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Champions Online Review: Champions Online Review - Edit
7.5
| Pros |
 
|
 Accessible Crafting Entertaining combat Nemesis System adds depth |
| Cons |
  
|
 Easy to disadvantage characters PvP afterthought |
Champions Online is Cryptic Studios' sophomore effort on the MMOG scene, and is the first AAA superhero MMOG to appear since the company birthed City of Heroes over five years ago. Times were different then, Cryptic Studios was a small company, and World of Warcraft hadn't even made its splash on the genre yet. With that said, have all the years and experience behind the company paid off in the form of a true next-generation superhero MMOG? Or do we have something truly villainous on our hands?
To start, Champions Online offers a robust character creator filled to the brim with options. Like City of Heroes before it, the creator could be considered a game in and of itself. I can't tell you how many times I've stopped what I was doing on one character and gone back to the creator to test out a new idea, or to try and see if the creator would let me create a pre-existing character I was thinking of. Just about every time, the game allowed for it, which is a testament to how excellent the character creator truly is. Of course, this flexibility is a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you just never know what crazy creative creation you'll see next. On the other, I can't count how many Iron Man, Superman, or even Battletoad clones I've seen.
Customization doesn't end at the character creator in Champions Online, either. Champions Online uses an almost entirely free-form system of picking one's powers and developing their character. I say almost because the progression still retains a small bit of structure with the way powers are tiered. Generally speaking, you'll be able to access higher tier powers within a power framework faster the more power points you've invested in it early on. Once you've chosen about eight powers in total, however, the system kind of goes completely open and you can choose anything from any framework. This occurs at around the mid twenties, which is a good thing because many frameworks don't really offer enough powers to solely specialize in for a full 1-40 progression. Well, outside of Sorcery. Advantage points further improve customization by increasing damage or adding additional effects to powers.
Unfortunately, like the character creator, the flexibility this system provides is also a double edged sword. Anyone who was in the earlier stages of the City of Heroes beta will recall that game functioned this way originally, allowing players to choose powers from wherever they wanted. But as Cryptic Studios realized even then, this allowed players to both easily gimp themselves or for the min-maxers out there, easily create tankmages. That problem is still present here, but unlike City of Heroes, Champions Online is far less forgiving. There is no Respec Trial to do; instead, you have to spend increasing amounts of resources (money) to respec each choice one by one, which up to this point has not been a practical endeavor. Recently patched changes to the economy may well serve to alleviate this issue, but the jury is still out on those changes.
On the flip side, if your character is up to snuff, combat in Champions Online is truly a blast, and this may be one of the most redeeming aspects of the game. All issues aside, the moment to moment gameplay in Champions Online can really be quite fun, at least when the developers aren't tweaking wildly with the balance of the game. As I examined in my first impressions, the launch day patch, and some subsequent balance changes have impacted the level of fun the gameplay provides, but the beauty of it all still manages to shine through for me.
;)
The combat is also far more active than most MMOGs, as, for example, players can fight on the move. Another aspect of combat that requires a bit more attention is the "shtick" system and blocking. Many enemies will perform a kind of "tell" when they're preparing for a heavy hitting attack. When an enemy performs a tell, it's a good time to block. Blocking reduces the damage of incoming attacks and also restores energy based on the amount of damage blocked. There are even numerous special block powers that have their own little nuances, such as Ebon Void which when customized with the appropriate advantage, will absorb increasing amounts of damage the longer you receive damage while blocking with it. You can also weaponize the environment in Champs, with the ability to lift anything from toilets to F-16s to clobber your enemy with, or even throw. A power called Telekinesis also allows you to lift and throw objects with your mind. This aspect of the game is easily worth mentioning as it can be a real treat fighting entirely with weaponized objects. When you see a guy merrily flying through the sky carrying a semi truck, you'll know this isn't your grandma's MMOG.
Balance, on the other hand, is an entirely different beast. The game's balance is simply a mess. Many powers are vastly overpowered, and many are entirely underpowered, all with balance changes happening at a feverish pace. The game definitely has a "still in beta" feel when it comes to the power balance and the rapid changes that have been made and continue to be made on that front in the few weeks since the game's launch. This problem is as pronounced in both PvE and PvP, just in different ways.
"Champions Online is very much a game with a lot of potential, but is currently plagued with a myriad of issues, many of which are often exhibited by newly released MMOGs, though the overall lack of content is simply inexcusable."
You can tell the reviewer talked to 1-2 level 40's and reviewed the game in his mid 20's to 30's.
Lots of content in this game.
I am not a fan of MMORPG.com reviews, they remind me of IGN.com MMORPG reviews = trash
Really want to play this game. Just have to wait for a new computer, though lol. Not that I've played CO, but I think some individuals are being over-dramatic about how "poor" CO is. Just give it a break guys AND some time. It will get better i'm sure.
To be fair, every single other review from every other major site acknowledges the severe lack of content, as do the developers themselves. They've admitted there are big content gaps throughout the game (especially after level 30), and have said they're working to fix this by adding more. This just shows that here, the reviewers concern wasn't unfounded.
To be fair, every single other review from every other major site acknowledges the severe lack of content, as do the developers themselves. They've admitted there are big content gaps throughout the game (especially after level 30), and have said they're working to fix this by adding more. This just shows that here, the reviewers concern wasn't unfounded.
amen
at 31 i had to grind my last bub to 32 just to get missions, period.
and now at 32/33 alli can get is team missions and missions +3 to my level.
When your normal content is +3 that is a content gap.
No idea what you're calling "content", but that description is exactly what i'd have said. I have hopes it will get better (decided to keep the lifetime sub, even after hitting the cap in the headstart). There were a few content gaps when I levelled up, and the launch day patch nerfed exp gain which made it even worse.
This wouldn't be the end of the world if they hadn't nerfed mob exp in beta down to insignifigant values - so those ~2 levels worth of grinding you'll need to do take as long as all the other levels.
Honestly as a review I thought it was really rather accurate.
"If however, you are a comic book geek who loved City of Heroes and you’re looking for the next step in superhero MMOGs, Champions Online certainly does enough better than City of Heroes to warrant the purchase. Keep in mind though, there isn’t much replay value to the game given the dearth of content to level with and the same is true for a level capped character. All that’s left is essentially rerolling and retreading the same content over and over, or participating in the woefully unbalanced PvP system. Thankfully, the leveling pace is pretty brisk, and that serves to minimize some of these issues a bit. In the end, Champions Online is worth a purchase, if just for the first month included with the box, after that, your mileage may vary."
As a disclaimer, I'm a fan of City of Heroes and I was in the CO beta, so there is bias in my following comments.
Honestly, I don't think CO does "enough better than City of Heroes" so much as it does it a bit differently, or perhaps fresher, as in new content/new story arcs to play. I think that will be the number 1 draw for CoX fans: new storylines.
