Up, Up, and Away
There are a ton of thrills to be had in the realm of spandex suits and superpowers, which is why crafting a totally unique superhero and charging head first into the troubled Millennium City in Cryptic Studio’s new MMORPG is immediately gratifying. The action-focused heroics in Champions Online are fast, furious, and truly fun. As with any MMO, the game is a constantly evolving work in progress that’s still being tweaked and expanded. Comic book fans will find lots to enjoy here, though more work will have to be done before Champions reaches its full potential.
It’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume of options you’re presented with in creating your superhero character. Drowning in choices isn’t a bad thing, and Champions ratchets-up character customization to absurd levels. You can tweak colors, body types, individual limbs, faces, costumes, accessories, mutations, and much more using the easy to navigate menu system. There’s also an option to shuffle everything at random and pick one of the often hilarious characters the game spits out for you. It’s possible to go back and tweak your costume and other features as well after-the-fact, so there’s no harm in being a little indecisive. The level of creativity this fosters is almost limitless. Some players have even modeled their heroes after well-known individuals and characters. We fought along side a very compelling Michael Jackson lookalike as well as a burrowing hero that was the spitting image of the xenomorphic creature from Aliens. This just goes to show how versatile the outstanding character creation component of Champions really is.
This extreme level of decision-making possibilities carries over into how you’ll shape your hero’s powers and areas of expertise as well. 18 different ability frameworks leave a lot of wiggle room to pimp out your hero with a broad range of superpowers and abilities. You can specialize in elemental skills (fire, ice, electricity), tech-heavy skills (gadgeteering, munitions, power armor), physical abilities (dual blades, fighting claws, martial arts) and mental arts (telekinesis, telepathy, force), among others categories.
Each framework has its own subset of specific abilities you can pick from, unlock, and improve, but there’s plenty more ways to beef up your hero. It’s even possible to customize the look of your power effects (erect a pink force field, shoot neon green eye lasers, etc.). Additionally, quite a few unlockable travel abilities give you some cool options for getting around the game world in style. If that’s not enough to chew on, there are three different specializations that let you assemble components and craft different artifacts and items to use. With all this power out there for you to gradually obtain, you’ll quickly crave ample opportunities to use it. There’s little to worry about in this regard.
Champions favors quick and crazy combat over more deliberate strategizing. It certainly fits the cartoonish atmosphere of the environments you’ll adventure and brawl through. All heroes have a weaker default power that can be used at any time in battle. Each successful hit helps boost a stamina meter that’s consumed when you use more powerful abilities. It’s important to balance more powerful, energy-consuming attacks with these quicker, regenerative jabs to ensure you don’t wind up in a tough spot.
From insectoid aliens and irradiated crazies to militant brutes and flying beasts, there’s plenty of enemy fodder for you to battle as you seek to help the citizens of Millennium City and dispatch evil in its various incarnations further along in the game. Once you reach a certain level, you get to craft your own super villain nemesis that will stalk you and attempt to thwart your do-goodery at regular intervals. It’s a very cool feature. Unfortunately, it takes quite a while to level-up to this point.
There are some other larger bosses to tackle, but the bulk of your adversaries come in the form of swarms of well-designed but largely forgettable henchmen and slightly stronger goons. Get bored of that, and you can eventually battle other players in the unlockable PvP arenas. Additionally, teaming-up with groups of other heroes to complete special missions and defeat tougher opponents can be fun. However, Champions Online in its present form doesn’t seem to do much to encourage and reward players for lasting teamwork. A robust set of networking options are there, though it’s just as easy to overlook them and plow through on your own.
Experience and items gained from slaughtering regular opponents is limited, which is why you’ll want to take on as many quests as you can handle. While they’re varied in terms of thematic scope, most missions fall under the pretty standard categories of killing something, fetching something, or talking to someone. Despite this, there’s a ton of them to tackle, and every experience level you gain and new power you’re able to buy as a result of frequent and relatively enjoyable grinding feels rewarding. Continuing to build you hero, growing stronger, and amassing wilder powers throughout the game is a big draw.
In keeping with the genre’s comic book roots, Champions’ cel-shaded cartoonish visuals are considerably impressive. The chaos that greets you in Millennium City at the start of the game sets a grand tone that carries through each of the areas you’ll explore. Moving onward into the desert and beyond, you’ll find some solid variety in the environments. As sexy as the different areas you’ll encounter are, it’s the complexity and expansive character design options available that really bring the game to life. Other heroes of all shapes and sizes are continually running around going about their business around you, and the bizarre spandex parade provides some highly entertaining sights to behold.
Champions Online gives the appearance of a vast open-world full of rampaging villains and heroic adventure, and it lives up to this promise on many levels. You’ll find much of the fun and mayhem one might expect to encounter in such a place. Yet there are moments when it’s hard to shake the linear feeling that gradually creeps into the experience from time to time. From our time immersed in this comic book realm, we can heartily recommend giving it a shot. There’s no doubt MMO enthusiasts and superhero fans alike will enjoy their time here. It will be interesting to see what Cryptic Studios rolls out in the months ahead to expand the fantasy and hold players’ interest.
RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 4.2 Graphics
It’s like diving into a comic book universe. Marvelous cel-shaded artwork. 3.9 Control
There are a lot of powers, attacks, items, and other things to juggle, but it’s not overly challenging. 3.9 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Heroic voice work enhances the overall sound and environment. 3.9 Play Value
There’s room for improvement, but there’s much fun to be had adventuring and thwarting villains throughout the realm. 4.0 Overall Rating – Great
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.
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