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

In the demo portion of the presentation we got to head into a mission where the Mayor is giving a speech. As a hero you have to walk through the crowd and identify would be assassins from the Viper organization. Once discovered you have to prepare for a quick fight as you protect the Mayor from the villains in the crowd. After the assassins are taken out you find that there are some snipers on the roofs as well. This is where your jump pack or flying abilities come in handy as you run across the rooftops taking down the shooters so the mayor can finish his speech. However it is too late for that as Viper has sent in a helicopter to really end things badly, so it is up to you and your fellow do-gooders to right the wrongs as the crowd scatters. This type of mission takes place in the open world and players will be able to walk right into the action. The mission moved quickly and players can get a lot done solo however when the helicopter comes down, it gets very rough to handle things alone.

We talked with Bill briefly about the Monster Island concepts in the game. This is a throw back to the huge creatures from the Godzilla days that scour the island giving heroes plenty of bosses to fight. Nothing is easy on Monster Island and players will have to team up to face down some huge foes. One of the giant birds flying around Monster Island is Swoopo who carries loot based on a lottery system for players. Bill explained that players may choose to spend their resources elsewhere or use them to battle it out with Swoopo, once you have him locked in, you get the rare loot he drops. It is an interesting system and will give players a fun option when deciding how to spend their resources.

Bill spent the final minutes of the presentation talking about the balance between melee and ranged power sets, a problem we see arising in many MMOs to come. Bill explained that they are doing a lot to balance melee with attack and defense capabilities as well as giving them boosts to endurance when charging into a group of foes. There are many heroic battles in Champions where players take on a number of opponents. There is nothing better than having the melee skills to stay in the fight and not fall prey to the shooters on the outside. A very cool ability we saw with this was giving players who land into a combat from the sky a small knock back and stun to the area around where they land. The attention to detail as well as the game mechanic gives the melee classes some great options for fighting in close.

Champions Online is set for a September launch with Beta testing continuing throughout the summer. However as with any MMO the game will be out when it is ready. Bill explained that the Champions team are well on their way and the game has a great comic book look to it. We’ll keep you posted on all that Cryptic has to offer and look forward to Champions Online.