I’m going through cold turkey at the moment, I’ve stopped playing World of Warcraft for nearly 10 months. I played WoW since the launch back in 2004 and nothing compares. Its making me feel sick, as I want to move and enjoy other MMO’s. There is always this wall in front of me, if it doesnt feel like WoW I cannot adapt. Its like coming off drugs.

I’ve not touched an MMO since World of Warcraft, but some other new MMO’s were hitting the shelves. I took the plunge and dived in.

Champions Online

I never played City of Heroes before Champions Online, I had been following it since it was suppose to be Marvel Online Universe. But when Microsoft and Marvel pulled the plug, they went for an untouched IP ‘Champions’. I never played any of the role playing games before so it was an interested take. I instantly purchased this game when the retail servers went live. Crazy downtime but was shocked on how great the character creation was, this was a game in its own right. Creating such diverse characters is awesome. The game is very good also, takes you through a tutorial and is very very different from other fantasy MMO’s like World of Warcraft. The game is good, but feels very unfinished. I was downloading a 80~mb patch daily with fixes.

Mytic Fusion creation

Things I loved about the game (Pros)

1. Character creation is frigging awesome, you can create whatever you like. Just don’t copy like what I did. I cloned Doctor Manhattan from Watchmen and had to change his name and clothing. Unfortunately the game didn’t have any blue male genitalia to choose from. So Mythic Fusion was born, a cyborg like Cyrix from Mortal Kombat was born. You will spend hours changing costumes and tweaking your hero.
2. You have a choice of 16 different classes or you can be a hybrid. I.e Fire and Ice spells or Gadgetry and Power Armour. You can do whatever you like.
3. Missions are fun, these are very similar to World of Warcrafts quest system.
4. Group missions are very fun, you can just walk into an area (with no group) and start doing a group quest with total strangers. Taking down villains to roll for gear or items. Very much a copy from Warhammer Online
5. Crafting is good, but with time it will get even better. You choose from 3 different types of trade skills Arms, Science and Mysticism. But each trade skill is split into 3 sub groups to choose from, you can only choose one. I opted into Mysticism / Enhanced Armour as most of the items boosted my recovery and dexterity. This will get better later on.
6. You can fly at level 5, thats right you don’t have to fork out insane amounts of gold or wait until you have played for 1000 hours. As soon as you leave the noob zone it gives you options on how you would like to move, choices from flying, ice snow board, fire, tunnel, teleport, rocket boots, super jump, flying disk….. to name a few, its really good. Plus no cool down.
7. Super group (Guild) is easy to setup, all you need is 5 people in your group. You meet at Millennium city and setup a group. Once setup you can add your 2 super group colours and symbol. Same ranking systems as World of Warcraft. Whats even cooler if that you can change the name of your super group any any time, over and over. Your not fixed to one name.
8. Native Xbox 360 controller support really enhances the game play. Its an action MMO and button mashing on an Xbox 360 controller is great.
9. Its World of Warcraft friendly as in settings. Upon starting up the game for the 1st time it gives you keybinding options ranging from ‘Fantasy (i.e. WoW) keybinds, Other hero (i.e. City of Heroes) keybinds & FPS (i.e. COD) keybinds. Makes jumping into the game a breeze as your familiar with your favorite bindings.
10. PvP is great, however no ganking as PvE has no factions. You can only PvP in arenas and certain areas, but you have to join a queue. The reward system matches World of Warcraft, honour for gear. As you level up you unlock new PvP scenarios. For example around level 10 you unlock a PvP event similar to the UFC. You fight in an octagon, 5 vs 5 the team to get 15 kills wins. Sounds boring but its really fun apart from the noobs who teleport.

Example of the UI in game and flight system (click to see full screen)

Things I hated (Cons)

1. If you pick the wrong class you are screwed. My 1st character got to level 11 and was getting my arse handing on a plate to more than 1 mob at a time. It costs the earth to respec, so you have to start from level 1 and create a character all over again. Its so easy to pick the wrong spells as you have lots of choice. I had to buy a guide from Killer Guides which really helped me pick the right spec and what to spend my talent points / spells on. It changed the game and turned me into a power hero, taking on more than 4 mobs at a time. Definitely recommend this one or research on the forums before building, as you will regret playing if you pick wrongly.
2. No real tutorial in game helping you pick the right career or trade skill, you learn from your mistakes and get punished deeply.
3. Auction house sucks ass, honestly this is so bad so don’t even look for it. It made me cancel my subscription it was that bad. However the developers have posted on the forums regarding the Auction house and will be updating it very soon. Lets just wait and see. Its that bad I don’t want to go into more information on it
4. This sounds like a whine, but in PvP people exploit the teleport flight power. Imagine, your in the arena kicking ass and your opponent disappears and thats it. You spent nearly a minute getting him down to 10% health and *pow* he has gone. So your left with 50% health to jump to the other opponents and *pow* they do the same. You start wondering is it worth it. Then a minute later you see the same teleport junkies with 100% health to finish you off. It isnt fun as they just do it over and over. Its like having god mode on.

Suggestions to improve the game

1. Allow you to change your specs free of charge until level 10, this way you can try and change specs and decide your heroes path.
2. In PvP put a cool down of 5 minutes on any flight power. This will stop the teleport fuck wits.

Conclusion

Well 2 days ago I canceled my subscription, I’m not coming back for at least 6 months. This is only due to some buggy elements, auction house and economy. I think I will be a solid player once these have been fixed, its a truly awesome game, I would pick this game up just to create your new hero. Try it you will have fun until you start to take the game seriously, but future promises from the developers at Cyptic is a great sign. Plus your getting a free expansion in October to celebrate Halloween. This game is definitely not to replace World of Warcraft, in reality nothing is at this moment.