Coming of the Champions (Part 2)
What Champions Online Will Bring to Gaming
By Darkgolem
The Champions World
Previously in Part One, I spoke of the massive amount of versatility I anticipate
from the description of the champions game system, merged with the
imaginative character design previously prepared by Cryptic
Studios. However, a pretty costume and complete set of abilities
does not a superhero make. You, of course, need to face off against villainous
enemies. Each should come complete with gloating
rhetoric to, say, a mad plan for world dominance, and a varied selection
of goons. Even better, a villainous super group, prepared to work
together for the downfall of a hero and his or her allies. In the
case of the HERO universe, this comes with the package.
is going to be carried over (in many cases) to
style="font-style: italic;">Champions Online. This has
some subtle differences from what you might be used to from games such
as City of Heroes and
style="font-style: italic;">City of Villains.
Organizations are very big in Champions.
You have some fascinating and just plain fun groups, such as a group of
psionics (PSI), or Viper (a world conquest organization). This
is more or less the same structure you'd find in City
of Heroes and City of Villains.
One difference from previous super heroic based games is the number of
super powered enemies you see. There are many villain teams you
fight in Champions, and if
this carries over to CO, your going to find yourself facing enemies
just as powerful and as strong as you are, in groups. If they
carry over the way the things seemed to develop in the
style="font-style: italic;">Champions genre, you will find yourself fighting toe to toe with enemies just as powerful as yourself, in
groups, and more often. Don’t forget that you also have very
powerful super villains in the Champions
genre, some of whom, such as the nefarious Doctor Destroyer, have
already been identified as destined for CO.
Another very exciting change I see coming are multiple
environments. Champions itself
had rules for all sorts of environments. Space, adverse
environments (lava chambers, the arctic), underground, you name it, you
could find it in the HERO System, and from the data found on the
style="font-style: italic;">Champions Online web site, they
plan the same thing. For example, there are comments about
working on adventures on the moon. Finally, no longer will you be
locked into various landscapes, or even just cityscapes, but all over
the world in a super heroic game!
The Goodies
In the Champions pen and
paper game, you had the option of having enemies specific to
yourself. You would chose this, aside from fun, because it was a
way of making your character more powerful (you would exchange the
limitation of being harassed for the benefit of getting bonus points in
making your character). It was a very common thing for one to
have 3 or 4 enemies who were sworn to your defeat.
This particular feature is being brought to
style="font-style: italic;">Champions Online. You can
design (yes design, it is not a typo) your own nemesis. Of
course, the first thing that goes through my head is “so will I be
designing them to be easily defeated?” According to the
style="font-style: italic;">Champions Online forums, this isn’t
something that can be done. Your nemesis will be balanced and not
easily defeated, even though you design them.
The nemesis is not static throughout the game. You will have
opportunities for your nemesis to be defeated, captured, thrown into
Stronghold (the super powered villain jail) or otherwise put out of
commission, meaning you get a new nemesis to design! This is one
of the most impressive things I find with CO.
Comic Book Feel
One thing that impressed me about City
of Heroes and City of Villains
was its comic book feel. Aside from the great job
that Cryptic Studios did with the game in other ways, they added some
really neat aliases and scripts. You could create comic book-like
emote bubbles and other forms of communication, and link these to your
attacks. For example, in fights you could do a roundhouse punch
on a villain and shout your personal “catch phrase” that goes with your
attack.
Champions Online does even
more to give a comic book feel than previous games. Rather than
more traditional forms of graphics, Champions
Online will be using cell shading. This provides a slightly
less photorealistic, much more comic like look to the game’s graphics.
Even better, cell shading is ostensibly less intense in terms of graphics, meaning
the game will be available to the widest number of players, and allow
the game have higher performance in other ways, without giving up
detailing in character appearance. Indeed, Cryptic Studies claims
that character appearance will be very detailed, especially facial
expressions.
Have Cape, Will Travel
Champions Online seems to have
all the potential for being one of the biggest games of 2009 because of
its development potential. Cryptic will be
bringing to the table a massive amount of experience in superhero MMOG
development, letting them have the necessities of this type of game
already included before release - they will not need to reinvent the
wheel.
Aside from experience, there are plenty of new things coming with
CO. There will, if it can be believed, an improvement with
character creation, promising an unprecedented amount of customization
in powers, and the appearance of the powers when used.
Champions Online will be the
first heroic MMOG released into an already proven super-heroic setting,
with a much wider number of potential enemies, a massive number of new
settings for adventures and plenty of fun and interesting characters
and organizations to fight. On top of the personal
customization, you will be able to have your very own nemesis, and this
enemy will not be static and unchangeable by yourself, you will be able
to defeat and replace this enemy.
The feeling of playing in a comic book was big with previous games
released such as City of Heroes
and City of Villains.
With the new cell shading being used with
style="font-style: italic;">Champions Online, the comic book
feeling will be even greater than ever before.
Champions Online is going to
be one of the big games of 2009, you heard it here first. Make
sure to pay attention to this title, so later this year, or at the
start of next year, you can look at the person who asks about it, and
be in the know. Remember, every time someone gives a “Huh? What’s
that?” look, an angel loses it’s wings.
Return to Part One of this series to leanrn more about Champions Online, or discuss the game in the newly opened Champions Online forum in the Ten Ton Hammer forums.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Champions Online Game Page.
