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CO: Impressions and Play Thoughts.
blazin-ace
Member Posts: 302
The Expectation:
I was left looking for a new game to try after burning out STO. In particular something worth a sub fee for a few months until the big new MMO releases break out into the market. I’ve never played a super hero inspired MMO before. I had Atari tokens left over and I’d get a sub stipend… So here I am.
I am writing another ongoing impressions and actual play thread where we can talk about the game as desired as I progress through the levels. Because it’s fun to share such insights and involvement with others…
Just please be nice to one another and stay close to comments involving playing, the game, and stuff encountered. No need to draw the mods out based on past experience.
Birthing the Hero:
I let the client download overnight while I slept. It was like 4GB with a 1 GB patch. Speeds were up and down extremes when I checked before turning in. This led me to do a force verify file check before logging in for the first time to prevent problems.
At the character creation screen, I felt like a deer that suddenly wandered into a drunken redneck hunter’s spotlight. I was overwhelmed. There are a lot of options and I do not yet know enough about the game to know what is really what. The real problem came in settling on just one theme to build a first character around as there are so many heroes I wanted to try.
Somehow, I always want to get that first character “right…”
Oh, how I waffled. I almost just went with an archetype but as a subscriber I felt I could get more value by using one as a freeform template. After blowing half the day, I finally decided to go with a power armor character. I read a forum guide by someone called PulseWave and made some decisions about what I wanted. Off I went!
My other potential choices were specialist, darkness, and heavy weapons themed.
It’s not too hard once you have theme. Pick your energy building power, a starter power, a stat booster, and then design your costume. That can be difficult in that the creator has a lot of options. The character models available didn’t look as polished as STO until I got some costume going on.
The music during character creation hit way too many high notes and made it hard to focus on what I was doing. It’s not bad it’s just jarring when trying to think really hard about what you are doing. I turned my speakers down.
Am I the only guy that always looks at a character name really hard for a minute in an effort to make sure it’s not something easily made fun of in an obscene way by a punk kid?
*Click Play*
Playing the Tutorial:
It’s built around using an alien invasion plot line to provide opportunities to learn how to use your basic powers and the interface. There were several people in the instance with me. I didn’t feel so bad about my costume after seeing some others (nothing bad meant.)
My name… I almost restarted as there is an NPC group using a name similar to my character’s but I decided to hang in there as I like my hero name.
It took some getting used to, but I finally decided I liked the shaded cell type graphics for the comic book in motion look and feel. The sound effects are not bad but none of them jumped out at me like they do in STO.
In comparison to their other game, I had more fun doing this tutorial. The quests were linked into a bigger story arc, topped off with a nice large scale super brawl and a villain fight. There’s even a public salutation at the end. This was a good experience for me and something I wish more games did with their game tutorials.
The only thing I didn’t like was the cut scene transition into Millennium City.
Meeting the Community 1:
Well, it happened while I was reading Doc Silverback’s quest information before the gun defense open brawl began. I almost missed it as no one had spoken to me until then. There was another player at my character’s shoulder pleading for help. It turned out he had somehow missed the Socrates computer terminal at the start of the instance and ran all the way through town to the end where I was…
I felt bad for him. So I lead him back through the middle of town, a bloody battle, all the way to the terminal he had missed at the start. At least he said thank you.
Several minutes later, while I was waiting on the battle to reset at the end, he showed up again asking where the hive pods he had to shoot were. Those were all the way back at the start in an alley to left of the computer terminal he had missed earlier… *SIGH*
Millennium City:
The first thing I noticed was that my friends, ignore list, and inbox mail from STO all transferred to Champions Online with me… Do these games share the same server?
There is another tutorial crunch here. And I met some more of the community. In particular, a topless and sometimes bottomless player character heroine cruising for souls to eat. But that’s a topic for next time… O.O
If you’re interested?
My Hero:
I think I did good for my first time using the creator to design his look. That’s such an important thing for a superhero. I’d like to make him look sort of like the Black Talon armor eventually using some of my colors and set pieces but I don’t know how to do that right now.
M.A.R.S. Zero - Manned Armored Response System. Model Zero. PICTURES HERE
Comments
Very interesting beginnings of a review.
I agree - for anyone used to the customization of most MMOs, the character design capabilities of games like CO and CoX (and to a much lesser degree DCUO) can be pretty daunting at the start. There are just a ton of different costume and palette choices, so it can be overwhelming, but in a good way at least. For me, it took a little time to get comfortable with all the menus, but not much time. The great thing about the variety of costume options and powersets is that you can almost create any super you've ever envisioned, which is one of the things I'd always wanted to do since playing the paper and pencil version back in the early 80's.
I also enjoyed the tutorial scenario as a good primer for the overall game. And, when you no longer benefit from what it has to offer, you have the option to skip it with future characters.
I'm looking forward to reading more of your observations.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
I am nearing L20 with my first super hero.
Playing a Hero:
No matter the stated mission objective, it has proven to be a grind trash mobs oriented game in play with quick flowing action that will end in a master villain brawl near an important completion point. Unlike in most other MMORPGs, every enemy encountered has had a ranged attack except a few fast moving schools of mutant fish under a river that are actually mission objective samples to collect.
I have missioned in Millennium City (crime and corruption), Canada (magic and super science), and the desert (mutant apocalypse.) Canada has proven to be the best area to level within without exception as most of the missions take place outdoors allowing you to zip from location to location quickly while skipping trash mobs (particularly as a flyer.)
