Champions Online (Day 1, Part 1)

We had to start somewhere, right? And this was the obvious choice. City of Heroes was originally developed by Cryptic before they went on to separate from NCSoft (wise decision.) On their own, they first developed Champions Online. While the launch was considered... rough... (and that's putting it nicely), Champions is now three years old and has had considerable time to polish itself.

In all fairness, this isn't my first attempt at Champions Online. Or my second. This would be my third attempt to try out Champions Online, and while the threat of City's imminent demise might spur me to be more accepting, I honestly do feel it's just a better game since they moved from Atari to Perfect World. In some ways, better than City. In others, lacking. (No villainous content, for shame!)

But let's start from the beginning. I load into Champs via Steam and try to sync my old Cryptic account to the new Perfect World Entertainment account system. No dice, I can't remember anything about my Cryptic account. Not that it's a huge loss, I never subbed more than a month. Whatever, I just use my existing PWE account and start fresh.

Once I'm in, I initially try the Free To Play options of the Silver service. While I don't mind the limited free AT's that Silvers get access to, the costume creation screen is an immediate deal break for me. Since their move from Atari to PWE, Cryptic has level/account status gated the costume pieces. Back under Atari, we had access to most options even as a Silver member. The options as a fresh Silver are more akin to DC Universe Online: Very limited! I later learn that if you level to 10, it unlocks many costume pieces even for Silvers. Didn't know that, but it wouldn't have influenced my next decision: I wanted the Free Form character class.

I immediately exit out and upgrade to a Gold account, as Cryptic is running a deal where three months is only $30, knocking $15 off the price. Works for me. Loading back into the game, I'm greeted with a much, much improved costume creator and even more AT's that are free for Golds. Selecting “The Fist” (which I believe is a Gold only AT), I design a yakuza/triad sort of looking reformed villain and pop into the game's tutorial.

Since the move, the tutorial has vastly improved. Much of the busy work has been removed and the game does a great job of teaching you mechanics without wasting your time. As the Fist, I spent a good hour or so just running around, exploring the area and trying to find old quest chains that have since been removed. Satisfied, I complete the open world quest event and load into the final mission, an instance. (For those wondering, my second character completed the tutorial in under 15 minutes.)

This is... exactly... like I remember it. A somewhat interesting story, a team up with the game's icon, and then a fight with a super villain to end it. Oh, the fight with Black Talon. I'm patient. So I accept that the fight with Black Talon is either a lesson in defeat, or why you should team up for super villains. We'll go with that. Three deaths later, I finally beat Black Talon and I'm allowed to leave the tutorial. (On my second character, it's still three deaths even as a ranged character.)

The fight with Black Talon. As I said, I'm patient and normally cool headed so I accept the difficulty and defeat him eventually. But critically looking at the encounter, I think it's flawed. It's a tutorial. If a new player gets his butt handed to him several times in a row by what is clearly a mismatched fight, he might be inclined to leave. This is just bizarre, as the bulk of Champions is NOT LIKE THIS! So, I don't get why the very first boss fight you ever have to is insanely hard. Lesson in defeat and humility? Maybe you should team? Don't know. But it's odd.

I didn't call it a day here, but this is getting longish. Couple more posts and we'll get caught up to my current experience in Champions!

- @Epsicon