MMORPG.com's Michael Bitton takes an in-depth look at Cryptic Studios' upcoming superhero MMO, Champions Online.

Cryptic Studios' debut effort "City of Heroes" released to much fanfare in 2004. While no one really knew anything about the company, the game carved out a niche for itself in the MMOG space as the first and only superhero MMORPG. Lauded by critics and fans alike for its flashy powers and out of this world character customization, Cryptic Studios had a real success on their hands. Fast forward an expansion, an IP sell off, and five years later, Cryptic Studios has returned with their spiritual successor to City of Heroes: Champions Online.

Read the Pre-Launch Preview

Great Write up!

 Extremely informative preview! Very well done.

For a guy like me who tried the open beta for a few days it really answered a lot of questions I had about the game that I wondered about after trying it.

This was a very thorough article and well written.

It's nice to see something positive about Champions. The fan base seems to have been quite ahrd on them over a few monir issues in the last few weeks and this article really serves well to make Champions looke like the great MMORPG I think it will be.

Heck I even learned a few things I didn;t get to experience in the beta about end game. ( I tried to limit myself to power testing in the starting zones and didn;t let me toons get past lvl15 before Id startanother, I didn;t want to ruin the surprise so to speak.)

 very nice article, and while I wont be playing champions, at least not yet. I really hope it does well.

Originally posted by kalebfrost

Great Write up!

Yeah it was. That guy actually made Champions seem like a fun game to play.

If it has any staying power and they revamp the combat system, switch to multiple servers instead of multi instanced copies of each zone, through out the cash shop, and add in secret identities, I'd seriously consider subbing up for a few months or so, but I'm pretty sure that none of that will happen other than secret identities which a few of the developers hinted at and teased that that would eventually be added to the game.

I hate that the game looks so good, but plays so horribly. I think the reason why the game seems good on paper is because it sounds awesome on paper, but it just seems so sterile and bland when you play it.

I love comics. I'm 31 and I'm subscribed to a few titles still. I love video games. I have and play on every current gen system (admitedly I play my 360 more than anything else. The PS3 seriously needs to get some better titles and a more streamlined and functional way to play games online. PS Home sucks.). I've played just about every MMORPG that I could possibly get my hands on.

You would think that this game would be a no-brainer for someone like me. I just can't get into it and it's frustrating to see a good concept  fall so short of the mark.

In the end, DCUO will come out eventually and I hope that they can deliver.

If you liked city of villians / heroes, you will like this game. Didnt you like it , trust me you will hate it :p

Tryed the open beta, but the game is just so pc heavy ... and I got a game pc go figger :) ( btw didnt like it so much )

Originally posted by Kryogenic 

If it has any staying power and they revamp the combat system, switch to multiple servers instead of multi instanced copies of each zone, through out the cash shop, and add in secret identities,

Then I'd quit.

Originally posted by TibMonkey

Originally posted by Kryogenic 

If it has any staying power and they revamp the combat system, switch to multiple servers instead of multi instanced copies of each zone, through out the cash shop, and add in secret identities,

Then I'd quit.

Ditto.

Ppl constantly complain "Too many empty servers" and "My server is dead, when are they going to merge servers" now you got a guy here complaining when a company tries to solve that issue.

Originally posted by qbangy32

Originally posted by TibMonkey

Originally posted by Kryogenic 

If it has any staying power and they revamp the combat system, switch to multiple servers instead of multi instanced copies of each zone, through out the cash shop, and add in secret identities,

Then I'd quit.

 

Ditto.

Ppl constantly complain "Too many empty servers" and "My server is dead, when are they going to merge servers" now you got a guy here complaining when a company tries to solve that issue.

 

Well EQ2 did the same thing and people don't like all the loading between zones because then it doesn't feel like an online world. The weird thing is even though EQ2 did the same thing they still threw tons of servers at it and they're empty anyways :\

I played CO but I thought the combat sucked and I hated the world design.

Originally posted by Varny

Originally posted by qbangy32

Originally posted by TibMonkey

Originally posted by Kryogenic 

If it has any staying power and they revamp the combat system, switch to multiple servers instead of multi instanced copies of each zone, through out the cash shop, and add in secret identities,

Then I'd quit.

 

Ditto.

Ppl constantly complain "Too many empty servers" and "My server is dead, when are they going to merge servers" now you got a guy here complaining when a company tries to solve that issue.

 

 

Well EQ2 did the same thing and people don't like all the loading between zones because then it doesn't feel like an online world. The weird thing is even though EQ2 did the same thing they still threw tons of servers at it and they're empty anyways :\

I played CO but I thought the combat sucked and I hated the world design.

CO is also a Zoned game, so no matter if it had multiple servers or not players would still encounter loading delays.

I've no idea what alternative there would be to ensure players don't end up on underpopulated servers, Cryptics solution seems the best workaround to me, unless ofc someone else has any bright ideas out there??

Originally posted by qbangy32

Originally posted by TibMonkey

Originally posted by Kryogenic 

If it has any staying power and they revamp the combat system, switch to multiple servers instead of multi instanced copies of each zone, through out the cash shop, and add in secret identities,

Then I'd quit.

 

Ditto.

Ppl constantly complain "Too many empty servers" and "My server is dead, when are they going to merge servers" now you got a guy here complaining when a company tries to solve that issue.

 

People only complain about that on games that are failing and losing subscribers fast enough to make some servers empty.

