A comparison

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It’s been a while that I’ve had this cross comparison in mind.  Nothing to do with politics or social behaviours (though, the latter might come into play due to the nature of the comparison).  This comparison is completely about MMOs.

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After the last 7 years, the gaming industry has seen two big Massive Multiplayer Online superhero games (three, now with DCUOnline, but I leave that one out because I haven’t played it).  City of Heroes/Villains and Champions Online.

City of Heroes came out in 2004 to a wide market of burgeoning MMOs that all seemed to try and steal the success of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft and the previous success of Everquest.  It was a lone wolf in a sea of fantasy games.  Developed by Cryptic Studios, CoH was a game changer of sorts.  With a very complex costume creator, and a large world with which to play in, it attracted a large audience to the game.  Many tried making clones of the more popular comic book characters already in existence, such as Superman, Batman, Wolverine and so on.  It got to a point when there was a major bloockbuster movie with a superhero, you could almost set your watch to when someone would try and create the character in game.  This became problematic for Cryptic, as both DC and Marvel took notice, and then took aim.

After a long legal battle, Cryptic went off to do it’s own development, leaving CoX with developer NCSoft.  From there, the studio dubbed Paragon Studios was born.  Since that time, City of has expanded to include City of Villains and City of Heroes: Going Rogue, which has expanded the universe even more, and has opened up the character archetype so that what were traditionally villain or hero only powersets can now cross over with ease.

While Paragon Studios was adding to this already growing franchise, Cryptic was developing another superhero MMO.  This one based on the old Pen and Paper RPG, Champions.  Champions took what was done in City of Heroes, added in quests the like of World of Warcraft, mixed it in with City of style task forces and strike forces and added in additional crafting abilities.

Now it’s time I did my review comparison of both franchises.  I’ll start with City of Heroes.

City of Heroes has been around for almost eight years.  It’s had it’s successes and a failure or two along the way.  It contains a comprehensive costume creator, along with a massive base builder, and gives the players options to craft their own adventures.  Regular game play is quite broad, as a large number of contacts can be accessed to grant missions to the player’s character as they level up.  There are a number of powersets a player can access through a large number of archetypes.  Once a character hits 41, they can start choosing epic power sets, geared for their specific archetype.  This changes somewhat for characters built and played predominantly in the Rogue Isles, which is the setting for City of Villains.  There are two other starting points, the first one on the scene was Paragon City, where heroes populate the city in a never ending battle for justice.  The other came out last year, and reflects Praetoria, the mirror universe of Paragon, which has Statesman’s inter-dimensional doppelganger, not as a hero but as a dictator.  Here in Praetoria, all powersets are open to a new character, with the exception of hero and villain epic archetypes.  Those being Widow and Spider for the villains and Peacebringer and Warshade for the heroes.  Widows and Spiders are the frontline soldiers for the ruling despote, Lord Recluse in the Rogue Isles, while Peacebringers and Warshades are alien symbiots that appear in Paragon City.

Meanwhile, in the Champions Online universe…

This game is relatively new, but is close to two or three years old.  Like City of, Champions has a comprehensive costume builder, allows the player to craft their own nemesis and gives the player’s options of their own personal hideout.  Champions is currently free to play, but those players who opted in for a lifetime subscription have more options available than free players.  Free players experience locked in archetypes, while paid subscribers have a wide array of options available to them when character building.  Unlike City of, Champions only allows for characters to advance to level 40, with one epic power available, should the character fullfill the requirements.  The different zones a player can go to is expansive, as there is the option to start in the Canadian North, or the Midwest Desert.  This after getting the hang of things in Millennium City, built on the ruins of Detroit after a pitched battle with Doctor Destroyer.  Throughout the course of the game, players will have the ability to “team” with many of the signature heroes such as Defender, leader of the superhero group the Champions.

Time now for a cross comparison.

Customization

City of Heroes and Champions Online both have the most expansive costume creators on the market today.  A player can literally spend a couple of hours just crafting a costume.  Though, often times many will settle on a look they like, and when crafting new characters will have a good idea where the different costume pieces are in the creator.  Both games offer many of the same details, but Champions has expanded it slightly by adding in backpacks, holsters, side swords, forearm pouches and leg pouches.  While each has it’s own unique aspects, both are extremely well thought out.  A point to each.

