Champions Online: Beta Preview

The MMORPG market can be generalised into two sub-genres. Then there’s the ‘Fantasy’ genre, usually featuring a Sword and/or Elves. Often these tend to be Korean copy-and-paste free-to-play games that make their money from micro-payments and farming/selling your sign-up data (come on, why do they need your Social Security and Passport Numbers? o_0). Of course Western Fantasy games are more popular these days, namely World of Warcraft.

But more recently the market has been expanding more into the ‘Sci Fi’ genre, with titles like Star Wars: Old Republic, Stargate Online and Star Trek Online on the way. There have been attempts at Sci-Fi MMORPGs in the past, but they’ve mostly failed. Games like Star Wars Online and Matrix Online didn’t really stand a chance. We could blame SOE, but that wouldn’t be very objective now, would it. Two Sci-Fi titles that have done quite well though are City of Heroes and City of Villains.

[While I’m aware that not all super heroes fit under the science fiction genre (some are crime fiction, horror fiction or even fantasy), for the sake of this article I’m categorising these games under that umbrella.] I enjoyed both CoH and CoV, Cryptic made a game world that did what it said on the tin. They made a universe for gamers to play out their super-hero (or super-villian) fantasies. Now it could be said that with Champions Online they’ve taken that same concept and upgraded it, and you’d be somewhat correct in thinking that but Champions Online is so much more than ‘City of Heroes 2.0’.

Before I go into more detail, I should mention Champions is an actual comic series from Hero Comics. [Editor: for more info on Champions history check out this article] Granted it’s not very well known, but that actually works for the game. While it suffers from a lack of immersive storyline, it makes up for it in freedom. Of course had the game remained under the Marvel IP, that would have probably not been an issue.

The game world itself has that distinct comic-book feel, with cell-shading and bright, vibrant colours throughout. The graphics are really nice, if not a little heavy on the frame rate. There don’t seem to be many different zones right now, but the handful that were available in Beta are quite expansive.

Character customisation is the killer-feature in Champions Online. I could say no two characters look the same, but that’s not true and I’ll explain why in a moment. The options are so vast that you can just about create any kind of super hero your mind can conjure up. Not to worry though, if you have no imagination you can re-create your favourite comic book hero, and this is where the problem lies. You create a Sub Zero character and think you’re smart, running around with your fellow Mortal Kombat buddies, then you see another Sub Zero, only this one is a little better with that extra touch in the detail.

I suspect in the early days of Champions Online we’re going to see a whole heap of super-hero copy-cats but as the game evolves, it’ll become a newbie thing to do. It’s almost instinct, it’s the obvious thing to do when you first pick up the game – create a likeness of your favourite hero. However it will definitely get old when you see 20 other Supermans (Supermen?) running around Millennium City.

Cryptic added a nice touch to the naming system, that will enable you to name your toon Batman, no matter how many other Batman (Batmen?!) there are in the game. The game is tied to your nickname, which can be set on the website and is separate to your account name. Any ingame contact must made with the ‘Charactername@Nickname’ format. So Batman@Calvin reaches me, while Batman@Leon would reach Leon. Of course you’ll only see character names above the heads of toons in the game world, aiding the illusion of uniqueness.

This brings me onto the game play. There was a lot of hype about the game being able to support a 360 controller, and being released on the 360 it self at some point. Controller support on the PC is a bit iffy at the moment, so I didn’t get to try it out just yet, but I’m excited to see a cross-platform MMORPG in action. This is something we’ve seen a lot of companies talk about, but it’s never actually been implemented as of yet.

Combat isn’t as innovative as Age of Conan but there’s enough of a twist to make things interesting. Every character has what I call a spam-attack. This is an energy build-up attack, usually doing pretty low damage in return for building up your enegy bar (energy is the scientific term for mana). After building up enough energy you can use your main powers, this method of combat lends to the 360 gameplay.

The actual selection of powers is immense. While there are no set ‘classes’ in Champions Online, there are templates. You can select to focus on Ice, Fire, Electricity, Gadgets and a whole heap more, or you can mix and match, choosing whatever powers suit your character. The level of detail in the customisation doesn’t stop there, you can even change the colour of the energy emitted from your powers (lightning bolts / magic swirls) to match your outfit.

Lack of content is not something this game suffers from. The questing system lives up to what we’ve come to expect from the likes of World of Warcraft and other popular MMORPGs. Detailed quests with fun objectives – that’s all we ask for. So many other games drop the ball when it comes to mission/questing systems, it seems Cryptic have been paying attention.

At the end of the Beta Cryptic allowed us all instant level 40 on our characters, for a final event. Not only was the event very fun (some giant over-powered mobs pwned the hell out of us!) but we got a brief glimpse at the end game content. I wasn’t expecting much, as no new MMORPGs have extensive end-game content when they first launch, but Champions isn’t totally lacking. Upon reaching level 40 (current cap) you get invited to join the faction of the main characters in Champions. The faction is called Unity and they give out hardcore quests earning you special points to spend on high level items.

There are lots of little touches in and out of the game. The Cryptic default website system is great. They use the same thing on Star Trek Online and I can see why. From the website you get access to your in-game mail, friends list, character profiles and of course their forums. In-game there are also little touches like the Social Features. Type /social_media in game to turn on posting of status messages to your favourite social networks (Twitter, Facebook etc.) so the world will know when you reach level 40!

Another interesting aspect to this game is Cryptic’s business model regarding the payment methods. Of course you can go with the pay-monthly option or the now industry standard 6-month offer, but with Champions Online you can also purchase a Lifetime account.

This game looks very promising and I was considering signing up for the 6 month membership.  This wasn’t only for the Star Trek Online Beta access too, I honestly think I’ll be around that long. Apparently though the ‘limited-time’ special offers (£35 for 6 months) have been suddenly withdrawn from the site.

I wonder if Cryptic will create a kind of ‘All Access Pass’ for Star Trek Online and Champions Online, the way Sony Online Entertainment did. Either way, I have my copy pre-ordered.

See you in Gold.