There’s a fun storyline in all three areas but the mission design seems much better in both the desert and Canada. MC is a little harder and bogs you down in sewers and warehouses resulting in much slower progress. Many recommend skipping it entirely as there is enough content to level through without it and you can take a plane to Canada right after the tutorial.
Tidbit: There is a bug with mobs outside in the game world that has existed since game release with flying heroes in Millennium City. If you engage and then pull up out of range, you’ll see typical minion rats “super leap” up to five story building roofs to shoot at you. Then they fall down to take damage when you close or circle around. You can exploit this.
PVP - The Low Brackets:
So far, I’ve played like 50 unrestricted PVP matches (mainly zombie apocalypse) and a few duels in city center. There have been times I wanted to laugh in a bad or disgusted way, times I had fun, and points where I wondered WTF... It can be viable fun but some of the exploits and issues take away from the overall experience.
Cryptic makes no bones about balancing the game around PVE play first as it’s seen as the primary game activity for their player base. This causes some issues in PVP balancing. For one example, melee attack damage was buffed to do more damage than ranged in an attempt to match the convenience of ranged attacks in speed of PVE character leveling.
There are some overused and exploited abilities popping up already. In particular, I am seeing the same two CC stuns chained consistently. One an electrical and another I know the animation for very well but not the name. In spite of a supposed CC resistance buff on multiple applications, the longest I’ve been locked down for so far was 12 seconds with 8 seconds free in a chain. I didn’t think that was supposed to happen.
Invulnerability and healing bots were key to saving my butt both times that occurred but it happens way too often and saps the fun out of what was a mobile and action oriented fight. There is also an issue with stacking enough perception to deal with stealth abilities like teleport combined with smoke grenades. Teleport aint no port in this game it’s a stealthed run around… Many people are trying to create high spike damage one shot types in game to deal with it.
Tidbit: Ware thee ambushers… On a couple of occasions I have had high level players make a duel challenge while hiding behind some terrain fixture in the city. Don’t accept a challenge unless you can see who is making it as you’ve no chance at L6 vs. an L20.
A Good Hero Build Needs:
I wish Cryptic granted respec or retcon tokens every ten levels like they do in STO. As it is I am thinking about re-rolling my character to take advantage of what I have learned. There are a lot of posts on this subject at the official site. However, here are a few pointers I feel important to reiterate.
The first advantage you should buy is crippling challenge for your starter power. This is particularly true if you PVP because blocks are common and too effective. You are gimped without it in PVP and it is expensive at 3 AP. The longer you wait the harder it feels to get when leveling…
The first power you should buy is an AOE attack as multiple creature mobs are the norm in PVE leveling. I’d put at least 1 AP into it early.
The second power should be a passive defense or offense booster of some sort. Buy it up.
You will want an energy return power early. This is so you don’t have to rely on your weak energy building power all the time.
A self heal and a CC ability will prove valuable after that. Then power selection options open up.
CON as a super stat makes you much more survivable.
Make sure you have ranged and melee capability. As a mostly ranged power armor guy right now, laser blade saved my butt as a fall back a few times and shocked a few melee PVP'ers.
Meeting the Community 2:
I hate blind invites. Am I wrong to expect someone to take the time to chat with me before accepting a team, friend, or super guild invite blind and unknowing from some person I’ve never seen in game before or shared a line of text with? I’ve gotten a lot of them… I am not anti-social. I just don't want a friend I never speak to on my list nor to join a group I'd just quit.
I’ve teamed with a few people who politely asked me for help with some quests. I’ve only had one disturbing instance where someone demanded to know what race I was in RL for some reason. Most people have been very nice.
I’ve spent a lot of time at the club when I am either too tired to mission or expecting real life interruption. The RP community makes good use of the place. I’ve made one friend there. I had a couple of folks look to pick a fight with me or anyone and then there was an ERP bunch but they were smart enough to go private tell. Only one naked character streaker...
By and large the core RP community seems a bit hard to bust into as they seem on guard. Lot of vampires, demons, fae, and supernatural sorts so far.
***
Well, that’s all for this installment. I think a re-roll is coming.
Happy to Have Re-Rolled:
It’s a simple truth. If you find yourself not having fun in CO then try a different power set as it really can change the whole game…
I may have loved power armor in comics when growing up but now I hate the power set in Champions Online to a point that it was sapping my will to play. It’s not a bad power set, I just wasn’t having fun with it. The set is versatile at the expense of not really being “good” at anything outside moderate ranged DPS with short, sustained, bursts.
I am playing heavy weapons now and when I hit something with my axe bodies go flying. I am having a blast with it. I understand what I need in my freeform build, where I am going with it, and everything is joy. I and it just click!
There is also the thing of feeling like a super hero. Power armor is becoming reality rather than sci fi and it makes it hard (for me at least) to feel like a unique hero instead of like just another guy in a suit… Even in game you see NPCs in power armor all the time and everywhere.
Leveling Up Again:
I’ve made L11 and have been splitting my time between Millennium City and the Canadian Wilderness. I am working on arms crafting (fighting styles specialization.) I am having a much easier time in MC than during my first go… A lot of that comes from the massive close in AOE potential of heavy weapons builds turning mobs into dog food.
I am using flight for hero concept reasons as my travel power. I can really feel the difference in speed between slow flight and the fast jet boots. Is flight really more maneuverable? I hope at L20 I can get more speed from it by going tier 2.