So far as in terms of investment in a game, 40 dollars to play a game for 1 month seems wasteful, especially considering how "briskly" one can burn through the content. Sure, it's equivalent to going to a movie every week but mmos are typically about some extended subscription.
Otherwise, a reasonable review.
Peeps, not that I hate the guy but take a look at the exec producer at Cryptic for CO. None other than Bill Roper. How many times will he get chances to fail in this business? If the disaster of Flagship wasnt a warning for anyone interested in buying CO then they are too enamored with Cryptic's games. Im sure the content issues are curable but this should have been done in beta. Bill's team has once again rushed a game out the door too soon. Can only hope it doesnt drag Cryptic under.
I only have lvl 28 Char and when looking at the 3 maps I have access to (never been to Monster Island nor did any Nemisis yet) I have tons of darkened areas I have not touched yet. The reason people create gimped characters (I have made the worste gimped characters ever) is it takes a lot of research and thought building the ultimate champion. When choosing powers and buffs you must be aware if they compliment each other. Some buffs when reaching outside a set will not take advantage of your main powers. After realizing this and starting a new character picking powers and corresponding buffs even going outside my main set I noticed a huge difference. Also the off, def, util slots can greatly tweak a character. My gimped ones were tweaked to the point from dying frequently to never dying during missions my level and some a level higher. It IS more difficult then most mmo's. The Action can get your fingers moving as fast as a quake fest at times. Balancing might be an issue of using the correct powers with what buffs compliment them? I do not know since I have not taken the time to try and figure out more than 2 efficient characters and still made mistakes with those since powerhouse does not provide testing for crowd control, stealth and actual PVE combat scenerios. If they added instance rooms for real time combat it would be awsome. For PVP testing, plenty of people there to help you out by dueling. What is nice is you can try out your new powers and buffs in PH then remove them and try another before leaving PH. Since there is no manual or guide helping you through the build process I find starting from scratch experimenting with all the variations of weapons, weapon levels, buffs and stats/characteristics it can take hours to pencil out and design/plan a build. Its like a puzzle. I love the games required thought needed. As the game matures im sure it will just get better and easier to find the information needed to put together characters through forums and websites. There are plenty of helpful people willing to help and share their builds and experience advise in forums now. Lots have builds that claim to be indestructable but I am not there yet :). For those who havent played you can get a taste of planning process by downloading the Character builder someone named Zarzu was so so cool to make for us. http://champions.zarzu.ch/ Also to try the Character creator there is a link to one on the Champions online site for the character desing contest. If you dont like addrenaline pumping action and thinking, research and planning CO is not be for you. It can be frustrating yes but it is a hell of a challenge. Have fun.
Whilst the review was fairly balanced, I would disagree about replay-value. I am an altaholic and have enjoyed levelling all my toons, though the linear nature of progression is a little retrograde when compared to the original City Of Heroes and it's multiple choices of areas in which to level. Effectively this comes down to the problem of too few zones in Champions Online at release. That said, the zone there are, are excellent, as are the implementations of travel powers and the inclusion of underwater areas.
The powersets themselves are a confusing headache but in an enjoyable way. My only major gripe is with the devs nerfing powers which were terrific fun to play, this is just plain lazy and lessens one's enjoyment of the game. Instead of making a good power useless, the sensible thing to do to keep players happy, would be to bring up the weaker powers to match it, whilst raising the difficulty of the pve villains. As things stand I now have alts with useless powers and in some cases powersets, which will need respeccing completely. This knee-jerk reaction by devs has been a real spoiler.
Otherwise the game is ideal for the casual and semi-casual mmo'er, nicely episodic you feel like you can achieve something every time you switch on. Whether it has the power to keep players interested comes down entirely to how much new content they will bring to the game, and when. It better be a lot and soon, else even an altaholic like me will have run out of things to do before Christmas.
you're kidding right?
I guess your definition of "lots" and everyone else's (including proffessinals) are mirror oppisites.
You can't play through this game one time w/out doing EVERY single quest avail. And even then it's lacking. Shit, even the devs have acknowleged the game has gaps. You need to check your blind fandom at the door, kiddo.
So, how many alts have you run through Canada and the Desert (or both depending on the xp situation)?
Finally, a review that doesn't just restate the company's press. You did a good job discussing the good and bad abou the game. Anyone that disagrees is a fanboy that can't/won't be convinced of anything otherwise so don't sweat what they say. The one thing you forgot to mention was that for a MMO, teaming is virtually non-existant in this game. Besides about 5-8 missions, there is no reason to team at all. Also the UI for support characters is the worst I have ever seen. This is really more of a console game that happens to let you play with others (though its definately not needed).
it's easy to gimp one's character
The game's balance is simply a mess.
You definitely get the sense that PvP was implemented as part of a checklist
A lack of content and repetition is a thread shared commonly between PvE and PvP in Champs.
The music is hit-or-miss, mostly because it is so sparse.
Champions Online doesn’t have much of an endgame
the tab targeting in Champions Online is absolutely horrendous
The UI is equally shoddy
The Powers UI is generally just as bad
7.5???
Really? I know that fun combat, and incredible customization account for alot, but 7.5 worth? If this is a 5 point grading scale, then do 1-5. Given just the above statements in the review I can't see how this game rates more than a 6ish. Granted it might get much better in a few months, but you can't grade on what you can't play...
you're kidding right?
I guess your definition of "lots" and everyone else's (including proffessinals) are mirror oppisites.
You can't play through this game one time w/out doing EVERY single quest avail. And even then it's lacking. Shit, even the devs have acknowleged the game has gaps. You need to check your blind fandom at the door, kiddo.
Wurd!
I would say this is a pretty fair and honest review of CO.
My main toon is now lvl19 and althought I have not yet experienced the content gap, I am well aware of it. I literally budget my misisons and make sure I do a little hunting just before I level each time to balance out my toon because I know whats ahead.
Basically you need to grind out 2 levels in this game at some point. I havent hit it yet but I know its there.
I do have one thing I disagree with the writer on, and that is crafting. The crafting is boring to me and mostly a waste of time so far. Others say it will get better and that is great to look forward to however, all I have been doing as far as crafting goes so far is to find ammo crates and arms items I then do my research to get my Arms research points and break down objects for parts. I have only been able to create 3 items so far at this point that were better than the drops Ive found. My reaserch skill has been capped at 200 since level 17. I cant "buy" the next 100 point unlock until level 21 so I am hording all my ammo drops and having to wait until my toon hits 21 to do more research... and for what? From what I have been told I'll be researching until I am about level 30 before I get anything really good I can create. That's 10 levels from the cap and to me is yet another area lacking content and imagination. Crafting should be fun throughout the game. In CO its just another grind.
