Champions Online

A Lousy, Low Quality, Poorly Documented Gatekeeper's Cartel Newbies beware, the premise of this game is to entice you with what seems to be playable early on and then you will run into a brick wall later. Being an old game of course, almost nothing is properly explained in-game. Normally, that's what wikis and fan-made documentation is for. The problem? All of them are out of date. There are no up-to-date documentations of powers, skills, what each one does. I should also note this causes all attempts to have a generative AI make a working build for you to fail. There's no comprehensive documentation in-game, only way is to manually buy skills and then pay to refund them. It's one thing to not have user-friendliness, this game goes out of its way to be user-unfriendly. A well-made game has mechanics that make sense. This one's mechanics are nonsensical, unintuitive, and there's no natural sense of progress or what to do next. The devs don't do anything about this, and the community would rather gatekeep behind "ask the experts" instead of actually having a usable product that isn't loaded with technical debt. Don't be fooled - this one isn't casual-friendly, it's not even user-friendly. AVOID, AVOID, AVOID.

Nobody is a more OG fan of this than me. I remember in 1993 when the founding dev came to speak at the SJSU RPG club about the new superhero game he was trying to build. That turned into City of Heroes (CoH), the first superhero MMORG. I remember the Mountain View dev office across from Costco. Champions Online was supposed to be CoH 2. I've played both CoH and CO since beta. I originally bought the $250 lifetime CO account the day it dropped. I've spent loads of cash on this since. I once met the devs out back and they gave me a tour of the Los Gatos office. I also met the owners at Menlo Park irl. But I'm done. This once great game full of potential is dead and needs to be released to the player community to resurrect ala CoH Homecoming. The one thing that City of Heroes did right was have a massive "sidekicking" xp rate. This encouraged teaming up and formed an ocean-sized lifelong community. I still text players I met in CoH beta. Meanwhile Champions Online sidekicking xp rates penalize teaming up. That creates servers full of solo players that barely talk. Lately the publisher has stopped all meaningful development and only nerfs CO going forward. Seems they only bought it to keep it in whips and chains in their basement. Champions has a better engine, runs smoother, looks flashier and has "freeform" that allows mixing and matching of powers. But the maps are stuck in Minimal Viable Product mode, the grind is real, and it's pay-to-win now. Cryptic executives, whom I've personally met irl back in Menlo Park were nice once. But the latest owners are pointy-haired slum lords who've never actually played this or any other MMO. They've replaced joy with dead presidents and hate for comic book primary colors in their hearts. Avoid this game going forward unless it is someday released to open source. Meanwhile go play City of Heros Homecoming instead. I'll be back there too. Investors enshittify everything. Regrettably Champions Online is no exception. CoH broke free. CO needs to next.

It's been quite a while since I've actually played this, but I saw it in my library today and thought why not review it. That said, take this with that grain of salt in mind: I haven't played it in a few years, but I can't imagine much has changed for the better. I first played Champions back when it was not Free-to-Play and required a subscription fee, and I have to say that for the time period it was an exceptionally fun and interesting game. The customization was absolutely mind boggling, and not just in terms of character appearance customization, but in terms of the free-form powersets, travel powers and the ability to mix-and-match and make a hero entirely unique and entirely your own. There were still microtransactions, but they were largely just vanity/cosmetic options, and everything that actually affected gameplay was available to the player. For the early 2010's, the game was a very novel and captivating experience, and the bits of jank in character movement, animation, and the visual styling that tried to capture/emulate the panels of super-hero comics were endearing, to say the least. The ability to create a nemesis with just as much customization as your particular hero, down to their look, powers, and even what henchmen they employed, was an awesome touch and allowed you to further personalize your experience. I eventually fell away from the game, but came back at some point after the Free-to-Play conversion, and a few more times over the years since. I have to say, the game did not age very well, and the way it's been run and managed since have only made it worse. The game is heavily (read, disgustingly) monetized in it's specific brand of "Free"-to-Play, with many of the features that once were part of the base game experience and which made it so interesting and engaging now locked behind paywalls and microtransactions. Freeform heroes are a separate purchase, the vast majority of cosmetic parts are now microtransaction purchases, and that includes many of those that were once available in the base game, you are far more limited in what powers you can select and how you can customize them visually, and travel powers are also affected by many of these issues. I understand that Free-to-Play brings with it a certain need to keep the game funded and afloat, but Champions has grown into one of those games that is a blatant cash-grab from the company that NOW owns it. City of Heroes: Homecoming is a far better alternative in the current day and age, and far more worth your time. It's free, has active development (last I checked), is supported and moderated, and seems to still have an active and devoted community. It still has a bit of the jank that comes with games of this age, but at least you aren't nickel-and-dimed for content that was once upon a time part of the base game. Champions Online was a classic that I once loved, but over-monetization, paywalling of once base-game content and other all-too common scummy practices of modern MMOs (especially those often branded "Free-to-Play") have made it age like bleu cheese left out on the hood of a car in the Arizona sun.

someone alert the world wildlife fund, they're killing all the whales

Dated game mechanics lifted straight from their other MMO Star Trek Online (which is superior to this.) The look graphics are okay, no complaints. I've given this a chance twice now, and completed the tutorial twice, and that's where I stop. I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing afterward, it has me watch a bunch of ridiculous "tutorial videos" to explain certain aspects that I frankly just skipped. If your base game mechanics are so complicated that it takes a tutorial video to explain how they work, you really need a re-think. It's terrible. Equipping gear made no sense, has no impact visually, and feels completely tacked on as a way to provide bonuses. I hit level 6 and got gloves, a jacket, and two new abilities, one of which was my flight ability. With my build, I chose the jetpack. Imagine my disappointment when I didn't actually get a jet pack, no jet pack appears on my character, and visually I appear to have superman flight as a result. Wth? On top of the rather boring combat, I just couldn't be bothered to keep going. If your a superhero nut, this might be for you but if you want a good game, this isn't it.

The very definition of old but good~ the game is aging and some parts of it can be feel, but still very enjoyable to play, both with decent gameplay easy to get into, as well a awesome community very welcoming to new players!

Only thing this game need bug fixes and buffs some stuff and get good contexts with it, just the paywall is a huge problem for a players base at this point, just being honest. it suck to be that way

Love this game. It is still the best super hero game out there !