I am not sure how happy HERO Games is with the Cryptic revamp of intellectual property. If you are familiar with the PNP you’ll see.
All in all I am having fun right now and learning more about the mechanics of play. I can already see this is going to be an alt heavy game that might suceed on variety where STO failed too.
Heavy Weapons:
I am a little mixed on the animation for it. My character is like 6’5 and I’ll notice the axe blade drop through the ground sometimes. What they got right is that when you hit a foe you’ll feel like you connected. They’ll flail back and around, cut flips in the air, and sometimes go flying away like a golf ball bouncing off terrain. Hehehe…
The default weapon choice models are JPRPG huge. I haven’t found any of the game world HW costume drops yet. The power set specializes in crushing damage but you can take a big sword any way for looks sake. Axes, maces, and swords are the only options I've come across.
The power set is tailored for doing outstanding close range AOE damage. Single target close range is pretty awesome. You have lots of knock back and knock up power, and can leave targets punch drunk (i.e. disoriented.) But you’re a squishy (even if you take Defiant) and survive by killing things rapidly.
You’ve only one ranged attack in the set and that’s a line AOE. You do have potential to get two different lunge (charge) attacks though.
This power set is ideal for a player that likes the idea of taking a big stick and just totally beating the s**t out of someone or someone-s.
You’ll want to super stat strength. This allows you to have fun picking up cars and throwing them at enemies or other players too.
My go to powers in the set are: Eruption, Annihilate, Arc of Ruin, Guard, and Decimate. I like Unstoppable for my passive and use the brawler role. I am thinking Molecular Self Assembly is a core power from outside the set for use as an energy returner. I’ve not settled on an active defense yet which I’ll need to compete.
Cleave really is a great starter but it pales in comparison to Arc of Ruin and you might retcon out of it with a freeform build at the powerhouse later (after the tutorial) for something else...
The best short form advice for a making a build using the power set can be found HERE.
Tidbit: I’d say that if you are wanting to super stat constitution for survivability then you might really want to play a behemoth type DPS’er or tank (might power set) build instead as that isn’t playing to the heavy weapons set’s strength. Recovery is a good choice for the second SS with HW even though you dont have END as an SS.
Meeting the Community 3:
Man… there are some LOL crazy people in this game. In a good way I guess. I guess… I don’t even know where to begin this week. So I am just hiding behind my PC screen here and remaining quiet. OK?
Tidbit: People will read the bio you write for your character. To help them help you and to be sure you can present the material correctly, you’ll need to use a little HTML. See the guide post HERE.
***
That’s it for now. See you next time cause I ain’t foldin my cards yet.
I am a couple of XP bar ticks shy of L30 now.
Atari Drops Cryptic:
We have all heard the news by now. I can say that I am glad I never took out a life time subscription for either game. To me it places a cloud of uncertainty over the future of their MMOs. No matter how you look at it, they have lost “a lot” of money over the past several years and have not shown a profit yet. To me, that bespeaks of a potentially hard sell. I am not sure what to make of it all yet. I don't care to speculate on what "might happen."
Leveling On Up:
I leveled to 20 rather fast and then hit a speed bump as leveling “really” slowed down for a time. I ground through a bunch of quests in every zone until nothing was left available to me. At L30 it is picking up the pace once more as some cool new zones are opening up for my exploration. I would say the play experience felt very grind-y from 20 to 30 as it felt like I was working for peanuts with a lot of mobs to burn up.
There are still some fun stories and places involved though. This is what stuck out to me as fun so far.
I really liked the ghost town in the desert but felt snake gulch with the robotic cowboys right next door took away from its uniqueness and made for too many gimmicked cowboys in my supers game…
In Millennium City, I liked the PSI (Mind Inc) storyline and had fun entering the girl's dream world to save her. This series of quests actually made me start considering a psionic sort of character for later. I was so glad to be done with the purple gang and see other factions that were more interesting somehow.
The only thing in Canada that stuck out as fun in retrospect was the missions around the Argent refinery so far. The Gadroon missions needed something.
I think that leveling speed bump from L20 to 30 may hurt the game as I could see some less persistent sorts give up here before they hit the good stuff. A more consistent leveling curve would keep more players around. It feels like they set a speedy leveling expectation early and then suddenly kick you off a cliff to climb back up…
Tidbit: While the “common wisdom” might be that you could skip the early Millennium City Missions, I’d say do them anyway after completing the first part of the Canadian Crisis.
My Most Fearsome Nemesis Might be Me:
You get to make your own personal super villain to fight against at L25. I wish I could just pick an official Champions Villain from the source material, like Viper X or something. I’ve been a bit stumped in creating my own as I don’t want to make what amounts to an easy punching bag for cheap XP and vendor tokens. I’d like to give the villain some personality like in the comics or PNP game too. As a new player it was hard enough getting my first hero together. So right now, I am still thinking over a nemesis.
PVP - The Middle Bracket (L20 – 30)
In the low end bracket it was pretty easy to get a pvp match going at any time of day for a freeform character. Here in the middle brackets, that’s not so true. I’ve waited a long time in que to no avail outside the busy hours. I do well using a PVE build but I know that time is coming to an end. I am going to have to change my build up for dedicated PVP to compete in the high end.
This bracket is the first place I’ve come across the “pros” that stack multiple layers of defense powers, have all the crafted PVP gear to reduce knock, stun, etc. ,know which powers can be exploited, and use multiple powers macro-ed to a single key while I am clicking along. Meeting these guys can be a little disheartening for a new player but it also presents an opportunity to learn.
