I was very excited for Champions, but after reading what people have to say about it, I haven't bought it yet. I actually pre-ordered it, but only put down $5. I'm a new MMO gamer, I've actually only played Warhammer, got a character to 40 and then became bored with the game and haven't played it in months.

I wanted to get Champions, but am turned off by what people are saying about it. Aion comes out in just a few weeks. I can only play one MMO at a time. Should I just wait and get Aion, or should I go out tomorrow and pick up Champions? I'm not rich, so if I get Champions that means no Aion for me. It's one or the other. I know they are completely different, I'm just looking for opinions to help me with my decision. I just want a great game that I can become hooked on and I thought Champions Online was going to be that game, because I'm kind of a comic geek. But now I am not sure.

What would you do?

Thanks.

Ive bought both games.

Cant even play Champions, servers down yesterday 8 hours during EU peak time apparently some new employee made a cock up. The communication was awful and all the important info was from a Devs twitter page !

Servers down this morning again.(unplanned emergency).  Oh well i'll get Aion Open Beta this weekend to play.

If I had to make a choice such as yours, I'd pick them both and decide within the box month by playing them alternatively. Personally I'm looking for a long term experience, so the initial higher cost does not affect me (life is too short for making bad choices in places where they can be prevented).

I actually considered using the system I described myself, but it seems that Cryptic with CO made it easy for me by implementing RMT item mall in their subscription game. So I'll be sticking with Aion until I decide whether it has long term appeal for me or not.

i think im going to pick UP chmpions online today, iv already bought Aion, Champions online is supposed to be very casual so i may play them both

Since you can only afford 1, i would advise you to go to your local gamestop & pre-order Aion it will only cost you a few bucks, and they will give you a beta key, so you will be able to play the beta from the 6th to the 13th, and if you dont like it, simply dont buy the game :)

Paul, you really have to make that decision for yourself.

You should check out your local Gamestop or Best Buy to see if they have any Aion pre-order boxes left.  The pre-order box will get you access to the open beta.

If they do you can just put $5 down for the game and if you decide you don't want to buy it you can take your receipt back to the store and get your $5 back before September 22nd when the game is released.

Champions is already released, unfortunately.  So if you decide you don't like Aion you'll either have to take a leap of faith and buy the Champions box and hope you like it or wait X amount of months until a free trial is offered.

I didn't care much for CO.

Only way to level is quests.
Only really need 2 or 3 powers throughout the entire game.
Cryptic has been steadily decreasing the effectiveness of powers for the last few months and are continuing that trend post-release.
Graphics don't appeal to me.
Once you hit max level there's really nothing to do.
Grouping is rare / hard due to no class structure.
Environments are bland.
PvP is horrible.

I could go on and on about the things I didn't like about CO, but the bottom line is, it was boring for me.

Aion on the other hand has held my attention from the first minute I logged in.  I love grouping with others in MMO games and people actually wanting to group up in Aion was a nice change of pace from all of the recent solo-heavy MMO releases.  There are a lot of other things I love about Aion in addition to this, but I think this post is already long enough.

Edit: Thought that I would clarify my comment about grouping in Aion.  If you want to solo you can.  It is possible to do so, I just prefer to group.

aion is beauty but poop attitude. aion is a 2003 mmorpg. same old poop.

you want fast pace? depth? innovation? super heroes? custom build playstyle? then champions.

you want ugly? but top-notch lifeness depth quests with voice dialogue? then Ever Quest 2.

you want ugly in single player? play oblivion non-mod.

and if you tired of fake-time in current mmos.... wait for DC unIverse and Mabinogi Heroes. you press a button, you hit right away. real-time console style like prototype, ninja gaiden.

I bought both, but I favour CO over Aion.

Aion is .. well, it's a level/class based PvE themepark with factions. Not a bad product, but rather pedestrian in form and function. For me, pretty graphics don't make up for having generic gameplay.

