Champions Online

Champions Online
72
Metacritic
71
Steam
78.072
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
free
Release date
14 June 2011
Developers
Steam reviews score
Total
71 (3 979 votes)
Recent
68 (19 votes)

Grab your cape and defend Millennium City in this comic book-style action MMORPG! Design your hero and costume from thousands of costume pieces, face super-villains like Dr. Destroyer, and create your own unique nemesis.

Show detailed description

Champions Online system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows 7
  • Processor: 2.5GHz Single Core or 1.8GHz Dual Core
  • Memory: 2GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 7800 / ATI Radeon X700 or HD / Intel Graphics with Dual Core
  • DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c
  • Hard Drive: 10GB Free Disk Space
  • Sound: DirectX 9.0c Compatible Soundcard
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FoxyRaven
FoxyRaven

Back when this game released a friend of mine and i had so much fun in this game, loved it alot, sadly we never got to play it more than 126 hours, i cant get my self to open the game today, im afraid it will ruin all good memories i have about this game.

Still i had to do a review, better late than never right?

4 out of 5.

Mindstate
Mindstate

I started playing this game when it came out ages ago, then when I came back my characters were gone. So you would think combined with that and the bad monetization they have this would warrant a bad review. Well TBH the game is solid and you can make ANYTHING. Want to make X-Men, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars? You can make something very similar or damn near identical in some cases, for looks and powers.

I do wish the game was thriving more. Not that you need a bunch of people to play with to have fun (even though none of my friends want anything to do with it). But, every time I play it, it feels like the last, since there's only ever around 100 people playing at once. It just needs updates and better monetization.

Bluhman
Bluhman

as of april 7 2019 this game sucks because they aren't creating new content and have been running the same exact 5 events for the past 3 years, with no changes to what you do during those events aside from just adding slightly more cosmetic unlocks to farm from them.

Feel free to disregard the rest of the review until the developers stop pouring resources into creating **MAGICAL UNICORN COSTUME PIECES**

--------

At its worst, CO is a glorified chatroom with extensive customization of your appearance. At its best, it's a game with a solid medium-pace battle system that totes some of the most in-depth character mechanics in any game I've played to date. It's really gratifying to play a freeform character and discover a combination of unusual abilities or effects that actually work well in your favor, and at the heart of it, that's really what most players agree the game is about.

This is true for any MMO, but the more you play it, the more you begin to notice just how much content there is, and how limited the number of activities to do are. Thankfully CO has a selection of rotating group missions, Alerts, which allow you to quickly jump in with a generated team (or even your own if you feel like it) and kick butts to get some extra bonuses and sometimes even daily rewards.

This is not a game you should dive head-first into with a subscription, though. As you might expect, freeform character creation is also probably the hardest part of the game to get down (which is why I felt obligated to write like 3-4 guides on it.) Playing a Archtype character is entirely free, and requires no extra payment. Some archtypes are better than others, but of the ones available by default, some of the best choices you can go with include Soldier, Blade, Unleashed, or Inferno. Other good ones include the Savage, Void, Marksman, Disciple, and Night Avenger.

Probably the biggest con of the game, aside from limited content, is how most of the best customization in the game is locked behind either gameplay time or in stores. To alleviate that, being a gold member (either subscribing or going lifetime) grants you monthly stipends that allow you to slowly get each cool costume set featured in the zen store. This all said, Cryptic literally has no clue how to make a good first impression - You would never figure that this game's character creation was worth anything if you were to try and use the costume creator when making your very first character.

The other big con is how unfortunately negelcted the game's update schedule has been. However, Cryptic's slowly but surely working on turning the game around, and more and more, they are pushing extra costume unlocks, game features, and alert features into the game. Again, most of this stuff isn't concerning until you've played the game for literally +5000 hours.

If you are any kind of player that places a very strong preference for customizing character appearances, with maybe a bit of a strategic mindset, this would be the game for you.

Tevu
Tevu

Before Free to play i loved this game a lot and you can see the hours i spent.
Decent enough Superherobrawl, all characters are very peronalized, but the game is quite static. "Go there, hit stuff, get reward, be cool with your powers"
BUt, as its free, i say try it, it might be the thing for you.

I do play this time to time but i dont like the micropays, i would have preferred monthy for more development.

Giid superherobrawl, try it, its free.

Fluxia Lumionia
Fluxia Lumionia

Seriously, it went from pretty good or okay at least, to absolutely painful. The only way you can build a unique hero now is by paying the subscription. But wait theirs more! Act now and you could be painfully stuck in whatever costume they decided should go with their archetypes. Sure you could eventually get the costume you actually wanted by constantly randomizing the character and locking the pieces that match though! But where is the fun in creating your own hero? Oh wait, you gotta pay for that fun. Joy!

Big Aristotle
Big Aristotle

I once heard a tale of a superhero by the name of Numskull Mcgraw. Numskull, a professional wrestler by trade, had the strength of an elephant but the heart of a young child (and mind). As World Heavy weight champoin in the Proffesional Wrestling League, Numskull had it all. That all changed when his wife was murdered by the dastardly Proffessor Dorkus. Numskull vowed to get revenge against his arch nemesis. He teamed together with his band of companions and formed the League of Ordinary Gentlemen to bring down Dorkus' empire of tyranny. Unfortunately, Numskull never achieved his goal because this game sucks. . . Do not recommend.

