Champions update

More stuff on Champions! Yay. I hit 13 on my main, Demonium today (as pictured left). So far I've created 3 heroes and he is my favorite by far. He is built on the Ice powerset, which is pretty self-explanatory.

I read somewhere on Syp's blog that everyone should go with the Desert as the starting zone INSTEAD of Canada, and it turns out he's right. I've played both and the Desert is WAY more fun. I actually despise most desert/barren themed zones *cough* Westfall *cough* but the one in Champions has mutated zombie-people, so yeah.

Things I like about Champions: 


The Combat - it's fast, fun, and it just feels right. This is one of the only MMOs I've played where I feel like running around zones just killing the same enemies over and over. The good news is that there's quests that tell you to do just that but in clever ways, usually where you have to get a resource a specific enemy carries. There's a few "kill X of X" type quests but if the combat is as fun as it is in Champions, I couldn't care less really.

The Graphics - They're really, really nice. Everything is well detailed and fun to look at.

The flight powers - I swear I've spent half my time in Champions just rocket jumping all over the place. Who needs a mount when you've got freaking rocket boots?

The customization - The costume, the powers, the color of the powers, Champions is just full of customization. I have yet to see any heroes that look the same or even similar. Sure you can end up gimping your character, but it's avoidable as long as you don't stray too far from your current build. My favorite customization-related thing in the game? The powerhouse! Try before you buy, why haven't MMOs done this before?

The gameplay - From killing things, flying and questing, Champions delivers and delivers well. When I play this game, I play for hours on end. That's surprising for me considering I get burned out in most MMOs in less than a 2 hour session.

The UI - Yeah, I like it. It's very bright, simple and attractive. Functions well too.

There is a few things I don't really like in Champions though. The item system really pisses me off, in that I spend large chunks of time browsing through my inventory for the best items I have. Selling them takes even longer. Can't there just be an "equip best" button or something? Another minor annoyance is that the quest givers are spread out all over the zone, and they aren't really linked. So what happened with me is that I started doing level 11-13 quests at like 10, and then later found myself doing level 9-11 quests at 13. Neither produce good results, and because of this I'm a little behind (ahead?) of the leveling curve.

Still though, Champions is really really good. I'm really enjoying it. Kudos to Cryptic for pulling this one off so well.

-Rav4ge