Champions Online (Cryptic's new MMO)

[Blackjack]

I stopped "news hounding" this a while ago. Massively.com has some hands-on impressions from Cryptic's recent media day (albeit Star Trek Online's announcement has sort of pushed Champions into the background). While played on PCs, they apparently used XBox 360 controlllers, which should give an idea of it's multiplatform intentions. The controls seem fairly simple (buttons control jumping, basic attack, ranged attack, and blocking), and it doesn't appear it's a "remember 27 different hotkeys" scheme like more typical MMOs.

Champions Online: Hands-on gameplay impressions
http://www.massively.com/2008/08/05/champions-online-hands-on-gameplay-impressions/

An interesting feature that immediately became apparent is that all characters could make use of a ranged attack, regardless of type. For instance, a power projector would be able to fire energy bolts as expected, but a brawler would rip up chunks of concrete to throw at enemies as his ranged attack.

About attacks: the basic attack was typically a single punch, with repeated button presses becoming a chain of punches for more devastating damage. Holding down the attack button charged up a more powerful strike, the effectiveness of the blow more than making up for having to absorb hits from enemies. This strike varied from character to character, depending on power.

Finally, there was a jumping attack -- a jump, combined with a basic attack, resulted in a shockwave effect upon landing, stunning nearby enemies for a few moments. This might have been character specific, as the first character this blogger used was a hulking, tank-like hero. Blocking was an effective strategy against multiple opponents, and quickly became necessary versus swarming mobs.

In all, Champions Online plays extremely well and looks fantastic. The actual mechanics are simple enough to be immediately accessible, leaving the complexity to other areas, which is as it should be. Within a few minutes with the Xbox 360 controller, maneuvering the character became second nature. We would have liked to have been able to play with a keyboard to assess how it performed, but the controller better suited the active nature of combat.

We don't know how much of the gameplay we experienced will survive for the launch, but it was engaging enough as-is, and there's still roughly a year to go. We'll go ahead and say it: this title will become the definitive superhero experience for both fans of the genre and new players alike.

[Blackjack]

A few shaky-cam gameplay videos from Gencon hath surfaced:
http://www.massively.com/2008/08/16/four-champions-online-gameplay-videos-surface/

It looks fine, though the combat looks more like Marvel Ultimate Alliance imho (given the console focus) than CoX. Not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation. 

[Daehawk]

Seems pretty cool. Looking forward to it. I hope it has a great character customizer like COX did.

[CeeKay]

Seems pretty cool. Looking forward to it. I hope it has a great character customizer like COX did.

I'm hoping they find a way to make the grinding feel less like, well, grinding.

[EngineNo9]

And make it seem like I'm not playing the same 10 instances over and over.  And over.

[Destructor]

Seems pretty cool. Looking forward to it. I hope it has a great character customizer like COX did.

Considering that the head dev is from CoX, I'd be absolutely shocked if it isn't better than CoX. I mean, he knows what CoX had, so of course he'd try to one up it.

The grinding part though...I do hope they improve upon that. That, and the 10 or so mission maps (although it does change up every 10 levels or so) got quite annoying in CoX.

[hentzau]

I watched someone playing it for a while at GenCon.  I have to admit, the cell shaded look did nothing for me.

[Haavok1]

A vendor at where I work saw at Gencon also saw it.  This was his most waited for game since he loved COH.  He came away very disappointed.  He definetly did not like the look of it and said that to him it just didnt feel right.  When I asked him to explain that he said that he really didnt get the superhero feeling.

[hentzau]

A vendor at where I work saw at Gencon also saw it.  This was his most waited for game since he loved COH.  He came away very disappointed.  He definetly did not like the look of it and said that to him it just didnt feel right.  When I asked him to explain that he said that he really didnt get the superhero feeling.

Agreed.  I think part of the problem with that impression was the setting they were using for the demo...battling in a wild west town/set with robotic cowboys.  Definitely didn't help get that superhero vibe.  Also was surprised seeing them using Xbox controllers.  That put me off a bit, I must admit.  I was really wanting to do a hands on with it, but after watching for about 2 minutes, I walked away from it.

[Blackjack]

Massively.com had a brief interview with the lead designer, at PAX. To this point, they had mostly been demoing it on XBox 360s -- for PAX they had it running on both those and PCs. It sounds like PC gameplay will be familiar in terms of mashing number keys (or whatever you prefer to bind to, I use a lot of letters in MMOs usually) for powers.

Seemed worth a little bump here:

PAX08: Talking with Champions Online's content lead, Zeke Sparkes
http://www.massively.com/2008/09/01/pax08-talking-with-champions-onlines-content-lead-zeke-sparke/

So far, Champions Online had only been playable with the Xbox 360 controller, but we were able to finally try the keyboard and mouse controls at PAX.