Both games also have base building abilities. These two things are very different, however.  While Champions gives personal options for a base, City of Heroes allows to make a base for a complete super group or villain group.  In Champions, the player has the option to select from a base number of predetermined bases, and making slight changes from a simple popup window.  City of however, allows for a detailed hands on approach, allowing the player to craft their base to look how they want it to look.  Want a library just off the medical bay?  As long as the supergroup has the necessary prestige (money needed to build bases) then the sky is the limit.  Bases in CoX can also have teleporter rooms, which after players collect badges in each zone, can set up teleporters to those zones from their own base.  This makes traveling much easier.  A point to CoX.

Champions gets this point, solely because City of doesn’t have the ability to craft a nemesis for characters.  The nemesis creator is just as expansive as the costume creator, as players can determine the look of the nemesis and even set their base powers and even give them minions.  Although, the minions are not as nearly as comprehensive in customization.  During game play, players will be set upon by the nemesis minions and at points will drop clues which open missions the player can get to fight against their nemesis.  The only problem is after a while, the missions get rather repetitive.  Players can craft their nemesis at level 25, and each nemesis will be “jailed” at some point, which the player can craft a new nemesis.  The end game for the nemesis is most always the same.  Giant death ray, threatening the world.

City of Heroes gets this point, solely because Champions doesn’t have the ability to craft your own missions.  At Architect Entertainment, located in most every zone in the game, players can make their own adventures.  Five missions long is the maximum, and each map is premade, though there are a large number of options when making them.  Players can also fill maps with premade villains groups (or hero groups, if missions are crafted for a villain) or customize their own groups.  While there is a large number of very good player made missions, there is also a large amount of crap to be found in the AE buildings.  Needless to say, they are a fun diversion from the usual grind of the regular game.

Customization points: CoX 2, CO 2

Power sets

This will go on a different point system, because you can’t just compare with one point.  There will be five categories, which 3 points will be offered, unless the selection is poor, then a negative number will be given.

City of Heroes/Villains has a large number of power sets available to players through a large number of archetype characters.  Heroes are blaster, controller, defender, scrapper, tanker, peacebringer and warshade, while villains have corrupter, dominator, brute, stalker, mastermind, widow and spider.  Each archetype has their own power sets, with some of those sets crossing over archetypes.  For example, some of the scrapper primary melee powers are available to tankers as secondary powers.  Just as some of the scrapper secondary defensive powers are available to tankers as primary powers.  Some of the blaster primaries show up as defender secondaries, while some of the defender primaries show up as controller secondaries.  Each of these powers a player can advance as they level, allowing the player to add more slots to each power and add more enhancements to make it even more powerful.  Those enhancements as well are expansive as they range from single origin/dual origin/training enhancements (these deteriorate as the player levels) to Common Invention Origins (these never deteriorate) to Uncommon and rare and very rare Invention enhancements (these offer small bonuses when a set is completed or added to).

Once a character makes it to level 41, they have the option to take epic powers, which are locked into the archetype of choice.  Each of those sets has four or five powers.  On top of that, characters have the option of selecting power pools which include where a person will find travel powers.  Like base power sets, these pools and epics can be enhanced as well.

The downside is, once a character is created complete with powers, those powers are locked in.  Characters can respec their abilities, whereby they can erase their current leveling and rebuild all at once to make small changes.

Final tally: 3 for archetype choices, 3 for power set choices, 3 for enhancement building, 3 for power pools and epics, but -3 for any further customization.  Total score 9.

In Champions, the player has the option of a wide range of archetypes and powers.  Free players are locked into certain archetypes and powers, though they can change things up just slightly.  Subscribers have much more options, even the ability to take powers that are not found in their own power sets.  For example, a might based character who has taken powers based on strength brawling and face to face fighting, can take one of the munitions powers to give themselves a pistol.  Characters, while it is important to build powers that are complimentary, are more focused on their own attributes.  Strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, ego, presence, recovery and endurance.  Each is pretty self explanatory.  Enhancements can be purchased, crafted or drop from mobs that will help to bolster offensive, defensive capabilities and a special section for utilities.  Those enhancements will add to a characters attributes.  Characters will also have the ability to choose their own travel power without making the choice of a power pool.  At level 35, the character gains a second travel power.

