sci-fi | Superior Realities

I’m not the biggest comic book/superhero fan in the world, but I do think it’s a great setting for games. It’s the ultimate power fantasy — who wouldn’t want super powers?

Given that, it surprises me that superhero MMOs are such a small niche. There just aren’t that many options for the MMO fan looking to put on tights and fight crime. I’ve already tried DC Universe Online — which was fun, but I’m just not into DC — and Marvel Heroes — the less said about that experience, the better. That left only one significant option left to try: Champions Online.

This game doesn’t have the best reputation and is by all reports is on maintenance mode with little to no new updates for a very long time, but I thought it was a worth a try. What I found was a game with serious issues, but which is nonetheless a lot better than the negative buzz led me to believe.

A hero rises:

The first thing I noticed about Champions Online is that the character creator is amazingly powerful. Like The Secret World, the gear you get your stats from and the clothes your character wears are two separate things, so in addition to having a healthy degree of control over your character’s physical appearance, you also have a baffling array of options for their costume.

Even with a great deal of options locked behind a paywall, the possibilities are nearly endless. Champions Online is the first game I’ve played that could truly rival Aion for the sheer breadth of options in character customization, and if you can’t create a hero that exactly matches your vision, that’s more likely due to a lack of creativity on your part than any flaw with the game.

If you’re as concerned with getting the perfect look for your character as I am, Champions Online’s character creation screen may destroy your life. Just fair warning.

There’s a lot of potential to recreate your favorite comic book characters. In my time with the game, I crossed paths with doppelgangers of both Captain America and Deadpool.

Once I got into the game, I found the mechanics fairly standard, with a few interesting quirks.

The questing is very much like in Neverwinter, also made by Cryptic. That is to say it’s pretty much your stock standard kill and collect tasks, but with good pacing and an abundance of soloable mini-dungeons to break the monotony a little.

The combat is a little strange. Mostly, it’s a standard tab target system, but there are also some elements of action combat thrown in. For example, there’s an active block mechanic that can be used to largely negate incoming damage, and certain enemies have very powerful attacks that must be blocked if you don’t want to take a brutal damage hit.

Something I enjoyed was that the telegraphs for these big attacks often come in the form of comic book “sound effects” — colorful bubbles above enemies’ heads saying things like “Pow!” Nice touch.

Oddly, the combat in Champions Online is actually quite difficult by MMO standards, and several quest bosses were real nail-biters. Normally I’d praise any effort to inject a little danger into MMO combat, but if there was ever a time for enemies to just fold under the slightest pressure, a superhero game is it.

As in DC Universe Online, players can pick up many objects from around the game world and throw them at enemies, but the damage from doing so seems quite minor, and it struck me as more an element of flavor than a viable tactic.

Similarly, the travel powers are very fun — and quite diverse — but not quite as powerful or fun as those in DC Universe Online.

On the whole, the core gameplay of Champions Online is enjoyable, but doesn’t really sell the idea of you as a superhero, at least at low levels.

Looking beyond the solo game, the group content I tried was very quick and kind of basic, but also very accessible. There’s a streamlined group finder, and even as a DPS, my queue times were almost instant. On the other hand, finding a PvP match proved impossible. If the UI is to be believed, I was the only person in the entire game queued — at least in my level bracket.

One other thing that deserves mentioning is that despite Champions Online’s reputation as a dead game, the game world did seem fairly busy, and I encountered no shortage of other players. Maybe it wasn’t as crowded as some other games I’ve played, but it definitely wasn’t the ghost town I expected.

The comic book feel:

The look and feel of Champions Online is very cartoony in a way that I found quite charming. Similarly, the story and characters are an endless string of cliches, but there’s enough humor and self-awareness to make it charming rather than grating.

There are a lot of subtle details that I liked. For example, there is a mission where you contact various NPC superheroes over computer, and each one has a different style of texting — from the beefy brawler who talks in all caps to a sorceress who is clearly typing on her phone.

The game world is also richly detailed and a real pleasure to immerse yourself in. Millennium City feels very authentic as a sprawling metropolis — at least as comic books imagine the concept. There are a variety of neighbourhoods with distinct looks and personalities, and there in-character signs and advertisements everywhere — often providing a chuckle or two when you read them.

The streets are full of random NPCs, making the city feel populated by more than just superheroes. I assumed these were just set pieces, but when I clicked on one, a short scene played out where I wound up signing an autograph for her. I then went around clicking on random civilians all over and found them full of fun little bits of dialogue.

I really wish games would put more effort into little details like this. It adds such a richness to the experience.

The only downside is that mob density is quite high, making exploring the world something of a chore at times, and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of value in exploring beyond seeing the sights and a few very sporadic open world events.

The elephant in the room:

This article has been fairly positive so far, but there is one glaring issue with Champions Online, and that is its free to play to model.

All of Cryptic’s games have invasive monetization. It’s the worst aspect of both Neverwinter and Star Trek Online. But Champions Online is even worse.

One of the things I most hate is when free to play games paywall class choices. Your choice of class is by far the most important choice you can make it an MMO, and being able to find the right class can make or break one’s experience.

Most games that limit class choice for free players only lock out one or two, but Champions Online has more than half its archetypes reserved for paying customers only. The ones that remain tend to be the ones that most closely resemble classes in fantasy MMOs, which rather hinders the appeal of a superhero game. I like dual-wielding swords, but I can do that in any MMO. In a superhero game, I’d like something a bit different.

Worse yet, freeform characters, which can choose any powers to create a unique build, are also limited to paying customers, and the cost to get one is very high. If you don’t want to risk losing your freeform status, you need to subscribe indefinitely, buy a $300 lifetime subscription, or purchase a $50 freeform slot — which still carries the risk of losing most of your powers if you unsubscribe.