I strongly agree with the writer's opinions on the game's "in beta" feel I keep saying that and am continuously shot down by "Foxbat Fanboys" telling me that I must not have played alot of MMOs. I am a total geek and this is not a word of a lie I have literally tried them all lol. I have played so many I couldn't even begin to count. Yes, I realize MMOs have trouble at launch. I feel they shouldnt, at least not to the extent that the consumers have let these development studios get away with to date. CO was especially bad and the commnity freaked out and alot of people wanted their money back, and rightly so you cant sell hafl a tennis bal to a tennis player without pissing him off so why sell an incomplete game to a gamer? The developers need to beta test through these troubles and launch a finished product. Especially when charging a premium for the game at launch over other games, especially when charging a premium for a monthly sub over most other games, and most especially when charging for micro transactions on top of everything else......... super-dooper especially when the lead developer himself had said in development that he hated games that chagred for micro transactions and that he would never do that to CO. Thanks Bill!
Oddly, I still really like the game over all, and even though I cancelled my 6 month subscription to send the only mesag to Cryptic that they seem to respond to (a money message) I am really considering getting a 1 mo sub for next month as I want to see what this development team has in store. They have made mostly positive changes so far (not including the addtion of the grind..thanks for that...when we said replayability we didnt mean the grind, we meant new and exciting misisons.) Even with all of it's faults it's still probably one of the best MMOs Ive ever played. Cryptic better get their act together or Im going to play the new DDO...that game is quite good!
CO needs work but still kicks some serious ass over most MMOs out there, lets see what Bill and his team can do to improve things.
Quoted for truth, I read all that and then I was like, 7.5, really? Uhm, no. Not even. I purchased it, this is not a 7.5 game, it's a retail beta at present. Well, not even a beta really, beta should mean feature complete which the game clearly is not but then beta is the new alpha now days and retail is the new beta.
Excellent review, although I think the game should not have received more than a 6.5 score, I think the reviewer added points due to the game's "potential", which is bad mojo. The game deserves the score it earns at the time of play, not on what it might be in the future.
I like the game, although I cancelIed my sub. I play it about 5-7 hours a week right now (played up to 4 hrs a day before the insane nerf orgies started on release day), I would play more if I was confident that the devs won't nerf the crap out of everything every day. I cringe every evening that I log into the game, wondering how badly they gimped my characters this time. Too many powersets are just unplayable right now, and limping through sparse content while grinding with a gimped pure powerset, is not fun.
The game has metric assloads of potential, it could become the 2nd best mmo on the market, but it will never live up to that potential if the devs continue to be heavy handed with the nerf nukes instead of working on the underpowered powers. They released too early with too little content and have decided to punish the customers by nerfing XP and powers while buffing the "critters" so you cannot level up too fast and see the all the boards holding up the fake storefronts.
I will play for the rest of the free month with the game in this condition, heck I might actually pay for another month, but I cannot justify paying for a superhero game that doesn't make me feel super and isn't that fun.
I dunno, I find this game WAY overrated. 6/10 or such would seem fair to me at best, and even that is only by the generosity of trying out something new. I dont understand how anyone can give 8 ratings like some people here. *shrug*
I agree with you but am really just wanting to tell you how totally freakin awesome that picture of Yoda is that you have for your avatar pic.
Cool beans buddy!
I am sorry but you couldnt be more wrong.
The only thing Ill agree with is the fact that you say the few zones there ar are well done. Ill agree with that otherwise.....just wrong.
An MMO neds alot of content at all level ranges in order to have good market share. An MMO needs replayability in order to have good amrket share as well. Take WoW, you get a different starting area for each race, much the same on CoX which you mentioned, you get a different set of starting missions for each origin. This makes players want to try other toons and keep playign once theyve maxd out their main characters.
Any self respecting twitchy altaholic should agree with that.
Spot on review!
Yes the character creator is great, yes the power selection system give you a lot of freedom to make your personal toon.
But the game is simply too shallow, its good for settling down, leaving the brain on the shelf, drink yourself stupid and smash enemies kind of gaming.... or rather it was pre september 1.
But it has nothing to keep you involved on a lvl above the mindless smashing and with the extreme poor content, the gaps where you have to grind and the removal of the super in superhero the game simply does not deliver anymore.
It cannot compete with other MMOs on standard MMO terms. It had a unique niche in the complete free and fun way it could be played but that is gone now so the one thing that made this game worth buying were removed by the dev team AFTER the game went live and after the special offers for long subs or lifetimes ended.
Now that they took away the game's one big quality it simply cannot compare in quality to all its competitors and i cannot recomend that anyone buys it until they have about trippled the current content and returned the game to a beer and fun type of game it should have been.
fair review, imo even 0.5 point to much hehe ;)
Excellent review that brings up most of the pros and cons. However was there any mention of the fact that there is little incentive for grouping? I think that coupled with the massive instancing make the game feel more single player than a multiplayer game.
CoX was much better in that department.
That is because in your list you only mentioned the cons but none of the pros. Any game where you pick out only the cons would seem worse than it actually is.
Game is great, fun, I love idea of super heroes, combat is incredibly fast paced, fluid, customizations that can entertain for hours and hours itself, start was incredibly problem free .... yet ... I have stopped (with great sadness) to play it after first 3 weeks and maybe I will return after half year or year if game survives at all. Fortunately there are many other interesting and fun games. There are two main reasons - imo - for this as for majority of players as I understand from forums and chat:
* at least every week they take some OVERpowered power and they make this power terribly UNDERpowered so one can forget anything about his character; they are constantly messing with all powers and builds; today you never know what will happen tomorrow; many heroes that were heroic yesterday can become more like pussy cats today.
* retcon cost is just a bad joke
About retcon price ...no, idea because of tankmages does not hold; if someone want to be can be from start, but great fun of some game is also to experiment various builds ... and I had enough to delete bunch of lv. 13-15 just to try another build because retcon is mission impossible. There is test area ... but it is mainly useless. Tooltips of powers are many times not really helpfull. Many times all stats from dummy say it did 1 damage, sometimes real. That dummies does not fight back. So there is only one way to test ... outside and for some time. But when you are outside ... retcon for few levels back become impossible. Unless someone want to grind for a month.
Maybe I will return when they finally made their mind about what they want at all with game. But not sure if they know at all. Maybe they just put ideas on normal paper, put in big box ... and then somebody randomly pick these pieces of paper to create powers and stats.