While Champions seems to have more customization for powers, they are still rather limiting.  Yes, when a player respecs their character, they can wipe the slate clean and do something completely different.  But beyond that, there isn’t much.  Also, the epic power is just one power, locked into what the character takes as they progress.  If a character does not take a specific number of powers related to an archetype, then they are out of luck in getting an epic power.

Final tally: 1 for archetypes, 1 for powers set choices, 1 for enhancement building, 1 for travel powers and epic powers, 3 for customization. Total score: 7.

Game play – score set out of ten

Each world is very expansive.  In City of Heroes/Villains, the choices are vast.  Players can start in one of three places; Paragon City (hero specific), The Rogue Isles (villain specific), or Praetoria (neither hero nor villain, and can choose either side at level 20).  Each side (with the exception of Praetoria… for now) has a large number of trials and strike forces which a player can level up.  Also, there are regular contacts.  Some will offer what are called badge missions.  Most of the content is described as door missions, meaning a player enters a building to complete the objective.  This is common throughout the entire game on all sides.  As a player progresses in level, they can enter different zones without fear of being set upon by much higher level enemies.  That is if the player is soloing through a zone.  If they are teamed with someone of a higher level, then other players in the team will automatically side kick to the team lead, and appear as though they are a level lower than the team leader.  That is, if the team leader is a higher level.  Then teammates will exemplar down to match the level of the team leader.  Doing this, higher level characters will “lose” certain powers while at a lower level.  This is also apparent during task/strike forces at certain levels.  Example, a level 50 will appear as a level 10 or 15 during the Positron task force, which begins at level 10 and has a maximum of level 15.  Some of the task/strike forces are only available to level 50 characters, and City of is now increasing level 50′s power ability with the Incarnate system.  A system which offers a wider ranger of powers.

City of also has one major social hub, though players can use other means for social interactivity.  Some role play their characters, while others use it to trade influence/infamy/information (in game money) or enhancements or salvage (used to craft invention enhancements).  Either supergroup bases are used, or the large (and often lag-tastic) Pocket D.  THE place to be for heroes and villains to party down.

Final tally: with a large area of zones available, and thanks to Going Rogue, characters have the option of traveling to all three areas, City of is very large.  Each zone has a number of exploration badges and history plaques which lead to complete badges.  Couple that with additional defeat badges, task forces and more, completed badge sets give characters additional hit points or endurance.  These aren’t necessary for game play, but are a nice addition.  The only downside is that some zones appear completely barren, while a couple of others are very laggy at times.  Total out of 10: 9.

In Champions, characters have six base zones; Millennium City, The Canadian Wilderness, the Midwest Desert (Nevada), Monster Island (just off of Japan), Lemuria (completely underwater), and Vibora Bay (New Orleans style, but said to be in Florida).  There are a few other meeting points for other zones, such as UNITY and UNTIL headquarters, both of which are jumping points to larger scale missions.  Missions themselves are expansive, though after a while players will know them like the back of their hands. City of players will have this same issue, but they have more options available to them based on archetype and origin. In Champions, it is almost guaranteed that a player will play through every single mission with every single character (with the exception of crafting house missions).  While zones in City of are open to all players at any level (with the exception of the Hive), players must go through a “primary” set of missions before opening up the full zone.  SPOILERS: Players can only access Vibora Bay at level 34 or higher.  There they go through an Armageddon sequence and are shuttled back in time.  Bonus; you get to watch several signature characters, Defender, Ironclad, and others, die.  Then you go back in time to stop the apocalypse.  Throughout the course of adventuring, players will receive perks for their characters.  These, however, provide nothing more than costume pieces.  Some will, however, provide ultra rare enhancements which have higher bonuses to attributes and defenses.  Champions has social hubs as well.  The elegant Club Caprice which has it’s own VIP lounge for lifetime subscribers.  There is also the scummy dive called Sherrara’s in Millennium City’s West Side (yes, the area is called West Side).  The desert has an old west saloon on the grounds of an old amusement park that is populated by wild west robots.  Vibora Bay has the SS Bayou Queen, an old steam boat turned floating restaurant and casino.  Each zone also have timed events, or special monsters that will appear.  These events are repeatable.  City of now has with Going Rogue, events.  There has always been giant monsters in some of the zones, along with random events such as Rikti invasion and zombie invasion.