Patches
Patches

The game itself is decent, admittedly it was a step back from City of Heroes/VIllains (becoming something closer to a generic MMO). The gameplay itself isn't bad, but the F2P setup is downright appalling. You lose out on the customization if you decide not to pay the monthly fee (the game isn't good enough to warrant the fee). Instead, I recommend DCUO, while not stellar, it did a much better job of allowing you to make the character you wanted.

Connor Zombie
Connor Zombie

"Unlimited customization! Just subscribe or pay $5 a costume piece! Otherwise your heroes look like generic piles of crap!"

Nirrtix
Nirrtix

Like City of Heroes, but done in chapters sorta. If it was like City of Heroes it would have been fun....

Butch Bae
Butch Bae

Champions Is by far the best Superhero based MMO on the market right now. It has a in depth plot line that will not get repetitive as the game progress. The character customization is very expansive but the power pull and ability are lacking in Free mode. its well worth the money to buy the game and have unlimited use of mixing and matching you're power list.

FullMingMongEmptyGlorbDork
FullMingMongEm…

This game is a great societal test; the developers allow you to become godlike and everyone's still unhappy!

The Senseless One
The Senseless One

Played game before steam.

Cryptic gets sold in to slavery.

Free 2 Play.

Lags.

I hate Perfect World.

Starts having personal problems.

Realised I was bipolar.

Played anyway.

Still good kinda but just not the same.

Customizing still good though.

I still hate Perfect World.

==

So I'm replaying the game again and once again got addicted to it.

It's not like warcraft or guild wars series but it's just as addictive as one.

I don't play PvP just PvE so I don't know if it's 'pay to win' I do know it's 'pay to make-a-pretty-character'.

only a few of the power set's and costumes you can customize yourself with are open to you if your a silver member but if you use real money you can buy other powers and costumes, I however don't recomend doing this as becoming a gold member does this also plus more.

I use to be a gold member but stopped cuz I'm saving my money up, I'm quite content with staying silver though as I'm not really in the mood to pay subscribtion fee and silver has a fair amount of content to keep you playing for awhile if not more.

More if you have friends.

but if your the type of person who doesn't mind wasting money and your buget ain't tight, I suggest becoming a gold member which is 14.99 bucks a month which I think is fair for this game.

What I know about gold membership so far:

-almost all costumes are unlocked to you. (and it is quite a bit)

-all powersets are automaticlly unlocked for you.(well it was when I use to be a gold's member, I'm sure they didn't change it though cuz' that be stupid drunk)

-you can mix and match your powers and choose the abilites you want.(wanna have force powers and fire powers? well now you can!)

-able the to change the color of your powers(who want's red lighting! I do!)

So far that's all I can remember about gold membership.

I love this game, since before it was on steam and before it was bought out by a company that shall not be named(again).

I suggest trying it out.

{Coached Approved}

Nova
Nova

Stupid Company gouges players and leaves game on life support while luring in stupid people who throw stupid amounts of money for stupid expensive costume peices.

Forget playing if you aren't subbed. Might as well bend over and give them your money if you want to be able to do anything.

Stupid game. Made by people who don't give a shit about quality or fun.

FYI the RP community is pretty shit too.

Hans
Hans

This game used to be pretty good but the devs screwed up everything. They also completely neglected the PvP community in this game so that aspect of it died out. Don't waste your time or money on this garbage.

CY13ERPUNK
CY13ERPUNK

not able to catch the lightning that was City of Heroes/Villains, but still Champions is the best super hero game out there atm by far and while some of the zones are small, it is fun to run/fly/teleport around and the game looks good and PVP is pretty fun as well ; glad that Champions can make the f2p option work, eternally sad and bitter that NCsoft sunset CoX [will never support NCsoft again]

IПVIƧIGӨƬΉ
IПVIƧIGӨƬΉ

One of the best character creator superheroes m.m.o. You can create awesome uniforms, heroes, characters with amazing outfits!

Croissant Garçon
Croissant Garçon

This used to be my joint, not so much now. I'll just come out straight and say this, don't bother with this garbage. Well unless you're willing to pay up to play up anyway. I seem to have lost ALL my champions and I'm not even going to start on all the money I threw at this game back in the day for skins and powers or to have extra slots. It's all gone. Worst part is to get anything fancy like I had before I'll have to throw in some more money.

Damn you, Perfect World! Dead Game.

Bigfan421
Bigfan421

Champions Online, the only MMORPG I ever played based on a review in PC Gamer magazine.
Champions is an MMORPG where you play as a Super Hero of your own creation (whose physical appearance can be tailored to your liking at any time). For the first many weeks, I enjoyed this game, but like with any MMO, it lost my interest when quests basically became the same thing over and over again with egregious glitches preventing certain instances from working properly.
It also didn't help that I actually PAID for this goddamn game before it went Free-to-play.
The almost unlimited character customization (there ARE premium for-pay character appearance parts) is nice and so is the game's community, but I didn't like the grinding and the glitches
If MMORPGs and superheroes are your thing, give it a try since it won't cost you a dime (Unlike me)

Cowbell_Hero117
Cowbell_Hero117

Many years after Champions Online was released and I am now going to write this review. First off, I was a player of City of Heroes before this, so I have a pretty good idea of what games to hold this game's standards to. I have at least 4 max-level characters and over 1000+ hours of gametime, so I know a few things about this game.