Instead of hitting a face button on the Xbox controller to do your basic attack, you tap an assigned number-key on your keyboard. As you do this, you build up energy and can move through the rest of the powers, which for us were set to the rest of the numbered keys.

Overall, the keyboard and mouse controls feel tight and responsive for a game scheduled to launch in Spring of 2009.

[Blackjack]

This Gaming Nexus interview had some fairly newsy tidbits in it, I think:

Interview with senior producer Chris Lena
http://www.gamingnexus.com/Default.aspx?Section=Article&I=1996

No pre-set Archetypes

Most of the change over development has actually occurred because we strayed from those core ideas.

One instance is originally we had an archetype system for picking powers – essentially you pick a class and that determines the powers you can choose from [a la City of Heroes-bj]. We received a lot of feedback from people following the game that that was not something they wanted. We thought about it and realized also that taking out classes and having an open power selection was also in line with our emphasis on customization.

So we removed archetypes and now Champions Online is completely classless …I should say without classes.

My wild guess would be there are still skill "branches" that coax you down certain paths - I doubt they'll let you be great at Everything or it wouldn't make for much diversity in hero types.

Soloable all the way

Although we will have group content you will be able to play solo and progress from level 1 to the max level.

No death "debt"

We are still tweaking the death penalty but I can tell you that we will definitely not have XP debt or negative XP or anything like that.

Car-tossing [this was something in Freedom Force that I missed in COH, even if grav controllers could "summon" and then toss cars on occasion-bj]

Did I mentioned you can pick up cars and hit people with them?

Now I just need to know if you can rip light poles down and use them as baseball bats, again ala Freedom Force. 

[Destructor]

Car-tossing [this was something in Freedom Force that I missed in COH, even if grav controllers could "summon" and then toss cars on occasion-bj]

Did I mentioned you can pick up cars and hit people with them?

Now I just need to know if you can rip light poles down and use them as baseball bats, again ala Freedom Force. 

No no no - it was a forklift that Grav Controllers could pull out of nowhere. "They tried to kill him with a forklift..." [/sings]

[Destructor]

Uh oh. Bill Roper (yes, the same Bill Roper behind the critically failed Hellgate London) has joined CO as Design Director:

“Bill brings a ton of creative energy to the Cryptic office and we’re thrilled to have him join our team,” said John Needham, Chief Executive Officer for Cryptic Studios. “His years of gaming and online experience are huge assets to all of our projects, and Bill will assist us in furthering our studio’s vision to create innovative, exciting MMO gameplay.”

“Cryptic has experienced huge growth over the past year and has exciting opportunities ahead of it,” said Bill Roper, Design Director, Cryptic Studios. “The company knows how to choose compelling IPs that have rich histories such as Champions and Star Trek. I’m looking forward to working with the team.”

As a 14-year game industry veteran, Roper has worked directly on numerous top selling titles, including the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo series. He joined Blizzard Entertainment in 1994 to work in sound, music and voiceover, eventually being appointed as Vice President of Blizzard North and a Director of Blizzard Entertainment where he managed all external projects and coordinated internal development teams. In 2003, Roper co-founded Flagship Studios and Ping0 where he held the role of CEO for five years and oversaw the launch of Hellgate: London and development of Mythos.

Make of it what you will.

[Blackjack]

DDOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!! 

No, I mean he's good at certain things, and I'd hope Cryptic would use those talents and maybe let him focus on the game stuff instead of the "running a business" stuff.

[morlac]

1 bad game does not make or break a career.  He's got plenty of A+ titles on his resume.

[CeeKay]

1 bad game does not make or break a career.  He's got plenty of A+ titles on his resume.

Daikatana anyone?

[CeeKay]

a nice video showing some combat.

[rittchard]

a nice video showing some combat.

I'm so sold!  Then again, I am a Bill Roper fanboy as well as a comic book fan (30 years now) so I guess this was a no-brainer to me regardless.

[Destructor]

a nice video showing some combat.

So, what gives with the TONS of sounds, animations, and visuals ripped directly from City of Heroes? Or are both games pulling from the same generic set?

[CeeKay]

a nice video showing some combat.

So, what gives with the TONS of sounds, animations, and visuals ripped directly from City of Heroes? Or are both games pulling from the same generic set?

it does seem odd that they'd have 2 different MMO's with closely related material.  from what I've seen of the videos it seems like Champions it seems like CoH 2.0.

[Blackjack]

I'm a longtime COH fan, but the game is 5 years old for crying out loud.

What worries me about Champions if anything is that the limited videos I've seen don't seem to have animations with nearly as much pizazz as the aging COH. I mean, a 2009 era game oughta be able to blow COH's socks off visually, and animation wise, and not draw yawning "it looks like COH" comparisons. I dunno. Maybe they're "holding back" or something.

I'm still concerned the PC/console co-development will water down the PC version in some way. Probably their reasoning will be that simplifying the hotkey system on PCs will draw a bigger "casual" audience but most casual players don't wanna pay $15 a month.

