1) The Character Creation Screen: 9/10
To a point the Character Creation is better then City of Heroes (which had the best character creation to date). Champions have a GREAT character creation yet its missing a few of things that City of Heroes has. This is why I put this at a 9. If this would of been a year too a year and a half ago Champions would easily get a 10. There is just so many options in City of Heroes that Champions just doesn't have (weapon customization is one thing). Yet you can customize the body and face far more in Champions Online then you can in City of Heroes. I am sure they will be adding a lot more to the game as it grows older but City of Heroes just has more models at this time. For right now Champions Online comes in at #2 for character creation.
 

2) Combat : 8/10
Combat, what can we say about that. Your either gonna love it or hate it. Most people I have talked to said they love it. Its face pace and you don't have to just sit there and take it like the other Super Hero game. Your energy builder is your auto attack power. Turn it on and you don't have to worry about it. If you don't have enough energy for your attack it will attack. What’s nice is you can charge up certain powers. Using up more End, if you have it to do more damage. When you’re fighting you actually have to pay attention. When you see the graphic above the head of the villain hit the Block (shift key). This is a must to learn. You will live and die by how well you can block.

There are also Stances in the game. Balanced is the best of both offense and defense. No pluses but no negatives. Offensive you sacrifice your Defense for more damaging attacks. Defensive you do less damage but you take less damage. There is also Support. Anything that is not Attack or Defense Related gets a boost. Pretty much your Heals and Holds.

Pretty much the Combat is a step above Lord of the Rings and Older. It’s not as complex as Age of Conan or Warhammer Online.

Level Designs/Missions: 8/10
Get use to the Tutorial. Your gonna have to do it every time you make up a new character. The tutorial area is really small I can finish it in 10 minutes. I have done it about 50 times. I did find some nice hidden stuff coughfoxbatcough. After you’re done with the Tutorial you go to a slightly bigger area. You get to pick where you want to go Canada or The Desert. These areas get you use to how things are done in Champions Online. You can level from 5 to 9 in these areas.

Once you get out of those starter areas you get to go into the normal world. These zones are huge. You can now jump between Canada, The Desert or Millennium City (I really hate trying to spell that). All three of these zones have up to level 31 Characters. I would advise not going to Millennium City until your at least level 13. The lowest level characters I have seen in Millennium City was 14 (there was not a lot of those). Most are 15 and up. I have still not yet been to Monster Island or Lemuria. If you get to a hard mission you can easily jump to another zone and do missions there.

There are several instances where you can take a group in. At level 15 if you’re in Millennium City people will start to run up to you and ask for help. I have been told that this civilian instance is only for you and you can't take your group into it. This is not including cell phone instances. Yes they are different categorizes of missions. These are people calling for your help directly and you can take your group in with you. One nice thing is as of level 24 (my highest level) I have yet to see reused missions tiles. It’s all different each time I have gone in one.

The missions do provide a linear game but it’s your choice to where you want to play at the level your at.

Power Sets: 9/10
There are so many power sets to pick from. There is still some that are obviously missing. coughearthpowercough For the most part they are all there. You pick your energy builder power (this power once turned on for that target is always on) and then whatever secondary power you want. There are 3 tiers. Tier 1 Powers Requires 1 power from "THAT GROUP" or 2 non energy building powers from any framework. Tier 2 powers requires 3 powers from "THAT GROUP" or 5 non energy building powers from any framework. Tier 3 powers Requires 5 powers from "THAT GROUP" or 8 non energy building powers from any framework There are several groups of powers that go together for example Energy (Electricity, Force, Fire, Ice), Hand to Hand (Single Blade, Dual Blades, Claws, Martial Arts), etc.

Certain power sets are better then others. That’s a balancing issue that needs to be fixed. For the most part each set seems to have a plus or minus to it. Some sets can dish out more damage then others but not take the damage. Force for example is a nice middle ground set. I can deal damage and take damage. Fire can do a lot of damage in a short time but can't take it as well as Force. Power Armor seems to be the top of the power and defense.

The min/maxers of the world will of course take the best of whatever build they are doing. Power Armor and Gadgeteering, which are in the same group, seem to be the best combo for now. What’s nice and the Min/Maxers will be hurt by is you can only respec 10 Powers/Talents/Abilities (total) back. There is no respec from the start if you’re over level 8. You are going to be stuck with those powers/Talents/Abilities.