First off, I have nothing but love for Cryptic/PWE. That being said, I'm going to offer some talking points.

Why I play/played it: Champions Online is THE MOST customizable superhero MMORPG available, hands-down. THE MOST. That means even over DC Universe Online. There are literally almost a 1000+ costume parts you can build your Champion with. This can be a hindrance for some people, as sometimes the options can overwhelm them. Which brings me to my second point. You can play anything from a Drow Elf to a Vampire, to a furred neko or even a sexy robot.

Freeform vs. Archetype vs. Subscription: Subscription offers way too much to be listed here, it offers things like unlimited Freeform Character creation, chroma-colored powers that can be colored any color you choose, etc.

Freeform character slots are purchased from the store for Silver accounts. They offer the same customization as Subscrition minus the power-coloring.

Archetypes are pre-determined power-choosing paths that are based on classic heroes and villains. Your mileage may vary, some power choices horned into the archetypes are inferior to what you COULD be putting into your build with Freeform.

EDIT, 06/27/2017 - The Archetype system has not aged well and does NOT give you alot of options to start with if you're a brand-new player with no money. PWE had a program that allowed players to test-drive archetypes for a limited time, then rotated them every two weeks. Why can't they go back to that? My friends don't want to have to wait for a sale everytime they want to make a brand new freeform character, because frankly, the starting archetype options are sorely lacking. I had to buy a few archetypes before I was able to remake some of my Level 40 Gold characters as Silver, sans the fancy bells and whistles that made them great.

However this game has some caveats.

1. This review is wirtten in 2015. By now City of Heroes has closed down and DC Universe Online is out. Champions Online went free-to-play to compete with other F2P games and the concept has not worked as well as say, Star Trek Online. Alot of the more interesting character components have been cordoned off to people willing to pay Zen, so what you're left with is alot of "basic" Archetypes and costume pieces that can make some basic heroes. HOWEVER There are STILL alot of costume piece choices.

2. The game has not aged well. With the release of Star Trek Online (not a superhero MMO but one of Cryptic's newer games) and DC Universe Online, Champions feels kind of clunky. The graphics, while bright and vibrant, feel inferior to DCUO and STO. The gameplay feels that way too, mostly because of sporadic latency/syncing issues with the servers.

3. People who unsubscribe may find their characters unavailable to play as Gold Account characters because they must be converted into Silver, meaning they lose their Freeform powers. Buying a Freeform Slot does not fix this, as Cryptic has not programmed the game to make the Freeform Slots retroactive, specifically to existing Gold Account characters. Imagine not being able to play the characters you want because you want to keep their powers as-is!

4. The game lacks a postgame. Some games have a semblance of a postgame (RIFT has you doing raids, DC Universe Online has you doing dungeons for gear). Alot of the post-game stuff is just non-existent. EDIT: A new endgame area has been added, but I have not seen it yet.

5. The character creator can be frustrating to people who don't like lots of options or are confused by them.

6. The tutorial area is confusing, I've had many of my friends say. They're unsure of what to do next or where to go, even with a blue arrow telling them where to go. As of this writing, The tutorial area is hidden inside a holodeck simulation, which is now even MORE confusing story-wise.

7. The characters aren't really all that noteworthy. While I could argue that a City of Heroes 2.0 would be in order, Champions is the result of when a MMO's licensing is cut and they need a fast replacement.

HOWEVER. Let's bring this full circle. Some of the things I can commend Cryptic on:

1. Frequent updates. This shows PWE still cares about the game. However, I wish they would add more free content to experience.

2. Great settings.

3. Wide range of power choices (even when restricted to one powerset).

4. The ability to play my own music from Winamp/iTunes while I slam evil.

5. The story was pretty decent, as limited as it was. Also this game has Easter Eggs abound.

6. The Nemesis system. No other game has it. (DCUO doesn't need it, they have a Villain faction).

So yes, this game has its flaws. But there's alot of good in it too, and worth giving a play for 20 levels or so to see how you like it, if you like superhero stuff.

The community is a hodgepodge melting pot of furries, comic book fans, artists, and roleplayers.
This game isn't presented as family friendly but I'm sure there are Supergroups for both adults and families aike.

If you're into WoW or RIFT or D&D, I would avoid it. This game isn't serious enough for your needs.

EDIT: If you are a furry I would avoid it unless you are capable of buying Zen or grinding out for the furry costume parts.

Category Score/Other
Graphics 3
Music/Sound 3
Gameplay 5
Controls 3
Story 5
Customization 5
Community OK
PVP Desolate
Grind Hard
Difficulty Hard to Impossible
retsam1
retsam1

If you want to play a retrofitted piece of garbage that was originally meant to be Marvel Universe online that was scrapped when Microsoft pulled the plug on support for Cryptic, then this is it.

Outdated game play and a now a cash grab, its just not worth it to get pulled into, nor any other PWE game. Buyer beware.

