I picked up Champions Online and paid extra to get into the head start and get started early before the official release. So far... Meh... I'm disapointed, I played City of Heroes/Villians and this pretty much feels exactly the same just with skinned with the Champions world. It's not at all a Hero system game like I was hoping for. The Customization and balance of the Hero System is one of the major reasons I loved Champions but unfortunately that won't be in this game. A more appropriate name for this game is City of Heroes 2: Champions. It comes across more like a City of Heroes Expansion to me than a stand alone game, although they did do a fantastic job creating this expansion. Hearing them bring Grond to life has been worth it Cryptic nailed the characters to a tee. The lines they give him are epic fun. In the low levels areas Grond randomly shows up and if he hits you, your dead. He's an Epic Character and your a lowbie. "You as exciting as some second rate MMO... Grond Leave now."
I got a kick out of that. The creativeness of the Dev team looks pretty good. Although buggyness has been an issue, but every major new MMO has massive bugs on release. I've managed to overcome them far far better than everyone on the Champions Online Forum has been complaining about, I think I've run into but have over come most of the technical problems. There is one major gripe that I have, the social grouping/pugging tools, there aren't any, at all. Granted the official release is next week. Hopefully they already have that done but need to do some polishing up before giving it to us, the idea that they maybe forgot those essential social tools bugs me. My other Gripe is that Grond is an Epic Character and your a lowbie... In the hero system, when you make your character he's ready to go, he's not first freaking level. He's not as powerful as Dr Destroyer but the Active Power Point system and all that other stuff makes you feel like you have created an Epic Character with the limited resources you start out with. There are other little things that could have been implemented but weren't. Like the Body & Stun System of the Hero, that would have been awesome to see that stuff and having automatically calculated by the computer is the way to go with it. Instead they're using freaking hit points? Oh well. I gotta be honest though. The more I play this game the less I like it, it was the same with City of Heroes. I think it's got to do with the Social tools, they're Anti-Social. there's so much creative awesomeness in this game it's frustrating. But there's no grouping up tools (whats the point of an MMO without social tools?) and so far PvP just plain sucks. There's one map and one game type for PvP.
Oh well, here's a clip of War Head, my Old PnP Champions Character resurrected for Champions Online. Unfortunately because they skimped on the Hero system game mechanics his supersonic flying body tackle will never make it into the game.
EDIT: On the subject of 'feeling' like you created an epic character here's a great Example of real Hero System Champions character I created for fun recently. He's a minion of the the Arch-Angel Gabriel Named Arzuthial called the "Will of Gabriel" Long Story short (I'll post his background later he's a great character) this Standard Heroic 250pt Hero System character with a 52 active point max can kill Dr Destroyer or Grond with one hit. No I don't mean beat them down I mean outright kill them as in yank their soul out send it to the other side, after all, that's his job. He has a few multi-forms one is the Arch-Angel form that is a standard superhero style brick fighting build (The more I got into it the more I realized I was building Thor) the other form is the"Angel of Death'" Skeleton in a cloak complete with a transformation power attached to his scythe that once it touches you, nothing will stop it from sucking your soul out. Now, As a GM myself Generally you don't allow characters with powers like that unless you know your players won't abuse it. In this case I felt the character HAD to have that. So he can't just use his scythe in a fight on a whim even though it's his most effective weapon because it means he's committing to more than just fighting. I just had an itch to scratch of how to implement the idea of a sentient creature in complete control of itself but at the same time lacks free will and felt I had to build the character and flesh it out.
Now knowing that I CAN make and play the "Angel of Death" out of the box under this system makes other characters I make FEEL a little more Epic.
Compare that to Champions Online knowing that I made a 1st level power armored character.... Meh. I think Cryptic missed the boat or more likely just plain didn't care about what makes Champions and the Hero System above the rest.
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