Watch what they do while playing, right click and record their user name, then look up their character builds and gear in the player database to see how they are taking advantage of the system…
After play and research, I honestly feel the freeform build PVP system would benefit from a table top style GM with “campaign power limits” like in HERO system to keep things fair, fun, and in check. It’s made me wonder if archetype PVP might be more fun and active as the way some premade teams stack overlapping powers amongst other things is downright cheesey in the freeform bracket.
Yes, I’ve encountered a premade team in the High Tech Arena. In a random pick up group you don’t have a chance. Made me nod my head at one possible reason why Zombie Apocalypse is the most popular game type.
There is a guide to putting your own macros together on the official forum but it leaves me of mixed feelings in that it feels like I am “coding to win” and taking away from thought or skill rather than playing the game to win by actually clicking the buttons and doing the work myself…
Things do Change:
In my most recent check of the character builder, I swear the models looked a little more appropriately proportioned for some of the basic builds than they used too.
In the higher brackets you may want to consider super stating STR / CON with heavy weapons builds and going with the Defiant passive because of the way PVP matches are scored, particularly in bash and arena. Experiment if you can.
I have a love hate relationship with my character's mecha sword. The problem is when I bring it up to guard position my character's hand sticks through the blade so I can't show it off and pretend to be all cool.
My character looks like this now: ALBUM.
Blood Moon:
Once per month on the night of a full moon in RL they have a zombie invasion of the city for a couple of days. My first Blood Moon kicked off when Tako appearead at a costume contest near Champs HQ and started in on us all. We won...don't know who won the CC. From there it was battling undead heroes all across the city and raiding their crypts for parts of collectible action figures. It was fun. I wish they had a two day event with differing themes every week and maybe a holiday special once per year. It would actually be more fun than every thirty minute rifts elsewhere, if done that way.
Alien invasion. Giant monster attack.... Maybe Dr. Destroyer (or Shadow Destroyer) once per year. Hmmmm.
****
Well, that's all for now. I am off to fight my way to L40. Hope you are well. See you next time.
I’m like a bar or two shy of L34.
If a Tree Falls in the Forest:
I’m deep into the monster island missions. Maybe it was just an off weekend or fluke of timing. But right now I am not seeing as many people playing in the high level areas as I did in the low at all. I can’t call it empty but the drop off is very noticeable. There were like 60 of us total split between two instances.
There are simply not a lot of people playing T4 PVP right now either. It takes the que a good while to pop, if it does at all. I took it for granted. It was so active early in early levels…
Somehow, this combination left me sad.
Monster Island Crisis:
To access this area you must play through a crisis mission first. You can get around this by simply logging into the area and then leaving but that wouldn’t do for me. I played through it. Some of the villains were tough and the “Kong vs. Godzilla” like battle took the PUG a bit to figure out. However, we won. The parts around the beach front were most fun to me. The rest was alright but at the end? I really wished that villain (Telios) had shut up sooner… I sighed at the man and rolled my eyes.
Monster Island Leveling:
Beast people everywhere. The game feels very grind-y here. I have a bone to pick with whichever developer crafted the hidden viper lab mission set. I had to run through that place killing everything in and then again out when they re-spawned three different times to complete the quest objectives as you handed them out. It’s a bit much… Running in out of those forgotten caves so much was overkill too.
The beast people cage in the viper clutch mission was bugged.
Otherwise? I’ve still hand fun. It is an interesting area to explore. I can’t say anything has stuck out “yet.”
Man… How many beast people did I slay?
T4 PVP So Far:
I am waiting until I get to 40 for Bash, Cage Match, and Arena play in this bracket. I’m still in a PVE leveling build with cheap gear and no binds. I have played some Zombie Apocalypse. It’s fun but the PUG Heroes have only won one time out of hundreds of matches played while leveling up to T4…
One time.
If you write a two power key bind, remember to cut off your energy builder power so that it will work. You’re limited to two power inputs at once and it will count as one. It took me a bit to figure out what was happening when I observed some people using them.
A flaw in the heavy weapons set is becoming apparent here. While very good for PVE boss whacking the big hit power (annihilate) will root your character and many people will simply move before you can finish a fully charged strike. It loses its punch. (Roots / Slows / CC be danged. They still manage to get out of the area.)
Three dual key binds observed are super jump / stealth, ranged attack / CC combo, and what looked like smoke grenade / teleport. There are more but those stuck out recently based on commonness.
Meeting the Community X:
Truth? I’m F’n annoyed. My guild hunting has not gone well. I tried applying to two different RP guilds and in a nutshell: hated my Stan Lee adjectives and wanted emo weaknesses for interpersonal conflict creation. It was hypocritical after roster review. It’s disheartening. I took a good three or four hours doing the applications to post. One group was…. Pissy and the other non-communicative.
Lol. I almost rage quit CO. Maybe I suck.
U MAD BRO? = Nah. I drank a Pepsi.
At 40 I get a respect token and with my gold account stipend a name change is simple. Might just re write him and spcec into another power set for kicks. You can do that in CO. Level right on up and play something completely different.
***
Well, That’s all for now. See you next time.
thats an great review :P
https://ashesofcreation.com/r/Y4U3PQCASUPJ5SED
Nice, I will be playing a Heavy Weapons/Supernatural build with my wife who will be Fire/Sorc.....both of us will be themed as demons, male and female.
I hit L40 a couple of days ago.