BadKaz00
BadKaz00

Yes. 1,780 hours. Original lifetime supporter. The game had a golden era and lots of activity. Players perceived there being a lack of support from developer Cryptic Studios as they siphoned creative and development power to launch Star Trek Online. The game suffered from prolonged bug resolution and balancing issues, but benefitted from a very large and dedicated player base. There's still quite a lot to do, and from what I understand there are still supergroups in the game that organize events and contests.

I want to emphasize that the community behind this game nurtured one of the most tolerant and helpful cultures I've seen.

Going free-to-play and being sold to Perfect World was a really good move since the game is clearly still being supported on some level. Champions Online Servers could have easily been retired long ago. I'm super grateful that I still have the opportunity to launch the game every once in a while to check out the latest.

If you didn't have an opportunity to play Champs Online or if it never happened to be on your radar, please give it a try. It's a wonderful game full of its own lore spanning back from days when the IP was only pen-and-paper with the most robust character creation available (from old and new games alike). Cheers.

Arthur Digby Sellers
Arthur Digby Sellers

When Arc purchased this game, they sought to exploit the furry community by nickel and diming them for new costume sets. They have succeeded.

This game caters to furries.

2.5/100 would not buy again.

Count Von Chaos
Count Von Chaos

Though I quickly became bored of Champions Online, I recall it having very in-depth visual customization, as well as character setup. In the style of the City of Heroes games, you could mix and match powers to create your ideal superhero. It also had a fairly appealing, in-your-face comic book style look to it, with bright colors and heavy cel-shading outlines. It's probably still worth playing if you'd like an alternative to the stale fantasy MMOs.

Olschoolgamer
Olschoolgamer

I remember playing a game where you could fly or run super fast or leap your way across the map.
Now when I log in I cannot play any of my old characters and don't want to create a character that is so locked down premade builds.
The games has been made much more restrictive in order to get micro payments.
Games has been ruined.

FelixOrigins
FelixOrigins

Well the free to play is bullshit. I expected to be able to use a variety of power sets and there wasn't that much available. If you expect to play this game for free, don't.

Sarblade
Sarblade

The only reason this game deserved to be played was because City of Heroes was shutting down.

Now it's even worst than in the past.

spj1968
spj1968

Friend who got me into City of Heroes tried to get me to play this when it launched. I tried it but wasn't a fan as it compared poorly, for me, with CoH. I tried it again in more recent times and it is fun but not enough to get me to sub or play the heavily gimped free version.

I wish there was a neutral option but, since there is not, I'll have to go with not recommending this game.

Spazticus
Spazticus

After seeing the Monster Factory videos, I really wanted to like this. After the fun of creating a character I encountered kludgy gameplay interface, limited controls, no walkthrough of any kind (to introduce you to how to manage your character, find/accomplish any goals or even read your UI) and so far the actual content seems written for an 8 year old comprehension level. I've exhausted every attempt to care.

soy division
soy division

Eat my entire butthole Perfect World. What have you got against people living in Asia? Why can I download a game I then can't log into? You're garbage.

Deceased Crab
Deceased Crab

This game is straight up terrible. Think City of Heroes but with an extremely active energy bar. The combat is ridiculously fast paced, the powers are... well, kind of boring. About 75% of powers and archetypes and such are locked behind paywalls. We're talking non-cheap paywalls per item.

You cannot send Tells to someone (unless they're on your friends list) or use Zonewide chat until you've accumulated 20 in game hours. So asking people to group is right out unless you come to the game with a group prepared.

I don't recommend this for solo players at all. It's definitely not as good as CoX was, the controls are kind of spotty even though they support keyboard and controller.

GamingGranny
GamingGranny

This game is kinda like a plain burger with no toppings, like you gotta pay the toppings you want for 50% more money than the actual meal.

underhungrat
underhungrat

One of the best games I have ever played!

If you get bored at the start (level 1-14) it's something normal.
The fun starts when you reach over level 14 because you are able to explore more that just the Millanium city. You have maps like The Southern Desert or The Canadian map.I found it very interesting that I can use my creativity to do anything I want to and to create and even change my character in the same time I play the game.

Trust me it is worth it spending your time.

Dat90sGuy
Dat90sGuy

TL;DR: Definitely try it if you only want to Role-Play.

===

This game is at its best for role playing purposes.

It's literally the only reason why I keep coming back to play it (occasionally). When I do, I just role play my characters with their respective story(ies). It's also fun to just click on random players around to check out their BIO (if they happen to have one of course, because not everyone plays this game for RP'ing). I've read some VERY creative stories for all types of characters.

Some stories are so complex that the creator has a full Wiki-styled web page dedicated to detailing their characters. However, he in-game BIO has a character limit and you can't come up with more than about three long paragraphs of text until you hit the limit, and the formatting to create Bold or Colour text and so on also counts towards the characters limit count. So if you want to make a very fancy and elaborate BIO you'll hit the limit very fast at the cost of losing potential space to add details about your character's story.

What's particularly great about this game's world is that - outside of its base / canon lore - you're still very much free at creating almost literally EVERY types of heroes and/or villains that you can imagine. You want to create a Cyborg, Robot, Demon, Angel, generic Metahuman with super strength, miniature butterfly guy who has the power of teleportation, a Vampire or an Alien with bunny ears and a guitar for accessory... just imagine it and you can most likely do it. The sheer number of possible characters from this game's creation system is - quite simply put - out of this world. There are NO other games currently available (MMOs or not) that can come remotely close to that kind of customization (INCLUDING your character's own BIO / back story if you want to invent one too outside of just making his appearance unique).

