Champions Online : An open beta review
You may know that I’m a player and fan of the City of Heroes/Villains franchise, yet I’ve always said if given the opportunity I’d try Champions online out.
One of the annoying elements about Planetside was that it had no rivals, the game didn’t have to fight it was the only one of it’s kind, it stagnated due to this and the players suffered. The idea of more SuperHero themed MMOs in the world is a very appealing one to me as it encourages enhancement development of each game and of the whole genre.
I grabbed an open beta key from Fileplanet, who appear to be the hottest place for open betas at the moment, yet they have the slowest download queues in the world. Grrr.
Happily I set my download off before bed and it was ready when I woke up on Saturday, My chance had arrived and here are my thoughts on the game.
# This post may contain spoilers, cease reading you are avoiding them #
# Please remember this is Open beta and the game could change before launch #
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The world is just illusion
During our recent outing to London I was having a conversation with Mr Van Hemlock about element of games I find interesting. During this conversation it became very apparent that I favour games that offer me the chance to throw a little individuality to my gameplay. Shocking as it may seem I have never really been able to identify the forces that drive me in my gaming choices, especially those that drive my MMO habits.
In the three MMOs that I consider my favourite the ability to choose or customise skills in ways to suit my gameplay or mood is highly flexible and configurable.
- Planetside - The power to pick up and drop skills in any order brings unique benefits to your team play. Specializing in heavy assault or proving much needed support at the correct time.
- City of Heroes/Villains – The power selection may appear limited but you can choice
- Guild Wars – Limited to 8 skills at one time but with a bank of hundreds to choose from. GW certainly makes you question how you approach each challenge the game offers.
On the other hand, although I found it wonderfully detailed and immersive playing Lord of the Rings online, yet the skills offered to my character (providing you have the currency) made them the same as any other player of that class in the game.
Yes there are unique features that set you apart from the crowd, such as weapons, armour and traits, but these always seemed more like small modifiers to the wider picture. I admit that I’ve never made it to level 30 in the game and maybe it all changes in the end game I guess I’ll never know.
I feel rather silly that it’s taking so long to discover this rather simple fact is the one element I appear to yearn in MMOs, but now I can hopefully bring those elements to the forefront of my gaming experiences.
* Image source : http://www.sxc.hu/photo/492545Hitting the Slots
The City of Heroes purchasable add-ons appears to be doing well, a third Super Booster pack has been recently released and additional Architect slots are available to buy, for those Level designers among us.
Ask anyone that has played CoX and you’ll tend to get the same story, one of the most enjoyable parts of the game is tweaking and fiddling with your character at the tailors, or even just using the character creation screens. With Paragon studios embracing the use of RMTs in other areas, wouldn’t they want to add another potential revenue source by allowing player to purchase more costume slots? I certainly hope so.
The problem is that with each new release and booster pack, players get a stack of new costume parts, yet we are still limited to a maximum of five slots per character. I can buy (and have) new character slots that can be added to a server with relative ease, so why would adding more costume space be a bad thing?
Ideally new slots could purchased in packs like the Architect and character slot add-ons and each slot redeemed against a single character of your choosing, up to a maximum (10?) per character of course.
With Issue 16: Power Spectrum heading our way later this year the yearning for an increased number costume slot can only grow and hopefully us players that want a bigger wardrobe may get our wishes granted with the introduction of some form of slot increase.
Would you buy extra costume slots if they became available?
