Worst MMO Ever? - Champions Online

I've played too many MMOs people are starting to recognize me I need to go undercover dress in a way no one would ever suspect blend in with the crowd yeah sunglasses that's perfect no one will know it's me you know if there's one thing the world probably has enough of its superhero media films TV shows endless merchandise the last 15 years have been a superhero explosion in Hollywood so why aren't we flooded with superhero MMOs we had City of Heroes in 2004 and then the Standalone expansion city of villains but they both shut down in 2012 so what happened to the superhero MMO both DC and Marvel make about a more billion dollars per year and even though we've got DC Universe Online that's not really the best they could possibly do so why haven't either of these Studios invested in a good online game well City of Heroes the first name on most people's minds when you say superhero MMO was made by cryptic Studios it was in fact the first thing cryptic ever made nowadays you'll know cryptic because they run the Dungeons and Dragons action MMO Neverwinter online and Star Trek online so they've done well for themselves but City of Heroes was their first thing and having proved they could make a superhero MMO in 2004. in 2006 cryptic were in talks with Marvel to create an official Marvel Universe Online superhero MMO but in 2008 the MCU online project was canceled by Marvel just take a second to appreciate they canceled a major superhero MMO project the same year we got Iron Man The Incredible Hulk Hellboy 2 Hancock and The Dark Knight superhero hype was insane back then because the whole thing was still quite novel canceling this project was probably the second worst thing to happen to the superhero genre in 2008 the first was superhero movie quick note if you search for Marvel Universe Online you will find this webpage which looks really impressive Until you realize that actually this is just one person's passion project and at the bottom says this is a personal pitch project and is in no way associated with Marvel or any of its affiliates the chance of this ever existing is about the same chance as Henry Cavill coming back I hope that joke ages like milk because Henry we miss you however cryptic still have the foundations of the Marvel online game because they'd been working on it all they'd lost was the license so they approached Hero Games the publisher of the generic hero role-playing system kind of like a Dungeons and Dragons rule set but specifically for superhero stuff Hero Games had been printing the Champions rule set since 1981 and cryptic managed to get the Champions license so in 2009 they released Champions online and now almost 14 years later Champions online is still going just like the snyderverse it's kept Alive by a dedicated hardcore group of fans however unlike the Schneider vs Champions online fans can admit the game is not perfect they just enjoy it the game of course being old has its own launcher but the steam version sees about 100 players a day which isn't dead but it's about as alive as season 3 Stormfront so I donned my cave and Cal grabbed my bad shark repellent and slammed a baby into a microwave as I flew in to save the day I've been prepping my superhero Landing rehearsing saying so that just happened and let's be honest at this point anyone's a safer bet Than Ezra Miller so let's play Champions online welcome I'm Josh Drive Hayes and this is worst MMO ever a series where I play every MMO in a journey to find the worst drop a like on the video or sub to the channel for more MMO stuff ring the bell for all the future notifications and as usual a massive thank you to all the supporters on patreon Twitch and YouTube who keep the channel alive more information on how you can support later for now let's begin in true cryptic style once you've downloaded the game you have to download the rest of the game because that's just how they do things then the game launches in full screen but wrong resolution because Hardware detection is difficult and then if you have an arc account you have to log in with that one like if you've played Neverwinter or Star Trek before except don't do that because if you do that it will let you log in but not let you create a character for some reason so just make a brand new account anyway now character creation is actually where Champions online shines the customization options here are genuinely impressive you've got five combat architect types range damage tanks melee damage hybrid balanced and support with 41 different classes spread between them of which 12 are free to play the rest you need to buy with Zen or by being a lifetime member Zen is the generic premium currency that all cryptic games uses the hero classes range from Legally different Hawkeye to legally different Batman or legally different guy with a gun I go for the melee focused Dragon Spirit hybrid class which I'm told later is a trap many players fall into thinking hybrid means okay at everything when really it means bad at everything until a really high level now for customization and this really matters because in Champions online the items you equip are just stat sticks they're not visual changes your costume is how you will be seen and that's set here now you can change it in the game even unlocking unique costume bits as you go but this is a very important choice right now and the amount of customization is vast you can sit there clicking random for hours and not just costumes but limb shapes face types capes armor color everything it looks like a cosplay convention marched through a pride parade and they ended up teaming up so of course give and I had almost endless customization options with a full array of colors available I made man in waistcoat and jeans but then of course people might recognize me because I've called myself Josh strifease so I added some shades I've gone with the Clark Kent method of blending in start the game get given the general backstory big bad evil guy is bad he wants to take over the world his mum's not