Not to mention that there's the (in)famous Club Caprice, 'THE' place for Role-Players to meet. And if you're into more... shall I say "complex" RP'ing and need more privacy you can also just invite your partner to your own place. Indeed, there's Hideouts and you can invite players inside, be it a Penthouse or a Moon base, there's quite a good selection (some are smaller than others though).

I'm just speaking about the Role-Playing aspect here, because I myself have pretty much ignored the ACTUAL "game" behind the curtain (to me, the real game in Champions Online IS the role-play, so everything else it offers IS behind the curtain) over the years. I've literally just leveled up ONE character to Level 35 and stopped there for the past two years now (max Level is 40). My other characters are Levels 25 and below. I just literally buy Hideouts, costumes and costume packs, costume Slots for my best characters, character Auras and so on, mostly due to Role-Play.

So, coming from a (rather humble) role-player, I absolutely recommend this game. However, if what you're looking for is a good actual MMORPG and you cannot possibly care and won't even approach its RP capabilities then I do NOT recommend this. Instead I'd go for something else like Elder Scrolls Online, Black Desert or even Blade & Soul.

FoxyLover69
FoxyLover69

Right off the bat, this game is very frustrating...

Pro's:
-------------------------------------
+ Character customisation allows a wide variety of costumes, materials and colours.

+ Tutorial sufficiently covers important aspects of the game without going overboard.

+ No apparent exp loss from dying.

+ Sizable, active community.

+ Missions have loads of variety.

+ Scenes are voiceacted.

Con's:
-------------------------------------
- Most classes locked behind paywall.

- Melee class feels severely imbalanced in combat.

- Flying is only marginally faster than walking.

- Community seems to ignore you entirely.

- Missions that require groups are generally impossible to beat because noone at low lvls group up.

- Cheap voiceactors, bad dialogue.

Overall:
-------------------------------------
As a double sword class, I was unable to get past lvl 11 and that's where my review data stops. The constant dying and the group missions I was forced to do solo make the game an incredible chore. While I feel the tutorial explains everything adequately, there's no helping the fact that Perfect World has screwed up player survivability.

Can I recommend this game based on the hope that PW fixes this, or that you can simply join a group for lvling? Not in the slightest. Perfect World is well known for being stubborn even in death (see Perfect World International), and the community itself would seemingly prefer to sit in the main city and talk nonsense than organise groups/raids.

Despite appearences, Champions Online has very little to offer the player. There's a million pricetags of premium content, loot is mostly spammed with costume lockboxes and missions give pitiful rewards for the effort it takes to complete them.

This was my second attempt to play this game, and it only took 30mins to remember why I quit the first time.

d.posey
d.posey

People complain that this doesn't give enough when actually it gives more than the standard mmo. Don't believe me play this game and Dc Universe Online (not to sound like I hate dcuo because It's my favorite superhero mmo out there) and make comparisons.

CRYO555
CRYO555

I love this game. It has it's glitchy/laggy moments, but it's still very fun to me. It's very customizable. Not only does it offer that, but it combines elements from Marvel and DC, making it a great superhero game.

mgd4200
mgd4200

Very akin to DC Universe Online, though much deeper character customization. Community is a little lacking in comparison, but everything is obtainable through play (absolutely no forced P2W). Another thing which was nice was the fact that the higher teir items didn't feel unobtainable like on DC. Where it lacks in comparison is the open world quickly becomes very stale, and finding a decent team can be a bit cumbersome. Either way, it's certainly worth a try. If you decide to play, feel free to PM me through steam and I can put you in touch with a friend of mine who is quite active and willing to teach/work with new players.

Mighty Maus
Mighty Maus

After playing the game for 300+ hours and having a really fun time with a few really awesome characters, my main character was deleted without warning because he looked too much like megaman, and was named rockyman (like Rockman the Jap name for Megaman). --- This was before they put in the TOS that you couldn't have character look-alikes owned by other companies.

After which I opened a support ticket only to get my Lifetime status removed and my other two characters deleted for literally no reason other than i had a single character that looked like megaman, and was named Rockyman.

Joe Bob
Joe Bob

Got this game when I came out. Had an upfront price. When the game went ftp with a sub model the players who paid full price got nothing. I never forgot it. So 8 years later here is my thumb going down.

Storenz
Storenz

As of right now you only have two choices (maybe more when a ship of heroes comes out) which leads me to play Champions Online over DCUO specially after DayBreak Games now owns it. I have bought all downlodable content and subscribed for a while as well, but once DayBreak took over I dropped my sub since lost most of my premium stuff and features and if you look well over it DCUO is a nice game with a fairly considerate character creator but overall Champions Online takes the league sorry.