PvP: 4/10
This is the weakest spot of CO. Of course this was never its strong spot. If I wanted to play good PvP I would go play Warhammer Online. You do get a taste of PvP though. The instances teleport you to team fight. As soon as you get out of the first tutorial you can start getting into PvP.

Right now Range dominates all. Close combat is just not a viable option. The lunges (lunges allow you to charge at the target and is suppose to stop movement powers from working) for close combat don't stop certain move powers like they say they do. Even for the ones that do stop the movement powers it still doesn't remove them. For example flight when you hit someone in the air with lunge they still stay in the air.

Conclusion
Not including PvP that comes out to an 8.5 average. That is great for a MMO that is coming out. There are a few bugs. Nothing that is game breaking I have had 3 crashes to the desktop since I have been in Beta. There was some lag on Friday night but this is stress testing it was to be expected.

All in all it’s a great game everyone that likes superheroes should give it a try.
 

Man I wanted to do a short review.  LOL so much for that idea.  =)

I like your review, However Id like to point something out to everyone.

Like yourself, many people are saying that CoH lacks things in the character customization department and it falls short of CoX.  I think this is completely incorrect.  For everything that CoH may lack, it adds at least one more character customization piece that CoX lacks.  So you may not have every single costume piece that CoX has, but you'll have some very similiar pieces as well as new pieces.  You also have all of the following that CoX lacks:

• Full body and facial sliders
• Glowing Eyes
• Wings and capes AT character creation
• 6 facial moods to choose from (to apply to the numerous different faces to choose from)
• 4 unique stances
• custom ability effect colors
• custom ability effect projection (projecting from hands, head, chest etc.)
• Custom Frameworks allowing you to mix match your abilities however you want

when do you get to change the color and origin of your powers i am in the desart and i still cant find a way to change how my powers look

have only changed them in Canada but I assume the Desert has something similar since those are the two choices out of the trial zone, the Powerhouse.  The Powerhouse is where you pick your new powers and once selected you can go to "all powers" and click on the square button in the upper right window of each power, which then slides out a color spectrum where you can choose whatever color you want for that power.

Originally posted by Rayx0r

I like your review, However Id like to point something out to everyone.

Like yourself, many people are saying that CoH lacks things in the character customization department and it falls short of CoX.  I think this is completely incorrect.  For everything that CoH may lack, it adds at least one more character customization piece that CoX lacks.  So you may not have every single costume piece that CoX has, but you'll have some very similiar pieces as well as new pieces.  You also have all of the following that CoX lacks:

• Full body and facial sliders
• Glowing Eyes
• Wings and capes AT character creation
• 6 facial moods to choose from (to apply to the numerous different faces to choose from)
• 4 unique stances
• custom ability effect colors
• custom ability effect projection (projecting from hands, head, chest etc.)
• Custom Frameworks allowing you to mix match your abilities however you want

I agree.  I still give character customization to CoH.  Just barely.  CoH has been out 5+ years.  Like I said if it would of been 1 year to 1 year and half ago CO would of easily beat CoX.  I think CO will easily outdo CoX  with one update to the game.

PS

CoH you can have wings at character creation stage also.  =)

Originally posted by syllvenwood

when do you get to change the color and origin of your powers i am in the desart and i still cant find a way to change how my powers look

You can do it right from the start.  Just hit P in game.  If it can be changed it will have a color in the right corner of the power.

While I am enjoying the game so far; I feel compelled to add a negative comment.

Gameplay Variation: 3/10.

There's quite a few differences between the individual power sets which makes playing alts very viable, but has anyone else noticed that there just isn't a lot of different tools available for their hero to use? .. I'll give an example; I'm currently playing as a Telekinesis oriented character; have invested a few hours into the game and reached level 13 (of 40) and, without counting buffs/block/travel powers, I have a grand total of three "skills" to use in combat.

1. The ranged energy builder; i.e. autoattack.
2. The single-target melee damage dealer where I bop my target with a couple of mental swords.
3. The channelled cone AOE melee damage dealer where I beat the crap out of anything close.

