I recently downloaded and installed the latest version of Champions Online as the game went Free to Play last week.
As I loaded it up and began using the character creator I was satisfied, but it didn’t feel as robust as Cryptic’s other titles, even after looking through the paid options. However, I was able to create an avatar that looked similar enough to my real self that my wife exclaimed, “oh my god it’s you!” when she came by to look at what I was doing. Of course, as a super hero, I did give myself butterfly wings and snazzy black and violet outfit.
The next thing that caught me off guard a little was when I was picking my archetype. I had expected to be able to customize my player, but soon realized this was only available in the paid version, which wouldn’t have been an issue if it wasn’t for the fact that you get several less abilities to use. Given the PVP (Player Versus Player) aspects of the game and the group play, it makes for somewhat of a gimped character in comparison to paid subscribers. I’m all for micro transactions allowing for additional customization or even better than normal starter loot like in DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online), but paid features that completely imbalance your player base seems like a poor decision.
One feature I thought was really great is that at the start they allow you an option of pre-defined key setups. The choices are “Like Super Hero Games” or “Like Fantasy Games”. The options basically set your default keys to either Cryptic’s default keys, used in their other games like STO (Star Trek Online), or it sets your key bindings to WoW (World of Warcraft). Unfortunately, any time you switch maps it resets the keys to Cryptic’s default set, which can cause horrible inconveniences when you enter room that requires you to enter into combat immediately. A work around I found is to just remap all of the keys yourself using the Cryptic default set as a basis. This will keep your changes and it won’t cause any headaches when you switch maps.
After an hour or so of customizing the look of my character and selecting my pre-designed archetype, I was finally ready to take my Grimoire, Dr. Morbid, into the fray!
The beginning area is very good about telling you what to do. I remember playing the game back when it was in Alpha and it was atrocious with directions, a couple years later now and it’s perfect. As new abilities, items and quests become available pop-ups appear to tell me what they are and typically what I want to do. Quests are pretty straight forward as a green circle will appear on my map of where I need to go and I rarely spent any time wondering what I was supposed to be doing. Additional map markings ensure that you can always find where you need to go easily.
The beginning tutorial takes you from level 1 to 5, though you could get to level 6 if you want to grind out that last bit of experience before finishing the area. Once you’re past the tutorial a quest is given that has you visit the various key places of the city, such as the bank, auction house, power house, etc. Crafting, Research and Development, is also available to begin right out of the gate. I looked through Arms, Mysticism and Science. There didn’t seem to be anything truly unique other than that the primary defense items focused on different stats, though nothing that gave me a “wow, that’d be great for my toon” factor. I picked Mysticism as its naming convention went well with my Grimoire, magic powered super hero.
I leveled to eight, which is when I received my first group ability, an aura that increases my stats and those of players in my group. If you’re thinking paladin auras from WoW, you’re on the mark. Unfortunately, during this time it became apparent to me that I was not interacting with anyone. Not that I didn’t want to, but the maps I kept zoning in to just felt light on players. In fact when I would visit a new area and saw another player I made sure to wave as it was few and far between. I did finally manage to run into some players in the city’s club that danced with me, but other than that I felt awkwardly lonely.
I’m really hoping to continue my journey in this game and get some group play. Overall the game is pretty looking, fun and perhaps if characters are balanced a bit better has a lot of potential to be a great game.
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