Champions Online
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ESRB:
Blood,Fantasy Violence,Suggestive Themes
Publisher: Atari Genre(s): MMORPG Home Page: http://champions-online.com/
Blocking Your Way To Victory Block - the ultimate twitch action MMO feature! Champions Online is marketed as an "action-oriented MMO". In practice, I guess the block mechanic is the main action-oriented bit. Instead of just chaining up attacks and heals like in every other generic MMO, every character has the ability to block by holding shift key. Villains, especially those above the basic Henchman level can unleash super attacks that you are expected to react to with the block ability. No worries - you get a warning of an impending mega-hit with an icon on top of the enemy - if you see one, hold that block for a moment or get whacked by a massive blow. Block upgrade powers tweak the mechanic a bit, adding different types of shields to the block button. These improve resistances and add extra effects - like retaining the effect for a few seconds after releasing block. So when grouping, Champions Online tanking is all about alternating block and some quick high-threat attacks, reapplying block again before the shield after-effect expires. Non-tanks can use blocking as a reactionary survival tool until someone else can attract the attention of the villains. Funnily, due to the beta-grade game balance, healers make damn good tanks as healing seems to generate completely ridiculous amounts of threat if you play in "tank" stance. Not really a problem - healers just need a block upgrade to alternate between block and heal while the rest of the team tears up the opposition.
Attack powers mix common single click abilities with attacks that can be charged up by holding the quickbar button for larger blasts. Everything costs energy and stronger powers can require more energy than your character has, making them impossible to use until you gather up some Endurange equipment. Equilibrium also plays a part by limiting how you can open a fight - as combat tends to start with your energy at less than maximum, you first have to poke the hostiles with the weak energy builder power until you can open up with the big guns. Feels like a workable tweak of the "combo point" mechanic from World of Warcraft, but there are silly corner cases depending on your Endurance and Recovery. Equilibrium and power mechanics also depend on your stance, limiting what you can pull off in healing or tanking stance. Another action element borrowed from the consoles is the hold mechanic - if you get a hold placed on you (effectively, a stun - you are stuck and unable to do anything), spamming Z key will break the hold faster. If this is action-combat innovation for MMOs, what next? Button sequence events to escape enemy super moves? Overall, combat works - there is some action, once you get a few levels it is not all about spamming one power and there is plenty of variety with enemy abilities. Unfortunately combat balance is currently somewhat of a joke. Ranged area effect powers are king as you are almost always fighting against 3-5 opponents at the same time. Holds and other crowd control powers appear extremely weak unless they happen to include a damage component. Melee has the usual problem - you actually have to stand next to your opponent. This is not a huge deal in PvE, but PvP is even more broken for those who stick to melee attacks. Of course as you are free to pick whatever powers you want, building a pure melee character is sub-optimal to say the least - you can easily fit both melee and ranged attacks to your set of 14 power choices by level 40. I'm Your Nemesis!While Champions Online allows you to play only as a hero, you also get to make a villain - your very own nemesis. This is one of the new ideas of Champions Online - at level 25 you get a mission where you effectively create another character, complete with costume, power framework and henchmen. You then get a special mission where a new supervillain, the one that you just designed, enters the game and you obviously have to beat the crap out of him. Being a supervillain ensures no easy victory - you'll end up fighting your nemesis several times, complete with breakouts from supervillain-proof prisons and so on. I also understand that at the maximum level you should be able to create your own gallery of defeated villains by repeatedly creating and then defeating a nemesis, earning tokens for purchasing endgame equipment.
Overall, the idea of your personal adversary is great but once again the implementation feels unfinished. Nemesis-related cutscenes are numerous and just as clumsy and unfinished-looking as most of the lair-related ones. Missing voiceovers, poor animation... actual missions are also very simple and fast, diminishing the epicness of the fights. Creation of a nemesis also causes problems elsewhere - you get additional nemesis-related missions by defeating a bunch of henchmen and they won't leave you alone, spawning at the most inconsiderate times. Poorly built heroes can end up dead over and over again simply because they can't take two large villain spawns in combat at the same time. Superhero GearAs a major change to City of Heroes, Champions Online does include equipment. They do not actually show on your character and instead the loot goes to slots like "Primary Defense" and "Primary Offense" or in some cases ends up in your quickbar for items that can be activated, usually with limited charges. The main function of items is to provide stats. However, in addition to the stat-boosting item drops, there are some drops that can actually change your character's appearance - costume unlocks and power replaces. Sadly the system is stupid. I know the goal was to provide visual "trophies" of sorts with costume parts and power tweaks that can only be displayed if you have completed a piece of content. The concept just doesn't work with a game that has a ridiculous number of costume combinations and almost as ridiculous (but smaller) number of super power combinations to pick - the odds of finding an extra costume piece or power replace that fits your hero theme and your power choices is infinitesmall. From level 1 to 30 I personally have found exactly one power replace I could use and no costume pieces that would really fit my theme. Part of the problem is the extreme bias towards providing additional melee weapon models and upgrades over the other frameworks, but even if that gets balanced out with unlocks for other frameworks, the underlying problem is still there - at best, one out of ten of these are of any use to you, assuming your build is based mostly on two frameworks which is probably the most common situation. A far smarter system would've been to make costume unlocks account-wide, so by playing one character to the level cap and clearing content once would unlock new design options when making that inevitable first alt character. Power replaces on the other hand should just drop as generic token that allows you to pick one from a vendor that fits your character - or just tweak the drops so that you always somehow end up one that fits you. Current system just ends up providing tons useless of vendor fodder.
Related Stuff Games: Champions Online
Games: City of Villains
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