What is so horrible about the tab targeting? You can target neareast enemy with one keystrock then next enemy with another, previouse with another. None have to be the tab key. I dont see the difference in targeting in co than other mmo's. What would you like to see different? Im not disagreeing with you, I am curious to how it differs from other mmos. Is it because when you kill one mob it automatically moves to the next? That can be changed in options with a variety of options, including do not change automatically, target next nearest, furthest, attacking. I doubt thats it but what is it. For content gap between levels you find, That includes after you have done all the missions in crime computer as well? Like I said I am only 28 and using the crime computer which is updated all the time I have not run into lack of missions. If its the higher levels I am hoping they add stuff before I get there. Thanks.
Before posting my previous post I missed yours. And I could not agree more with you. And especially I love your expression "altaholic". :-)) Lol ... I never thought about ... but I'm also altaholic. :-) In any game I'm interested in all possible builds. Then I pick few that I love most ... when they are sufficiently leveld ... start with others. When i have enough I switch to another game. :-)) End game for me is when i have leveled all i was interested on. Of course when i have a lot of time and that was case because of one long term injury.
And as I said ... i stopped to play (for some time, despite I have still free time) because today I'm superhero, tomorrow I'm average pussy cat. And until they to not stop doing this i'm out. And I'm really sorry for this, because after first week of gameplay CO was already my game no.2. Never happend with any game so fast. Now my favorite list is wow, aoc, aion, war, lotro, .... champions online.
Your opinion = trash. I have a level 40 in this game and wont be renewing my sub because I have little to do. Especially with PvP basically removed from the game.
Oh yeah, look at what other reviewers said about the game, read their own forums. CO is just below average and still needs alot of work.
Im glad MMORPG did this review.
The end of the first free month is coming and alot of us seem to be leaning toward not subscribing to pay2play.
It's too bad the game was launched so incomplete becasue it really does have alot of potential.
I think Cryptic may need to take a few lessons in sales and customer service before their next launch or start handing out the pink slips.
I release I completely cherry picked. But I did it to make a point. The point is that a game that has this many serious problems should not be 'rated' a 7.5. At least not in my opinion.
Don't get me wrong, I desperately wanted CO to be great. I'm a multi-year vet of CoH/V, and think that Cryptic can do great work. If they can stick at if for a year CO might be a great game. But there's no denying that the game needed at least a few more months in beta. I feel like they pulled a Vanguard, they released so they could get the $$ from the box sales and then thought they'd be able to plow that back into developement fast enough so that they wouldn't lose most of the players.
I wish DC or Marvel had done the right thing and bought up Cryptic a few years ago, maybe given some more resources and an IP that most people actually know something about, they could have come out with a great Superhero game.
got bank robbery in CO? what about collecting badges/achievement ?
Its a fair review if a bit generous with its final mark.
Quest/mission variety is the key issue and is severely limited not just in terms of volume but more fundamentally by a mechanical limitation in the variety of tasks you can ever be asked to perform and as a direct result there's a complete and utter failure to involve or immerse the player in any substantial way.
Unless the design approach actually changes to convey some conviction in the comicbook theme or works to offer the illusion that the player has some degree of choice and consequence in the world, the bland generic 'meh' feeling will only get worse with each new addition.
The pedigree and experience Cryptic brought to bare is conspicuous by its absence, this is an mmo by people who dont quite understand the theme or actively don't care for it. Its functional and ticks the mmo staple boxes but like Hellgate it just lacks any real identity or soul.
After all the failures in the industry, you think Cryptic would know better. I would also say Paramount should take notice, however, I am now at the belief CO was released in this shape so more attention can be payed to STO. In other words its another repeat of what killed Perpetual when they had STO. The differance is Cryptic is further along in development and now has a game out the door. You watch as during this very important launch period for CO, little will be added quickly. STO will launch on time and more complete. Cryptic will then state they learned thier lessons with CO. pfft. The truth is they got Paramount breathing down thier neck anticpating an MMO success in league with WOW. Yah, right.
Thank you for the frank review, however the score is just not honest. I expect a re-review in a year.
Nope.
But every once in a while some NPC will walk up to you and say they JUST saw some robots going into a bldg (meuseum usually) 9000 miles across town. (remember the NPC walked up to you) so they give you a mission and when you go there there are no robots. Its just a bunch of Red Hat Ladies.. Only they are guys in purple.
This review was poorly thought out and written imo. It really is sad how it seems more and more sites seem to faun over companies allowing them to have acess to their game for a review and then the critics go and sugar-coat their review for compensation. I was in the CO beta and sadly, despite all the suggestions on the forums during beta by the majority of the testers, they got ignored. CO has turned out to be nothing more than a glorified button-mashing arcade game. It doesn't deserve to even be catagorized as an mmorpg. It repeats the same boring quest types CoX had and there is NO strategy to killing mobs. The same button-mashing works for every mob type.
I was really hoping CS would break the mould they had formed with CoX, thinking it was NCsoft's fault for it being so bland. But no, obviously CS are the ones responsible for turning out such 2d games in a 3d gaming world. There is no storyline, no fluidity between zones, no social aspect, the CRAFTING IS A JOKE, powers are only clones of eachother with diff FX colors, the list goes on because the game is only half-done at best. Not to mention there are only 5 zones anyhow and small ones at that. CO also has the smallest variety of mobs to fight, which between that and the limited attack strategies, gets old really quick.
Nevermind their mission system allows for kill-stealing from passer-by players because only about 5% of all missions are in an instance environment. yes, the system worked as intended for SOME, but not for all of the players and despite their repeatedly posting the bug that allowed kill-stealing, the devs continued to ignore the problem. The game is STILL full of bugs and the testers pleaded not to publish but thanks to capitalism and the almighty dollar, it seems with enough payoff even half-baked, clone games of CoX can get a decent review. (I admit it is speculation about any such payoffs, but speaking from personal experience being in the beta as well as how other testers reacted towards CO game content...makes one wonder)
I think a video review for that game is needed. I mean, 3 page for a review wtf??? I didnt bother to read. I dont think any review need 3 page to tell you how the game play unless you want to tell me about the whole game, tell me about each monsters and each boss, but then, it would just be a spoiled review and no one who plan to play the game would want to play it.
Sounds like the game hasn't improved much since the open beta.
In particular, the reviewers comment about power effects "+ enrage", etc. I remember also wondering what each effect actually did, and assumed that by the time the game hit the shelf, they'd have provided ways for you to find out. Sounds like they didn't.
I do recall alot of good things about the game, weaponization of environment, knockback, etc.
One poster talked about having to research to find out what powers compliment each other, otherwise potentially ending up with a "gimp" character. i guess I don't see the point in having such an open customization framework, then, as it doesn't really allow you to create what you want to play.
For example, if I want to create a guy whose powers are largely supernatural who wields his powers through a shotgun(think Johnny Blaze circa 1990's), and the shotgun power doesn't compliment the dark magic powers, then I can't really create the toon I want, can I?
They should have kept the root powers as basic as possible, while providing more ads/disads to "fine-tune" those powers to work together.