Final tally:  While the missions are nice, they are more WoW in their style, which include many more open missions and hunt missions, often a player will have to fight with other players in order to complete an objective.  The missions can get very repetitive after a while, which leads to a lack of interest.  Cryptic is, however, adding on adventure packs and a comic series, which is a series of missions played out like a comic book staring your character or a team of characters.  Total score – 6.

PVP

Can’t do a review of a pair of MMOs without comparing PVP.  Score out of five.

City of has a different way of setting up PvP, which is quite unique.  They’ve set up different zones specifically for hero vs. villain pvp, and one which is more a free-for-all.  Each zone will also have mission objectives to boot.  If that’s not your cup of tea, as often that form of PvP is random and chaotic, players can challenge each other in the designated arenas.  Pocket D has the arena terminals set up for hero vs. villain one on one.  In those scenarios, there are a large number of maps, of which includes one that can randomly pop up that has a badge, for all badge hunters out there.  No spoiler, as most know it’s the monkey cage fighting arena.  Not only can players fight each other, but they can also create teams of minions to fight against another player’s minions.  These are obtained through the collection of badges which grant different and sometimes stronger minions.  Another reason for badge hunting.  These can be a lot of fun because you get to control a large group of minions to fight off other minions.  Score – 5.

Champions takes a different approach to PvP.  While they do have PvP zones that players can queue into, they also have a challenge system, where players can challenge each other out in the open.  This is fine and it’s always one on one, but it can get annoying when you end up with multiple random challenges.  Granted, you can deny them easily enough.  In the dedicated pvp areas, players can collect points which they can spend to get special enhancements that include costume parts.  Often times these will have the biggest improvements to abilities.  Champions also has a fun pvp which is set up to fight against a horde of zombies.  Everyone, save for one unlucky soul, starts in a shack in the wilderness and must fight off zombies that keep coming at them.  If a player is “killed” they respawn as a zombie, and try to take out the players.  Goals change up as players change sides.  All in all, while there is no real beef about pvp, it feels like it was sort of an afterthought, though, the open challenge system is fun, it can get annoying too.  Score – 5.

I’m going to skip over graphics because each game has their own variation and both are very well done.  Granted, Champions can run on my Acer Aspire 1550 laptop, whereas City of can’t (very well).  Downside for Champions is the god awful comic book outlines.  Thankfully you can turn those off.  City of, however, does have the Ultra system, whereby it contains more dynamic graphics, and has an improved reflection system.  This can be a resource hog, however, but fortunately it can be turned off.  I’ll give each a 5 for this.

Customer Service

This is a game changer.  Let me repeat.  This. IS. A. GAME. CHANGER!  Score out of 10.

There’s no denying Cryptic had it’s hands in creating the City of Heroes franchise, and they have since branched out to create Champions Online.  They’ve created two very good games.  But Cryptic forgot to take one thing with them.

Customer Service.

It seems that Cryptic would rather ignore players and award them with CP Points, in game money to be used at the in game store, instead of actually solving problems.  While Champions is a good game, this one flaw makes for it’s down fall.  When bug reports are filed, it takes days, sometimes weeks for a reply.  In City of, the longest I’ve waited is ten minutes, and a Game Manager was sending me tells right away, along with the usual emails.  I’ve encountered three problems in City of that required assistance, one was completely my fault and I realized it after sending a report.  But in the other two cases, there was an issue with the game, and the GM’s were more than willing to help, they were courteous, and they were pleasant.  In Champions, there was nothing like this.  Final tally for each:  10 for City of Heroes/Villains, 0 for Champions Online.

Total Scores

City of Heroes: 35

Champions Online: 20

August 1, 2011 | Categories: Fun, randomness | Tags: Champions Online, City of Heroes, City of Villains, comics, computers, Cryptic Studios, games, NCsoft, Paragon Studios | Leave A Comment »