If everybody looked the same (you wouldn't be playing Champions)

Anyone who has played Cryptic's last superhero offerings, City of Heroes and City of Villains, wont be surprised to find the most comprehensive character creation system available in any game yet. Any variation of hero can be created, and whilst Cryptic promises that players won't be able to create perfect likenesses of Batman and Superman et al. you can bet that you will see a lot of close efforts. It is a fruitless effort trying to describe the creation system, as like the Spore builder it is almost a game unto itself, but the possible combinations of creations must reach into the hundreds of thousands. There are also a number of preset ‘classes' (I use the term very loosely) such as Super Strength, Munitions, Martial Arts, Fire Powers and Gadget based powers, to name but a few. It remains to be seen if the endgame creates a demand for certain types of class, but currently it remains refreshing to see such a variety.

You no take candle...oh wait...

The starting area is typical fare. A few simple introductory quests to get you used to your powers, repelling a Qualaar (read: insects from space) invasion before finishing up in an instanced Champions HQ fighting alongside Superman-lite, Defender. If you have played anything from World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Warhammer Online and even Lord of the Rings Online this will all seem very samey. It finishes up with a boss fight and a short cut scene. Whilst it's nice to see an attempt at making the starting area slightly different, when comparing it to WoWs Death Knight starting area it does start to grate once you're running it for the third or fourth time.

Fear not however, once this short introduction is over the game rapidly improves with the introduction of travel powers.

 Go go Rocket Boots!

Choosing either a desert base under siege, or a Canadian base to continue your adventure, you are instructed to head to the local Powerhouse, where you can train new powers and get your travel power. This is a permanent decision once you leave the Powerhouse, so choosing something that fits your character can be difficult, but thankfully Cryptic have done an outstanding job making each one brilliant fun. Be it a set of rocket boots, ice sliding, flying, tunnelling, teleporting...each has it's own charm and again adds to the individuality of each character.

The combat, whilst not revolutionary in any way (skills assigned to a key/ action bar), does look very good, particularly when combined with a travel power. My munitions based, acrobatic, 70s Supercop with an afro and a mission to make the world ‘a much groovier place, baby!' was doing all sorts of back flips and high jumps whilst waving his pistols about whilst blasting at some irradiated humans in the desert. It looked brilliant, and was such a change from the typical static combat we have become used to seeing, and that was only one combination.

Holy frame rate Batman!

The only concerns are that the EU was  hit with very heavy lag, whilst the US realms apparently had no problems. The game also appears to be very poorly optimised, which was echoed in a number of threads on the official forums. Adjusting graphics settings to the absolute lowest settings makes no improvements to the frame rate, and for a system that runs Crysis and Far Cry 2 with no problems, it does raise a concern.

However, I struggle to think of a mainstream MMO in recent memory that didn't have a few problems upon launch, so when Cryptic inevitably patch these issues, Champions should cement itself as a fun alternative for those looking for a bit more action, with a bit less of a grind from their MMOs.

Champions Online is out September 4th, with early access for pre-order customers beginning August 28th. An Xbox 360 version is due out later in the year.