Dr. Destroyer's Army Attacks!

That's right, to wrap up their open beta and celebrate the game's impending launch, Cryptic is throwing an epic event for players participating in the game's beta test. Millennium City is under siege by hordes of Dr. Destroyer's destroid minions! The streets are filled with robotic flunkies waiting for the nearest able bodied hero to give them what for, and also seen are enormous Mega-Destroids which no average hero should take on alone!

                                Just say NO to Robot Overlords!

So any of you other beta testers out there get to the city between now and 5:00 P.M. PDT on the 25th (extended due to the sheer amount off awesome that is involved in robotic invasions). And bring a some friends!

You'll need them.

First Thoughts On Melee Combat, The Claw Powerset, And Why Lunge Is The Devil

So after trying out a few powersets that make use of ranged attacks and abilities I decided I would give a melee-centered character a shot. FOR SCIENCE!

The hairy fellow pictured above makes use of the Blade powerset, which I chose in order to get a general idea of how smoothly the melee abilities mesh with the rest of the game. The resulting impression I made is, to say the least, mixed.

Initially I felt that melee combat was much more challenging than some of the other options. Throughout the tutorial and much of the first zone thereafter I found it more than a little cumbersome trying to keep myself up close and personal with all my foes.

Even as I was making the character I assumed I'd have quite the time getting to the flying opponents I knew I'd find both in PVE and PVP. Not to mention the ranged attack users in both categories that would delight in blasting away at me while simaltaniously backpedaling to make my job of closing the distance more of a chore.

Like I said, for the most part I was right for much of the earliest portions of the game. I wouldn't have said at that point that playing a melee-centric character would be a complete pain, but it would have indeed made for a more challenging experience.

And then I discovered the lunge attack while selecting new powers after a level up. Fantastic, I thought, a way to show those dirty gun toting, flame throwing, psychic javelin hurling ranged ninnys whats what.

                      Seriously. What can't be fixed by a drop kick?

And boy was I right! Unfortunately.

As soon as I picked up this particular power, melee went from being a challenging and interesting alternative to a big ugly cheeseballing. Lunge certainly does close the distance between you and ranged opponents. And it does work quite well at getting to those flying opponents too. So what's the problem?

It's current incarnation is just ridiculously overpowered.

Not only does it hit from a range, but it's also practically free of energy cost, has no cool down, no minimum range, and does ridiculous damage to the targeted enemy. So while I was expecting an ability that would help me get into range to link up subsequential melee attacks, what I got was an attack that could two shot any given mob of equal level to my own and could be spammed pretty much endlessly.

As dissapointing as this first foray into the realm of melee combat was, however, I'm sure such an obvious balance breaker will be tweaked soon enough by the developers. And it's an easy fix to make: slap a minimum range on the thing, raise the energy cost some, or just significantly lower the damage so that it's not possible to mop up an entire room of enemies with a string of Lunges.

Power Armor: The First Roll

As soon as I saw the power armor preview video on the Champions Online website I knew it would be the first powerset I'd try out. In a game that seeks to break common MMO character archetypes, the power armor strikes me as a candidate for the most original character concept. After all, in a market proliferated with fantasy hack and slash how many of us have been presented with the option of playing as a super robotic killing machine?

It was with much curiosity but very little real expectations that I made my first character in Champions. Since the idea of a power armored character was so foreign to me I really did know what to expect in terms of play style or group role. Would I just be rushing in and obliterating my foes with a hail of rockets and lasers? Or would it turn out to be more of a 'tank' type with lower damage output but ridiculous survivability?

As it turns out, a little of both. I found while playing my power armored hero up to around level 15 that the powerset seems to be aimed more at a 'balanced' play style. The ole' power armor wasn't cranking out the numbers that some other damage dealers were capable of doing and it was far from an unstoppable tank, instead coinciding in a happy little middle ground. A jack of all trades sort of setup (albeit I didn't see any healing abilities, they could certainly be there. We'll see.)