Originally posted by Haradeas

If you liked city of villians / heroes, you will like this game. Didnt you like it , trust me you will hate it :p

Tryed the open beta, but the game is just so pc heavy ... and I got a game pc go figger :) ( btw didnt like it so much )

I have to agree on the game being PC heavy. I bought a newer video card just to play it and still can't crank it right up, but didn;t want to spend more than about $60.00Cdn on a card (Ge Force 9400GT) not the newest but still a pretty decent card and 1Gb of VRAM, it's no slouch on my extreme board with a dual core. Maybe time to buy a new PC next year. But still I would have thought I'd be able to crank the graphics right up and just hammer away with no choppiness. I have it at about 2/3 max video settings and it runs well now. it's a shame as I think alot of people willl be turned off by the huge video requirements.

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Originally posted by Kryogenic

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Originally posted by kalebfrost

Great Write up!

---

 
Yeah it was. That guy actually made Champions seem like a fun game to play.
If it has any staying power and they revamp the combat system, switch to multiple servers instead of multi instanced copies of each zone, through out the cash shop, and add in secret identities, I'd seriously consider subbing up for a few months or so, but I'm pretty sure that none of that will happen other than secret identities which a few of the developers hinted at and teased that that would eventually be added to the game.
I hate that the game looks so good, but plays so horribly. I think the reason why the game seems good on paper is because it sounds awesome on paper, but it just seems so sterile and bland when you play it.
I love comics. I'm 31 and I'm subscribed to a few titles still. I love video games. I have and play on every current gen system (admitedly I play my 360 more than anything else. The PS3 seriously needs to get some better titles and a more streamlined and functional way to play games online. PS Home sucks.). I've played just about every MMORPG that I could possibly get my hands on.
You would think that this game would be a no-brainer for someone like me. I just can't get into it and it's frustrating to see a good concept  fall so short of the mark.
In the end, DCUO will come out eventually and I hope that they can deliver.

---

I tried it also, really had high hopes it would be a great fun comic book game. But... just found it bland and generic, looks real nice, but just wasn't at all drawn in. Maybe in a few months it'll evolve into something I'll want to play.

Originally posted by qbangy32

Originally posted by TibMonkey

Originally posted by Kryogenic 

If it has any staying power and they revamp the combat system, switch to multiple servers instead of multi instanced copies of each zone, through out the cash shop, and add in secret identities,

Then I'd quit.

 

Ditto.

Ppl constantly complain "Too many empty servers" and "My server is dead, when are they going to merge servers" now you got a guy here complaining when a company tries to solve that issue.

 

Well they didnt solve anything here. Its worse. If you play alone then its wonderland for you. There were to many times in beta that my friends and me could not play together because the super tiny instances were ful  100people. you cant cue, wait inline.. nope you have to go to a smaller one and hope it dont fell up fast before your other friends get there.

Anyway nice write up.. but did everyone read the END GAME! Oh gee cant wait to get there

While most people regard the zones as an obstacle, I found them to be a great tool. If there weren't enough players around, I'd just switch to another zone. Too many? Switch to another zone. Having trouble with someone grabbing all the resources in a spot? Switch zones. The dreaded load screen, on my slow system, was never more than a ten seconds (typically much shorter, just a couple seconds). Even big areas like Millenium City loaded quickly. Changing zones is extremely easy and the game tells  you which zone you're in at several places. The big zones, Canada, Southwest Desert, and Mil City are also quite big. Even with the faster travel powers, it still takes a while to get from one end to the other.

The game does have some other issues, most notably being so graphics-heavy (a long thread on the forums with people trying to supply information on the issue). But overall, it was  a lot of cheesy fun.

-w

Originally posted by Zeblade

Originally posted by qbangy32

Originally posted by TibMonkey

Originally posted by Kryogenic 

If it has any staying power and they revamp the combat system, switch to multiple servers instead of multi instanced copies of each zone, through out the cash shop, and add in secret identities,

Then I'd quit.

 

Ditto.

Ppl constantly complain "Too many empty servers" and "My server is dead, when are they going to merge servers" now you got a guy here complaining when a company tries to solve that issue.

 

 

Well they didnt solve anything here. Its worse. If you play alone then its wonderland for you. There were to many times in beta that my friends and me could not play together because the super tiny instances were ful  100people. you cant cue, wait inline.. nope you have to go to a smaller one and hope it dont fell up fast before your other friends get there.

 

Anyway nice write up.. but did everyone read the END GAME! Oh gee cant wait to get there

Not to mention when you did hit one of the instanced missions and do it with a group, when you exit the instance group members get seperated into different instances. It's not a solution to the problem.

Originally posted by Kryogenic

Not to mention when you did hit one of the instanced missions and do it with a group, when you exit the instance group members get seperated into different instances. It's not a solution to the problem.

er no they don't, 100% of my beta time was spent in a group.

Originally posted by TibMonkey

Originally posted by Kryogenic

Not to mention when you did hit one of the instanced missions and do it with a group, when you exit the instance group members get seperated into different instances. It's not a solution to the problem.

er no they don't, 100% of my beta time was spent in a group.

I didn't play at all during open beta and I didn't log in to the last 2 closed beta tests, but up until then grouping was always a crap shoot.

I didn't group in Alpha and I only grouped up a few times in CB and everytime we ran into issues.

All that aside the way they have the servers set up is exactly how Guild Wars has their game set up? In fact Guild Wars' combat system is much more engaging and fun to play and is infinitely more conducive to strategic and tactics based group combat than Champions is. Guild Wars also doesn't require a monthly fee to play.

What's so different about Champions that requires a monthly fee? The ability to jump? The option to choose different travel powers? Yeah... that warrants a monthly fee and a cash shop.

Sign me up please. I'd also like to purchase the brooklyn bridge and some ocean front property in Kansas.

Great write up.

Champions Online is a fun fast paced superhero game. 

I personally hope they don't listen to idiot trolls.  Take your stupidity someplace else.