Let’s bring you up to speed. My hero is currently level 11. I’ve spent some time trying out my various powers. I decided to go pretty much full “Force” because I fell in love with the knockbacks. Since the whole premise of my character was that he was in a nuclear accident involving a certain highly addictive drink, it makes sense that he emanates explosive amounts of the green stuff. So, after changing its color, the AoE blast looks the part and feels great every time I hit it. I finished off the newbie area that you are sent to after completing the tutorial (please let us skip the tutorial Cryptic!!) and defeated Gigaton in the pit of despair….or whatever the cave was called. I had expected this to be all I needed to accomplish before someone said, “Mission accomplished” and sent me back to Millennium City. But I was incorrect. The desert area I was in opened up (read: a lot) for more questing and baddie killing. That’s not a real bad thing though, because it will make the city seem that much sweeter to be in once the time comes. I just hope I get to play there before my time in the beta ends. But this does bring me to gripe number 1. Why did Cryptic not use the Canadian Wilderness and Irradiated Desert story arcs as the starting zones? Why not let people choose between them on startup, and use them for the tutorials? Could they not tie in Doctor Destroyer to each zone somehow, because that’s the only reason I see for the Rikti Qularr Invasion story that encompasses the tutorial.

I did go to Millennium City for a bit just to see the sites, but didn’t attack any mobs or complete any quests because the lowest mob that I saw was level 15. I will say the city is impressive. Actually, massive may be a better word. It is so large it made me come to a realization. I mentioned on the podcast (EP 004), and in my initial review that I wasn’t happy about the restrictive numbers in the zones of Champions Online. At that time I had seen a cap of about 30 people and I still have yet to see more than 100. I’m still not real happy about it, but I understand. I understand that there are hardware limitations. Much more than that, with a city and areas as big as those in Champions Online, adding a few hundred people to them would plainly make the game run bad. Also, the more people I see in the game, the less unique I feel. This, in turn, makes me feel less like a “hero”. So maybe the restricted population is a good thing.

With more time in the game, I’ve grown more accustomed to the combat system. That’s not to say I think it is a huge improvement over fighting in other MMO’s, but it works well given the setting. I like the block function, and the incorporation of the whole big damage warning dynamic (or whatever you call it). It is the one thing I think combat in CO has over most MMO’s. I would love to see something like this for tanking classes in fantasy MMO’s. Imagine a dragon giving out some visual warning like Mike Tyson blinking at you on Punch Out that it’s about to breath fire down on you, and being able to hold a button to shield yourself from the flames. With that said, there’s really nothing else that I’m digging about the fighting. Sure, there are meters for some of your abilities that you can charge for more damage, but I can argue that it’s the equivalent of having a few different strength spells to cast like in most MMO’s. You have a lower DPS but faster cast time spell, and a higher DPS but slower cast time spell. Just that here, you’re holding a button down. For the most part, the combat stays busy, but pretty unexciting. They threw in a couple action-game-like features, but I don’t feel that it made the game more engrossing.

I’m still up in the air about the graphics. I love the look on paper, but not in game. In fact, I cannot understand how anyone would say that still shots don’t do the game justice. Still shots from this game look amazing, by far better than the game looks when you enter it. I love taking screenshots in CO more than I ever have in any other MMO. But something still bugs me about the way everything looks while in motion, it feels clunky. Seriously, it’s the best word I could come up with. I really hope Borderlands ends up doing this style right and I can say, “THIS is how Champions was supposed to look”. Past the imagery, the games animations are fantastic.I sometimes feel like my feet don’t really plant onto the terrain, but the fighting motions are everything I could hope for in a comic style game.

Remember Warhammer Online’s ground breaking Public Quest system? Yeah, Champions has that. I’ve had the opportunity to participate in a couple. Yeah, pretty much the same thing, but in CO they yield HUGE amounts of experience. Or at least the couple I went though did. Prepare to see these camped like a mofo if the exp gain doesn’t get nerfed by launch.

I got to play a couple rounds in the Hero Games when I hit level 10. Maybe it becomes more interesting at later levels, but all I can say about what I experienced is that it was unsatisfying. It was some of the stalest combat I’ve ever experienced in an MMO. There was an octagon for people to fight in, and an area outside of the ring to pick up random junk to throw at your opponents. You essentially run after each other pew pewing until someone dies. If your team is smart, you’ll call out who everyone should be attacking and make quick work of them. The only fun I had was using my AoE to create some massive damage and see everyone be flung away from my blast. Overall, the Hero Games felt like a last minute add-on so Cryptic could say, “Hey look, we have pvp!!” Not impressed.

Other than all that, my opinions of the game are mostly unchanged from my initial review. But I do now realize what’s really bugging me about this game. I think it’s a decent game. Maybe even better than the City of Heroes/Villains franchise. But, not by much. I was really looking forward to Champions as my next big MMO love affair but it’s almost too “more of the same” for me. It’s not drastically different from what’s out there. You get the same types of quests, mostly the same combat and lackluster PvP. If I was at least working my way towards an exciting end game experience, I could enjoy it. But I can’t foresee the endgame of CO to be any different that City of Heroes. I may revisit the game after it’s been out for a while and I’ve had time to listen to what others are saying about the game post beta. But from what I’ve seen so far, it’s a no sale for this blogger.