Cryptic Living in a Perfect World:
One of the world’s largest MMO companies bought Cryptic for 50 million US. I am honestly shocked. From news reports this seems to be the company’s new beachhead for breaking into the western market. I have a degree of familiarity with PWI’s cash shop model. I see the way Cryptic’s games are trending and the marriage makes sense from an operational method standpoint. However, I wonder how this will impact the future of both MMOGs?
The End Game Campaign Areas:
I was glad to leave Monster Island behind. It was a good idea that played out badly for me in that the grind was a bit much and the story arc ultimately just didn’t resonate with my idea of superhero fun. I felt like a big game hunter on a shooting spree rather than a hero to the people.
Lemuria
There was no one playing the Lemuria crisis mission… After waiting a goodly time, I simply entered the crisis alone and logged out for five minutes. I was then able to access the region.
I wish they had fleshed out the overarching storyline better but this was the area I had the most fun doing “missions” in throughout the entire game. I was chased by radioactive Russian zombies screaming they wanted to devour my brains for the motherland, taking pieces of eight from ghostly pirates, and able to explore the ruins of an ancient, sunken civilization. The missions were laid out well in that you feel like you make progress at a good clip. However, you’ll hit a bump at L36/37 that will leave you seeking missions in Vibora Bay. You can return at L38 and pick up once more if desired, as I did.
Tidbit: Your crime computer tab can help you find appropriate missions in game when you think you have run out of missions in an area or just want to go somewhere else.
Vibora Bay
To access the actual city you will first have to play through the apocalypse story arc. I hesitate to call it a crisis because of how it’s designed. This was the best piece of comic book story adventuring in the game. It was good. Thumbs up!
However, after time traveling back to save the future, the story feels like a dropped ball. The city is littered with maze like crypts and mission lines. The grind becomes long and kind of dull. It’s a supernatural heavy city with vampires, werewolves, and demonic sorts, jumping off rooftops everywhere. They even have werewolf and vampire bars you can visit during a couple of missions...
The Foxbat marriage and time machine quests were good. There is one exploration quest relating to people stored in boxes as Chinese vampire food you can stumble upon I liked. That’s what stuck out from the grinding as fun rather than tedious.
I really like the city map, buildings, river boat, the arcade and everything physical. But it’s not a lot better than Westside to quest in somehow. Just swap crypts for warehouses and gangers for your favorite flavor of supernatural and you get the drift.
Tidbit: As a potential plus for some, there are a remarkable number of costume drops for your character in Vibora Bay.
Simple Truths:
There really is a lot of mission content to explore in the game. Some of it is unique rather than just grind-y. The average person with a working and family life to tend will not progress nearly as rapidly as I did as a new player. It could hold you for a while as I had an easier time leveling an 80 in WoW by way of mostly solo content exploration.
Cryptic does a very good job of making the average player feel like there are a lot of people playing around them. However, I have been keeping an eye on the actual instance populations. There were 660 (rough estimate) people in Millennium city across 11 differing instances tonight when I checked and nowhere near as many people anywhere else. 1,200 people seemed to be playing at any given time on average across all areas.
PVP with the Big Folks (L40):
It can be a lot of fun playing and I hardly ever see any trash talking on the high end.
The most popular PVP arenas are Strong Hold (which will pop) and Zombie Apocalypse (pops sometimes.) To me it is interesting that both of those have strong PVE elements in addition to direct competition.
I used my respec token to make a defiant (defensive passive) based build that’s still pretty close to an archetype. I do ok. You want the truth? I miss my savage squishy that charged in to kill without remorse. But in the two popular game types, that survival ability is valuable and I’d not be a liability to a team as a melee squishy with slow attacks. Yet, I hate giving up the DPS and balls to the wall attitude. I kinda want to go back but don't know if I can.
The numbers on the scoreboard don’t show everything. There are some really good players. I applaud them, I wonder if I can compete as I’ve noted my reflexes are much slower in age now than some of these young ******* and the targeting bug junk is a killer,
I really hate the defiant exploit some use by refusing to turn in a quest item, and a cc exploit that I’m yet to figure out in total. By playing it has become very clear that some few powers are simply better than others and I hate that too.
Freeform PVP forces you toward some very specific build considerations and you start to lose the game’s unique ability to create any kind of hero you want and be competitive.
Tidbit: HERE is a link regarding build information you should consider for freeform build PVP.
There is an End Game of Sorts:
I am starting to hit the until / unity missions, adventure packs, nemcon, and other such activities now and will write about them next time. I am also getting to a point where I can start hitting some overall thoughts on the game.
Hope it's still fun for you. See you next post.
Awesome review dude. This is a real meaty writeup of your playthrough experience and I'd like to thank you for sharing.
I hope you contiune to keep us up to date as with the new stuff out and your experiences endgame
Everyone Could Use a Pal:
To enjoy the “end game” in Champions Online you are going to meed a few friends to run adventure packs and nemesis missions with. You can solo many of the activities but I found that having even just one other player along cuts down the grind and adds to the fun of playing immensely.
End of a Day:
When you hit level cap there are sets of daily missions from UNITY, a most wanted villain hunt, and a nemesis confrontation that ends in a battle against Shadow Destroyer (a major villain.) These missions can be fun but will become same ole, same ole, after a while.
Cryptic put together the PVE frame work for an end game but have yet to fully flesh it out. They need to add more UNITY daily missions and make additional use of the nemesis system to keep some randomness in your gaming day. It’s like they lost steam here and feel little pressure to continue. In fact, the add-on content (adventure packs and weekly comic series) scale to level.
