There are already a lot of MMORPGs on the market and several more coming out soon or in the near future. When you have such a crowded market, you really have to bring something new to the table in order to entice fans away from the other more established games. One thing that has only really been done once before is the idea of a superhero themed MMO. Luckily for fans there's a new superhero themed MMO on the market, which just so happens to come from the same people who brought us City of Heroes. Is it a game fit for a hero or just a temporary stopover till something else comes along?

Cryptic Studio's first effort – City of Heroes – set the bar when it comes to character creation tools. While some MMOs are satisfied with giving their players only a few sliders or elements to change in order to make their character feel like their own, City of Heroes gave fans tons and tons of options and costume pieces so that players could mish and mash their own hero together. Cryptic has applied the same mechanics to Champions Online, but added even more to the mix. The game's character creation tool is so intricate and rewarding that I often like to make new characters just for the hell of it.

Big Monkey

Players first start by picking their framework, which is based around the most known powers and abilities typically associated with comic book superheroes. Powers include claws, martial arts, single blade, dual blade, supernatural, gadgeteering, sorcery, ice, force, power armor, fire, electricity, etc. Besides determining how you want to tackle enemies, choosing a power framework also goes a long ways towards establishing the type of stats you'll need to upgrade in order to stay in fighting shape. A character with the might framework, for instance, will need to focus on strength and constitution to make the most of their character.

After the power framework is decided upon, it's off to character creation and making your costume distinctly yours. You start by picking a male or female character, which you then can tweak by giving them a specific face (elf, strong, etc) and body type. Do they have stretchy limbs or are they a thicker person? While you can pick from a handful of pre-made body types, you can further tweak these bodies to make practically whatever you want their shape to be. You can give them huge feet, skinny arms, fat legs, or make them as tall or small as you want. Once body size is finished it's off to the actual costume, where you can choose to give characters masks, helmets, beast heads, insect heads, capes, tails, rockets, backpacks, chain wraps around their legs, shoulder pads, robes…you name it. If you've got an idea for a superhero, there will almost assuredly be plenty of options to help make that character come to life. Like I said, it's fun just to make characters for the hell of it, plus it's fun to come across other players and see what they created – it's like a gateway into their nerd soul.

Players are then whisked away to the tutorial starting area in order to drive an alien threat away, but to also get a feel for all the controls and how the game progresses, awards experience and items, and ultimately how you level up. After you finish the tutorial it's off to your new starting zone, which can either be the Canadian wilderness or either the desert. The opening starting areas are zone based to start with, as you and other players up to your story progression fight and team in this area. Once you've completed the story for this intro level, you then find yourself in the actual wilderness or desert, which is now vastly larger and more open for exploration. It's then time to get cracking on finding mission contacts, completing missions, and earning experience, resources (money), and items in order to make you a fighting superhero machine.

Locked and Loaded

Leveling up is done a bit differently in Champions Online – for the most part – than in other MMOs. After you've gained a level, nothing much has really happened until you've gone to the powerhouse – a specially made facility for heroes to visit in order to build their character. Players shape their character in several ways: adding new powers, choosing talents, and upgrading existing abilities being the main ways. Adding powers gives you a number of options to choose from, based on the power pools you've pooled from. You'll gather healing abilities, buffs, close range attacks, AOEs, holds, and much more. Choosing talents are quick boosts to stats, which you'll often pick based on your need. You also get to upgrade existing powers, so old powers can become more powerful, stay active longer, or add new traits to the attack. You'll also get to choose from travel powers very early on, which is very nice indeed. You can fly, use rocket boots, have super speed, teleport, etc. Another nice thing about powers is that many of them can be customized, so if you don't like the fact that your summoning stones are green, you can change them to another color to fit your demand.

One thing I really like about Champions Online's character leveling system is that you never really know what someone brings to the table; besides being an important aspect for PvP, it also gives you new ways to consider building a character. In a game like Lord of the Rings Online, for instance, all Guardians have the same abilities. If someone reaches level 20 you know this person is going to have this ability and it's going to do exactly this. In Champions Online, however, you can choose from any power pool as long as you meet the requirements. My main character is primarily a sorcerer, but I've got a few supernatural powers too since the description sounded interesting, and they've done a marvelous job at helping me survive combat. If I'm fighting you in PvP, however, you might not know what I bring to the table. You might be expecting one thing, but be completely surprised by what you find. I love the fact that you can make all these amalgamations based solely on what you think will work best for you.

