Champions Online... not what you think

Yeaps, looks like over all that's what they did. WoW has points and not knocking it, but to me it looks and sounds like now that it is WoW with a CoX/Freedom Force skin. From the descriptions I've heard it reminds me completely of WoW. I think yall talking about his has helped out the CoX community a whole lot. Very good job Devs by leaving this here.

I got a Beta key and gave Champions Online a shot. My overall impression is meh.

Pros:
-It is based on a PnP game so that most of the in game universe will be familiar to anyone who has played it.

-Lots of costume options. Including animated animal parts, and different stances.

-The public missions were an interesting game mechanic, but CoH already has something similar in Zone Events( Steel Canyon Fires for example).

-Travel powers are available upon leaving the Tutorial zone( I got mine at level 3!).

-Obviously designed to be ported to the Xbox platform.

Cons:
-Very few instance missions. I can see griefing opportunities in the way many of the missions are set up.

-Odd running animation for male characters. It kinda looks like their trying to carry a pickle in the caboose( if you catch my drift).

-Graphics in general look like they were inspired by the old Speed Racer cartoon, instead of an actual comic book artist.

-The game feels cheesy. The dialog was routinely cheesy( and annoying when some of the NPC allies spammed it nonstop). The scene at the end of the Tutorial zone was really over the top. The player gets thanked by all the NPCs of the Tutorial zone in a scene that looks and feels like the ending of Star Wars: A New Hope, and all because the #1 Hero of the City let you push the button that fired the cannon that took down the alien mothership. Yeah, that warrants giving you the key to the city( despite the sarcasm in that last statement, they do in fact give you the key, then ship you off to Canada, ).

-Chat system is limited, with no tabs or multiple chat windows as an option.

-I did not like the UI. There was very little in the way to customize it. Being able to increase the size of the map window would have been useful.

-The crafting tutorial was a single mission that had to be done in a live combat zone. The explanation in the mission was too short and the constant interruptions only made things worse( it's hard to read about a required part of character development when a headless corpse is trying to take your head).

-Champions may have a list of 12 travel powers, but most of them are variations of Fly. Jet Boots, Hover Disk, Ice Slide, Fire Flight, Earth Flight, Hover, and Flight all worked on the same principle: One direction of travel was faster than any other. Ex- Hover Disk can travel up really fast, but all other motion is slow.

-For anyone who likes gritty anti-heroes or vigilantes, this is not the game for you. The syrupy sweetness of the dialog, the garish colouring of the people and zones makes it pretty much impossible. It's difficult to be emo when you're surrounded by Hello Kitty paraphernalia.

Conclusion: It's a super hero themed MMO, but it's not CoH 2. I'm happy here thank you very much.

Grizz

That pretty much jives with my experience. One part that I found humorous was that a lot of the costume options were things that anyone here would recognize. Personally I found the costume editor clunky at best.

The interaction between contacts and objects did remind me of WoW. To sum it up, I felt like I was playing a PnP game. The only thing missing was my awesome dice collection.

Despite, the annoying parts I'll probably be playing it a little. I played in the closed beta but never got above the 20s, so I want to see the higher level stuff.

The "world" is interesting, and the setting is very 70s/80s which was the best comicbook years (or so I feel, since I wasn't around for those comics and just have back issues). The updated graphics are nice, and a little effort gets rid of that cartoony look.

But I hope there will be an overhaul of their animations, because most of them are incredibly clunky (especially the archery powers).

Trickshooter's Characters | @Trickshooter @Brightside

Yes, I too dabbled in the Champions Open Beta.

"Sorry bucko, but CoH and CoV are the same game." -BackAlleyBrawler
"Silly villain, CoX is for Heroes!" -Saicho

I too did the Beta and honeslty I had fun..........
It was to say the least a break from the constant LFAEPLT!!!!

The travel powers were cool at lower levels and the SJ animation is cooler
then CoX's ( only travel power I like animation wise ). It does have that
cheesy WoW fighting effect where you click an attack, sit back and watch but....

the other powers that you can charge for greater damage by holding down the number key associated with the power or the mouse button is kind of cool.

the zones are kinda nice looking but then again it's 5yrs after CoH.

Like Vega said it is not a replacement for our beloved CoX but s decent
filler from time to time.

Is the lifetime worth it though? well I look at it like this, if it happens to last as long as
CoX has, that's assuming the monthly scrpit is 15.00 your looking at $900.00 for 5yrs
vs $200.00. So do you get it, pay the monthly sub and let it expire only to re-new it everytime you get an itch or pay the 200 and never worry about it again.

Finally..........MAN I MISS HG:L

I do have to say yall are doing great reviews. They are very informative. And Tricky....figured you would focus on that one.

One thing ild like to let you all know, look to ur left *<-----* and see my location, New Zealand... i tried multiple times to get the patcher running... nutin... i posted on their forums as basicaly states that their servers fail to let me connect.... YET the only peice of advice they game me to get the patcher running 'just restart it and itl grab'..... and they also called that a fix.... first and formost... those Devs are stupid because thats a workaround NOT a fix... stupid devs and their no help......

Puting my rant aside now.... apart from those fails i think of the game as a 7.5/10.... putting in those fails.... 2/10

What was your location before New Zealand? Old Zealand?

BAH... its the first time ive heard that joke... but im gonna put an end to it.... New Zealand = Aotearoa.... which translates to 'The Land of the Long White Cloud'

Isn't that where these guys

come from?

"Sorry bucko, but CoH and CoV are the same game." -BackAlleyBrawler
"Silly villain, CoX is for Heroes!" -Saicho

On a slightly on-topic note (I know, I know, but I swear I won't make an habit of it...), today's Backward Compatible strip deals with CO...

LOL...isn't that what they are thinking of doing with missions and all now?

Well, to be fair, we did the same thing with COV and RV, in our beta... though not necessarily just FOR the event, more for testing purposes...

my Mother-in-Law one shotted Dr. Destroyer and then all the Mega-Destructoids ran away when they saw her coming for them......

Since I pre-ordered from Direct to Drive, I won't get in until Sept1. Save some gas bags for me!

"Sorry bucko, but CoH and CoV are the same game." -BackAlleyBrawler
"Silly villain, CoX is for Heroes!" -Saicho

http://www.cad-comic.com/comic.php?d=20090902

Maybe Electric_Requiem will find this one funnier...