Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: Champions Online  (Read 1230 times)

Sergius

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Champions Online
« on: February 24, 2011, 03:08:22 pm »

Well, I did a Google search, and an in-forum search and couldn't find a topic. There may be one, but sometimes it happens.

Anyway, I'm downloading it now since it went Free2Play exactly one month ago. Can't comment on the quality since I haven't played it yet, so I'm sure those who have tried the beta/demo or played the full game can chime in.

http://www.champions-online.com/splash
Logged

Soulwynd

  • Bay Watcher
  • -_-
    • View Profile
Re: Champions Online
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2011, 03:26:57 pm »

Well, I played it at alpha, then at beta, and then after a few months, the full game.

It's not a bad game by any means and the pvp can be incredibly fun. My only issue with it is that it's a very typical MMO and doesn't really have anything all that impressive to keep me around. The combat is also very arcadeish, but the way you fill up your power/stamina/mana/whatever bar is rather unique for mmos.

Being stuck to set powers will suck for anyone playing it free, since the best part of the game is the customization of powers, creating a character in any way you want.
Logged

Levi

  • Bay Watcher
  • Is a fish.
    • View Profile
Re: Champions Online
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2011, 04:01:14 pm »

I enjoyed it for the most part, although I wasn't very impressed with the actual game mechanics.  Everybody gets the same set of powers which feels kind of lame.  I was originally hoping it would be more like Freedom Force where you can have a lot of fun fully customizing your powers.

The character model customization was amazing though.  It was so much fun I probably had about 12 characters going at one point.

In the end, it played like pretty much every other MMO, but it kept me playing longer than most.

Edit:  I haven't played it in a long time, so I don't know what recent changes might have been done though.
Logged
Avid Gamer | Goldfish Enthusiast | Canadian | Professional Layabout

Sergius

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Champions Online
« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2011, 04:17:30 pm »

Being stuck to set powers will suck for anyone playing it free, since the best part of the game is the customization of powers, creating a character in any way you want.

Aw crap, I missed that part of the FAQ.

EDIT: I wouldn't mind if you could purchase the ability to create custom characters from the online store as a one-time payment (I like one-time payments) like they normally do for several things on DDO and LOTRO. But subscription based MMOs are obnoxious and they pressure you into playing a certain amount of time all the time or you're wasting your money :/
« Last Edit: February 24, 2011, 04:22:29 pm by Sergius »
Logged

Soulwynd

  • Bay Watcher
  • -_-
    • View Profile
Re: Champions Online
« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2011, 04:31:55 pm »

Yeah, here if you want to check the differences:

http://www.champions-online.com/f2p_matrix

Just like City of Heroes, they charge you for crap besides the monthly fee. I always hated that on City of Heroes, you already paid monthly and they still charged people for special costume pieces. I don't know how many people realize how ridiculous that is. You're already paying them not only to maintain the game, but to come up with new stuff for the game. *rolls his eyes*
« Last Edit: February 24, 2011, 04:45:32 pm by Soulwynd »
Logged

Bluerobin

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Champions Online
« Reply #5 on: February 24, 2011, 09:13:37 pm »

I haven't checked out the F2P Champs online, but I played a bit around release. I think it's a game I would really like with friends (like most MMOs, for me anyway) but not so much on my own. Unfortunately most of the appeal of the game was in mixing and matching powers, so I'm not sure how much I'd enjoy the free version. I haven't heard much about what's in the store other than what's implied by that f2p matrix. I think I could get behind being able to pay for powers or at least something kind of like that. Maybe packs/sets of powers? I haven't heard anything about them doing that (or even planning to), though.
Logged
The moment the lever was pulled, somebody's pet kitten stepped onto the bridge. I read somewhere that if a cat falls more than 11 stories, it instinctively flares its legs out to increase air resistance. This slows it down enough to stick the landing with relatively minor injuries. In Dwarf Fortress, apparently, cats don't do that.

Rakonas

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Champions Online
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2011, 09:45:00 pm »

Played it for a while when it went free to play. I personally couldn't like the staticness of the archetypes, I grew bored in a week or two.
Logged

BuriBuriZaemon

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Champions Online
« Reply #7 on: February 25, 2011, 03:48:45 am »

Just another generic MMORPG. Go for World of Tanks instead. :)
Logged
Napalm is great if you enjoy hot and spicy foods. I personally enjoy some liquid nitrogen.

Steam profile: Elsior
Friend Code: 2938 - 7181 - 3815 (Elsior/Elle Ciel)

Fikes

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Champions Online
« Reply #8 on: February 25, 2011, 12:59:53 pm »

While I agreen that Champions online is pretty generic, the first thing I thought about when playing it was playing with my wife.

I think Champions is the perfect game for people who want to mess around and look cool, but don't really care too much for the bigger picture, more serious stuff. In most MMO's I like to have some sort of risk/reward balance where death means at least a little something. Champions is not this game. You can pick the most gimp abilities and powers and still do fine.

If I ever get around to buying a new computer, I'll probably play this with my wife.

Soulwynd

  • Bay Watcher
  • -_-
    • View Profile
Re: Champions Online
« Reply #9 on: February 25, 2011, 01:50:40 pm »

Just another generic MMORPG. Go for World of Tanks instead. :)
Hey dude, no trololoing other games.
Logged

RedKing

  • Bay Watcher
  • hoo hoo motherfucker
    • View Profile
Re: Champions Online
« Reply #10 on: February 26, 2011, 08:58:53 am »

Huh...wonder if you can Free2Play characters from a pre-existing account. Me and some buddies had established characters on Champions Online for several months before I went back to work and stopped playing.

Costume design was probably my favorite part of the game. Content got a little old by the time you were grinding your sixth or seventh character up through, although like WoW, they did a decent job of providing enough alternative areas for each range of levels so that you didn't HAVE to go through the same mission runs with each character.

Sadly my group wasn't nearly as active on Champions as we had been on City of Heroes and World of Warcraft, so we never had much of a chance to try out PvP stuff.

Logged

Remember, knowledge is power. The power to make other people feel stupid.
Quote from: Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Science is like an inoculation against charlatans who would have you believe whatever it is they tell you.

Soulwynd

  • Bay Watcher
  • -_-
    • View Profile
Re: Champions Online
« Reply #11 on: February 26, 2011, 12:07:45 pm »

I don't think so. I haven't downloaded or logged in to check, but the site shows I have no characters... Even tho I had plenty from before.
Logged

Bluerobin

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Champions Online
« Reply #12 on: February 26, 2011, 03:43:57 pm »

You have to "convert" old characters to the new F2P system before you can play them as F2P and once you convert them I think it's permanent/irreversible. Unfortunately from what I hear this means giving up all of the custom power choices and turning them into one of the defined archetypes. There are more than enough topics about it on their forums if you want all the details of how it works.
Logged
The moment the lever was pulled, somebody's pet kitten stepped onto the bridge. I read somewhere that if a cat falls more than 11 stories, it instinctively flares its legs out to increase air resistance. This slows it down enough to stick the landing with relatively minor injuries. In Dwarf Fortress, apparently, cats don't do that.

Soulwynd

  • Bay Watcher
  • -_-
    • View Profile
Re: Champions Online
« Reply #13 on: February 26, 2011, 04:28:40 pm »

Meh... That's fail. If they had given free players the custom powers, I would be back and possibly even buy stuff from them, but like this? No way. They fail at F2P conversion and didn't seem to learn anything from the DDO success.
Logged