CO has the awesome character generation and is (now that they've nerfed XP gain and defensive powers) a pretty challenging game in places, though it does suffer from being slow-starting; you can spend a good couple of hours wandering around with only two abilities (one of which is autoattack). Combat is very simplistic until you get more options.

If you like PvE, go with champions
<My Champions Online Review>

If you like PvP go with Aion
<My Aion Review is a work in progress>

Obviously there is more to these games than that, but breaking it down to the essentials, you can use that algorithm

Originally posted by Ilvaldyr

I bought both, but I favour CO over Aion.

Aion is .. well, it's a level/class based PvE themepark with factions. Not a bad product, but rather pedestrian in form and function. For me, pretty graphics don't make up for having generic gameplay.

CO has the awesome character generation and is (now that they've nerfed XP gain and defensive powers) a pretty challenging game in places, though it does suffer from being slow-starting; you can spend a good couple of hours wandering around with only two abilities (one of which is autoattack). Combat is very simplistic until you get more options.

Aion has flight combat, skill-chain systems, great group content, and good PvP. Not so generic from my experiences. Not to mention their game is running smooth and won't be experiencing patches that change the game considerably and all of their skills work. They change how instances work from 1.5 on offering different loot/rewards based on how you clear dungeons, setting you up in flying ships to take out a raid boss while fighting another team of enemy players, and set up fun leveling instances in case you don't feel like questing. It's full of win and incredibly solid imo.

If you like MMORPGs , play Aion.   If you like Online Single Player RPGs, play CO. That's more accurate.

Man, these Champions Online fanbois are faithful. Why can't they just admit that Cryptic doesn't know what the heck they're doing with the game. I've played closed beta for both games and it's as clear as day and night that Aion is superior in every way; gameplay, class balance, technology, content. The decision to do away with an archetype system like CoX had is what really caused Champions Online to shoot itself in the foot. Classes create roles so players can depend on each other in more difficult, group based content, while still being effective on their own for soloing. Champions Online has proven that if players aren't given classes to fit into, they are just all going to want to be tank mages. At least they created a good lesson for all future MMO developers to follow.

I have both. I've played CO OB through to launch and I've been playing Aion in the Korean version through the NA CB events.

CO WAS a very casual game, which made it fun to just make a cool hero and run around doing missions. Now they changed it (on launch day no less) in that many of the mobs are a lot harder and the player skills are a lot weaker. It's not unplayable, but now you have to really plan your character. You can't just pick skills because they sound fun. There is also the problem that there are no classes. With the increased difficulty doing large group missions means a lot of deaths without a healer, tank, CC etc. It's a bit of a mess right now.

Outside of that the game is a little shallow. It's new, so that's to be understood. There is just the character creation, fairly simple missions, some crafting (3 choices), and the nemesis system. I hear the end-game is pretty empty. PVP is simple (I haven't gotten into that part yet). With the current mob power increase I hear that making a nemesis is a bad idea as they show up often and can kill you easily now.

Some of those last points are just word of mouth so take it with a grain of salt.

Aion on the other hand is a fairly traditional high fantasy game. It also has an excellent character generator. It has a fairly standard PVE leveling quest system. It has 8 classes that are each fairly balanced and fun. You start out in small zones that eventually open up bigger and bigger as you level up. It has several crafting professions. There are several end-game dungeons. The central focus is the RVR system. The Abyss is where you mostly fight for control against the other side. This takes place with flying and on floating islands.

Aion is a year old, and as such has been well developed and fairly balanced. It still looks great.

Personally, I find Aion a much more in-depth game with much more to offer. Of course, it's been around longer (in Korea). Its graphical style is also much more realistic (for fantasy) and more immersive. CO seems to be the type of game you play for a while for a quick session of some fun and then roll another hero and do the same. I'm sure after a while they will add more to it, but right now there is little to compare content wise in my eyes.

Hope that helps.