called Martha standard evil stuff wasd movement space to jump controls smoothly talk to NPCs with f we start in a training room the color palette is nice the UI is fine the music is good and you'll also notice the graphics are quite comic book style Champions online is almost cell shaded in fact cryptic Studios actually made some cool new technology to do this that they called Comic shading you've also got nice touches like big enemy attacks being telegraphed with a pow symbol above their heads and all the the text being written in comic font inside border boxes they've gone for style over photo realism and it's aged well like good Styles often do so we're in this training room lots of local NPC chatter which all overlaps and we talk to Plato the local training uniforms feel very my hero Academia and then we're asked to take part in a simulation of a previous Invasion this is the tutorial it's basically exactly like the final fight of the Avengers one the level loads far too fast to read the loading screen text which is a shame and the voiceover is actually quite good attention calling all heroes this is Defender with a priority One alert Millennium city is under attack I repeat Millennium city is under attack by a hostile extraterrestrial Force the QR I'm reading several new distress signals from the mcpd and EMS units in the South sector of downtown all available Heroes Rendezvous Sergeant mcavoy's team immediately helped him secure the mayor and any nearby civilians I repeat all available Heroes Rendezvous Sergeant McAvoy at the following coordinates downloading coordinates now once we have the civilians out of Harm's Way we'll regroup at Champions HQ and take the fight back to the QR good luck Heroes Defender out the voice cast is all fine most and went on to have decent careers Lani Manila even went on to play syndragosa in World of Warcraft so no complaints with performances however the voice effects overlap themselves and each other and this happens a lot here's an example you are in range of your target so what I'm thinking straight away is okay maybe it's made of solid parts but badly put together and ultimately I think this is the defining feature of Champions online the stuff it's made of the individual systems and choices mostly terrific the way those systems are presented and how they interact with each other and the general build quality is lacking so it's the Q Lauren version we're sent to destroy some alien eggs so here's how you fight tab Target moves shown on the hot bar to the bottom you toggle Auto attack on or off whenever you're near enough something to attack it when it's on if you're a Melee character you'll punch a bit expressively honestly you look like a Family Guy character falling down Auto attack is your Builder builds energy shown to the top left the blue bar and other moves are your Spenders and I like how the game actually explains what Builders and Spenders are because most MMOs don't do this with the eggs destroyed the male wants us to fetch his briefcase and laptop because he's a politician of course he wants to save his laptop can't have people looking through his homework folder can we while in combat hold shift to block you'll reduce incoming damage useful for Middle gating big attacks telegraphed by Red Power icons but blocking is not an animation Council or an interrupt of your own abilities so you can't Split Second Time it in fact laggy animations and uncertain Windows of damage or resistance are another constant thing in Champions online we level up on a toll to visit a trainer I will do that later exactly once before realizing that entire system has been changed this is quite funny we're told about blocking and I think then we're given two flying enemies and these are meant to attack you with big attacks so you can block and see the effectiveness of a block but instead the enemies just blow up the moment they see you as expected the police are cowering in a corner cuddling their riot shield and hiding behind their guns while alone firemen is single-handedly trying to rescue a cat from the rubble because an alien invasion is no excuse to change your day-to-day routine in a nice touch if you approach the edge of the map all the color drains from the scene and the game goes into super slow motion which is a lovely stylistic way to keep the player within bounds kill some QR Invaders and see they speak an interesting symbolic language sometimes popping up in speech bubbles above their heads rescue the hero foxbat from a pile of rubble and then learn a move 100 hands this is a sustained ability most abilities in Champions online are either sustained as in you hold down a button to do them for longer and the bar fills up or charged which is you hold down the button and the bar fills up and when you release it the attack happens sustaining and charging for longer takes more energy but if you do manage to sustain fully or charge completely before releasing the attack you'll often apply extra effects with the attack like a damage over time or a knockback which is a nice trade-off of risk versus reward I earn the steam achievement save the city which is held by 25 of steam players and honestly that's not as big a drop off as tutorials usually see that's actually above average retention learn about equipping usable items you have usable hot slots they are control 1 through control 5 shown down here you have healing items Quest specific items temporary stat boost everything goes here we're given a drone which is a temporary Quest item and told to go and scan some pods which means activating the Drone in front of them and then just waiting for a bit Ah cool an airier Mission like events in Guild Wars 2 or Fates in Final Fantasy 14 just go and get involved you can see them on the minimap in this case I'm defending a cannon defeating waves of enemies it's pretty simple and it's nice to see the good guy NPCs actually hold their own against the attackers they're not useless return the cat we found to its owner because that's what Heroes do and then head inside the