A freeform archetype is a great idea, and combined with the awesome visual customization, it could allow anyone to make their perfect superhero down to the finest detail, but the cost of such is just unreasonable.

Hideouts, a form of player housing, are also limited to paying customers, with no free option whatsoever.

And there are other irritants. In-game voice chat plays advertisements for non-subscribers. A pop-up for the cash shop appears every single time you log in. Virtually every aspect of the game is monetized somehow. Non-vendorable lockboxes drop constantly. It gets very wearing very quickly.

Is it worth it?

I’d really like to be able to answer that question with a, “yes.” There’s a lot about Champions Online that’s very endearing. But the free to play model pretty much forces you to pay early and often, and you could get a better experience for less money from DC Universe Online. So unless you’re both desperate for a superhero MMO and vehemently opposed to DC, it’s probably not worth your time.

I’m strongly tempted to keep playing myself, but I just don’t think I can justify the expense that would be necessary to play the game the way I want to.

I recently finished another complete play-through of the entire Mass Effect trilogy, and I wanted to do a post on it. But giving my thoughts on the trilogy as a whole seemed rather redundant, since I’ve already done that. I considered doing a bio on my version of Shepard including all the major choices I made and my rationale behind them and her character, but that seemed like it’d be rather dull.

So I decided I’d take advantage of my compulsive screenshoting and show off some of my favourite images from this most recent play through, along with a little commentary. Click the images to see them full-size.

Mass Effect:

In all but one of my playthroughs of the trilogy, I’ve modeled my Shepard after Nova Terra from the StarCraft universe. This is because the plot for the original Mass Effect is suspiciously similar to that of StarCraft: Ghost, and because Nova is awesome.

This applies to both her physical appearance — blonde ponytail, green eyes, white and blue armour where possible — and her playstyle. I’m always an adept with sniper rifle training, emulating Nova’s psionic powers and skills as a sniper. Plus those are the two methods of fighting I most enjoy.

I don’t really have a problem with Wrex — though I’m also not especially fond of him — but I’ve decided that I prefer to kill him because it makes the genophage story in ME3 a lot more interesting. A harder decision makes for a better experience.

I never understood the hate for the vehicle segments in ME1. The controls are a little wonky, and they were a bit over-used, but they provided a good change of pace from the sequences on foot, and I think the later games were the lesser for their exclusion.

I really think the Reapers are one of the scariest monsters science fiction has yet produced, and Sovereign’s speech when you first encounter it is just chilling. “You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it.”

Mass Effect 2:

During this playthrough, I decided to pick up all the remaining DLCs that I didn’t already have. That meant that this was my first time meeting Kasumi, and it turns out I quite like her. She reminds me of someone. It’s a shame she couldn’t have a bigger role.

Although her appearance and combat style is based on Nova, I tend to RP my Shepard as a female Jean-Luc Picard. She’s a stern but regal figure, noble if not always warm. I wound up with max paragon scores in the first two games this time around.

Tell her that I miss our little talks…

This was also my first time playing through Overlord. The ending had a good punch, but overall I didn’t enjoy it that much.

Unlike in ME1, I find ME2’s few vehicle sequences terribly aggravating. That damn hover tank is made of glass, and for some reason they never let you save in the middle of a sequence. It’s incredibly aggravating.

I feel like this shot was designed specifically for screenshot fans like me.

ME2 is my least favourite part of the trilogy by a significant margin. It has some great characters, but most of the game amounts to little more than mountains of repetitive busywork. That said, the ending is really spectacular. Just a shame the rest of the game isn’t like that.

I’m not normally one to complain about DLC, but I really think Arrival should have been included in the base game. Maybe because it has more relevance to the rest of the trilogy’s storyline than the rest of ME2 combined…

Also, one of my few disappointments with ME3 is that it did not feature Harbinger more prominently. Really felt like they were building it into the “Big Bad” of the series.

Mass Effect 3:

In stark contrast to ME2’s rambling, ME3 hits the ground running and never lets you come up for air, which I love. Also props for giving Canada some time in the spotlight, even if it involves being curbstomped by the Reapers.

I’m pretty sure my Shepard sleeps in her uniform.

I love this gun.

I’m not really that big on the various aliens in Mass Effect. They all seem more like bland archetypes than people. That said, I really like the Quarians, and the Rannoch plot was one of the highlights for ME3 for me. A great note of positivity to counterbalance the unrelenting bleakness of the rest of the game.

I like this shot. I must admit my fondness for Traynor is probably a fair bit beyond what is healthy for a video game character.

This was my first time playing through the Omega DLC. It was fun and pretty meaty for a DLC, and I love the new flare power, but if Aria T’Loak’s personality was a sound, it’d be fingernails on a chalkboard, and overall the story wasn’t that interesting.

Again, Reapers are bloody terrifying.

This was also my first time playing Citadel. I thought the clone story was, well, pretty bad, honestly. All the forced humour seemed jarringly out of place with the tone of the rest of the game. Also, why can’t I get armour that cool?

That said, the later half with the party and catching up with all the characters was great. Very unique experience for a video game.

My favourite part of this shot is how Shepard and Traynor are paying more attention to each other than the party around them. I wonder if it’s because of the romance, or if it’s just a happy coincidence? I notice that EDI and Joker also seem to be fixated on each other, but Tali and Garrus aren’t.

This time around, I was struck by what a brilliant piece of storytelling the fall of Thessia is. I don’t even like Asari, and that sequence still ripped my heart out and stomped on it. I really wish more games had the courage to hand such brutal setbacks to the protagonist.