There are level 40 quests in the high end zones. I am beginning to go back and explore some of those for fun. You can also run the adventure packs as five man elite missions for costume drops and loot. The biggest thing that has occupied me at level cap has been PVP. I have played “a lot” of Stronghold and Zombie Apocalypse in the FF bracket.
So, a verdict? There is something fun to do with your 40 when you want. However, you’ll likely be looking to roll an alt soon with a differing power set to explore the game from a fresh perspective. Yet, I can’t envision doing that more than one or two times.
Cryptic’s Fatal Flaw in Retention is EPIC:
They say Cryptic never could figure out why they were unable to retain players for their games. They keep releasing adventure packs and comic series in an attempt to flood in content. A lack of content was a major criticism back in the day. But this model isn’t going to work. I think no one knew how to express the truth they just knew it was lacking somehow…
I think I know why. I consider this the most important point in my review of either of the company’s games and it’s taken me a while to truly understand it.
Why do you watch some movies just once and others again and again? It’s because there is something “epic” that connected with you along the way and you want to live it again. The same idea applies, perhaps even more so, in a role-playing game where you want to experience an epic story.
There is no real epic conclusion to the story line where you come out feeling like a super hero that did something important and saved the world. No real change… just another episode of the week. Even in comics they have big finishes to story arcs and that never happened here. There’s nothing that ties everything you went through together for an ending with an emotional payoff that makes the effort feel worthwhile.
This is what most people fail to take home from looking at World of Warcraft as inspiration for their game. The most successful expansions were the ones that built onto the epic storyline somehow usually with a new big boss to fight. At the end there was a sense of having finished or accomplished something. Like comparing WOTLK to what went bad in BC.
It’s funny. In the forums, you often read other players asking for the ability to replay the tutorial or starting zone because it was fun. They started with an epic crisis that ended with an honor guard salute for their efforts. They say it felt a bit epic. Maybe they’ll figure it out and tie all the zones together in a grand story one day with an actual big battle, reward, and payoff...
Right now killing off Shadow Destroyer is pretty every day.
PVP Thoughts:
There are simply not a lot of people playing T4 unrestricted PVP. And the community doesn’t always help itself. They are a bit clannish and a small group gets to know each other with time. Cryptic was sloppy in the power balancing and it causes issues in the player base. I.E use a combo they don’t like and expect a load of QQ or whiney BS even though others in their number have been doing the same thing since launch. I guess it’s typical in a competitive environment. I’m glad I’m just playing for fun. But these issues are not being resolved by Cryptic either as PVP is a secondary consideration to appearances. Sure, there are skilled players and matches can be a lot of fun. Just don’t let things get under your skin be it an exploit, a power you hate, or jerk in the chat channel.
Tidbit: I disagree with the idea that straight PVP builds work well in PVE heavy missions when playing solo in particular because the advantages useful to one endeavor are in some cases useless in the other. If you take it seriously, you might want to level a specialty alt.
Self Sufficiency:
Crafting is an acceptable pass time but not a must have skill. Even so, just breaking down loot drops for components to sell on the market can make you money in game to buy what you need. So, I’d still take a skill. The most useful thing I was able to craft were bags and a few secondary slot items while leveling. You can craft your own healing packs rather than having to buy them with PVP acclaim. The collectable action figures are ok but not must haves. Power Replacer items look cool but are not worth the effort.
Tidbit: Some of the daily missions provide access to high level crafting materials but for the really good items you will have to grind for months…
Demon Flame:
I asked a friend which adventure pack they thought was best and this is the one they recommended. After playing it, I can say Cryptic did a good job of making me feel like I was taking part in a solid comic book adventure. I really liked the various camera effects and the slow motion bursts in one battle that felt very cinematic. There was some fun dialogue. It took two of us like an hour to play through on normal difficulty. It didn’t feel as grind-y as Serpent’s Lantern (part way through.) I had fun.
So Where Am I:
Right now I am ready to go to bed... lol. But my next post will hopefully contain more on the adventure packs and it's time to start in on the final wrap. *Waves.* Till next time.
Their Own Comic Series:
It’s basically an adventure pack released free for all, piece mail, in weekly installments like a limited comic book series. The current one is called Aftershock. Interestingly, the storyline builds onto the ending of the events in Demon Flame. The first chapter was marred a bit by the difficulty people had hunting down the spotter teams in the jungle. The second however, played out awesomely with a boss battle, decent story set up, and a surprise twist at the end. I enjoyed it. I look at it very much as an action comic in motion.
PWI Says What?
That is a lingering question in a lot of minds. No announcements have been made and the Atari logo still appears on the cash shop and load screens. There are all kinds of speculation regarding the future by players but nothing substantive known for a fact. Players are just waiting to hear something.
No Comment:
The friends, I have made are mostly silver level subscribers that haven’t bought the adventure packs. The others in guild have done them so much that they are mostly looking to farm loot rather than try out the story. So I couldn’t find anyone to play them with. I tried Serpent’s Lantern alone but frankly it simply wasn’t fun due to the grind involved. I know many people do solo it though.
Champions Online:
It’s a grind in the mold of an episodic action super hero comic with a great character creation system and fun combat. The overall story is mediocre with some bright spots particularly amongst the after launch additions. While there is a framework for an end game it isn’t filled out enough and you’ll want alts to occupy you after reaching cap. It has some unique features and I could gush on power selection. I loved just being able to fly over the city whenever I wanted or leap tall buildings in a single bound.