champion building we team up with Defender the poster boy hero for the game and again the sound team decided that more voices at the same time means more better game over here we don't have much time Black Talon and his destroyed minions are behind the qlar attack on Millennium City the Q Lara just pawns Black Talon used some sort of technology to provoke the qlr to attack you look like you can handle yourself pretty right here we don't have much time Black Talent I bet we can turn the tide of this entire Invasion it seems the evil villain Black Talon is actually Behind The qlower Invasion so we fight and in a nice touch Defender deals with the ads and we take down the main boss this is a decent fight mechanics AOE attacks need to block then deactivate some beacons around the room and then we solve the Alien Invasion by looting a superhero into a giant Cannon round and shooting them into the enemy ship that's pretty awesome we're now sent to another Lobby and the shop pops up now I've played cryptic games before I know what to expect and we will explore this later because cryptic uses the same launcher layout for all of its games the same currency and the same shop design they've got it down to a science and I guarantee without even looking you will be able to buy Power welcome to the PowerHouse a training place which we're told is extremely important and then in the next 20 hours of gameplay I never return to because you can now level up from anywhere this very much feels like a relic of an earlier time that they've just not removed use some menus to buy some skills I buy a flight skill and then discover there's an odd bug with some of the menus where some of them have a back command to go to the previous choice and some don't making you restart the whole conversation tree and now we get a tutorial entirely through videos you have to watch all of them that is the quest this oh God you were doing so well up to now this was actually fine first off this pacing fails off like I'm guessing this used to be the opening and then they added the QR Invasion scenario as like an active playable tutorial and then teleported you here but didn't remove this as the second tutorial if you're going to make someone watch a video tutorial maybe do that first or even better don't use video tutorials have the player do the thing so they can immediately connect lesson and experience this is like trying to become Batman by reading a book remember the pandemic well I was a Drama teacher during that whole thing and I had to teach drama via zoom and that's like trying to teach someone how to swim via semaphore people learn better by doing things if you want them to learn just have them do the thing with immediate feedback and say why they are successful dumping a ton of videos filled with keywords on them is not good pacing I mean I know exactly what they're going on about and I still zoned out have a listen and see how long it takes you to just stop caring each time you level up you may gain new powers new powers are displayed here just press the purchase Powers button to add them to your hero at certain levels you may have a choice of powers select the power you want and press select power you may also receive Advantage points Advantage points are used to purchase new ranks in an existing power or add a special effect to one choices available to you have green text you may also receive Talent Points each Talent you buy increases one or more of your Heroes stats stats highlighted in yellow within a talent are Your Heroes super stats what are super stats glad you asked the character screen shows a picture of your hero and and your hero's stats I gave up with the video tutorials faster than Marvel gave up with Inhumans get given some starter gear and told to go and help Defender we also get a nice PM from someone but I can't reply because new accounts cannot use the PM system this is usually done to stop early game bot spam but I mean come on you can probably relax this a bit now we're showing a video of Millennium city the city we've just saved from the Alien Invasion introducing us to Millennium City further convincing me this game has like three opening sections they've just stacked together by the time I finish with this review I've seen the Champions online origin story more times than I've seen Uncle Ben die so this is your Hub Town more importantly hold down T to charge your flight power and then release T to fly around and there is no limit to Flying thank you chat to The Drifter a special premium shop needing special premium stuff or a daily currency called questanite earned through quests same as astral diamonds in Neverwinter you earn them and then refine them he also sells max level gear to prepare people for rage but the burning question in my mind is if I can fly how high can I fly because these buildings around me are pretty tall and I'm expecting a Vertical Limit pretty low down but no you can go up and up and up and can you go on the blimp and God damn you can okay credit where credit is due that is impressive and then yes you can actually reach the very top of the highest building and straight away the sheer scale of this map is extremely impressive and this is not just the Hub it's also a City full of quests within itself and I accept a few low-level things then go and help out the west side I also like how you can select info when talking to any NPC and learn a bit about them it really fleshes out the law can you fight while flying yes yes you can finally I can fulfill my dream of slapping someone while just ominously hovering next to them and amazingly these local purple gangsters are way Tougher Than The qlr Invasion soldiers so next time just send these guys and we'll be fine now while fighting you'll see you have this little star rating to the top left when full you'll gain a bonus to both damage and incoming healing and when you die and you will die quite a lot you'll lose a certain amount of star rating to get star rating back just kill some random mobs or wandering Elite enemies or just buy the