Champions Online
So, Champions Online is doing a free trial weekend. It's a lot earlier than I would have expected it, I admit. Still, I suppose if the release date was early September, this puts them outside their initial 30-day rush, at least.
I've seen some technical issues. It's a big download, but that's understandable. I was set back by not having done a step Saturday morning - no big deal. But for a stretch Saturday, there seemed to be authentication and server problems. I presume it was due to sheer volume, but whatever the case, there was a frustratingly long window of time (I should have timed I guess) when I couldn't get into the game. Clearly things are set up perfectly, but even established games have problems from time to time.
The game let me choose a 'fantasy' control scheme that mapped most commands like WoW. That was nice and easy. Strangely, having autorun set to the number lock key didn't seem to work (I remapped it to R) and some of the tutorials talked about commands using default keys (I for inventory, when my control scheme had set that to B). The game seems responsible and moves well.
I'd wondered about teleportation, but it appears (from the perspective of someone watching, not using) to work along the lines of flight (free 3D movement), but with the character 'out of phase' with everything once he pops out until he pops back in. Travel powers themselves are satisfying for the most part, though I'm not altogether fond of how flight powers have to "shift up" to reach full speed. I wish it were more gradual, at least.
The game looks good. I found the outlines distracting, but those are easy to turn off. Things are comic booky, but detailed. What I've seen thusfar of city storefronts look book - definitely not as bland and hollow as I remember City of Heroes/Villains to be. The one oddity I noticed was any character's tail would, at a certain distance from me, detach from its owner. I'm not sure yet if updating drivers fixed that or if it's a glitch somewhere else in the system.
Quests are okay. Nothing revolutionary for the most part, with quests to gather items, gather drops, defeat (or do something to) X enemies. That's all there. The open quests that operate on a timer are nice, where anyone on the quest and in the area counts and gets credit.
I have mixed feelings on the instancing of the world. On one hand, it is nice to not have "hard" distinctions between servers, so anyone in the game can potentially meet up with anyone else in the game. Having to manually bounce between instances of a zone to meet up with your team, though, is somewhat annoying, especially when certain instances are full and you have to bounce around and hope to get everyone in one that isn't (this was particular difficult with the low player caps in the starter zone, but that's not really made for grouping). Maybe this is a no-win topic, but as much as I understand the servers of WoW can split people up horribly, I find manual instance switching of zones takes me out of the game mentally.
And the options. Oh My God, the options.
Costume/character creation is, simply put, awesome. Not just in the sense of "good," but vast. There are so many choices it can be overwhelming. But I saw so many great costumes, robots, and creatures in just one day that I was amazed. You don't get costume changes as your items upgrade (which I do sort of like about WoW), but it fits the genre that a character's look is unique and important to them. And that comes across perfectly. I've seen everything from angels to gargoyles to flaming anubian jackal men to power rangers to hulking bruiser bots. The worst thing I can say is it might take time to get a look you like. And that's not very bad. I think Cryptic did an incredible job on this aspect.
Customization of powers is a little different. There are a lot of options, and you can cherry pick to a good degree from the categories. The biggest problem is not really knowing what a lot of things do. I was faced with advantage points and looking at modifying one of my powers. "Hmm. This advantage... 'changes the power to a hand slot power.' Umm... okay... what does that mean and/or do?" Some things are clearer, you can compare to see increases in damage or whatever, but there's little way to tell just what's going to happen if you choose some of the options.
On the up side, you can test your choice before it becomes permanent. On the down side, it costs resources (money) to undo, and things have to be undone in reverse order, and... well, every review I've read of the game complains about the complexity of retconning your powers. I'll just have to say I agree.
But the big sense is "here are a bunch of options, you're on your own." Guides outside the game are hit or miss, with some of the things I looked up in forums being completely out of date and pointless already, as some powers/etc. have changed. Choices are great, if you understand what you're choosing. The game really needs some better explanation somehow.
