THE CALL FOR A HERO

Five years ago, Cryptic Studios released a game, which many of you might remember, called City of Heroes that intended to give the player the ultimate personal experience of becoming one's own super hero. Once released though, Cryptic realized that no amount of patches would allow them to create the ULTIMATE online superhero experience in that format.

So they returned to the drawing board. Technology advanced, graphics improved, online games became faster, and superheroes evolved. Now, influenced heavily by the popular pencil and paper RPG Champions, Cryptic has released their MMORPG masterpiece.

Champions Online gives you the opportunity to immerse yourself in a superhero world on a scale unheard of in MMORPGs. Not only is the game itself massive, but the options are nearly endless when creating your superhero.

This might actually be the best part of the game, especially as you unlock more costume pieces. I spent close to two hours creating the look of my superhero and my hero is far and away one of the more simple characters you'll see in the fictional world of Champions Online. Mixing color schemes, utility belts, capes, cowls, boots, gloves, hundreds of emblems, and every other possible combination you could think of to make your hero. Not to mention several species choices, as well.

Before choosing your hero's look, the most important aspect of the game is choosing your power set. From martial arts to archery to elements like fire and ice, you can customize your heroes' powers like never before, including mixing and matching! You could have an archer that breathes fire or a martial artist that also carries a shotgun for good measure. The possibilities are near endless!

After creating your hero and his back story (optional), you're then immersed in a series of basic tutorial missions that will probably take you close to an hour alone to completely blow through before you start traveling to different locales across the globe as you try to quell a larger, worldwide threat.

Now, I admit that I'm only up to about a Level 13, and I have only gotten through the first two locales, but I realize I have only just to begun to scratch the surface of this game's story. In order to help get a more in-depth analysis of the parts that I probably won't be able to reach before my 90-day press kit runs out, I spoke with Executive Producer for Champions Online and MMORPG legend for his work on World of Warcraft and the Diablo series, Bill Roper.



Ratings are based on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best.

Graphics: 7.5: For a MMORPG, considering how many players are involved at once and since it does have a comic book theme, the cel-shading was a perfect choice for the graphics, but it is still a drain on your PC unless you have a top of the line gaming PC.

Audio: 8.0: The music can get a little repetitive after a while, especially considering how easily you can become addicted to MMORPGs, this included, is really the only draw back.

Plot/Plot Development: 10.0: A complex plot that encompasses several different locales in a massive sandbox world will keep you engrossed as you attempt to find every secret, perk, and bonus mission as you try to save the world and become the ultimate hero.

Gameplay: 7.0: Simple gameplay that is easy to just pick up and play gives this a solid score. A good amount of lag on servers that aren't being stressed by the true masses yet though knocks this score down considerably.

Replay Value: 10.0: The true value of an MMORPG is how much it offers you to keep coming back. The reason why I let a lot of my subscriptions run out on MMORPGs is because most of the time I get so addicted that my already abysmal social life is put even further on hold. This game does the same. My entire weekend flew by in the blink of eye as I devoted great portions of my Saturday and Sunday to the computer screen. Add-in an arena system that you gain access to at level 10 to battle other heroes and test your mettle and this game will easily occupy your time for a long while.

Overall (not an average): 8.5: This game is easily the most pure super hero fix you can find out there and will make you forget everything in the real world as you will get pulled in with believable characters, awesome powers, and an original, compelling storyline. If you are a fan of superheroes or MMORPGs, then this game is a must have on September 1st via ChampionsOnline.com.

Also, a very special thanks to my editor Joseph Layton for letting me use his gaming computer, otherwise this review would not be possible.

Review computer specs (incase you're curious):
OS: Windows XP SP3
CPU: Intel Pentium D 3.2 Ghz
Memory: 2GB RAM
Graphics: NVidia GeForce 9800GT
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Extreme

-Ray Carsillo