star refill pack from the shop and yes we'll get to the shop soon this Quest needs me to save some restaurant owners from a loan shark but they needed to make enough restaurant owners and enough Loan Sharks for lots of players so there's just a line of restaurants all being terrorized by a line of Loan Sharks directly in front of a police station the crime rate in this town is over 100 we receive our first slotted upgradeable item hold Ctrl and right click to see an item's upgrade slot and then add in crystals so now we're sent to chapter Mac the upgrade Guru how does the game teach you the upgrade system that's right through a video tutorial there are three types of crafting arms mysticism and Science and you're told that you can learn any of them but they are basic DPS healing and tank and within those groups are three specific focused subgroups and you can only specialize in one and I'm a damage dealer so I go with arms because punching stuff better makes stuff more deader and I always Skip Leg Day which is fine because skipping is good cardio cue another video and oh my God just have the player do this as you're explaining it or have a quest line you're a superhero game with unlimited creative control and you're telling me you looked at the real life education system of bland memorization and then hopeful recollection and said yes this is the best way people learn clearly there is no way of teaching better than this so many weak shards can be fused together into a stronger Shard and the higher rank The Shard the more chance of that Fusion failing and one of the weaker shards breaking and being lost forever but you can buy reagents in the shop which guarantee fusion and then you put those shards whatever level they may be into your enhanceable armor slots so it's the same system as Neverwinter with the enhancement of gems and preservation Wards okay I guess stick to what you know and all that and then a collector's lock box appears in my inventory and these are sometimes dropped by enemies they are loot boxes and need keys which you guessed it are bought in the shop just like Neverwinter so fine I will open your damn shop now cryptic do a few things very well movement combat character customization General high energy action bosses and monetizing almost everything if in another Multiverse I were an investor in an MMO and I heard that cryptic would be running the shop I would be Emo dancing down the street like Spider-Man I'd whip out the back credit card and order the suit with the extra armored bat nipples but in this universe I am slightly more cynical cryptic user the currency of Zen across all their games you can buy Zen in the shop rates shown on the screen now and of course Zen is sold in packs that you can never quite afford to spend all of so you've always got some leftovers ends you're encouraged to buy more or you'll think you've wasted your money you've got Cosmetics support characters pets Sidekicks who can can help you and join in or new classes to unlock Vehicles experience boosts full revives full group revives group experience boost damage boosts level gains complete level boosts straight to level 40 star refills Fusion upgrade guarantees and most of these items once purchased for Zen are resellable on the in-game auction house for in-game currency so there is a path from cash to in-game wealth there's just no doubt that throwing money at this game will easily bypass both the leveling process and then the gearing process or at least make both substantially easier you can stock yourself up with loads of boost and refills to give you an advantage over anyone who's not doing that but you'll also notice that this item says Gold members get this anyway so maybe there's a monthly membership well not quite monthly Subs were actually removed in the mid-2010s and now there is one subscription level lifetime for the low low price of 185 pounds or 240 Freedom Units you can become a lifetime member and you get well it doesn't actually tell you on the shop page what you get I'd assume you get most things because for that amount of money I would want to get most things but to have a 185 pound product not make it Crystal Clear what you're actually getting that's bad so I'll leave the shot because it's depressing me pressing J opens the journal you have full Quest Recaps and all Associated text map links and guides and a crime computer which lists all the available quests in the local area and lets you accept them from there or at least tells you where to go to accept them now this includes both storyline quests one-off leveling Quest and higher level group challenges it says I need to chat to Socrates the champion computer it seems they've got a virus and want us to go into cyberspace to fight it that sounds pretty cool it recommends two people but I'm sure I can solo this first task find Socrates the big handy dandy Arrow above my head is pointing me to the champion building so I go inside and then cannot for the life of me find Socrates anywhere oh I also have an ability Point okay I'll spend it on strong Talent stick to the basics I spend a while looking for Socrates and eventually I have to check the wiki turns out it's outside the arrow was wrong but then I realized after talking to Socrates this is the mistake I've actually made when you approach the entrance to a building you have to choose down below if you're entering the normal version of that building or the quest specific version if you are on a quest you can see the choice down here and the default choice is always the normal building not the quest one so in we go and you cannot skip cut scenes even if you're playing solo fantastic we are now shrunk down by legally not beast and sent into a digital Recreation of the Socrates Mainframe to find and kill a virus and Hey look it's almost like we're back in other land ah good times I've got a real love for digital adventures and cyberpunk or computer textiles micro Graphics like this plus this bit is actually really challenging or I'm just bad but I get absolutely direct solo so