Once the box hits the bargain bins, or once they offer a free trial, I'll check it out again. I love the superhero genre, and I've had all the CoX tunnel instances that I could possibly take.
This game required a 3 page review.
There are videos on MMORPG if you look for them.
Yes, the bank robberies are actually quite fun. Basically, there are three banks in Millenium City and you can tell if they're being robbed by whether or not they have cop cars surrounding em when you pass by. If they do, oftentimes you'll be able to accept a mission to stop the bank robbery and you go inside.
They do have "badges" and achievements in CO that give you titles and perks. Perks allow you to purchase special items (Costume pieces, other gear) from a perk vendor. You need the specific perk required and a certain amount of general perk points in order to get these items. I would've mentioned all this in the review but the thing was quite long as it is! The perk system has some issues though as unlocking a perk all too often requires way too many kills. In CoH you might have to kill 100-250 or so of a given mob group, in CO its like 5000. So you're really not going to get much mileage out of the perk system unless they tweak the requirements, or you love farming.
I believe that guilds (or supergroups w/e you wanna call them) are still limited to 200 players. So while sharding does suck for different reasons, I doubt they'll have that issue with SGs here.
Well written review. Lack of content yes, some mission bugs holds the chain of that particular story lines and Monster Island lack of the omph in the missons. Hope the next up coming update fixes most of the gaps.
Alternatively, content gaps can be filled based on how you juggle your missions. I have yet to face any gaps since the beginning to my current journey of lvl 30 and closing to encounter the dreaded gap of 32 -> 34.
Despite all the whines and quit rage, i still find my fun nearly in everything i do with my theme based champion (Single Blade primary framework) I have yet to try on pvp since i am more on end-game pvp type of player.
Dirk nothing against you specifically I just need to make a point. Alot of players of CO are saying they haven't hit the gap yet. or there is no gap. I haven't run out of missions yet either. However, "the gap" everyone speaks of doesn;t mean you'll run out of missions per say, it means you will have to play through all the content to level. People know this and thats what we are doing.
Try playing all the missions in CoX without having tog o back and play a TF or 2 with no XP. There is a tonne of content there. CO has limited replayability for me as I will onlky be willing to grind through all the same misisons so many times before I am bored out of my skull hearing Defender say;
"You'll have to defeat Black Talon on your own." and then 3 seconds later..... "You've shown great bravery today.....SHUT THOSE BEACONS DOWN!!!THE SIGNAL THEY"RE EMITTING IS CAUSING THE QULARR TO ATTACK!!! SHUT THIS BEACON DOWN!" I actually just turn off the sound now lol, that's pretty bad. There ought to be at least 1 different starting area for each group of powers or something.
This review reads like the game should be rated 6, not 7.5,
Nice review..
I do NOT know why everyone is being so negative against the retcon system, I have retrained several skills and skillsets now after the patch ...
Doesn't players sell their loot, you get LOTS of money from the loot drops..And yes I also craft and experiment with gear..
I haven't tried to completly retcon my characthers but if you buy a new power and find it bad just go back and retcon it, it will cost you 20-40 silver coins or something, and that isn't much...
I hate to say it, but I'm not surprised at all by this review (and all of the others concerning Champs). I'm a 5+ year veteran of City of Heroes/Villains, and Champs is suffering the same short-sighted tendencies and bizarre concentrations on trivial (in the long run) details, as CoH suffered when it first hit. At least with Champs, PvP was introduced from the start, so I thought they might actually put some forethought into the process and get some of the ridiculous balancing crap out of the way before release, but apparently not... The same crew that screwed up much of CoH constantly, then sold it off to NCSoft, is doing the same "fix it as we go" stuff that infuriated so many of us players who wanted the PvE experience and could care less about PvP. Seems like everyone is saying that PvP almost seems like it was just slapped onto Champions as an afterthought, which is precisely what happened with CoH, so you would think they might have learned from their past mistakes...
It's sad that, in the opinions of myself and many of the long-time players I know on CoH, most of the best changes happened after the Cryptic crew disentangled themselves from the mix and let someone else steer the ship. Guess the Champs fans out there can hope something similar happens with CO before it tanks into oblivion?
I actually had very high hopes for Champions, it had the potential to alleviate a few of the little details and portions of the City of series that I would have liked to see changed. And, in a few cases, Champions has really come through. Too bad those few gems are the only shiny parts of what appears to be a lame duck package. It's rather telling that (from many accounts, and a little in-game polling) a large portion of the initial player base does not intend on renewing... And that some of the players who jumped on the lifetime sub thing are really pissed that they threw away all that money... Those types of things do not bode well for the future of a brand new MMO.
But, as I've said before, only time will tell. Maybe Cryptic can pull this one out of the fire before it gets scorched.
I am one who is enjoying the game but I think the review is accurate. Because of the points the reviewer mentioned one of which was doing the same exact content over with every alt, I do wonder however how long I will be interested in playing. Right now I don’t see this as being one of the MMOs I will play for a long time.
Some one else mentioned this as well but I would have liked the review to say something about teaming. Or rather the lack of. Teaming in this game is horrible, be it the lack of missions you can share, trouble keeping track of your team on the map, poor side kick implementation, to the all around reason that you just don’t need to, teaming is just off, to say the least. How this could have been messed up by the same people that made CoX is baffling. Even when you do team it’s just to add more offense, which you usually don’t need. So when you do team there’s no synergy needed at all. As one guy put it, it’s like soloing with other players. Yeah I like to solo, and there are times when I don’t have time to do anything else, but as other MMOs have demonstrated (such as CoX) you don’t have to abandon solo play for team play and vice versa. A MMO can have both.
Wow, anyone know how to do an impartial review?
Review a new game on the fact it is a new game?
And what other MMOs are we comparing too? WoW? Other successful MMOs . . . hmm . . . WoW?
WoW has been around for what, more than 5 years anyway, and when it first came out it was so boring leveling to 10 I quit playing. Only thier PAID expansion was done well enough to make me play long enough to get to the higher level stuff, there was still a 'gap' there with lots of content sure, but all over the place, with much potential to gimp my character at ever increasing costs.
Missed good points of CO
Travel powers at level 5, fun travel powers, because half the fun is the journey, right? Not in an MMOG
Characters not linked to server (This is good, even with sharding, I quote "sharding is unacceptable and automatically takes this game off my list to ever play" Why? Because of the size limit? What is more likely, CO will raise the limit, have special Guild zones, or that WoW will allow free server transfers? Or do you want to cause a lagfest by having 200 people storm a zone with 100 other people in it already?)
Side Kick system (allows people to play together and still get rewards)
No WAITING for mana, a train, your friend to take a taxi to where you are.