That's it; just three attacks and one of those is autoattack! .. and even wierder; my AOE damage ability is more effective than my single-target melee damage dealer vs a single target, (often resulting in a one-shot kill) so I barely even find myself using #2.

Now, I'm not knocking the game 'cos I do think it's fun .. but other than holding down shift to block whenever you see a symbol over the targets head (you don't even have to time it since you can be in "block mode" permanently) there just doesn't seem to be a whole lot to do during combat.

It's fast paced and fun to see the bodies hit the floor when you're fighting a half-dozen henchmen at once, but from my (admittedly limited) experience of the game thus far, there doesn't seem to be any tactical choices for me to make; it's pure button-mashery that makes even WoW seem intellectually challenging by comparison.

Originally posted by Ilvaldyr

While I am enjoying the game so far; I feel compelled to add a negative comment.

Gameplay Variation: 3/10.

There's quite a few differences between the individual power sets which makes playing alts very viable, but has anyone else noticed that there just isn't a lot of different tools available for their hero to use? .. I'll give an example; I'm currently playing as a Telekinesis oriented character; have invested a few hours into the game and reached level 13 (of 40) and, without counting buffs/block/travel powers, I have a grand total of three "skills" to use in combat.

1. The ranged energy builder; i.e. autoattack.
2. The single-target melee damage dealer where I bop my target with a couple of mental swords.
3. The channelled cone AOE melee damage dealer where I beat the crap out of anything close.

That's it; just three attacks and one of those is autoattack! .. and even wierder; my AOE damage ability is more effective than my single-target melee damage dealer vs a single target, (often resulting in a one-shot kill) so I barely even find myself using #2.

Now, I'm not knocking the game 'cos I do think it's fun .. but other than holding down shift to block whenever you see a symbol over the targets head (you don't even have to time it since you can be in "block mode" permanently) there just doesn't seem to be a whole lot to do during combat.

It's fast paced and fun to see the bodies hit the floor when you're fighting a half-dozen henchmen at once, but from my (admittedly limited) experience of the game thus far, there doesn't seem to be any tactical choices for me to make; it's pure button-mashery that makes even WoW seem intellectually challenging by comparison.

I agree early it seems slow evolving, you don have alot of powers....by 20 there is more variation.
 

 About the lack of customizable weapons. You can go to a tailor and change your weapons you just have to pay for it and you don't know what it looks like until you buy it and use it in combat =/

Originally posted by upsilonmerc

 About the lack of customizable weapons. You can go to a tailor and change your weapons you just have to pay for it and you don't know what it looks like until you buy it and use it in combat =/

I know there are perk weapons but I didn't know you could buy them at the tailor.  I will check it out.  =)

Yeah, PvP was definitely an absolutely horrendous experience for me as a dual-blade hero. I think I managed to land a hit like 20 times in an entire PvP match. And over half of them were hitting for 3 damage or less on some heroes. Heroes are just impossible to catch especially if they're using their travel power, (But also even when they're not) which is ludicrous to enable in a PvP match. I can jump ahead of someone with my travel power, but I'll only manage to hit them once as they fly past me again.

The only viable option I had was to throw objects at people capable of knocking them down for my team to finish them off. That and climb to the top of the cage and regen my health, so the opponent doesn't gain a point off my death. I also loved having ranged characters still attacking me just by having my character targetted as I'm grappling through the arena or fleeing to the top of the cage where as melee obviously can't do that and even if the opponent isn't using a travel power, good luck catching them.
 

Originally posted by upsilonmerc

 About the lack of customizable weapons. You can go to a tailor and change your weapons you just have to pay for it and you don't know what it looks like until you buy it and use it in combat =/

No you can't customize your weapons unless you unlock it with perks.  My Bow (on a level 15) and Sword (at level 6).

about the character costumisation being worse than CoX, COs actualy a lot more deep.  If you toy around you'll see. The options may not jump out as much but they are there.

Originally posted by Cefka

about the character costumisation being worse than CoX, COs actualy a lot more deep.  If you toy around you'll see. The options may not jump out as much but they are there.

Its deeper yes but not as many options, yet.

