The state of Champions

It's been almost a month since I bought Champions, and I'd like to talk a little bit about it and why I will not be continuing my subscription.

First off - Cryptic did an excellent job on this one. I said it all before but it really does feel like a superhero MMO. As fun as you would expect it to be and it offers what it should be offering.

The problem with it though, is that Champions really does not deliver what I usually would expect from its genre. Usually with MMOs, you get very diverse, addicting and large worlds where there is plenty to do and plenty to see. Champions doesn't do this, it feels more like a very casual online game with the MMO label slapped on it.

My other problem with it also relates to the above, in that the subscription fee is still the normal $15 a month, which is pretty lame. Champions just doesn't offer enough to get 15 bucks a month from me, not happening. 10 or even 5 would be reasonable.

What Champions is though, is a great casual superhero MMO. There is nothing wrong with the game itself - infact I greatly enjoyed my free month and will probably come back at some point - but Cryptic needs to consider that this is a PC MMO. I can see the Xbox 360 version being huge, but right now the PC version just isn't worth it with bigger and better things coming and already out.

 -Rav4ge

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