The ability to take any power you want (yeah, I'm sure fixing power descriptions will be an impossible task)
Stances ( you can set up for different roles, as early as level 10, sooner I think, without paying 1000g)
bag space not an issue ( I dare anyone to call me out on that)
It seems like the reviewer focused on the bad points, forgot many of the good points, and compared a new game to established games. CO has a lot of potential, they are taking the good things from other games, and adding their own great ideas on top of it.
All the problems mentioned are there, I didn't find tabbing to be that much of an issue, maybe the reviewer needed to tweak the settings. The game thinks about a lot of stuff when tabbing, threat, your point of view, many of these things can be toggled on and off. There will be more content, it's already coming, balance is something that will never be attained because min maxers like to do their thing too, and they pay money just like everyone else. Why else is there always an obvious flavor of the month, even in WoW? I'm curious what UI problems there were, I just want to make more chat windows, I'm sure that will happen soon enough too. After all, it is a new game bu a company that isn't Blizzard (with it's built in HUGE fan base), that was most likely hurried to market. It may still be like Beta, but my heroes won't be erased, they give out free respecs, and my max level guy will probably be quite different than anyone else, at the least in appearance.
If 5 people started playing WoW, and CO right now, (no WoW expansion) which game would they prefer? No one to give them any help outside their circle. I think the answer is CO. Any other game that would be more fun? I'd like to know about it.
And PvP, again, good framework is there. In WoW would you advise me to PvP at level 12? 23? 34? How about 45? What game has this good PvP and how does it work? Is it the content again? Content is easy once you have the framework.
That's about it for me for now.
Edit: And teaming, xp and mission sharing is top on their list too.
The game has been out one month and more content, and a new framework are coming soon.
Edit 2:
Another good point, the power house test area. You can test out your powers before locking them in. Sure, it needs work. And I'm sure it will get it.
Edit 3 for horrendous spelling.
I don't think the reviewer missed the good stuff as you say. The reviewer and you differ on what the good stuff is. Travel powers are just that travel powers. I didnt find them all the great. They got clicked off in combat by foes so often that it became annoying. I agree with you that having a travel power at lvl5 was a nice touch but that certainly didn't help to make the game any less frustrating.
Sharding is not a good thing and I cant understand why you'd even think that. Any large super group on CoX has been alienated from this game for this reason alone. The server pops sit around 75- full all the time. If the SG pop cap is 200 how would you ever have a super group meeting of even half the SG? That's just poor planning on the part of the devs.
Side kicking is brutal compared to CoX. Not only that why would you want to team? You don't need to unless your fighting the odd overly tough boss, and you lose xp for grouping. Not to mention not being able to share most missions and not being able to see where to go on the map if playing another team mates unsharable mission. Teaming is terribly under tuned in CO.
I'll agree with you on builds that's a feature I liked too, but again mostly useless as most people just solo in the guaridan role for balanced play.
Bag space is not a make or break for most MMO players so who cares?
The bad points the reviewer focused on are the points most of us MMOers focus on when deciding to play a game.
I think the comparison was more between CoX and CO not CO and WoW since Cryptic developed both CO and CoX and alot of the same developers worked on both games. You would expect in this situation that they would be able to produce a very solid game with all of the good features from CoX and some new and improved stuff as well. You would expect a very solid game at launch..... it simply wasn't. I think you're mostly on your own with your opinion that this is the greatest MMO ever created.
I agree the game had potential but Cryptic's been shooting them selves in the foot for a month straight here. They need leadership and direction or this game will fail.
This is, in fact, the second review of Champions I've read here on MMORPG, the first being a "just launched" first impression piece. If you had read this article, instead of sifting through it and only seeming to find the negative things the author mentioned (hypocritical much?), you might have noticed that there were a handful of kudos for different parts of the game system as a whole. But, as my grandfather used to say, slapping gems on a turd doesn't make it less of a turd, it's just a little prettier.
The main point is that, yes this game is new, but it doesn't feel like it has staying power. You seem to be willing to allow mediocre releases of software, then throw money at it month after month in the grand hopes that things will improve. Most people don't operate that way, and if an MMO can't hook them right from the start, they will move on - it's a very competitive industry, and there are plenty of alternatives ready to take their money. The fact that Champions released with such lackluster performance, particularly considering that this is the second take by Cryptic at an identical genre, is disappointing. They tried to one-up their initial success, but even with the new features and some (quite frankly) excellent innovations, they have tanked themselves by only playing the short game and rushing to market, rather than having the long game ready.
It is very telling that almost all of the gripes about the game at launch are still the ones being commented on a month into the game's life. An MMO has to hook you within that first included month, and make you want to pay to keep playing, or at least hook you with the impression that things are improving rapidly. Every honest review I've read (and my own playing experiences, as well as my friends' experiences) indicate that the hook isn't happening, which is really quite sad. It would be interesting to see how many stay past the initial month, or last just a few months total.
So, is this review impartial? It's stating what I'm seeing and experiencing everywhere else that the game is being reviewed, without glossing it all over and concentrating on the glowing positives, while sweeping the negatives under the rug. Seems to me, it's impartial and accurate, and anything else would just be a little too fanboyish for me to respect. I have come to expect MMORPG.com to let me know about the possible pitfalls coming into an MMO, not just be a running advertisement (like many review sites tend to be), and this review lives up to my expectations.
Potential is one of those words that gets bandied about for Champions Online, much like Vanguard. The problem with the word is, we (players and developers) should only be talking about potential before a game (or a major patch/issue/expansion) is released. Really, who wants to pay for potential? If there is so much potential, why has the company left so much of it out so we can only talk about it?
So far as content goes, sure many games are light on content on release, some balance this throughout the level ranges, some hold back the endgame expecting to slip it in shortly after release. But, regardless if people are encountering an XP gap in CO, they're playing through basically ALL of the content -- there's no skipping areas that you might optionally visit with one hero or a different hero. And speaking of different heroes...rolling alts becomes painful because it is exactly the same content. In CoX, at least you can go through a variety of zones and a variety of mission arcs (even before the Hollows, radio missions, and MA were conceived). Since you bring up WoW so much, there are different starter zones for every race, like in many other games new and old. Because of this lack of content, CO feels like the very definition of treadmill and that is extremely disappointing given how much you can let your imagination go wild conceiving your heroes.
People are right, the game does have potential -- it's just a question of whether CO will live long to realize some of it.
I did read the whole article, impartial was a bad choice of words. Perspective is more accurate. I was trying to justify the score it was given, because far more bad points than good were mentioned. Most of the readers agreeing with the article have played the game, and know all the points, but that isn't who a review is written for.
I would really like to know which game has been released that is all the things people are hoping for, or even close. Seriously, I would love to play a game better than Champions. Have come to accept that games aren't perfect. I haven't found an FPS better than Duke Nukem. 99% of game companies are pushed to a fast finish by their producers like Holywood movies.