like all good superheroes it's time for a team up so I ask around and get quite a few people willing to help out actually making a team is pretty easy and sharing your current quest with your team is also really straightforward just go to your quest list and click share and if you do team up with someone of a higher level it will scale you up to their level and then scale the quest up to be a challenge rating balance for the party size at whatever level so Alto Mark 7 and I smash our way through cyberspace and it's nice I can actually see that I'm doing damage and being useful while being kept Alive by a very focused healer I was slightly fearful that like other cryptic games I'd played this would just be high levels rushing through the dungeon and leaving low levels behind but now is not the time for fear that comes later I love how interacting with a console in the digital world is connecting you to an NPC hero outside and they all reply with different personalities Ironclad types in all caps Sapphire keeps adding you and types in shorthand text and Defender writes complete paragraphs but you'll see Defender is typing message for a while it's small touches like that which really add personality to a game and Champions online does indeed have a lot of self-aware tongue-in-cheek Personality it's leaning into the cheesy over-the-top the bright and colorful superhero Vibe it's less Suicide Squad and more The Suicide Squad lovely use of color as the corruption flows from Blue to red and the final boss fight is great I absolutely adore the use of the displaced graphics for the bug boss as in you can't see it until you've broken all of its supporting code it's invulnerable until you've cleared the corrupting tendrils from around the side of the room and then fought all the ads lovely use of space total time about 25 minute dungeon and I enjoyed this level up and get a choice of two Powers aggressive or defensive aggressive all the way not even a choice now off to deal with more Purple Gang stuff while out of combat your health recharges fast enough to not be too annoying but slow enough to be just annoying enough to push the desire to buy some healing items from the shop that is Machiavelli million levels of balance float into the warehouse like a British vested omniman punch everyone to reduce crime and then wonder why when you cursor over an item the tooltip developer tag invan underscore item tooltip underscore format is always displayed have a pretty cool fight on the roof and then go down into the sewers because this is an MMO game you've not really started till you've done five hours of sewer crawling in a nice touch most of the debris scattered around any level rubbish objects even cars in the Overworld you can pick up and then throw which gives melee classes at least some level of ranged utility so I just Pelt this guy with a TV and oh god look there's no wonder these guys are being bothered by superheroes they've put a number pad combination log in a sewer when you really want to go for a more physical mechanical bar Amateur hour down here fight through meet up with Defender again and this cutscene just finishes before he's even finished speaking I didn't press anything this is just how the game is good work hero I've penetrated the other side of the building let's investigate further let's trap these miscreants between it seems all the local gangs are gathered in some kind of Union they've gathered the most evil of evil to us here look you've got the dragon Clan the Purple Gang and oh God they've even got the French buy an extra inventory bag from this guy pressing I opens the inventory but it doesn't open all of the inventory bags you've got you need to manually open or close any extra bags you're equipped with I check the key bindings and then Google it I just want to find a single key press to open all of my inventory slots but apparently that's not in the game okay I'll tell you what I really appreciate this it's about a lawyer better call Bill on a giant board it is quite literally a billboard you know a hero's job isn't always about punching crime in the face no sometimes we're sent out to do structural evaluation and I have to say these emergency stairs are not up to code look at that you can leave your room but not descend there's no walk down there's not enough space you would just burn at whatever level you're at unacceptable Integrity change needed here these stairs however perfect an example to all others deserves an award explore around and find a powerful demon behind this warehouse It's powerful enough to kill me so you know what I'll just leave this for somebody else this Mission needs me to sneak into the purple gang's Hideout so I beat up a load of Purple Gang members to collect a full uniform and then activate it as an item and I suit up and yeah they'll never notice the new guy who just floats through the building quick minibus fight and I learned there's a conspiracy to supply some gangs with good weapons and some with broken weapons and then start a gang war and win easily but that's not my concern right now because I've discovered a bit of cheese enemies have roaming ranges even when following you and in combat when they reach their max range they will disengage from combat and return to their spawn point now normally in games when this happens during the return process the enemy can't be hurt and they can't be heard to prevent the exact thing I'm doing now because in Champions online you can keep doing damage to the enemy even while they're returning to their spawn point and when they finally start attacking you again the damage stays on them brilliant while the general movement feels great I am noticing several combat delays activating moves blocking or responding to inputs it's inconsistent which is worse so I can't plan for it but it sometimes feels sluggish when responding to keystrokes so far Champions online seems like a lot of good ideas and good systems put together in a rather lackluster way with some early game pacing issues nothing in a vacuum about this