Champions Online

Before you take the plunge, ask yourself whether you're looking for a new virtual world to call your second home or whether you just need to cleanse your palate with a bit of streamlined superhero action. If you're in the former group, Champions Online isn't broad or deep enough yet to make it your game of choice. If you're in the latter, you'll get more than your money's worth for the initial retail price, and the month or so that it takes to fully explore its vibrant nooks and crannies.

A solid MMORPG which needs another year to get to its full potential. That’s how you could describe Champions Online. It’s definitely worth a shot if you’re looking for a change from the traditional games. The elaborate character creator and the comic setting make it hard not to love the game. Content-wise, especially in the long run, the game isn’t quite there yet. Only fourty levels and five large areas mean that there’s not a whole lot to see. One might want to wait for content updates before diving into the adventure. At the moment it’s merely a snack, waiting to become a huge hit in the long run.

Great atmosphere, a great settings, heroes and villains built by the players - and still it's not enough for a great game. Most of the quests are too easy, usually it's no problem to fight opponents up to four levels above your own characters, so there's no need to group with other players. So why play an online game?

Free-to-play limits player choice and hurts the game's longevity, but Champions remains a pretty, if passable MMO.

Champions Online holds a lot of promise and is the type of game that brings a smile to your face as you play despite its flaws, but it does still need some work.

A nice approach to the MMORPG genre, but the game needs a patch to solve the early problems regarding the growth of the characters.

Incidentally, if they bring this game out for the Xbox 360 like they keep saying they want to, it'll probably be amazing. So I'll see you on there… in two years. Good-day!

It's without question the best superhero simulator so far out there, but it lacks some in presentation and probably won't attract mainstream gamers at all.

Frontloads truly excellent stuff, then has a snooze shortly afterwards, becoming formulaic and lacking quests. [Dec 2009, p.88]

City of Heroes evolved into a new kind. Comic-book fans who overcome the chaotic preamble will be rewarded by public quest lines, strong PVP potential and truly exotic adventures. [Nov 2009]

Overall, Champions is actually pretty good – I don't think I'll be abandoning City of Heroes for it, but it has some qualities worth mentioning. It shines most when you're dealing with your nemesis or when you're in the exemplary character creator; but outside of those shining moments, the overall game is very much just another MMO.

As it stands, Champions Online is not meant for the elitist MMO player, who craves for a lot of sudden changes of situation and coherent universes, but rather for your everyday consumer, who can escape work in the gross quantity of perks (read Achievements), in the mini-series heroes (read Vanity Pets) and in the overall lack of sense. And that, of course, only if their personal computer can handle it. And only if the producers will put a lot of effort into keeping up with the (still) growing community.

Lacks a coherent structure. [Dec 2009, p.68]

Technically rough (it doesn't run smoothly, in terms of graphics or lag) with lumpy character progression, shallow combat, a narrow world and thinly-stretched - albeit entertaining - content, Champions Online is off to a scrappy and threadbare start. As it stands, it's hard to recommend. But it's not hard to like - for the customisation, and for offering a genuinely different flavour in MMOs: a bit of poppy, disposable bubblegum in a world of nutritious gruel.

Unfortunately nothing more than an ordinary MMO that quickly fall into oblivion if nothing is done to counter this situation. It is interesting as a novelty.

Champions Online contains some new elements for the MMO genre such as the massive amount of freedom during the character creation and the game is more action oriented than many other MMO's. But it isn't enough to reach the top of the MMO scene and with irritating bugs, rough graphic and an ordinary structure the game will only gather a small amount of players.