Weapon Systems - The Gentleman's Damage Dealer

In terms of damage the power armor can certainly hold it's own, though it might not be initially apparent. Instead of dishing out fast burst damage attacks, the powerset seems to focus more on sustainable damage in the form of 'channeled' attacks that deal a stream of comparably smaller hits to foes. An example of this would be the shoulder mounted chain gun attack. When activated, the chain gun spews a constant stream of bullets at the player's target while simaltaniously draining small amounts of the player's energy with each round. Suffice to say, unless deactivated the stream of damage will continue until the opponent dies or the player runs out of energy.

What's I found most interesting about the powerset is the fact that you can run multiple weapon systems at the same time. So if you do want to crank out the burst damage you certainly can by activating..say..that shoulder mountain cannon while simaltaniously using your characters energy gauntlet ability. It is a trade off however: while one weapon system being active might not put a huge strain on your energy pool, firing off several simaltaniously is sure to deplete the reserves in short order.

So while elemental players might be able to dish out big hits in exchange for large chunks of their energy, the power armor makes a trade of instantly big damage for versatility. I think that the powerset, with it's more conservative and gradual energy use, will allow for skilled players to make quick changes in strategy and utility depending on their priorities at any given moment of a fight.

Defense - There's a Reason They Call it Armor

The power armor user is not invincible. But they're pretty darn tough all the same. I seemed to notice that my character had a good deal more natural defenses than some other powersets, and slightly higher health. I didn't spend much time putting him into groups yet to test tanking capabilities out too thoroughly, but I'd definitely say that the option is there. Certain ability upgrades allow for extra threat generation in order to insure the power armor keeps the enemy's attention away from those darn squishies standing behind it, and I believe that with the correct application of Champions Online's role system (Which I'll admit I've not touched at all up to this point), Power Armor users could make for some very viable tanks.

Overall Opinion Thus Far
I think that power armor will make for a nice balanced class. Depending on where your focuses lay I think the powerset could be well applied for a dpser or for tanking, though it's not likely to be the best or completely wow anybody at either task. I would recommend it as a first character for folks to try out coming into the game, as the balanced play style makes soloing easy enough while players get a feel for things.

That said, it'll probably be a while until I level one further than I have already. Why? For the same reason I tried power armor out first. I think that as one of the more obviously original and appealing powerset choices that there will be a lot of them running around on launch day. I'll let folks more passionate about the powerset than I blaze that particular trail.

Also, I've already got my mind set on a certain other character come launch time...

Day 1 Impressions

So here we are, just over a week from Champions Online's release! For a while now I've been doing some reading up on the latest press releases and reviews from Beta and finally decided to step up and pre-order the game I knew I'd be picking up on release day anyway in order to get some early access. To say that I've been looking forward to getting my hands on Champions would be a bit of an understatement.

So this post is all about first impressions, those that I made and those I feel safe in assuming many people who have similar backgrounds playing MMOs will share. Bear in mind this first post is more of a general summary of game engine and design, and that impressions made of specific powersets and events will be soon to follow. That said, this post won't contain any spoilers so read on!

Presentation 

• Graphics – Its actually pretty surprising to me that there have been a few complaints about the game's graphics on community forums. I've always thought that cell shading techniques are the way to go for video games that aim to capture a comic book look. It's nice to see the colorful settings and characters, especially in a time when much of the next-gen gaming technology is spent making the uber-realistic visuals, IE the lovable combo of 'Mud Brown' and 'Snot Gray' coloring scheme. The amount of work and detail Cryptic put into their color schemes and shading also come across, so I'm quite pleased with all of the game's visuals thus far.  
• Music/SFX – As far as the aesthetics go, this is probably the department I was least impressed with. Which isn't to say that the sound in the game is bad really, just lackluster. The effects are adequate and about what you would expect. Helicopters sound like helicopters and a mutant being drop kicked in the face sounds like a mutant getting drop kicked in the face (Or so I would imagine). What is a little disappointing is the background music in the game. The fact that I can't now recall anything at all of the music in most of the major quest hub zones means that if there was any at all, it didn't make any kind of impression. There's some ominous tunes playing in the instanced 'dungeon' areas I went through, but the fact that I do remember them is a far step from saying they were enjoyable or even decent.