HexStadium
HexStadium

I played this game during Beta and payed for the subscription all the way until Champions Online was sold off and became F2P. Suddenly all my characters were behind a pay wall. If I wanted to use characters with certain powers, I had to pay. If I wanted to use my characters with certain costumes I had to pay. Suddenly everything was behind a pay wall and I couldn't access any of my characters that I had spent so long playing. It would have been nice if the new owners gave a little leniancy to folks who had BOUGHT the game, and payed the MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION to play. I shoveled enough money into this dying game and now they expected me to throw more money at it just so I could continue playing my characters. If they had allowed previous owners to continue playing those characters/using those power builds and had any new characters they made using that stuff behind a pay wall this review would be positive.

As it stands now, this game is kinda dead and has lost much of its former glory.

Vividnightmare
Vividnightmare

F2P has fragmented the game into dozens of money grabs. Much like DC Online, the majority of the 'cool' powers you might want are behind a pay wall. Add to that the game is pretty goofy, I mean art style and scripting wise. While that isn't bad, there's just something odd to me about spending a ton of cash that doesn't feel serious or professionally built. I'm somewhat jaded too because I got this way back in the day when it was a subscription title, so my hours played on here don't represent my total play time. This was never as good as City of Heros, but when it was Sub it was a good deal more fair to new comers. F2P is really ruining MMOs, but then again Subscription games don't seem all that much better anymore.

Hat
Hat

Fun for a short Superhero fix, But not being able to utilize all the powersets even after having purchased the game when it originally came out without subscribing is a little painful.

If you ever played City of Heroes, playing Champions Online going to be like trying to fix your cocaine withdrawl with crushed up asprin.

Strai
Strai

★★★☆☆
Champions Online was super at release, but has fallen to bad balance and worse business models. Negative review because the base game costs 300 DOLLARS!

Reasons to Buy:

+ Superhero MMO
+ Cosplay Simulator

Reasons to Bail:

- Unbalanced
- Unresponsive Combat
- Insulting business model

Pro/Con Feature Nags:

+ Pre-highlight auto targets
+ Still plenty of players online
+ Infinite costume variety (semi pay2win)
+ Change the color of powers (requires pay2win)
+ Blocking telegraphs makes combat more active
+ Take any combination of powers (requires pay2win)
+ Do everything on a single character (requires pay2win)
+ Event Qs are quick, and sync player levels up/down to match the content
+ Stats, passives, and buffs help define your playstyle (was more relevant with free-form)
+ All names are available, because it @accounts, but can't use duplicate names on your own account
+ Ingame content created with player tools. Enemies wear costumes created with content you can also wear, and attack with abilities available to you. (pay2win)

+- Skip the tutorial and start at level 6
+- Most quests take place in solo instances
+- Occasional voice acting and ingame "cinematics"
+- Auto-attacks can be auto-on, to auto-agro, but better abilities can't
+- The 3D quest arrow is a nice idea, but difficult to tell which way its facing, perhaps better as a 2.5D compass or some such
+- Get your travel power right after the tutorial, which is early compared to most MMOs, but considering its impact, and the theme, its strange that you don't start with it

- Fetch quests forever
- Combat slows flight speed
- Missable content in the tutorial
- Stat comparisons could be better
- Multiple instances of the same zone
- Enemies attack after they're stunned
- Non-flight travel powers aren't viable
- Doors don't open, they just disappear
- AFK after every trash pack to regen HP
- Combat cancels looting and quest popups
- Animations blend poorly, if at all, with flying
- Combat involves using a single ability forever
- Level scaling in eventQs sometimes seems to fail
- Button presses fail to register more often than not
- Bad netcode. Combat looks/feels delayed/unresponsive
- Action Figures don't stay out, and are a pain to resummon
- The only way to respec specializations is to respec everything
- Feel super weak as a super hero as you get rekt by level 1 thugs
- Can't test things before you buy, so you probably just wasted $20
- Interactive objects don't highlight until you're within interact range
- Lootboxes, that you have to pay2unlock, are the most common loot
- The handful of free2play classes available are painfully uninteresting
- Because copyright laws are idiotic, everything in this game is a knockoff
- Detail draw distance is pathetic, even with the advanced option turned up
- Quest loot is preset, which means half the classes don't have stats available
- There are abilities so mana-expensive that they fail to fire after a startup animation
- Some items auto-loot, others when walked over, others have to be manually menu'd
- Can't preview power upgrades unless you have spare points, and already know the power
- Fully charged abilities fail to fire if the target died, instead of picking another nearby target
- Respeccing requires undoing abilities in order. Unlearn/relearn 8 unrelated things to try a new travel power
- Qs often break and have to be fixed by people manually bypassing them to the next event for the entire server
- Bad general balance. AoEs do more damage than single target abilities. Healers do more damage than DPS
- Scam price tiers. Have to buy $20 of currency to get a $12 item, which leaves you with $8, which isn't enough for another.
- Characters created before the game went free2play scam-mode weren't given a pass, and are now being locked behind a $30 ransom.
- Some classes are so under-powered that they can't even beat an early boss on the only quest line, so basically can't level or progress properly
- Bad class balance. The Soldier can 1shot entire group of enemies with half a spray of his uzi, Fireboi can't 1shot a single enemy with a fully charged fireball. Icetank does just as much damage as Fireboi, but has 10x more survivability. At higher levels, the Soldier gets an upgrade where his uzi spray generates an overshield and basically makes him invincible, and it already has an auto-heal built-in (half the classes have NO healing), so...