I have tried a bunch of other MMORPGs, and found none close to CoX/Co or WoW level.
What game has better teaming? CoX you could set a mission so eveyone knows where it is, and apparently get an xp bonus for finishing, if it was a door. WoW you could know the status and quests your party members were on. But no XP for helping unless you kill stuff. In CO if one of your team mates talked to an NPC for a quest that can finish that part for you. I found teaming in CO faster than solo. And XP for helping team mates complete missions has been promised. Sidekicking may need some work, but being able to sidekick more than one person is a great advance.
CoX when it started had tons less costume options, no capes, no respec at all, fewer types of quests, all the buildings looked the same inside, can't recall whether it was the beta, but you only could go one stop at a time on the train.
The 2 trains for sure never stopped at the same place.
People are complaining that teamng isn't necessary, but in CoX and WoW people were complaining about forced teaming, and those games were modified so you don't need to team for most of the content, enough to get to max level solo. I find if you team in CO it's more challenging, with henchmen running for help. How many raids did WoW start with?
I think the next level mmo shoudl have voice capabilities, so that I can talk into my mic and have the npcs talk back. Definatly possible with modern lechnology, but I'm not holding my breath.
Cryptic has it eye on the good stuff in WoW and other games, and has it's own way of making playing more fun in general.
About the 200 man guild thing, how often does that happen? I've never seen it, seriously curious. I guess you all get in the same area . . . and then look at your guild chat? I woudl think the befefits of having any player have the option of joining your guild without th worry of being on a different server would outweigh the inconvinience of not being able to get eveyone in one screen shot that one time a year when everyone is actually online at the same time. Would being able to have an unlimited number of people (well, high limit) in your Super Team base do the trick there?
Please let me knwo what game has better teaming, good pvp, is well balanced, and looks and performs well.
Seriously, I haven't found any.
I did read the whole article, impartial was a bad choice of words. Perspective is more accurate. I was trying to justify the score it was given, because far more bad points than good were mentioned. Most of the readers agreeing with the article have played the game, and know all the points, but that isn't who a review is written for.
I would really like to know which game has been released that is all the things people are hoping for, or even close. Seriously, I would love to play a game better than Champions. Have come to accept that games aren't perfect. I haven't found an FPS better than Duke Nukem. 99% of game companies are pushed to a fast finish by their producers like Holywood movies.
I have tried a bunch of other MMORPGs, and found none close to CoX/Co or WoW level.
What game has better teaming? CoX you could set a mission so eveyone knows where it is, and apparently get an xp bonus for finishing, if it was a door. WoW you could know the status and quests your party members were on. But no XP for helping unless you kill stuff. In CO if one of your team mates talked to an NPC for a quest that can finish that part for you. I found teaming in CO faster than solo. And XP for helping team mates complete missions has been promised. Sidekicking may need some work, but being able to sidekick more than one person is a great advance.
CoX when it started had tons less costume options, no capes, no respec at all, fewer types of quests, all the buildings looked the same inside, can't recall whether it was the beta, but you only could go one stop at a time on the train.
The 2 trains for sure never stopped at the same place.
People are complaining that teamng isn't necessary, but in CoX and WoW people were complaining about forced teaming, and those games were modified so you don't need to team for most of the content, enough to get to max level solo. I find if you team in CO it's more challenging, with henchmen running for help. How many raids did WoW start with?
I think the next level mmo shoudl have voice capabilities, so that I can talk into my mic and have the npcs talk back. Definatly possible with modern lechnology, but I'm not holding my breath.
Cryptic has it eye on the good stuff in WoW and other games, and has it's own way of making playing more fun in general.
About the 200 man guild thing, how often does that happen? I've never seen it, seriously curious. I guess you all get in the same area . . . and then look at your guild chat? I woudl think the befefits of having any player have the option of joining your guild without th worry of being on a different server would outweigh the inconvinience of not being able to get eveyone in one screen shot that one time a year when everyone is actually online at the same time. Would being able to have an unlimited number of people (well, high limit) in your Super Team base do the trick there?
Please let me knwo what game has better teaming, good pvp, is well balanced, and looks and performs well.
Seriously, I haven't found any.
You're right in sayin g its the writers perspective and your's and his differ. In fact your's differs from most and that's fine. Understand that the majority doesn't agree with what you're saying.
You're right no game gets released with all the pretty bows in place and without errors, but you can't deny that CO was launched early and with an excess of problems, the launch day patch shows this. They changed the whole game on launch day. Even the devs admit there are problems, and that they have had challenges. Its great you've found a game you love and I want to love it too but I just dont share your point of view.
You're right in saying that development teams are pushed toward a launch date by their publishers but this shouldn't happen and doesn't make me feel any empathy for the plight of the development studio as both the developer and the publisher get paid by the early incomplete launches that are occuring. it's just bad business and needs to be changed.
Compairing this game at launch to CoX at launch is unfair. Times are different now games are different now there are alot more ideas to draw from out there than when CoX launched. Don't forget CoX predates WoW. Since WoW launched there have literally been thousands of MMOs launching. This was Cryptics second attempt at basically the same sort of game so they should have had a much stronger launch than they did based on years of past experience. I think they were out of development money and needed some funds rolling in. truth be known CoX wasn't great until NC Soft bought the game outright along with some fo the stronger developers and fixed things.
The 200 man guild thing happens alot in CoX. In fact there are guilds that have to start up numerous affiliate guilds under names with Alpha Beta gamma added in front of them in order to keep track of all the members. WoW has even bigger guild/ afiilate structures as there are many more players. So I think it probably happens more often than you think, and whether it's an issue for you specifically or not in your experience of CO it IS a major issue for some. For some of the comments Ive read there are people who that was a deal breaker for. they can't have a huge super group in CO so they just won;t even try it out. Co should be trying to accomodate large group events as it means large groups of people are playing their game! LOL It's just good business to accomadate large social groups in an industry like this.
I found one game I really like that is well balanced has good teaming options andIm not sure about the PvP yet as I havent tried. That game is the new re-release of DDO ( Dungeons & Dragons Online) It's a very solid game now, fun to play, stands out a little bit in the genre and is just well made now compaired to other fantasy MMOs as far as a comparaiable to Co; CoX has it beat hands down. Co may improve over time. I plan to check it out again in a year or so but for the time being I won;t give Cryptic any money to perpetuate their ugly version of customer service and appreciation.