But wait, didn't I start this thread? What the heck's happening to me? I must be sick. It's the ... kryptonite!

There is continuing scuttlebutt NCSoft may OK a City of Heroes sequel (why else would they set up a new studio [after Emmert's departure] and start adding so many new hires to it) but the downhill ride to hell of the world economy and NCSoft's own financial troubles make me skeptical. 

[Daehawk]

nothing to see here

[Vindel]

New Video


Shows a walk through of a mission. I am going speedster for sure! ZOOOOOooom.

This video is DC Universe Online....not Champions.

[Daehawk]

Awww crap!

[Blackjack]

The official site has a new "Rate My Champion" feature, and I guess it sort of gives a peek at the character creation:
http://www.champions-online.com/node/2360

Here’s the deal. You get to see all of the player created Champions we have running around Monster Island and the Canadian Wilderness at this very moment. You get to check out the vast variety of super costumes and super gear our players have created for their superheroes.

These are characters players in the beta preview have created, they seem to say. The Top 10 voted are on the lower part of the Web page that you're taken to.

[CeeKay]

I'm not sure how they pulled off a couple of those- LAN Shark and Rudy seem to be pretty unique.

[Destructor]

And some of those look God-awful, or just God-awful-generic. I look at the realm of possibilities of City of Heroes, and then I look at Champions. I am NOT impressed by the character design so far in Champions.

[Blackjack]

Destructor's a City of Heroes loyalist in case nobody else noticed. 

I reserve judgement until I actually get to try it myself. I'm sure lots of the costumes there were simply beta preview players churning something quickly out to see what it looked like.

[Destructor]

Destructor's a City of Heroes loyalist in case nobody else noticed. 

I reserve judgement until I actually get to try it myself. I'm sure lots of the costumes there were simply beta preview players churning something quickly out to see what it looked like.

I just take it as I see it. And this, along with the recent 'preview' (FILLED with City of Heroes sound effects), don't exactly put a positive spin on things.

Am I still looking forward to previews/beta time? Oh heck yeah. I'd love to see what another super hero MMO turns out to be like. Anything other than the plain-jane Fantasy hoopla the MMO genre is filled with right now.

[Blackjack]

They released a new - and very short - gameplay trailer for the NY Comic Con:
http://www.champions-online.com/nycc_trailer

[CeeKay]

the more I see the more appealing DC Online looks.....

[Arkon]

the more I see the more appealing DC Online looks.....

Agreed, this just doesn't appeal to me at all.  I really enjoyed CoH and while this looks like more of the same, something just seems off.  I am much more interested in DC Online at this point.

[Vindel]

Hmmmm I may or may not have received some info regarding a certain beta....

[CeeKay]

Hmmmm I may or may not have received some info regarding a certain beta....

But did you recieve Drakensang yet?

[Vindel]

Hmmmm I may or may not have received some info regarding a certain beta....

But did you recieve Drakensang yet?

Ouch that was a low blow. But the answer is a sad "not yet" 

[CeeKay]

Hmmmm I may or may not have received some info regarding a certain beta....

But did you recieve Drakensang yet?

Ouch that was a low blow. But the answer is a sad "not yet" 

at least you may or may not be busy tonight between 5pm and 12am PST.

[Destructor]

Jerks. All of you.

[rittchard]

the more I see the more appealing DC Online looks.....

If you hate it so much I'm sure there are other people who would LOVE to try the beta.   

In other news, they released a bunch of new screenies today which look sweet!

http://www.champions-online.com/screenshots

[Blackjack]

There's some hulabaloo going on rumoring that Cryptic is trying to "poach" current CoX players via messages *IN* CoX itself to participate in the Champions beta.

Summary at Blue's:
http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=postmessage&boardid=1&threadid=96665&id=0

Massively.com
http://www.massively.com/2009/03/18/rumor-cryptic-using-city-of-heroes-for-champions-beta-recruitme/

This is all referencing an NCSoft reminder that refers to "another game company trying to lure you to a competing product." 
======================

I'm still wait-and-see on Champions myself. I really don't feel I've seen enough video to start going "meh." I do worry that the console-focus is going to water the game down. If they had truly separate PC and console dev teams I wouldn't worry so much, but that's not been the impression I got to this point.

I don't really buy the idea that there's only room for one super hero MMO any more than I buy the idea there's only room for one fantasy-based MMO (God knows there are a zillion of those, even if WoW tends to blot out the sun in subscriber figures). But I do know that MMOers are lemmings who will drop their game like a hot potato for the latest releases (as for AoC and Warhammer) and then it's just a question of whether the Flavor of the Month has any retention ability or not.

[rittchard]

It's pretty hard to imagine they are so desperate for beta testers to resort to such a tactic, particularly when there are people like me desperate to playtest the game sitting here without an invite.  If they had invited every single person who signed up and still needed more for some reason, maybe...