently being sold but they are end-game additions and not needed to reach the maximum level. Monthly subscribers gain two extra classes and the ability to custom design a class of their own. Although this idea was considered controversial, I think Cryptic has a valid point. Free players are not locked out of class roles, they just have their new powers handed to them and are forced down the narrow path of the archetype they choose. Cryptic did allow free players a few options though, most importantly the ability to choose which travel power they prefer. Cryptic doesn't plan on stopping free players from reaching the maximum level, but paying players can purchase additional costume options. Don't fret; there are hundreds of costume pieces for free players. If anything, I can personally respect Cryptic for their premium model, meaning I'm more likely to pay for some smaller features down the road. If players happen to be big spenders though, they might consider the $250 lifetime subscription.
Inevitably, the free-to-play community was bound to cause some damage. Minor annoyances such as anime and comic book characters being replicated only irritate the main issue: the local chat. Players are unable to chat in local or send private whispers until 20 hours of gameplay. While I can easily understand the restrictions, it did make answering some questions I had a challenge. The mentality of the Local channel is sadly Barrens Chat material, which is about as low an intelligence as possible, and I sadly foresee the social nightclub slowly becoming the next Goldshire Incident. Thankfully, players can join a different channel of the instances, which may tone down on the issues.
Cryptic has definitely done a good thing here. Champions Online brings the thrill of being a superhero to the free-to-play market. Although arguably not the most original idea on the planet, I applaud Cryptic for being creative with the options players are allowed. Players are given a true sense of freedom as to how they want to game to both look and play. Premium members do get a lot of advantages, but they're really bonuses instead of pieces needed to play. Sure, it's never going to topple World of Warcraft or City of Heroes but in all honesty, it's not trying to. Champions Online just wants to be that, Champions Online. My only complaint is the immaturity that the Local Channel displays but that really is just a side effect of going free-to-play. Believe me, there are people of all kinds. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go teleport for a couple hours.