I enjoyed reading your first impression. It's pretty much one of the few I could read all the way through. But it makes sense because you're a CoX vet like myself. So I've always been finding those are the most informative

I'm around L11 on my highest avatar and I agree with your analysis. I will add some of my own thoughts briefly:

PRos-

1. Amazing Character custimization that I'm finding ravels CoX if not surpasses

2. Combat seems very well thought out

3. I enjoy that they have embraced zone based PVE more so then tile based, instanced missions

4. I love the run-and-gun style combat now

5. We can actually use our travel powers in PVE now. Previously in CoX, they forced you to do missions in Caverns, caves, and tight warehouses. Really sucked. Was as if the devs didnt want us to use travel powers in PVE. Fixed now!

6. I enjoy mix matching powers from powersets

7. I am enjoying the respecs

8. One server always a plus for me

Cons

1. I hear they just nerfed XP from PVE so I am worried the game will become a grindfest. I found CoV way too grindy too when they raised level cap to 50.

2. I've only dueled so far but I am certain the PVP feature will be poor. With the lack of Villians in this game it would obviously be silly for the devs to add open pvp zones. But I wish the game had villains and pvp enabled zones at every level.

3. So far, at least early levels it appears grouping will be poor like WoW and most other games are. I've only been in teams twice to do quests and they leave right after. Sometimes they never say a word. In sharp contrast, at least in CoX you constantly group.

4. Game world is heavily segmented and feels small / artificial due to it

5. I find the PVE primitive. But I have this complaint for all MMO PVE. Basically because players cannot influence the world in any real way. However, they did a nice 'simple' equivalent if you can make yourself play along. When you help beat a major evil boss you get pushed into a new zone where everything has changed

6. I fear they will be nerfing the hell out of powersets. For instance my guns hero picked up Regen and it seems like shes a monster now. I fear widespread nerfs similar to how cryptic treated City of Nerfs (cough, City of Heroes) must later.

Enough comments for now I gotta go see how bad this XP nerf was.

Originally posted by PatchDay

I enjoyed reading your first impression. It's pretty much one of the few I could read all the way through. But it makes sense because you're a CoX vet like myself. So I've always been finding those are the most informative

 

I'm around L11 on my highest avatar and I agree with your analysis. I will add some of my own thoughts briefly:

PRos-

1. Amazing Character custimization that I'm finding ravels CoX if not surpasses

2. Combat seems very well thought out

3. I enjoy that they have embraced zone based PVE more so then tile based, instanced missions

4. I love the run-and-gun style combat now

5. We can actually use our travel powers in PVE now. Previously in CoX, they forced you to do missions in Caverns, caves, and tight warehouses. Really sucked. Was as if the devs didnt want us to use travel powers in PVE. Fixed now!

6. I enjoy mix matching powers from powersets

7. I am enjoying the respecs

8. One server always a plus for me

 

Cons

1. I hear they just nerfed XP from PVE so I am worried the game will become a grindfest. I found CoV way too grindy too when they raised level cap to 50.

2. I've only dueled so far but I am certain the PVP feature will be poor. With the lack of Villians in this game it would obviously be silly for the devs to add open pvp zones. But I wish the game had villains and pvp enabled zones at every level.

3. So far, at least early levels it appears grouping will be poor like WoW and most other games are. I've only been in teams twice to do quests and they leave right after. Sometimes they never say a word. In sharp contrast, at least in CoX you constantly group.

4. Game world is heavily segmented and feels small / artificial due to it

5. I find the PVE primitive. But I have this complaint for all MMO PVE. Basically because players cannot influence the world in any real way. However, they did a nice 'simple' equivalent if you can make yourself play along. When you help beat a major evil boss you get pushed into a new zone where everything has changed

6. I fear they will be nerfing the hell out of powersets. For instance my guns hero picked up Regen and it seems like shes a monster now. I fear widespread nerfs similar to how cryptic treated City of Nerfs (cough, City of Heroes) must later.

 

Enough comments for now I gotta go see how bad this XP nerf was.

Its not to bad.  Instead of 10 hours it takes to get to level 20 it takes 20 hours.  It was something that needed to be done.  Otherwise normal people would have gotten to level 40 within a month.  Thats not good for a game.  I have noticed several new quests and more teaming up. 