game is bad but each element of design seems to just exist alongside another instead of them being aware of each other and enhancing each other for example being able to fly is great attacking enemies in the air is great and having dungeons is great but the vertical space in any building isn't used to enhance the flying there are no secret passages no vents or air shafts to fly through no alcoves of enemies attacking you from above no way to push enemies off Ledges no special super powerful items to pick up and throw down to the floor below the level design isn't enhanced through the inclusion of flying and being able to fly doesn't make the level different you know how in Warframe there's a load of vertical choice to reach the end of a level or how in Dungeons and Dragons online there are secret passages if you do certain things to go through the dungeon quicker Champions online has more freedom of movement than both those games and yet hasn't designed even half as well as they have you can pick up and throw objects at enemies but there's no combining this with the environment to throw stuff say through a blocked door or enhance the object with any of your own personal Powers so it's a fine mechanic but I'm just sat thinking it's a real shame that they haven't said right how can we combine in what we can do into something greater than the sum of its parts punch people so hard I reached level 10 and unlock specializations also dexterity is now my secondary stat and provides Buffs the spect tree requires points to be put into the lower stuff before you unlock the ability to put points into higher stuff but this isn't your talent tree or your advantage tree those are different we will see later how you have several linear advancement tracks and it all gets a bit confusing and now a bit of a dumb mistake I reach what I think is the end of the warehouse activate this door and it takes me outside but the boss was in the opposite room of the warehouse and I've just left so now I need to do the entire dungeon again wonder if I can just Blitz it through a train style to save some time but no turns out at the slow level you need to clear as you go otherwise you will die reach the final boss and just go full on jojo punching him in the face save the city and hand in some final quests and hitting level 10 gave me this box which is an instance queue so IQ up for alert stitch in time now the alert system is interesting alerts are short group instances you get given a location such as a bank or a museum and then a random boss from a world of bosses and then you just go and kill that boss at that location so there's variation but within a framework the queue pops pretty fast so everyone rushes forward this is where I start to see my DPS drop substantially because while I am level scaled I am not equipment scaled I'm not even sure if I'm helping I die and ask for a res but everyone just runs on ahead of me that I have to say is not very heroic reach the boss and slap him around win leave and no one really stays to chat hey remember the virtual Mission inside the PC that I finished well there's more in that storyline it seems the virus was programmed and we've Tracked Down the cyberlords heli carrier the guy who programmed it so I'm sent off to assault the heli carrier and bring them in it suggests that this is for two people but again how hard can it be well turns out it's harder than a homelander in a Dairy Factory so I'll come back here later this NPC tells me to visit the until building until is an acronym for for the United Nations tribunal on international law they govern superhero stuff within this world the until people then explain Adventure Packs these are story lines that you can play through almost like comic book arcs spanning from level 11 to the current cap of 40. there are currently three adventure packs and you can replay them as many times as you want but only four times every 24 hours the serpent Lantern is about assaulting a jungle base to retrieve a magical MacGuffin the demon flame is about stopping Luther from rebuilding a Black Tower and the resistance storyline is about an alternative dark dimension where Millennium city is ruled over by the evil citizen Harmon so I agree to help out the jungle one board the heli carrier and go to fight the evil organization Viper you know I really like the idea of Adventure Packs a lot what they represent most MMOs suffer from having a main storyline that the whole world revolves around a major war or an ancient evil and it can sometimes feel that it's overwhelming and yet at the same time when you have one major event that everyone in the entire game game is focusing on it reduces the vastness and variation of the world all its wonder and mystery is simply condensed to one storyline happening right now which is a Shame by having Adventure Packs happen away from Millennium City it expands the world without removing the relevance of any other part it's saying this story right now matters to people over here that story matters to people over there and they weave together to create the world as a whole I like knowing that the world I'm existing in has its own problems in different places it's nice being a small part of a small story within a big world instead of the only part of a big story which makes the world feel quite small here's a perfect example of combining things together I fly over the Viper base but they've got terrific anti-air defenses which means I now need to either fly low and avoid them or going on foot and Destroy them first they've combined the you can fly with the but enemies are going to shoot you down we which is great I'm also not entirely sure that these Recon soldiers who are trying really hard to stay hidden and out of sight of the enemy appreciate the fact that I'm flying overhead and just Landing right next to them definitely giving their position away so I assault into the base hit Level 11 and right this is what I mean about too many leveling systems with too many keywords you have talent points which you earn on level up