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Superheroes are all the rage now. With the success of movies such as Spiderman, Iron Man and The Dark Knight, Hollywood has certainly taken notice. Video games have always featured superheroes, whether they were based on comic books, movies or television shows. Cryptic Studios and Atari are trying something different with their upcoming game Champions Online, allowing the user to create their own superheroes.
Champions Online is an online MMORPG from the same studio that made City of Heroes and City of Villains. I recently had a chance to play in the press beta for Champions Online which allowed me to create a character and play through a sample of content in the first area, Millennium City.
Find out about my superhero, Mind Bottling, and her adventures in Millennium City after the jump.
Before you can get into the action of Champions Online, you must first create your character. This is really where Champions Online shines. The character is completely customizable, whether it be choosing the gender, race, or costume you want, as well as writing their own back story. Would you like to create a zombie Catwoman? How about a robot with angel wings and a monocle? The possibilities are only limited to your imagination and the time you want to put into it. Along with the looks of you character, you can also craft their super powers to your liking. You can choose the framework of your superheroes powers or create your own. Do you want a hero that throws fireballs and wields an ice sword? How about someone with ninja fighting ability that can also shoot electricity? Again, your own creativity is all that is limiting your characters powers.
I created the superhero Mind Bottling, a woman with telekinetic powers that enjoys beating up some bad guys. She discovered her powers when she was attacked by a group of thugs while walking her dog. Mind Bottling has great strength and her telekinetic powers allow her to create a sword with her mind as well as shoot out beams of purple energy. She wears a red leather jumpsuit with a cape, because honestly who doesn't wish they could wear a cape? Now that I have created my hero, it is time to have Mind Bottling hit the streets and earn the moniker of superhero.
The first location seen in Champions Online is Millennium City. This is a city under siege from an alien race called the Qularr, and it is your job to help stop them. Millennium City, along with Champions Online as a whole, has a very comic book feel to it. It looks like Cryptic crafted their art style to mimic a comic book, and I think it turned out very nicely. Following the initial tutorial missions which teach you the basics about attacking and defending, you speak with the Mayor of Millennium City and he sends you into the thick of the fight to retrieve crucial documents from a recently evacuated building. This highlights many of the early mission types, either kill a certain number of enemies, retrieve lost or stolen items and bring them to a specific person, or protect certain people from danger. Experience points as well as other tangible rewards are given for completing quests.
One interesting addition to the game play that Cryptic added is the endurance bar. Actions your character takes either drains or fills the endurance bar. Successfully blocking an attack will increase the level of you endurance, where as direct hits from opponents usually drains not only health but endurance as well. Combat for Champions Online is based in real time and is very action oriented, and the endurance bar plays a major factor. Powerful attacks will cost you endurance and unlike health the endurance bar does not regenerate. The best way to regain endurance is use smaller, less effective attacks. These will increase your endurance as well as inflict damage on your opponent. My hero, Mind Bottling, initially had a very powerful sword attack, and a less powerful ranged attack. In order to build up the endurance to use my sword attack, I first had to use the ranged mind bolt attack, which did one fourth the damage and took time to recharge Once my endurance bar was filled enough I could unleash the desired sword attack onto the Qularr drones. The combat is an interesting differentiation from the standard use magic, drink potion, rinse and repeat approach taken by other MMORPGs.
Once your character has acquired enough experience to level up, they gain either power points or advantage points, sometimes both. Power points are used to gain new powers, and they can be traded in at power dealers. Advantage points are used to upgrade the powers you already have.
One of the big draws to Champions Online is the fact that once you hit level 30 you will be able to create and fight your own arch nemesis. I was not able to get to level 30, but it will be very interesting to see how this is handled in the retail release. It remains to be seen whether or not you can catch your nemesis and defeat them only once, or possibly after you capture them they can escape from imprisonment, or maybe even you can create another nemesis to battle with?
Overall I enjoyed my time with Champions Online. There are many aspects that seem similar to other MMORPGs if you only glance at them. The battle system, for instance, seems identical to others out there, but with the addition of the endurance system, Cryptic is trying to tweak battles to make then more fun. From my time with the game, the character creation was the real jewel. I very much enjoyed crafting my hero, giving her a back story, a look and power set all her own. If you enjoy comic book superheroes and online MMORPGs, then Champions Online should be on your radar when it comes out in June of this year.
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