Deryago
Deryago

Imagine you're in beta for the most fun mmorpg you've ever played. It seems perfect. A friend gets you and another life-time subscriptions. Then the game releases and there are countless nerfs that hinder the fun of the game. They then treat the game as more or less done, buggy as all hell and no content. Max level is 40, and the only notable update is that they gave up on the game, sold it, and the new dev made it F2P with most fun stuff premium only.

I guess they did release some furry heads that looked terrible. So I guess there's that.

🎃CyberDemonEmpress🎃
🎃CyberDemonEmpress🎃

Well I came back a few months ago.. The game isn't what it use to be. Most of the powers are now locked behind a paywall.. They weren't when I played.. However the ungodly deep character creation isn't, that alone gave me 3 hours of gameplay upon my return. And yes, I really spent 3 hours remaking my character (they deleted my old one of course.) Time well spent, and for only 0 dollars; well worth the price.

The Wheel Deal
The Wheel Deal

At least once a year, I spot this in my library and desperately try to remember when I played it and what I did. Forgettable experience, apparently.

dullahan
dullahan

after years of stagnation and changing hands, champions online is still the same unbalanced, content-free mess all the local furries love

Gyotsu
Gyotsu

Subscription changes, out of touch devs, and, in general, overly grindy gameplay with no actual depth.

Do not play this game. It's not worth it anymore.

Adam Strange
Adam Strange

I use to love this game, But now to play my charactars I have to pay $30 a pop. It was really fun, but not anymore.

Necroxide
Necroxide

This game deserve an other chance !
I play this since day 1 , but stopped a year there and there .
Missed alot of good times , I think the game is cooler now then was when it came out !

SO much creation ! this is art !
the lack of good story telling is the weakness of that game

Some people say all the cool stuff cost alot of real life money ?
EVERYTHING is unlockable with in game money !!!

UPRC
UPRC

It pains me to give this game a thumbs down, because I played it for hundreds of hours through Steam and outside of it as well long ago. I was going to try to get back into this game since I had not played it for several years and kind of missed it. However, after learning that the ONLY way to have an active subscription anymore is to shell out $300 for a "lifetime subscription", I was quick to cancel the game downloading and patching itself and promptly uninstalled what little of it had gotten onto my computer.

You cannot have a monthly subscription in this game at all anymore. Considering the game locks you out of playing characters you've made, and spent real money on in order to unlock item packs, if you have not thrown $300 at them is just ridiculous. I am not going to pay $300 just to play my old characters again, that is completely insane. What if I end up only playing for a few days before I get bored? On top of this, nothing new has come to the game since I last played several years ago. Who the hell is going to pay for a lifetime subscription to a stagnant game?

Locking people out of a majority of the game's features unless they shell out $300 is nothing short of just plain dirty.

Oniell Ford, Kaiju Expert
Oniell Ford, K…

CHAMPIONS ONLINE REVIEW

Greetings, all! Welcome to my review of my all time favorite MMO called "Champions Online".

My Gameplay Experience

(For a full description, visit my Blogspot. Link coming soon!)

For years, I've played this game. It is my second most played game on Steam. I have a total of 2,567 hours on record. That's a total of 106.96 days. I love Champions Online. It gave me the inspiration to write stories and (non-sexually, you perverts! -_-) roleplay in-game as my characters to develop their background. I roleplayed as my characters with friends, my brother and even complete strangers. Their support and input made much of my stories possible. Champions Online is where my first and most famous fan fiction story came from: Blood & Steel.

Shortly after using Steam, I was hyped for "Star Trek Online". When Cryptic obtained the rights to STO, I saw that they made "Champions Online". They were having a free weekend for the Halloween event. So I decided to give it a try. I was into Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' "Watchmen" when I first discovered this game. When I made a character and saw that the police worked together with superheroes was strange to me. But I got used to it eventually. lol

My brother & I loved this game. Of course, my brother made a rip-off of Deadpool on my account which nearly got my account deleted when they were doing a crackdown on players making characters based on copyrighted ones. Won't get fooled again! lol I made my first characters "Agent E. Blake", "Dark Owl" and "Metal Overlord". My main was Agent E. Blake. He had (honestly) the most famous Nemesis of all my characters: Communism Man. He was shown in the middle of my "Champions Online 1st Year Anniversary" video. He got a lot of praise from other players. I was proud of creating him.

We joined guilds and fought with our leaders many times. But, in the end, we had fun. Making a Nemesis was fun. I was so proud of my brother when he tried following me in making stories for our characters. Making characters and costumes was a little overwhelming at first, yeah, but it was easy to adjust to over time.

Champions Online was one of the first MMOs to have achievements in them, unlocking titles and costume pieces (which required a lot of effort to do). The game was one of the first to have "microtransactions" in them. But the in-game money was interesting. It wasn't the typical "gold, silver and copper" money you'd see in modern MMOs. It was reputation. "Charity", as they once called it. Cryptic loved us and we loved them. They gave us the first large-scale expansion/DLC "Vibora Bay" for FREE! They asked us, the community, and they delivered. THAT was dedication! Soon, the game became free-to-play.

However, after 11 years, the game is finally falling. "Star Trek Online" was making them more money than they could count. Champions Online was losing members, Cryptic stopped giving the CO community the updates they deserved and they began transforming it into mandatory pay-to-play game. With repetitive holiday events as "game updates". A lame cash cow. They even spam you with lock boxes!

