Champions Online: Early Game Hands-On Preview

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Less fun is the need to manually maintain attack range. Once a target is selected, players have to walk up on their own. It sounds like a small thing on paper, and makes sense given the importance of planning a route in Champions, but it can be extremely frustrating.

For example, if a melee character is paired with a ranged hero, this can be problematic. If the ranged caster steals aggro just as the melee hero is about to unleash a power attack of their own, it burns it. The mob runs towards the ranged character and forces the melee character to reset and give chase.

Players who have experience with console action games should adapt more readily than those who are used to just jumping into the fray and hitting an attack button. Situational awareness and selective targeting are key to survival. At first I found the tutorial difficult to complete without a partner to help with damage output, but with my new approach, my success at solo combat increased dramatically.

I enjoyed watching my character execute combat styles gracefully and fluidly. The sound of metal blades as they slide against each other and slice a mob in half was especially pleasing. I appreciated the skill involved not only to time my skill selection and execution, but also the need to block fatal blows. It was a bit difficult to manage my aggro as a melee damage dealer when paired with a ranged attack class, but that was not a game breaker.

Missions (or Quests for the rest of us!)

The tutorial missions slowly move players from basic movement introduction tasks to more advanced tasks such as saving citizens. Very quickly, they introduce open missions and instanced storyline arc mission areas.

Open missions are very similar to public quests in Warhammer Online. Basically, a characters enters an area and is informed of the objective at hand. Everyone in the area can contribute to the success or failure of the stages. At the end of the open mission, players are granted experience and rewards based on their overall contribution to the entire open mission event. I like this particular approach to harder missions that may have more advanced rewards, because they don’t force people to sit around and find a group. Simply walk into an area and play. Once characters reach level five, and have successfully participated in an open mission, they are asked to report to Champions HQ. This is basically an instanced mission objective with some nice cinematic cut scenes. This scenario can be soloed if players choose their targets wisely and watch where they stand.

There is a nice variety of missions that players see right off the bat in game. They include typical “get x and bring to y” missions, open missions, instanced missions and, further along in the tutorial, players get to participate in mission chains that eventually lead to an instanced scenario and escape from the tutorial area.

Environment

The first thing that went through my mind when I entered the game was, “graphic novel.” The rendering is a little gritty and dark and while City of Heroes had a comic book quality and appeal to it, the artistic style of Champions takes that to the level of a graphic novel.

One of the most outstanding features is the ability for the player to interact with the world around them. See a trash can? Pick it up and huck it. Kick rocks and pieces of rubbish that are strewn about the area. In fact, I kicked a rock over to a ledge and punted it, watching as it bounced off the wreckage of a helicopter. Some elements, like kicking rocks, may seem more fluff than actual utility, but the ability to grab objects and actually use them as weapons is just…plain…fun.

Conclusion

Champions Online is fun and offers just enough differences between it and its costumed competitor, City of Heroes to be fresh. The skills and combat are a challenge and ensure that the player will be actively engaged in combat and game play. The ability to interact with the environment provided another element to the game that made the experience more enjoyable, and the inclusion of travel powers almost immediately removed a lot of frustration. Players are able to travel in an efficiently and heroically right away, they don’t have to wait until level 14. If the early areas of Champions Online are indicative of what is to come, then Cryptic Studios has a solid game on its hands.