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.


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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 href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/crisisonmonsterisland"
target="_blank">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.


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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 href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/nemesisbasics"
target="_blank">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 href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/bashpvp"
target="_blank">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.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Champions Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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