Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

So, you’ve gotten some experience under your utility belt as a certified superhero. You’ve busted some supervillain heads, pummeled tons of henchmen into bad guy goo, and have hit the big city of Millennium City. Congratulations! You’re hitting your stride and getting into the mid-game content of Champions Online. What’s waiting for ya? Is the mid-game experience good, great, bad, or some other adjective? Well, your friendly neighborhood pals here at Ten Ton Hammer are here to give you their (and by their, I mean mine!) impressions of the game play experience at this crucial stage.

The mid level range (in CO, I’m using 18-32 as the mid-level range) in any MMOG is an important one. If you’re still playing, that means that the early stages of the game have hooked you. However, you’ve been playing for a bit and have gotten used to the shiny chrome and new car smell. The important thing is that the game continues to pique your interest and, thus, your desire to keep playing the game. Overall, how does Champions Online deliver?

The answer to that question is that CO has a mixed bag when it comes to the mid level experience. There are some good things, some not-so-good things, and some excellent things that could have been done better. We’ll break our impressions down into various categories.

Zones and Missions
You’ll do a good deal of jumping from zone to zone in this level range, from Canadian Wilderness to Southwest Desert to Millennium City. While it’s not that much of a problem going from zone to zone (thank goodness you don’t have to take a griffon flight!), it can get a little stale. As for the missions, there is a lull in the number of missions in the low to mid 20s. However, recent patches seem to be making up for that. There are a couple of great group missions in this range, most notably the Dr. Destroyer factory missions. You’ll definitely need a full group to do those. The only problem with doing the more ambitious missions is that each instance only holds 100 people at a time, so your pool to draw potential teammates from is pretty small. Hopefully, the newly introduced global zone chat (across all instances) will help to alleviate that.

The biggest treat, zone-wise, is Monster Island. This zone will open up for you in the late 20s. To get the full use of Monster Island, you must first go through the Crisis on Monster Island mission chain. This is best accomplished by going through it with some other players. Please note that at the current time, the bug for Crisis on Monster Island is still there. Read this article to get the know-how to get around the bug let you freely explore Monster Island. Once you get to Monster Island, you’ll love it. It’s an awesome zone. My main gripe, besides the bug, is that perhaps it should have been made available to you a little earlier.

Powers
As you gain in levels, you’ll increase your powers and abilities. The progression in this stage is well thought out. The main thing that you’ll want to keep in mind is when you select a new power, make sure that it works for you and that you like it. If, after playing with the power for a level or three, you decide that you don’t care for it, get rid of it immediately! Removing powers can get very expensive if you leave it to a later date. I decided one power didn’t jive, so I went to get rid of it. The total cost was roughly 90 percent of my money, and I practically spent very little so far! Don’t let this happen to you, my friends.

Nemesis
Easily the one thing of Champions Online that stands out is the Nemesis system. When you hit level 25, you’ll be able to create your own personal arch-villain. (The full details can be found here.) The ability to create your own personal bad guy is just awesome! After you create him, you’ll do a mission that features him. Afterwards, his goons will jump you from time to time. If they do, check your inventory after you loot them as that there could be an item that starts a mission. Overall, the Nemesis tool is great, but there are a few snags. The first is that you choose from 3 styles of villain (in how they talk). I made a fiendish oriental mastermind, but he talks like a crazed scientist, which wasn’t the way I envisioned him. However, that criticism is minor. The main problem is that I feel that they wait too long to introduce your nemesis. I grinded a few levels so I was able to try this feature out. Personally, I think you should be able to create your own by level 10 or 15 so you can be hooked earlier.

PvP
Once you hit level 21, you’ll be able to get some pvp action in a different way. Earlier, you were limited to cage matches, but now B.A.S.H. opens up. B.A.S.H. is a free-for-all and puts a number of heroes into a single neighborhood and lets them duke it out. Overall, it’s a big brawl and it’s easy to be overwhelmed. With the recent Blood Moon event, you also now have the Zombie Apocalypse match as well. My feelings is that pvp is pretty weak in CO overall. They could definitely create a few more maps with some objectives to really spice up the pvp action. Some players complain that everybody is a hero, so why are they beating up on each other? To that, I say that…number one, it’s a game. Two, they can call the scenarios “training exercises” for the weak of heart. Besides, in the official Champions universe (the pen-and-paper game), there are actually TV networks that broadcast hero battles for entertainment.

Combat
The combat system in CO is still fluid at this stage. My main beef is that, as a keyboard player, a power might not activate when I push the button. There have been many times when I’ve pushed down the key for my two-gun mojo (a sustained attack) to have nothing happen. A few seconds later, I’ll hit it again only to watch the power activate (from the previous try) to cut off (due to my hitting the key again or a different power). It doesn’t happen that often, but when it does, it really frosts my behind! A little twitchy, but I can live with it overall.


Overall, the mid level experience in CO is a mixed bag. There are some great things, such as the Nemesis system and Monster Island. The catch is that I think you should experience those a little earlier on. The mid 20s do tend to drag a bit, with no real new zones to explore until Monster Island. There are some major bugs (Crisis on Monster Island) that need to be fixed as soon a possible. PvP really needs to be jazzed up. Right now, I find pvp pretty dull as that it’s just a quick brawl with no objectives or strategies. There are some great ideas, but the execution could be better. Still, I’m enjoying playing the game, and that’s what counts. This level range could use some tweaking and some polish. If I was to assign a grade, I’d give the experience a B- to a C+. Monster Island definitely gets an A, but the bug on Crisis on Monster Island gets an F! Still, CO is decently solid at the mid-level range; it just needs some polish.