Champions Online Preview

E3 2008 Preview

Cryptic Studios understand the massively multiplayer world of superheroes. When everyone dismissed the idea as that genre making for a viable MMO title, it was Cryptic that forged ahead and created the successful City of Heroes title.

Well, the studio is at it again and this time they are going for a title that is not a rehash of the territory covered in CoX, but rather takes a different viewpoint when launching into the world of the superhero. It all begins with an incredibly deep customization set. When City of Heroes launched, players could spend an hour, easily, in the character creation. Cryptic has said that with Champions, the costume and look creation process will be much deeper. And no more archetypes. CO will allow players to pick powers and then level those up. There are no classes, but plenty of opportunities for tactical combat.

And the overall look of the game is different. The game will feature high-resolution textures with black outlines that in what is termed ‘comic shading.’

“We really want to make it feel like you are in a comic book,” said the Cryptic developers on hand to demonstrate the game.

During the E3 demonstration at the 2k meeting room in the Los Angeles Convention Center, Cryptic unveiled a new region, Snake Gulch. The area is what is left of a western ghost town in the desert, will be a persistent area in the world.

Releasing in the spring of 2009, Champions Online is being developed for both the PC and 360, and developers did not discount that cross-platform play may be implemented in the final release. While the demonstration was using a PC, the devs were using Xbox controllers as input devices.

In Champions, players will not have to worry about running out of mana. Instead, as they use their powers, they will build up endurance and if enough is banked, that will help them unleash bigger damage attacks. And players’ characters will also have blocking abilities that greatly reduce the amount of damage taken in combat.

The look was quite different and while no hands-on time was allowed, the game did not seem to be too taxing in terms of control. In fact, the developers playing the game were using Xbox 360 controllers to navigate through the environment of Snake Gulch.

Champions Online is definitely taking a different approach to the superhero MMO genre and it could be one that pays dividends for both Cryptic and fans of MMO games.

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