and increase your base stats but then you have Advantage points which are also gained on level up but you normally gain two and you spend these to upgrade your powers and abilities through different ranks but sometimes upgrading ranks takes one advantage point and sometimes it takes two Advantage points but then you've also got specialization points which you gain on level up starting at 10 which you put into your spec tree but some of these specializations affect your abilities gained with Advantage points and some effect your stats increased with Talent points so the specialization tree is in effect a talent tree but it's not a talent trade because Talent points increase your stats and Advantage points increase your powers and then you've got the three crafting levels which are upgraded differently so leveling up means having three different layout windows open trying to cross reference which base stat powers and specializations work together it is not the smoothest of processors I enhance my fists with magical fire and then go and assault the bunker in a nice touch if you leave an Adventure Pack Midway through you can just rejoin and not lose any progress you can also bring friends with you super easily which is great punch this gunship to death and this clearly angers all the other gunships because the remaining ones just get a lot tougher and I get wrecked in fact I die so many times I lose all of my star advantages but no I am not going to open the shop and buy more I also noticed the checklist of things The Adventure Pack wants me to do overlaps with the quest list of stuff that I've got on the right hand side text spacing the game has been out for years this is the kind of stuff you'd fix in the first month whenever you go into a building or change a map you can see a loading screen and often the things that you see on the loading screen like this cowboy style Wild West Jewel look cooler than the stuff that you're actually doing I have a new skill charge up dragon kick it is fantastic it is either a one hit kill or a three second stun which can be chained so stun lock is go the dungeon layout continues to be disappointing Corridor room Corridor room reached the boss of Bunker Alpha and then get dropped harder than Batgirl I guess I'll come back with a friend back at the until headquarters and there's water is there swimming yes there is and unlimited breathing and a nice leap out animation cool and I love how your clothes have a wet texture applied to them whenever you leave the water small but lovely graphical touch I check in with the police chief Riku for some alert instances and again another nice touch the flock of birds scatter whenever you land next to them and it's small touches like this which let you know there's clearly a level of detail focus and love somewhere it's just not all tied together the next mission alert pops and this one is much harder in fact I die more times than Gwen Stacy but by the time we've reached the boss we have found our groove as a team and oh cool legally different Thor's here that's always nice so while I'm responding to these alerts let's just have a read of some reviews this is an ancient game with one of if not the worst monetization schemes which is nothing but predatory I've ever seen despite the fact that the game is basically in maintenance mode perhaps the best custom player experience in terms of creation building and immersion I'd love to see the Game grow and evolve the game was once great but now most of the fun is locked away behind paywalls when it had monthly subscriptions it was a real blast you could make a character however you wanted you wanted a character who can use both Fire and Ice and move things with their mind sure why not that's gone now the game I remember is locked behind a whopping 200 pound paywall you want to know what this game is it's a Pay to Win dress-up game because most folk will just stand around rensen or pose in cutscenes I mean how sad is that some players have worked out where to stand on a map so they'll be in the cutscenes there are only two superhero MMOs out there this and DC Universe Online sadly this is the better one but I recommend neither it's a fun game with massive customization options which is what makes the game so awesome older players tend to get upset at many changes over time and shoot the game up in the comments but online as the game is still up and running for us to have fun if you're not having fun go somewhere else not even DC Universe Online has this much customization Freedom enjoy it while it lasts yes the game is Dead truly dead it was a decent superhero game back in the day back when it was their only game now that they have two others they left this one with a skeleton crew and went and worked on the games they wanted to really work on Star Trek and Neverwinter once they got the right to honesty City of Heroes was and always will be the better superhero MMO game it was after all the Pioneer honestly even though it's gone to basically maintenance mode it's still a blast to play I level up I have a talented point but for some reason I'm not able to buy talents the button is available and I'm clicking on it but clicking it seems to do nothing I think I've either got too many windows open or the game is waiting for another process to finish first or it's just decided not today sunshine no talents for you more quests Carl's Jim needs assistance but again I forget about the choose the correct instance when entering a building mechanic and get confused as to where the quest actually is more group alerts and I realize that nobody is doing mechanics everyone is just full on Billy butchering this by running forward and beating the crap out of anything that moves back in the gym I punch a guy so hard his mustache falls off and I can take it and it's a costume unlock another joke billboard this time for a car called The 9001 the overpower if only I had a scouter quick jaunt around the poorer side of town following Batman's Shoes by beating everyone up for the crime of not being born a