Champions Online Reviews

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Written by BuckGB on September 9th, 2009

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In terms of quality if not quantity, the game's content is a good effort, and it will be fleshed out. In a year's time, Champions Online has every chance of being one of the better MMOs out there, and superseding its estranged elder brother City of Heroes. Cryptic has proven its ability to make that happen, so all it needs are the resources and the paying audience.

But right now, it's just not quite enough. Technically rough (it doesn't run smoothly, in terms of graphics or lag) with lumpy character progression, shallow combat, a narrow world and thinly-stretched - albeit entertaining - content, Champions Online is off to a scrappy and threadbare start. As it stands, it's hard to recommend. But it's not hard to like - for the customisation, and for offering a genuinely different flavour in MMOs: a bit of poppy, disposable bubblegum in a world of nutritious gruel.

In my book, Champions Online barely makes the grade and the next few patches show if the development team has the skill and the resources to polish things up post-release to a state where the game is actually fun to play in the long term - the building blocks are there, no major features are missing - all that is needed is a ton of additional content and polish. I have my doubts and I feel sorry for anyone who paid for the discounted 6 month subscription or, heaven forbid, lifetime subscription as the content and its replayability is paper thin.

But at this point, a week after launch, it is hard to say for certain how things will turn out. The basics are there, controls and UI work acceptably, code appears stable and and if you enjoy mission-based gameplay and don't mind that the character ability balancing is very much "to be fixed after launch", there is enough entertainment here for at least a couple of weeks - easily enough to justify the box purchase price even if you'll end up canceling after the first month.

Before you finish off that incensed email to GameSpy, know that my petty bitching is purely tongue-in-cheek, and my numbers are exaggerated. Not-quite-Iron Man and just-different-enough-from-Batman types outnumber the Gokus and Gundams 10 to one, and the creative decisions of fellow players obviously has no effect on an individual's enjoyment of a game. Besides that, Champions Online's few zones are so fractured by instancing that running into the same offending player twice is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack.

Instanced content only ramps up the frustration of attempting to partner with friends -- and being a superhuman negates the need. Champions Online is a game for the lone wolf (ha!), and even quests suggesting team-ups typically don't require any super-buds to solve. This may not be a problem to some, but it's one of several observations that make Champions seem less like an MMO and more like an anemic version of Crackdown with modular action figures, insufferable quest grinding, and a public lobby.

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