Grouping has ups and downs. Sidekicking raises/lowers level and corresponding traits to match the group leader, which is kind of nice. Lower level characters that are raised will be at some disadvantage because while their stats go up, they won't have learned all the powers and such they would have. Still, it let us run around with a level 17 (while really... what? 9-ish?) and help complete a mission of theirs.
On the down side, we saw some really touchy stuff in quests when three of us grouped in the starters zone. Two of us had done some quests, and if we killed something the third was questing to kill (but we had already done), he didn't get credit. Quests seem to be finicky with credit unless everyone in the group is on the quest together.
Overall, I really like what I see of the game. I don't know how it holds up at higher levels. If I weren't already deep into WoW, I might consider jumping ship for a while at least. It beats CoH/V in my book hands down.
As it stands, though, I don't feel willing to pay for two MMOs and WoW wins because I'm more invested in it personally, I prefer the fantasy genre to superheroes, and I'm more attached to the established guild.
I've seen some technical issues. It's a big download, but that's understandable. I was set back by not having done a step Saturday morning - no big deal. But for a stretch Saturday, there seemed to be authentication and server problems. I presume it was due to sheer volume, but whatever the case, there was a frustratingly long window of time (I should have timed I guess) when I couldn't get into the game. Clearly things are set up perfectly, but even established games have problems from time to time.
The game let me choose a 'fantasy' control scheme that mapped most commands like WoW. That was nice and easy. Strangely, having autorun set to the number lock key didn't seem to work (I remapped it to R) and some of the tutorials talked about commands using default keys (I for inventory, when my control scheme had set that to B). The game seems responsible and moves well.
I'd wondered about teleportation, but it appears (from the perspective of someone watching, not using) to work along the lines of flight (free 3D movement), but with the character 'out of phase' with everything once he pops out until he pops back in. Travel powers themselves are satisfying for the most part, though I'm not altogether fond of how flight powers have to "shift up" to reach full speed. I wish it were more gradual, at least.
The game looks good. I found the outlines distracting, but those are easy to turn off. Things are comic booky, but detailed. What I've seen thusfar of city storefronts look book - definitely not as bland and hollow as I remember City of Heroes/Villains to be. The one oddity I noticed was any character's tail would, at a certain distance from me, detach from its owner. I'm not sure yet if updating drivers fixed that or if it's a glitch somewhere else in the system.
Quests are okay. Nothing revolutionary for the most part, with quests to gather items, gather drops, defeat (or do something to) X enemies. That's all there. The open quests that operate on a timer are nice, where anyone on the quest and in the area counts and gets credit.
I have mixed feelings on the instancing of the world. On one hand, it is nice to not have "hard" distinctions between servers, so anyone in the game can potentially meet up with anyone else in the game. Having to manually bounce between instances of a zone to meet up with your team, though, is somewhat annoying, especially when certain instances are full and you have to bounce around and hope to get everyone in one that isn't (this was particular difficult with the low player caps in the starter zone, but that's not really made for grouping). Maybe this is a no-win topic, but as much as I understand the servers of WoW can split people up horribly, I find manual instance switching of zones takes me out of the game mentally.
And the options. Oh My God, the options.
Costume/character creation is, simply put, awesome. Not just in the sense of "good," but vast. There are so many choices it can be overwhelming. But I saw so many great costumes, robots, and creatures in just one day that I was amazed. You don't get costume changes as your items upgrade (which I do sort of like about WoW), but it fits the genre that a character's look is unique and important to them. And that comes across perfectly. I've seen everything from angels to gargoyles to flaming anubian jackal men to power rangers to hulking bruiser bots. The worst thing I can say is it might take time to get a look you like. And that's not very bad. I think Cryptic did an incredible job on this aspect.
Customization of powers is a little different. There are a lot of options, and you can cherry pick to a good degree from the categories. The biggest problem is not really knowing what a lot of things do. I was faced with advantage points and looking at modifying one of my powers. "Hmm. This advantage... 'changes the power to a hand slot power.' Umm... okay... what does that mean and/or do?" Some things are clearer, you can compare to see increases in damage or whatever, but there's little way to tell just what's going to happen if you choose some of the options.