Since first few days I started to love more and more this game. Incredibly fast paced, fun, customizable beyond believ, .... I really felt like superhero. But ... after 3rd (or 4th) big nerf in only few weaks (that one when they took mini mines, agree very OVERpowered ... and made them incredibly UNDERpowered) i simply lost all interest in game. This was last hit. In last week I have logged back .... and then just quit few times. Free weeks will expire soon ... and have no intention to use them at all. Simply I do not find any joy more to play it as is only matter of days when this lunatics will again nerf to the hell some other power or anything else. Incredible mess with such potentiali great and fun game. Today superman ... tomorrow pussy cat. Also Aoc was disappointment at start (because of problems) ... but even when I left i was already sure I will try again after few months ... and then have tried again ... until I found game very improved. Like War. But not here.
Second reason (but would not have such impact per se): impossibility to retcon. I do not care at all about discussion about tank mage, because this, imo, is bs. You have limited investment in various powers and other ... so, no, you can not create real good tank and real good mage in one person. Being unable to retcon simply takes away a lot of fun, because part of fun is to expriment various builds. And it is not fun after i.e. 4th time to delete same lv. 13 just to try another build or change flight form. That training area is more or less useless so you must go out and try everything.
So .... happened something I would never thought is possible. After a week of gameplay on my list for fun factor have surpassed all but Wow. For the first time I have found game that since first days was able to compete wow (for fun factor, not overall of course) Now i even do not count CO on any list. For now my preffered list is wow, aoc, aion, war, lotro. And the rest. With CO lost in space. I'm very sad for this, but this is thing are now. Maybe someday in future (if does not follow TR destiny) will eventually try again. Maybe.
I covered many of the topics you mentioned in our Hands On Preview.
I read the review from a link on the top page of the site.
Other posters also wondered why with all the bad points you mentioned you gave it the score you did.
Maybe you should link the earlier review in the article.
I'll have to try out my munitions guy now to see how nerfed it was :D
I'm sure he will be unplayable now ;) <-sarcasm
I'm having fun. That's all I'm worried about. When it's not fun anymore, I'll move on. Until then -- up, up and AWAY!
Oh, and Gauntlet Chainsaw is a Gadgeteering power, not at a Power Armor power.
Been playing since beta, preorder and can Not put this game down. Worste addiction ever for an mmo and me. This game is not for everyone and not a typical mmo. Instead of pretending your exploring caves, mountains, forests and whatever developer paints into the games landscape, you create a character and are given countless ways to customize and tweak. From the looks to the powers, abilities, characteristics and movement. After your character is built you take pit it against the mobs doing missions and the usual mmo stuff, exept for exploring, very little of that. I think of CO's world as one giant arena, doing missions earning enhancements, stats, etc to improve your character while noticing if you should try a different combination of powers, their levels or advantages, also change enhancements, moving stats around, etc. Or you stop by tailor after noticing a detail to add or unlock a piece you picked up. Their is PvP, but with all the possibilities and variations one has access to it is impossible to balance without everyone taking basically the same abilitys, powers, etc. Other mmo's restrict a set of powers, etc. to a class, say 8 classes have 8 possible powers or whatever their called in whatever game, they have sets to compare each other to. CO allows each player to pick whatever from wherever, no restrictions. It is the greatest feature ever, No more knowing exactly what your going to get because your class gets the same thing every other class like yours does. Anyway, The game is Not for everyone, thats for sure. The forums are full of complaints but then again I have yet to see a forum without a lot of complaints. I imagine Hello Kitty would be safe. CO kind of reminds me of an Action/Arcade mmo with endliss possibilities, the eye candy is exceptional too. Not a lotro (I play it's great), wow (another good one), but whatever, CO works for me.
I notice a trend in the reviews to overscore games. I think the staff really needs to either be more realistic in scoring, or go to a 5 point scale. Anyways, I play CO and here are my thoughts. It's about a 5.5-6.0.
-Graphics are nice, although the character and character creator is surprisingly limited when you get in depth of it. You will see a lot of re-used accesories on players, and certain types of parts (zombie heads, insect heads, full face masks) are limited to a single piece. You can unlock more, but in practice there isn't as much variety as it seems, especially if you choose to make a non-human character. Being able to switch costumes on the go is excellent though, although you need to earn the slots, or buy additional from the items store.
-Environments are ok. People dislike instancing, but the environments aren't actually that large considering travel powers. You can easily go from one end to the other in 15 minutes or less in some maps. They are well-designed, but kind of bland, packed full of questing hotstops and enemies, with less pure candy just to explore with.
-Combat is meh. You constantly fight enemies that just attack you solo or in small groups, and you either regen health or die. There is very little tactical play it seems. Crowd Control doesn't work so well because all enemies have a ranged as well as a close attack normally. It's very mindless in play, and gets dull fast. They try to spice it up with boss characters but the same applies, you just pound on them, and try to regen more health than they can take away. PvP i have only tried briefly so I wont comment.
-Character Advancement-huge meh. You cannot design for a theme, as a person before mentioned, but have to take abilities that can progress in the game. If you don't, and pick the wrong powerset, you will be useless fighting because you can't soak enough damage, especially against bosses. The powers seem still unbalanced, with little reason to slot offensive ones as damage mitigation is more important at first. The saving grace is that the powers look cool.
-Community-soso. Turn off zone chat, it gets annoying. Not a bad place for roleplayers though, and since you can solo a lot of the game, your exposure is limited. There's little reason to even guild apart from getting a free costume slot. Worst aspect is the chat system, it is hard to read sometimes and the chat server occasionally goes down (!) or lags mking you unable to talk.
-technical issues-bad. I think they were having problems with characters stuck and the entire zone of lemuria being down. It's all right most of the time, but they happen occasionally.
This being said, it is a fun game if you view it as a secondary MMO and a social one. It's the kind of game you log on to relax, do some mindless grinding, and talk with some people. It's not really one to hook a hardcore raider or player though.
CO is a game you can pick up and play for fun. I would categorize it as an Arcade mmo. since its F2P its gone nuts. they did a lot of fine tuning and details added (sounds, language, script, etc.) If your a hard core fantasy (wow type) mmo player, ya might not like it. Emphisis on Arcade style mmo. I can not put the damn game down. Poster says secondary and he is right. My work and life are primary, CO offers a break from it. I really would like to know what is recomended for "primary" mmo's. Eve? I hear thats a life in its own. What does one commit their entire game time to? WoW? Eve? Fallen Earth? FOM? there are so many but few really popular. Ryzom had the nicest comunity ever and see they are rated up there. Anyway, CO in my opinion is a great modern game, more substance then dcuo at the moment, but then again its been out much longer. I (not everyone, but others did say same in CO chat window) got bored with dcuo and went back to CO. I should go back to COH/V for the hellavit. A month for 15 bucks is entertainment value maximus. I just dont like sticking s^%t on my drives cause uninstalling properly requires manually picking through your registry. Noticed this system still has fallen earth so might try it even though they ripped me off 50 bucks and said FU when i described. They agreed it was mistake in their favor but never the less they kept the cash and told me to F myself.