Champions Online Beta Impressions

So what is Champions Online? Well in short it is the sequel to the City of Heroes which is a very successful MMO released in 2004 allowing the gamer to run out their superhero fantasies. Champions Online takes this one step further developing on the superhero theme so that you can create a very customised super hero including looks (cape, armour, helmet. etc.), superpowers (strength, electric, telepathic, etc.). All this may seem pretty standard except in later levels you can also choose a flight power which includes web swinging, rocket boots and ice which is very fun although ultimately achieves the same end; a quick way to travel from one part of the map to the other. More interesting is the Nemesis creation feature in which you create a evil archenemy for your own superhero to battle.

So why is this so interesting? Cryptic the team behind Champions Online are the same creating Star Trek Online. How they handle this release will ultimately indicate the potential for STO and with any luck create a nice big list of lessons learnt so that mistakes are not repeated.

Ok patching the game to a level it could initially be played was I a nightmare but I readily expect this kind of thing on beta, even this close to release and am actually quite impressed with the way it was handled in the first day all in all (mistyped instructions aside – Cryptic need keep an eye on the details when issuing support instructions).

Starting with the character builder first and I was very impressed at both its ease of use and amount of options available for changing the look and feel didn't take long at all to create a nice character. My one gripe would be the default type selection for some reason I was expecting to be able to pick more than just type i.e. electrical. It could be the advanced section lets you do this and it did make character creation very fast.

In game I have three main gripes:
1) The graphics and seems somewhat dated already I have yet to play around with the graphics config so I am hoping it is just me. UPDATE: I have now found that several graphical options have to be turned off like Bloom and Cartoon Effect in order to get the full effect and that a powerful graphics card is required.
2) The interface seems very cluttered with bits and pieces all over the shop only some of which are explained.
3) The tutorial is a little lame, with lots of text to read through and a lot of back and forth. It does do the job however.

Otherwise the missions so far seem well constructed and although combat takes a while to get used to but works well. Still trying to get to grips with the whole blocking thing as it seems difficult to know when the enemy will attack. UPDATE: it looks like enemies have an indicator above them just before attack.

I am looking forward to playing more and expanding on my first impressions review before the game is released for real in September and 2010 for the Star Trek Online.