On the up side, you can test your choice before it becomes permanent. On the down side, it costs resources (money) to undo, and things have to be undone in reverse order, and... well, every review I've read of the game complains about the complexity of retconning your powers. I'll just have to say I agree.
But the big sense is "here are a bunch of options, you're on your own." Guides outside the game are hit or miss, with some of the things I looked up in forums being completely out of date and pointless already, as some powers/etc. have changed. Choices are great, if you understand what you're choosing. The game really needs some better explanation somehow.
Grouping has ups and downs. Sidekicking raises/lowers level and corresponding traits to match the group leader, which is kind of nice. Lower level characters that are raised will be at some disadvantage because while their stats go up, they won't have learned all the powers and such they would have. Still, it let us run around with a level 17 (while really... what? 9-ish?) and help complete a mission of theirs.
On the down side, we saw some really touchy stuff in quests when three of us grouped in the starters zone. Two of us had done some quests, and if we killed something the third was questing to kill (but we had already done), he didn't get credit. Quests seem to be finicky with credit unless everyone in the group is on the quest together.
Overall, I really like what I see of the game. I don't know how it holds up at higher levels. If I weren't already deep into WoW, I might consider jumping ship for a while at least. It beats CoH/V in my book hands down.
As it stands, though, I don't feel willing to pay for two MMOs and WoW wins because I'm more invested in it personally, I prefer the fantasy genre to superheroes, and I'm more attached to the established guild.
If my computer hadn't of splurked, I'd be playing a lot more of the weekend freebies. :( One major complaint I have with the game is starter zone. -EVERYONE- starts in the same scenario (Millenium City Alien invasion) All the same quests, and after having done it three times already I loathe to go back through everything for any other characters. Certainly cuts down on my desire to explore other power types.
ReplyDeleteI think you can skip the tutorial now. I don't know, I haven't made a new character in a while, but I thought that was a recently added option.
ReplyDeleteSome random reponses... >>But for a stretch Saturday, there seemed to be authentication and server problems. I presume it was due to sheer volume<>Strangely, having autorun set to the number lock key didn't seem to work (I remapped it to R)<>though I'm not altogether fond of how flight powers have to "shift up" to reach full speed. I wish it were more gradual, at least.<>The one oddity I noticed was any character's tail would, at a certain distance from me, detach from its owner.<>The worst thing I can say is it might take time to get a look you like.<.> >>but there's little way to tell just what's going to happen if you choose some of the options.<>The game really needs some better explanation somehow.<< Yes. Glad you enjoyed the time playing. :)
ReplyDeleteAlong with lack of explanation and powers, I have to go back and mention Builds after the discussion we had. I don't remember any mention of those anywhere in the tutorials. I would have missed them completely if it hadn't come up while talking to you. The closest analogy I can come up with is WoW druid form-switching, where you get inherent bonuses to certain areas depending on what your build is set to, even without changing your actual powers. After discussing it, but I set up a guardian/balanced build and a... I forget the actual name, but a dps build basically. The only difference was with passive power I had (Invulnerability for damage reduction versus Quarry for energy efficiency). But I saw a very notable change in how fast things died. A serious difference, and I had no clue that even existed to begin with.
ReplyDeleteHmm. I admit, I didn't think about that much. From what I've seen, a single starting zone tends to be the norm. GW gets one starting area per campaign, sort of by necessity. I could understand (but haven't personally seen) games that are heavily faction/PVP-based (Aion maybe?), needing a different starting areas for the difference sides. WoW really stands out by having a starting area for almost (I think there's overlap in gnome/dwarf and orc/troll) every race. Also, from what I saw, the secondary zones (desert and Canada) seem to direct you from one to the other as you finish (or reach a certain point, I seemed to finish all the desert quests, but had not been across even half the map). I imagine zones will be added to the game as time goes on, though. With all the superheroes "on the same team," there's not much actual need for a separate starting zone, though it would be nice. Especially when there's so much variety in character builds, that players may want to try several characters.
ReplyDelete