PvP: 4/10
. If I wanted to play good PvP I would go play Warhammer Online. .

 ....LOL!!

Well they are saying the XP nerf was just a 'test' so we await to see what final word is. I am not liking the new pacing. I ran out of quests and i am stuck in limbo of a sorts. I have to grind mobs it appears to level

Originally posted by Ilvaldyr

While I am enjoying the game so far; I feel compelled to add a negative comment.

Gameplay Variation: 3/10.

There's quite a few differences between the individual power sets which makes playing alts very viable, but has anyone else noticed that there just isn't a lot of different tools available for their hero to use? .. I'll give an example; I'm currently playing as a Telekinesis oriented character; have invested a few hours into the game and reached level 13 (of 40) and, without counting buffs/block/travel powers, I have a grand total of three "skills" to use in combat.

1. The ranged energy builder; i.e. autoattack.
2. The single-target melee damage dealer where I bop my target with a couple of mental swords.
3. The channelled cone AOE melee damage dealer where I beat the crap out of anything close.

That's it; just three attacks and one of those is autoattack! .. and even wierder; my AOE damage ability is more effective than my single-target melee damage dealer vs a single target, (often resulting in a one-shot kill) so I barely even find myself using #2.

Now, I'm not knocking the game 'cos I do think it's fun .. but other than holding down shift to block whenever you see a symbol over the targets head (you don't even have to time it since you can be in "block mode" permanently) there just doesn't seem to be a whole lot to do during combat.

It's fast paced and fun to see the bodies hit the floor when you're fighting a half-dozen henchmen at once, but from my (admittedly limited) experience of the game thus far, there doesn't seem to be any tactical choices for me to make; it's pure button-mashery that makes even WoW seem intellectually challenging by comparison.

Question; at a similar point in the game how many options does a WoW mage have?  Fireball, Frostbolt, maybe you Sheep every now and then. 

As for tactical choices that depends a lot on what powers and advantages you take.  At lv 7 for my Ice character I picked up and advantage for Ice Wall that turned it form a line based ranged attack to something that forms under me.  It is utterly devastating up close but  I have to be very careful how I use it because running the Ice Passive I cannot take a lot of damage.

Originally posted by Manchine

Originally posted by upsilonmerc

 About the lack of customizable weapons. You can go to a tailor and change your weapons you just have to pay for it and you don't know what it looks like until you buy it and use it in combat =/

 

No you can't customize your weapons unless you unlock it with perks.  My Bow (on a level 15) and Sword (at level 6).

It depends on the weapon, my Munitions character had different pistols the first time I went to the tailor (granted, that was around level 10 since it wasn't until then I was curious enough to look). There were 3 different pistol styles available at that time. Now level 14, I have 3 unlocked rifle/carbine styles. Other characters have no extra weapons yet in the tailor, some have no 'generic' weapons but some costume unlocks.

I have no idea if any perks unlocked the other two pistols, but I didn't do anything in addition to "just" playing to get them.

(By the way, the 3 pistols are: automatic, luger?+silencer, short-barreled revolver).

-w

Originally posted by wyrde

Originally posted by Manchine

Originally posted by upsilonmerc

 About the lack of customizable weapons. You can go to a tailor and change your weapons you just have to pay for it and you don't know what it looks like until you buy it and use it in combat =/

 

No you can't customize your weapons unless you unlock it with perks.  My Bow (on a level 15) and Sword (at level 6).

 

It depends on the weapon, my Munitions character had different pistols the first time I went to the tailor (granted, that was around level 10 since it wasn't until then I was curious enough to look). There were 3 different pistol styles available at that time. Now level 14, I have 3 unlocked rifle/carbine styles. Other characters have no extra weapons yet in the tailor, some have no 'generic' weapons but some costume unlocks.

I have no idea if any perks unlocked the other two pistols, but I didn't do anything in addition to "just" playing to get them.

(By the way, the 3 pistols are: automatic, luger?+silencer, short-barreled revolver).

 

-w

Yeah they probable will add more custimazation later in the games life.  I have no doubt they will easily outdo CoX in a update or 2.  For now CoX has more usuable options then CO.  =)

After seeing 15 through 25 now for play Nothing pretty much changes except for level design.  That actually would go up a point.