Review: Champions Online
- Thread starter John Funk
- Start date
You made a giant green Zoidberg! I'm sold.Fearzone said:Okay these are my babies. These are my 8 characters. The first one attempts to model myself in RL... I need a hairstyle with bangs and parted to the right, and the build is better in the pic but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do =p. Hopefully this gives and idea of the range that you can do with the character designer, although designs get much wilder.
I'd like to follow-up my initial comments (post #39), after having played a month and reached the mid-30's with my main character. Most of my initial impressions still hold by months end.
I've read a number of player reviews of the game, and find I agree with players or rate it an 8 or 9, and I agree too with those players who rate it a 4 or 5.
A 10 for Champs would be gratuitiously high, and below a 4 is unfair. Averaging the 8's and the 4's for a 6 or 7 is also wrong. Champions Online is an 8 rated game if you look at its strengths (or a 9-rated game if you look at its potential) *AND* it is a 4-rated game if you look at its weaknesses.
What makes it an 8-rated game is: character customization, power customization, fast-paced action, and excellent animations (the best I've seen in an MMO with only WoW coming close). Quests, though standard and repetitive at times, capture the superhero vibe and are very tongue-in-cheek comical. While I might have occasionally giggled at quests in other MMO's, there was one in CO where I guffawed so loud the neighbors might have heard. All of Snake Gulch is joyfully brilliant and sometimes I still go back just to hear the musical score. Both of the 30+ zones are immersive and beautiful. Performance on my machine has been mostly excellent but I have a pretty high end system.
Now, here's why it rates a 4: I'm going to forgive the general bugginess of PvE content because they are fixing it at a brisk pace--but I have lost hours to various broken quests. PvP above level 10 is unplayable against groups that stack certain defensive powers which make them invulnerable. When the action heats up the controls get sluggish--offensive, defensive, and crowd control all. When I raise my shield, it needs to go up *now* and not two seconds later after being hit with a fully powered ability. If it isn't going up because crippling challenge is on me, I need feedback so I can play accordingly. But mostly I think controls are just slow because it is that way with all powers. Content is thin and by the late 20's and 30's you will run out of missions from time to time, with no good alternatives for experience. Sometimes the leveling up just feels too slow. Eventually I stumble into more missions, but it is not uncommon to have to play missions 3 levels higher than your character because that is all there is.
I could go on but it is easy to dwell on frustrations.
At the end of the day, I've found Champions just pain fun. It also has one broken keyboard to its credit and two other close calls which for one month is not a good record. But overall it has easily been my best gaming purchase this year, and probably the best one since World of Warcraft. It has given me a new appreciation for comic book games. Still, I will be letting my 30-day intro subscription expire without renewal. I'll gladly renew if they balance the abilities and clean up PvP, or with a substantial addition of new content--so maybe as early as this month I'll be back on. And if it does ever come out for the PS3 I'll buy a new copy just for that.
I've read a number of player reviews of the game, and find I agree with players or rate it an 8 or 9, and I agree too with those players who rate it a 4 or 5.
A 10 for Champs would be gratuitiously high, and below a 4 is unfair. Averaging the 8's and the 4's for a 6 or 7 is also wrong. Champions Online is an 8 rated game if you look at its strengths (or a 9-rated game if you look at its potential) *AND* it is a 4-rated game if you look at its weaknesses.
What makes it an 8-rated game is: character customization, power customization, fast-paced action, and excellent animations (the best I've seen in an MMO with only WoW coming close). Quests, though standard and repetitive at times, capture the superhero vibe and are very tongue-in-cheek comical. While I might have occasionally giggled at quests in other MMO's, there was one in CO where I guffawed so loud the neighbors might have heard. All of Snake Gulch is joyfully brilliant and sometimes I still go back just to hear the musical score. Both of the 30+ zones are immersive and beautiful. Performance on my machine has been mostly excellent but I have a pretty high end system.
Now, here's why it rates a 4: I'm going to forgive the general bugginess of PvE content because they are fixing it at a brisk pace--but I have lost hours to various broken quests. PvP above level 10 is unplayable against groups that stack certain defensive powers which make them invulnerable. When the action heats up the controls get sluggish--offensive, defensive, and crowd control all. When I raise my shield, it needs to go up *now* and not two seconds later after being hit with a fully powered ability. If it isn't going up because crippling challenge is on me, I need feedback so I can play accordingly. But mostly I think controls are just slow because it is that way with all powers. Content is thin and by the late 20's and 30's you will run out of missions from time to time, with no good alternatives for experience. Sometimes the leveling up just feels too slow. Eventually I stumble into more missions, but it is not uncommon to have to play missions 3 levels higher than your character because that is all there is.
I could go on but it is easy to dwell on frustrations.
At the end of the day, I've found Champions just pain fun. It also has one broken keyboard to its credit and two other close calls which for one month is not a good record. But overall it has easily been my best gaming purchase this year, and probably the best one since World of Warcraft. It has given me a new appreciation for comic book games. Still, I will be letting my 30-day intro subscription expire without renewal. I'll gladly renew if they balance the abilities and clean up PvP, or with a substantial addition of new content--so maybe as early as this month I'll be back on. And if it does ever come out for the PS3 I'll buy a new copy just for that.