Attorney At Law: The Judge, Jury, and Executioner

This weekend I decided I’d take a few days off from my normal routine of games and try out some new, and more importantly free, stuff.  I always find it difficult to wait for Free Trials to appear in MMOs, but in the end its worth the wait.  So I downloaded the Free Trial for Champion’s Online that was given out this weekend.  I’ll stay pretty brief because I really haven’t put enough hours into it to give it a full review.

From what I played, the combat is very fluid and entertaining.  Players are able to move at super-human speeds, dispense force-fields, explosions, and other amazing abilities.  I love the game’s art style, but I didn’t really like the “comic book” effects it had.  For example, to prepare myself for incoming attacks, I had to analyze what attack it was based on its onomatopoeia, such as “Bam” or “Boom”.  Its an interesting concept, just not done in a style I prefer.  Granted, this was the intended feel for the game, so its just a matter of my personal distaste.  As for story, well, as I said I’m not much for comic books, so I didn’t find the whole “only you can save us from a new global catastrophe every thirty seconds” feel to be all that entertaining.  Not to mention everyone I met was some super badass who saved the world from this or that.  Hence, I found it difficult to “feel super” since everyone was already super.  In the end, Champions Online is a niche game.  Its good at what its supposed to be good at, but it won’t cater to everyone.  Perhaps I’ll give it a second look later on in my gaming career.

That’s what so great about Free Trials though.  I went, I saw what I wanted to see, and I was able to form a fairly thoughtful consensus about the game.  They allow players to have a firsthand experience with the game, rather than only relying on the advice of others.  Even now with this article, you should still take what I say with a grain of salt, and form your own opinions with as much information and experience as possible.

So, for those of you who aren’t in the know, here are a few new tidbits about various Free Trials.  Warhammer Online has decided to remove the time constraint on the Free Trial, allowing players to play up to level 12 as much as they want.  Various opinions have been formed about whether this will help or hurt Mythic, considering most people agree that Tier 1 (Rank 1-11) was where most of the fun and spirit was.  Hence, people may just play the free trial, rather than pay the monthly fee for the whole experience.

Fallen Earth also has a Free Trial, and while it has helped them build up a strong subscriber base, players who are already paying are irritated with the server crashing due to the server load on weekends.  The issue is being addressed, with thoughts of separating free trial players, or perhaps creating more servers, being discussed.

Finally, while not technically “free”, people have started playing Left 4 Dead 2′s Demo, which is only available for those who have pre-ordered.  I haven’t had a chance to play it myself yet, but from what I’ve seen (Vaksha, my roomate, playing) and heard, its sure to be a smash hit (so try and bum a few hours off of your friends who have already paid for the game).  I’ll probably write a 1/2 Assed Review on it this week.