*Updated 11/29/2010*
I just wanted to add a quick note that this game will be free to play soon if they haven't already made the switch. It won't be 100% free as none of these "free to play" MMORPGs truly are, but you will be able to access the bulk of the game for no monthly fee soon. I would highly recommend checking this out for the low low price of free and perhaps then opt in to some of the priced content.
Overall, I am still pleased with the game and maintain my rating of it. As an avid WoW player I don't feel that Champions Online is going to be a game for me which will replace WoW by any means but I am pleasantly surprised by how fun it is to play. It has so far served me quite well as a respectably good distraction.
You start off by making your character. The promises Cryptic made in regards to the depth of customization were delivered in spades. In terms of looks you are limited to various costume pieces, of which there are many, but the majority of them can be altered in several ways including material, color, and patterns. I was a little disappointed to find that certain costume pieces can't be used with others (chest armor + cape = no?) but with the shear level of options it was a fading disappointment as I moved on to other cool ideas. I'm immensely satisfied with the creation features. Other costume items can be unlocked through gameplay via random drops, PvP, and such. These unlocked costume items are currently only available to the character which unlocks them but you can change your costume around after creation.
For your powers you can choose from pretty generic comic book archetypes like a fire user, or super strength, or telekinesis etc. You also have the option to custom tailor your power set which at creation allows you to choose one "energy builder" (a spammable basic attack which builds energy) from any archetype, and then another actual power from any of the archetypes (an attack which uses stored energy, think mana). This again allows for quite a bit of customization but there is an obvious limitation of 2 abilities upon creation.
Following power selection you pick a talent which basically gives you a sizable stat bonus. There are plenty of different combinations to choose from. The stat system is drawn from the Champions pen and paper game and comes across as a little vague and foreign compared to other games but if you take their stat recommendations and hover your stats it's pretty easy to figure what you need and what you're getting. Stats affect various powers and builds in different ways but there are some core benefits to each. For example my main character derives their damage from endurance which also effects my energy pool but on another character of mine endurance simply affects my energy pool and Ego grants me my damage.
Alright, on to gameplay.
My first look at the game left me a little gutted by how low the quality was. Following that I had to double check the settings to make sure something wasn't wrong and sure enough the game defaulted to much lower graphics setting and resolution than my PC was capable of. So after turning the settings up I went about my busines. The graphical styling probably isn't for everybody and doesn't scale down very well at all but on high settings I feel that they are actually quite good. At lower settings a lot of the nuances which I feel polish the look of the game are lost and in turn makes the game look exponentially worse the lower you go. If you don't have a great computer and highly value the look of the games you play you may want to pass this over but otherwise I feel that the game performs and looks great on higher settings and is certainly playable otherwise.
So off to great adventures.
The game can be played natively with a wired X-Box 360 controller, a wireless 360 controller for Windows, or a keyboard. I have wired 360 controllers for just this reason so I will be playing that way. This has worked well for me thus far but there are some annoyances in using a controller. Many of these issues have been addressed in patches but it still seems awkward and somewhat undoable to select from multiple NPCs and/or objects using the controller.
Questing is pretty typical, find people with big yellow exclamation points, take their quests, pound some aliens,???, profit. It doesn't bug me much but I imagine some folks were hoping for a change of pace. You won't find the questing in this game particularly refreshing unfortunately. You can get quests by finding items certain items, stumbling up an area granting a local quest (Fallout 3 radio transmission style), take part in "public quests" Warhammer Online style, and then your run of the mill quest hub. I have been encountering sporadic glitches with quests like not being able to take them and there are a couple of the public quests which are undoable right now. The vast majority of them work flawlessly, and an increasing number have been fixed in patches, but again this game isn't without its faults.
Combat is very active and plays much more like an action game than basically any other MMORPG. You can run/jump/fly/teleport in and pound on whatever you're attacking because with the way you build energy (attacking) and your general abundance of energy it seems as though you're always able to keep your head in the combat. The challenge level of enemies in an area can often be quite erratic, an issue which has been methodically addressed in patches. Blocking and playing defensively can be a much more integral part of combat than other games. You can see enemies charge there attacks and that's generally a sign that something dangerous is about to hit you. In these situations it can be quite devastating to not take a defensive action so again this is an element of combat which adds to the immersion of most fights.
You can equip armor, weapons, and such. Equipment itself doesn't change your look that I know of, but again certain pieces of equipment do unlock costume pieces. You can change your costume for a nominal fee at any point in the game and you can actually save multiple costumes. There are 3 equipment fields which are science, arms, and mystic. Each type has one primary equipment slot and 2 secondary slots. Aside from that you can basically consider them unique slots like any other paper-doll equipment method you've seen before. You also have a bar for "devices" which are like items with charges and trinkets that do interesting things. I haven't messed with them much but you can get things that give you various buffs or do attacks as well as healing items which can be nice.
After a bit of questing you will eventually gain levels. At that point you'll have various points saved up. At set levels you can get points for new powers, new travel powers, new talents, and new power advantage points. Again you can choose powers from any school provided you meet the requirement which is typically "X non-energy building powers from this school or X+3 non-energy builders from a different school". Powers come in all different types so you can mix and match defensive and offensive powers from all over. Travel powers are pretty self explanatory, that's where you get flight, teleportation, super jumping, super speed... They're all quite varied, I chose teleportation which allows me to zip in and out of combat with the downside of not being able to attack while teleporting vs. flying which allows you to shoot enemies from the air. Talents are just like at character creation only there are many more of them at this point and obviously off many more stat options. Power advantages allow you to take powers you already have and modify them in certain ways (like WoW glyphs sort of). Each power has very different things you can do to it so again there's a lot of customization to be had here. Powers and talents can be undone via the "Retcon" option but you'll still want to be very careful of your decisions. Unlike other games where you re-do your whole tree, in Champions you buy your powers back one by one in order with a cost based on your level. Typically this is going to be far more money than you have to backtrack all the way through your choices.
There is also crafting. Initially I dismissed crafting a pretty worthless but I've come to find it's quite easy and yields some pretty solid rewards. It isn't as grindy as crafting professions in other games and you come across enough materials as you quest to make it so that you typically have, or are close to having whatever it is you're looking to build. Materials are gathered my breaking down various equipment pieces you gather (called research) like WoW's disenchanting or by finding boxes, crates, or artifacts relevant to your profession. Researching can give you several points and quite a large amount of materials so I've found that it makes leveling your profession more of a way to supplement your adventures vs. a race to highest skill and best stuff.
The nemesis system is pretty neat, once you hit level 25 you get to make your rival. You can create the way they look and make some pretty general choices about how they act and what their powers are. Once this is done you will randomly encounter their henchmen and periodically get quests to foil his various nefarious capers. It's kind of an interesting sensation of "when and where will they strike again" that adds a very unique dynamic to wandering around the world.
My experience with PvP so far has been lackluster. I'm a casual hardcore PvPer if such a thing exists. I enjoy it, and can take it quite seriously when I participate, but for the most part it's just another thing to do for me rather than the focus of a game.
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