I managed to wrangle some quality guided demo time from the
crowded Atari booth at this year’s GenCon, featuring Champions Online. While it’s been a long while since I’ve been tempted
by the siren call of the MMORPG, there’s just something about the supers genre
that threatens to pull be back in. Supers games, when done correctly, are an
absolute blast for me, and it looks like Atari has a strong contender with this
title.
One of the most important aspects any good supers game is
the setting. Some games don’t have the rich backstory needed to make the game
come alive, with generic spandex-sporting characters battling vanilla villains.
On the other end of the spectrum lie the Big Names in supers. These setting are
a licensing nightmare, filled with so much (often conflicting) cannon and
familiar characters that players feel like they’re just along for the ride in a
world upon which they cannot have any real impact. Cryptic Studios did the smart thing
here, adopting the wonderfully rich tabletop RPG Champions to electronic
format. The tabletop Champions setting is designed specifically with the intent
of players running the story, only this time the table is much, much bigger.
I spent much of my time with the demo simply ogling the
character design process, which is one of the most detailed I’ve seen in an MMO.
I could easily lose an hour designing my character’s appearance. Almost
everything is customizable, and Champions Online uses a very clever randomizing
process that allows players to lock in the aspects they like while rolling the
dice again for those they don’t. In this way, players can hone in on things
that look cool and not have to remember exactly what they wanted twelve clicks
ago. In addition, players can also back up to previous appearance rolls, which becomes
extremely handy when quickly clicking through the process.
As for the functional design of the character, players get
to choose from more than a dozen of the typical superpowers suites. Blasters,
toughs, super sorcerers, most every power type is represented. The only package
I didn’t notice was the speedster, but that could be difficult to implement within
the setting. Or I was simply too engrossed in all the shiny lights to see it.
Regardless, players pick a starting package and head out into the world of
Champions.
Gameplay seemed fairly typical, although it was a bit more
complex than many of the old MMORPGs I’ve played, especially at these initial
levels. Characters gain quests from various sources, beat up baddies, and
gather the superhero equivalent of swag. Rather than receiving gold, characters
get generic “resources”, representing money, underworld favors, or whatever
other form of currency would be appropriate to the given archetype. And instead
of magic swords and wands, characters get more subtle upgrades that better fit
the superhero setting. As characters defeat the baddies and level up, they can
continue to improve their suite of powers, choosing from their current package or
mixing and matching power suites. In this way, players can greatly customize
their characters to exactly what they envision.
There are also some pretty cool things in store at higher
levels. For instance, after a while of adventuring, players will be asked to develop
their character’s own nemesis, and then watch as this nemesis becomes a regular
part of the character’s world. Super groups are also available for those who
like to team up to fight evil. I also (unofficially?) heard about other cool
things that are possibly in the works, and while I won’t mention them here, I
will say that Champions Online is going to head in some fun and interesting directions.
Swing by Champions Online’s site and check out what’s
in store.