billionaire and then save this Citizen and he gives me a mission Dynamic missions from people you randomly help nice touch he mentions that some Museum artifacts have been stolen and are now stored in a storage Warehouse so we should go and find them so I find the storage warehouse but when I go in it's the museum did you just forget where this Quest was meant to be did the designers just hear Museum and went well this is the interior or is this just the world's most expensive storage locker by now I'm also dying a lot I wonder if my build is wrong but it can't be because I've chosen every damage increasing Choice which is always the correct Choice the game achievement page even tells me I'm almost at 50 000 resources which is good I don't know what resources do so I Google it and Google isn't much help strangely despite being a very old game a documentation on Champions online is really hard to find there's not a lot fully explained and the wiki is about as fleshed out as she-hulk's Supporting Cast I even checked the auction house for any items or armor upgrades from my level and there's basically nothing Champions online certainly isn't abandoned but it's not taken care of either I think it's mostly being kept alive just to keep the license in the industry we call this pulling a Fantastic Four you know I'm beginning to think the tutorial didn't really prepare me for the actual gameplay experience I've not needed to craft anything despite watching several video dumps on that because I've not had any crafting drops and The Limited combat that I've got means combat is satisfying but it's extremely repetitive this Quest has me fight a boxing ring Bosch rush you might notice that sometimes enemies drop these little orbs green for health red for damage increase and blue for defense so grab them quickly with no rechargeable healing power they're my main source of in combat health regen take out the leader of the Black Aces gang and then a basic mob almost kills me and by now every fight is a slog but I can see there might be a light at the end of the tunnel there's a level 15 Supply kit in my inventory I'm only level 12 now so I'm hoping this contains level appropriate gear so I'm just gonna push through and get to 15 see what we get small issue here you need to break these alien weapon crates but you can't tab Target them you have to unlock the cursor manually click them and then attack them they are in-game enemies and objects so there's no reason that you shouldn't be able to tab Target them you just can't this NPC tells me about super villain mode where you can play as the bad guy that's mostly a paid thing or a premium thing and I'm struggling enough as the good guy don't feel like going all bright burn right now so I returned to take the alien guns from some gang members another nice small touch if you win a fight next to a sid as an NPC they will cheer you on okay there's no denying it the level 10 to 15 Gap is a slog of boring fetch quests I hit Level 14 and unlock form of the master a toggleable passive ability which builds up stacks of focus and lets me punch stuff extra hard so I punch stuff extra hard in the sewers and then escort this politician away from some gang activity in the docks I'm meant to be a superhero not quite sure why I'm saving a politician but okay but then I go off and punch some different people in a different sewer deep within this sewer I find a gang Gathering going on a charismatic recruiter is trying to Rally people to join the maniac gang but I put a stop to this with a strongly worded letter written with my fists on her face and then I finally reach level 15. there's even a new instance in the instance queue well a new location but first the level 15 pack do I finally have better gear no no I do not Champions online is a lot of good choices stacked together in a rather awkward way there are many fun things to do here but they feel very separate instead of cohesive it's not actually a bad game but it can feel like a bad gameplay experience as a whole because of its pacing and presentation it's made a lot of good decisions which pains me to say that it's bad there's a decent opening section but it's ruined with terrible pacing and apparently being three opening sections stacked together there are lots of tutorials but they're delivered through videos and not gameplay and the early game team up mechanics are simple but new players will feel so underpowered in these you're more of a hindrance than a support an inspired level design Standalone system systems not taking advantage of the others and they slog of very lonely early game grinding but within that there's humor heart and a community who clearly love it and are remarkably supportive but the game's biggest flaw might not even be its own fault I think we're all just a bit bored of superhero stuff by now we've been flooded with superhero stuff for years it's gone from fresh and interesting to cliche and ironic to meta and now it's just normal background Champions online is still alive but it's losing its strength and eventually inevitably it will have to pass on the superhero mantle to someone else maybe they'll take it build on it and make it even better in the same way that Champions online took City of Heroes and made that better it's like it's passing the torch forward making it stronger every time but its best days are definitely behind it it's now something people look back on and say that used to be good I wonder what will come next so with that in mind I'll award Champions online all might out of 10. cheers for watching another massive thank you to all the supporters on patreon Twitch and YouTube who keep the channel alive you can support from only a pound a month check the video description for links to the patreon twitch Twitter and our Discord and as always go beyond plus Ultra

Channel: Josh Strife Hayes

Views: 573,388

Keywords: mmo podcast, mmo discussion, mmo design, mmorpg youtuber, mmo news

Id: 3kmQzYCAh9o

Length: 44min 54sec (2694 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 23 2023