• Narration/Voice-Acting – The voices in the game get the job done. Like most MMO's I'd hardly expect astounding voice acting for every little henchman I come across. That said, both narration and the voices for some of the more substantial hero NPCs and enemies come across pretty well. Sure theres a lot of it that's pretty corny, but I choose to see it as an authentic portrayal of comic sensationalism and not as any shortcomings on the actor's part. 

Depth

• Customization – Now this is where it's at. The game's various customization options are easily one of the main draws to Champions Online. And the bar was set pretty high coming off of CoX. We knew it, Crypic knew it, and they delivered. While outstanding by the standards of most MMO's, anyone who had a taste of CoH's character creation system will be right at home the first time they fire up Champions. Which isn't to say that the game's character customization was just copy/pasted over from the previous game as a developmental shortcut, just that Cryptic took their winning formula from CoX and ran a little further with it. It's some of the newer customization features that are truly impressive, like the ability to change the hue of various powers to better fit your characters aesthetic aims. Each power also has a number of additional effects and bonuses that can be tacked on through training points, allowing a further layer of customization and further insuring that it's quite unlikely you'll ever run across two heroes who look and preform in exactly the same way.
• NPCs/Background – Here's another facet of Champions that shines through. The various characters and locations offered in the game thus far all capture the tongue in cheek comic atmosphere. True to the genre both heroes and super villains are larger than life in all their exaggerated and colorful flare. It's also good to see that the game doesn't take itself too seriously, and that even the starting areas offer a number of tongue-in-cheek references to it's own subject matter, as well as various other parodies from pop culture. As I said at the beginning of the post I don't want to give away any spoilers, but suffice to say a few of the early quests will deal with caricatures that will look all too familiar..

Game play

• Balance – I'd be a great big fibber if I said the game didn't need some balancing tweaks. Even the three different power sets I've experimented a bit with up to around level 15 have drawn my attention to some glaring issues. That said, I'm not terribly concerned yet. The developers have demonstrated a great willingness throughout the beta to listen to community feedback, offering many hotfixes and patches to address various bugs and balancing issues that the community brought to their attention. So long as this willingness continues after the game's public launch, I believe it's just a matter of time until the various character balancing issues get ironed out.
• PVE – So far so good. I've played through the common tutorial area a handful of times, as well as the two available starting areas available to you afterwards. I've been pleased to see that the game has developed a certain cinematic aspect that has started to show up in more recent MMOs. Which is to say that for the most part you actually feel like your contributing to something through the quests and story arcs. It was expected that a certain amount of sensationalism and special attention would be taken with the starting zones in order to draw the players in and make a first strong impression. But while many MMOs will wander off after that point of grabbing your attention and default back to the tried and true grind fest, Champions does seem to make a bit of extra effort to keep that momentum going past the first zone or two. Which isn't to say that there isn't a certain grinding feel to it, or that there are no 'Kill X number of Y' quests stuffed in. These things are there. But really...every MMO from not until the dawn of time is going to have some grind aspects to it. It's just the nature of the beast. What's important is that the quests are delivered in such a way that it doesn't feel like so obvious a grind. And thus far Champions leveling areas have continued to keep my interest. Another thing I was very happy to see included in the game is it's Open Quests. I know that Cryptic didn't pioneer the idea by any means, but I find it an innovation that should be used more liberally throughout MMOs in general. For those readers not familiar with Pqs from WAR or the spattering of similar encounters more recently added (with somewhat less success I'd say) to WoW. 
• PVP – Player Vs Player game play is the area I'd say the need for balancing tweaks among the powers are most evident. Granted I've only participated in the first available scenario around level 10, a team oriented deathmatch set in a cage match styled arena. Still, I've hit the arena with three different characters at the same level bracket in order to make some observations on balance issues. And it's true that with one class I had a very easy time at things while another afforded me a giant headache as I tried to keep up. While more powerset-specific observations will be made in a subsequent post, suffice to say the balance issues are there and I can see how they might cause some players some definite grief when entering the PVP instances. Still there's nothing that I don't think can be ironed out by the developers as they go along tweaking the balance, which they're already working on.