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.