The comic book genre is very diverse but for some reason Cryptic focuses entirely “too much” on the supernatural in their game. There are “become a vampire” and “become a werewolf” items in the c-store. There are more supernatural powers in game than within any other school of abilities. Vibora Bay… This focus unsurprisingly spreads into the player base a good deal and you’ll see the occasional WOD style coven of RP’ers but honestly, I even saw those in LOTRO too.
A bad launch, not enough material, bugs can all just kill an MMO at birth. Some never recover and it happens too often in the industry. Still, I can call CO a solid if not AAA title. There is a lack of polish from a user perspective. It’s a lot of small things like music and sound effects in cut scenes, reused maps, unpatched exploits with resources or quest items, character model clipping with capes, that all add up to a bigger whole than the sum of its parts when it comes to a user’s “perception” of the title.
Bottom line though is, it can be a lot of fun for a fan of super heroes. I enjoyed it far more than the typical fantasy clone. Give free to play a try, buy what you want along the trip from the shop, and only go gold subscription once you know you’ll stick with it for longer than a couple of characters leveled to cap. You’ve nothing to lose.
Where Am I Now?
I played for 42.23 days. I put in a lot of long play hours with too much ruthlessness for my own good enduring refueling by means of coffee, cigarettes, and sugar. I pretty much loved the game while keeping myself honest about it and I had a ball just pretending to play a comic hero. So why have I quit and started looking for something else to play?
I am going to put that in a second post to follow this one as it opens a bigger issue across all MMO’s and shouldn’t color a play through review of this one.
If you’ve questions or comments, feel free.
That was a relatively decent review, in the sense the effort you made to try and be as impartial as possible shows. I commend you on that.
But try as I might I still see the review coming from the perspective of a "hard-core" "gamer". Those are not insults, BTW, those are impartial descriptors, since as you explained, you played the game marathon style.
For what is worth this game offers a lot to many "gamers" that don't fit into the traditional mold. I, once upon a time, was a hard-core raiding gamer. And I burned out pretty badly. Some time ago my entire outlook and approach changed now I and can see the difference between what a hard-core finds fun vs fail against what a casual gamer does.
On a personal level I've found this game the most fun I've had playing an MMO in years for the following reasons:
WARNING- Generalizations to follow. To all rules there are exceptions, but in general the following statements fit.
1. It's playerbase/population.
It has not been taken over by "leeters", "epeeners", recount-spamming" elitists.
People help new players out in the world a LOT, comparatively speaking. The costume contests engender a degree of competition based more on creativity and storytelling. Not merely "if you don't take this build U suck! Stop sucking!"
While some freeform builds can be said to be "better" than others . . . it doesn't really matter at all. On my Archetypes, and on my Freeforms I still can handidly complete pretty much all content on Elite, or at least more than I've seen in any other games, if I approach the given content appropriately in the context of what my character can do. (Ex. I don't expect my Grimoire to be a durable, survivable tank, but I can Teleport into my enemies and AoE them to near instant death.)
At the end of the day, an MMO's lifeblood is the quality of its community. it is the community that brings cohesiveness to the game.
2. Tools to encourage creativity.
For gamers who are into shooters, or crushing other players, they are probably going to find more fun in other types of games - although there is obviously fun too be had in this one as well. There's just so much for everyone . . . The tremendous variety of powers, graphics for their powers, how you can choose to make them come out of your hands, face, almost even from your own butt (How I pray for a Fire throwing power you can aim from your butt). Costume options etc, encourages so much creativity. . .
Imagine the difference between the student coimmunity in a school of engineering and the college of liberal arts.
Months after I am STILL finding costume options I did not even know were avilable to me! And that's not counting the ones you can collect in the world.
PvP can be separated in Archetypes Only and Freeform arenas, maintaning a certain degree of fairness.
3. The characters look incredibly awesome. I have to say. before I gave F2P a try one of the main reasons I didnt bother to play it before is because I thought the promotional art for the game and screenshots were representative of the characters in game. How wrong was I. Screenshots do no justice. The character models are just sweet. (And I came from a super modern, latest and greatest graphics - failed super-hero MMO.) Facial expressions. Blinking. It's in the details.
That's what I can think of for now. Since this website kinda attracts the more serious, serial, multiplatform playing gamers I suppose your review is being published for the right magazine. In my view, this game offers unprecedented fun for people who love playing MMO's but not living or scheduling their lives around them (or dealing with e-peening kids, anyway.)
4. The present and the future:
Indeed, I've been playing for several months. I did not see the game as it was when it launched, it's creative team at that time or anything else. I don't have a chip on my shoulder or an axe to grind from the past. I am judging the game for what it currently is and it's current pattern. And I am personally gratified. Over the last several months I've seen a degree of communication between the creators and the players that is just amazing. When they take feedback they are not just blowing hot air. Feedback given on the first comic was implemented in the issue that followed one week later. The quality of the steadily released content keeps going up, and up with every release. Resistance and Aftershock are a different league from Serpent Lantern.
As for being bought by PWI? Fantastic. Why? Under Atari (another foreign company btw), there was practically . .. no . . marketing . . whatsoever . . the only way the Atari presence was felt was in the name of the tokens and the t-shirts of some NPCs. Honestly it felt like benign neglect. PWI has far more financial resources than Atari, and interests/experience not only in the market, but in the game itself as to cement their foothold in the west. No matter what they do, it can only be a plus for Cryptic. If anything because they do SOMTHING at all.