Another nice customization is the ability to create your very own archenemy, which is just plain cool, because really, what is a hero without his villain? When you reach level 25 you're able to go to a special place, where you basically describe your archenemy. You pick their look, powers, minions, etc. Then, as you go about playing your game, you'll have minions spawn near you, which can drop items for nemesis missions. Eventually the idea is that you'll face-off against your archenemy and bring them down once and for all. It's a very neat system that once again expands on the idea of you creating this game world like you want it when it comes to you specifically.

A problem I have with the game early on is the fact that quests, which are a bulk of the game, aren't too enthralling and don't really deliver on anything that isn't experience points. Most quests are of the "kill x amount" or FedEx variety, though you'll have to do some different things, like use items on special characters, or go underwater to figure out what's going on. A few of the quests have pretty catchy names and nice nods to fans of genre related material, such as a quest in the Canadian wilderness pertaining to a downed plane flight, where every passenger you need to find looks and has a name similar to a member of the Lost television show (my favorite being Furley for Hurley – he looks just the same too). Outside of those few exceptions, however, most of the writing is ho-hum and doesn't make you feel like a hero in the narrative of this bigger world. Also, besides experience, nothing too substantial is earned. You can pick between items that have different resistances and stat raising attributes, but since nothing on your person changes, there is no oohing and aahing when you slap some brand new armor on or draw your fancy new sword for the first time.

Another problem I have is the quest progression when it comes to new quests and levels. I had a steady supply of quests for my first 13-14 levels, but then that started slowing down until I had to leave a starting area to take some lower ranked missions in the other starting zone. Since most levels are gained with a healthy helping of quest granted experience, you can see that there's going to be a good amount of grinding to keep you advancing forward. Another problem is that the game then jumps in terms of difficulty, as you might be doing quests ranked on or below your level, but then suddenly the next ones you find are a level or two above you. Where was the even ground?

Crafting is another element I'm not too fond of in Champions Online. Crafting basically boils down to finding or siphoning off the components you need for a recipe and breaking down items in order to increase your skill. As your skill increases you can create bigger and better items for equipping, which are shared throughout all the characters, but take on a different appearance and name based on which of the three professions you choose to go in. Every ten levels you're then able to raise your crafting skill beyond its 100 limit, which then gives you access to new recipes you can learn. It's a pretty simple mechanic when you have all the items you need, but it's just not that rewarding overall.

Mutants

PvP is pretty fun, though not as great as some other games. During the early portion of the game, for instance, you can just play cage matches where teams battle teams to be the first one to get to 15 points. A few more options open up as you advance in levels for different styles of PvP matches, but nothing that really diverges too much from the norm. The big reason to play PvP is to unlock new character costumes. Personally speaking, PvP is much more for checking out other players, seeing how they built their character, and using that in order to craft my own character – a sort of live-action training system.

When it comes to the rest of Champions Online, the rest is pretty par for the course when it comes to MMOs. Mobs and quests are color coded in order to show if you're ready or not for the challenge. Most quests feature a landmark or general area circle for quest specific missions. Players can chat and team with other players, form guilds, etc. If you've played a MMO before, you should feel right at home with Champions Online.

Technically Champions Online is a fine game, but one that neither truly impresses nor disappoints either. I love the cel-shaded look of the game, which takes the characters and enemies, give them a black outline, and then suddenly you've got what looks to be a comic book brought to life; some people hate the style, but I love it. Environments and architecture look nice, though sometimes the world seems to be too vacant at times when it comes to new diverse settings in one given location. The music and sound effects are very good, but the voice acting is terrible. How can I take the game's main superhero seriously when he sounds so stupid?

I'm not sure what my long-term future is with Champions Online. For the time being I'm pretty happy and enjoying my time with the game, plus I really like the idea of how this game could continue to grow and change through new updates, such as the first one that is already scheduled for October. At the same time, however, there are enough problems to drive some people away too, so everything isn't perfect in the realm of Champions Online. Could I see some people keeping with this game for a long time? Yes. Could I see people stopping by for a visit until another MMO comes along? Yes. Could I see people despising this game and some of its decisions? Yes. I'm happy enough with what I've seen and played, however, to keep me satisfied for the time being. Now if you excuse me, I have a character to go level and a few ghosts to smack around.

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