I promised a follow up post and it’s interesting you bring up the community. I did not put this in my play through review as I genuinely feel my experience was the exception rather than the rule. There is a good community in CO. I just didn’t get to meet enough of it that stayed to play. It could happen in any game be it WoW or Eve or whatever, it just caught me here.
It Happens to Some One in Every Game:
She was like the second friend I made. She was young and remarkably good at costume and concept if not l33t play skilled. She had this f2p archetype Archer she had dolled up. We met at the club and seemed to be of only a few people that tried to RP about Champions Online. We talked about Foxbat stalking Sapphire, how to deal with Mind Inc, the latest Nemesis plot and all the things a CO hero would. Then I’d go help her with missions as she was new and needed it. I laughed because she’d tell everybody else she was thirty because she wanted no guff but I was too wise to fool and she admitted her real age.
One day, she decided to ask for “friends” on channel to try the Resistance Adventure pack she bought while I was busy in Zombie Apocalypse Matches that went the distance. She ended up with a bunch of loot hungry vets that decided it was a good idea to lead her into an area where she could get farmed by mobs repeatedly while they stood back, laughed, and made fun of her, and “griefed the noob.” She was just a little kid looking for friends to “play” with! It hurt and she quit. I never got a name.
For me it was kind of like coming home to find out your family had been attacked by a lunatic out of “A Clockwork Orange.” I’m still upset. While we adults play games, it’s the kids they are really for right? And there is nothing you can do.
***
We were standing in the same starting chamber for stronghold. We had butted heads for better and worse many times while leveling up. Now, we were on the same team. We were both just standing there looking at one another across the hall like we were ready to draw leather and throw down.
I finally typed in team chat: *Wave*
After a moment, I got back: “I’m not just a skill-less ego storming pet master with tunneling. T.T”
My reply made me a friend. It was: “Lol… IDK. I always thought you were pretty cool.”
Their power choices had never bothered me. I was happy to team with them. I didn’t understand. They played what they liked to have fun. I had enjoyed butting heads with them in matches. I didn’t get why they avoided PVP some hours in game.
It was only a day ago that I looked up the T.T emote to learn what it meant.
***
“If it wasn’t for that Mars guy… You’da won after all he’s just an ego storming pet master. Don’t take no skillz.”
Sure, I’d killed one of the guy’s fifty toons he was so ultra-proud of earlier in the day a few times. Even made him run in an SH match because he didn’t want the kill listed which was lol. It was kind of funny to hear in that it’s not like CO really takes “that” much skill to PVP with. It’s not an e-sport just a rather poorly balanced tack on to the PVE side of things in the FF environment that you feel like you’re Q&A testing sometimes.
I’d been butting heads with their little clique for a few days and it never registered till he started nerd raging in chat over the use of a CC power he didn’t like that made him change how he played. I’d been gang tackled on the hours they played rather consistently when they were on the other team and they’d quit at a key point when playing on the same side. To me it was just part of the game. I guess they thought chaining multiple CC powers on me would change my mind that it was just part of play.
I never whined about the 18 K force cascades or the other solid BS cheese I was hit with night after night. None of it ever bothered me. Not even the sniper rounds. The reason the griefing attempt had never bothered me was simple. Unlike them I wasn’t playing a tack on PVP game to show that “I was somehow better than someone else.” I just enjoyed butting heads with my fellows for the sheer fun of it. None of it mattered, made me feel better or worse about myself, it was just a hoot! You wanted to win but it didn’t really matter.
But I suddenly understood in full what was bothering my second mentioned friend above.
Worse yet it’s what the guy did to a friend I was playing the match with. My friend had tried to get me to join a pre-made to one up the mouthy punk. But I refused based on how I was feeling and the unfairness in taking a premade into a pug. Of course I ended up stalked by the kid and his pals during the next match and he went to nerd raging in chat over his favorite CC to hate and how I sucked…
It upset my friend further. That upset me as it sapped all the fun from just playing. It’s not a ranked arena where the skillz you brag about mean something, not a l33t skilled endeavor. It’s just a pickup game for kicks. That’s what finally added up enough to get me.
After the match I simply told them: “I hope you are proud… You are the kind of person that makes new players not want to play.”
I’m sure they thought it was a compliment. Maybe they will get a ranked arena one day so they can get their heads and hearts back on the right track and out of their clueless bum.
***
You see, if you want to kill my interest in playing a game then you hurt the people I play with… And that’s why I quit and look for another game to see if I can have fun.
***
I was spot on:
There are simply not a lot of people playing T4 unrestricted PVP. And the community doesn’t always help itself. They are a bit clannish and a small group gets to know each other with time. Cryptic was sloppy in the power balancing and it causes issues in the player base. I.E use a combo they don’t like and expect a load of QQ or whiney BS even though others in their number have been doing the same thing since launch. I guess it’s typical in a competitive environment. I’m glad I’m just playing for fun. But these issues are not being resolved by Cryptic either as PVP is a secondary consideration to appearances. Sure, there are skilled players and matches can be a lot of fun. Just don’t let things get under your skin be it an exploit, a power you hate, or jerk in the chat channel.
Wow thats pretty messed up especially with leaving the one girl to die repeatedly x.x
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what a bunch of fking @ssh0les!!! I would love to crush thier skulls! What a horrible thing to do to a player.
I am sure they all played wow and they just couldnt be punks there as it required too much. It is amazing how many pathetic people there are.