That's all Cryptic wants from the Champions Online community now: Money and nothing else.

Pros
- Detailed character creation.
- A lot of in-universe lore.
- Great weapon and power Customization.
- Community roleplay support.

Cons
- Lazy Developers.
- No new updates.
- No more "monthly" subscription. Only subscription option is the $300 lifetime subscription.
- You have to pay for the most basic features of character customization.
- Dying community.
- Minimal PvE and PvP content.

Review Score (Pre-STO)
8.7
Review Score (Post-STO)
2.1

Afterword
As much as I love Champions Online, I'm not going to recommend it. If it was the same as it used to be, I'd recommend it. If you want to play it for free, go ahead. Play it while you can.

Thank you for the years of fun memories despite all the pain!

*Salute*

- Oniell.

lfseeney
lfseeney

Bought this years ago, tried to play it again.

Without paying 200 dollars for lifetime it is almost unplayable.

Sad that they are working so hard to kill it off while scaming folks at the same time.

Pirate Kitty
Pirate Kitty

The price of the lifetime subscription, which is the equivalent of buying the game, is ridiculous.

No game is worth that much.

Go play City of Heroes instead, several servers to pick from and 100 times the player base to play with.

Azkikr
Azkikr

Whatever you do, don't play the game. It used to be fun and affordable but now they lure you in with "free-to-play" that has horribly limited gamplay. Then they try to sell you a lifetime sub for ridiculous amounts of money. They do shady business. Don't support a company like that.

Eccentric Gentleman
Eccentric Gentleman

I've tried others of this kind and this is by far the best. I left City of Heroes for this game because of its superior gameplay and DC Universe Online felt creatively constrictive by comparison when it came to character creation.

Champions Online has a wide variety of powers. You can pick from archetypes that focus on particular powers based in iconic heroes. Or you can pick "Freeform" and mix and mach powers from any set. If you want you can make a hero who can shoot fire, lightning, ice, command animals and knows martial arts.

The potential wardrobe of costume pieces is immense, enough for your champion to range from classic to eccentric. With many pieces having multiple layers of customisation options. when you pick an item you can choose it's colours and what it's made of. There's a multitude of options just for capes. You can even customise the appearance of many powers.

Speaking of powers... In other online games I've played you just click a button and the power activates. While that's also true for this game, they change it up by having some powers be toggled, maintained, tap or click. There's also a blocking mechanic and you can move your champion around with just about all your powers. Indeed you need to to avoid AOE powers. And it can work equally well for people who like to play with others or those who want to play alone. This game also has a place called the Powerhouse, where you can experiment with different powers at no cost before you lock them into your champion. And even then you still have the option to change them.

Something I found annoying about other superhero games is that you couldn't use a name if someone else got it first. This would stump my creative efforts as my heroes were often built around a name. But this game allows you to use any name you want, as long as it isn't trademarked or offensive.

As it's a free to play game it does try to make money by luring you in and then charging you for full access to all the content. Also with boxes of random content that can only be opened with keys you need to buy from the in-game store. But even for free or "silver" players, there is still a lot of powers and costumes available to you and (I think) all the areas and gameplay. Silver players can have at least one "freeform" slot.

The developers also host a live-streamed costume contest every other month.

One problem I have with it is that, since it was bought by it's current owner, there's been almost no new powers, costume sets, gameplay elements or new content at all for years. Some times they'll give away new gamble boxes or, at one of their annual events, offer you one or two new items to unlock. But that's it. And either way it's partly to entice you to buy game currency.

Another is that they have these things called "alerts," where you can pick and fight battles with supervillains with other players. But with everyone acting all at once the battle turns into a speedy storm of confusion, it's hard to get a fix on things and it's over in a flash.

Overall I'd say this game is not faultless but, since the base game is free, it's at least worth a try. And if you still don't like it, you're not out of pocket.

Kashadoo
Kashadoo

I really did play this? Why... I remember choosing the underground type of transportation as my way of quicktravel. Back then, I though I was traveling like a worm. Now I think I was more of an ass-mawworm. The game is ass. I liked it.

tonybennett3
tonybennett3

10 Years of fun and now I'm done! The character creator was therapy for me. I spent thousands of hours relaxing after work re-creating obscure Marvel, DC, Image, etc. characters (everyone loved my Super-Skrully My Vision got me in trouble!). 10 Maxed Character classes of male & female heroes, I loved fighting the good fight along with my fellow heroes of Millennium City. I even won the Halloween Costume Contest a couple years ago!

Hero On!

computertrucker
computertrucker

Played it when it first came out for about 2 weeks, and wasn't sure i liked it and i was involved in another game.. Now 10 years later I have returned... I am having a blast. I definitely think it's worth picking up and trying out! It does have a pay wall for some character options, but even the free ones are fun to play. I used to think City of Heroes was the better game.. Not anymore!

Lamplord
Lamplord

It's free-to-play but the free classes are somewhat limited. However, with those classes you are free to play for as long as you want, up to max level. It's got a nice community and I haven't spent a dime. Sure, people say free-form heroes may be better at certain roles, but my Psi Healer has always been welcome.

Kel
Kel

After all, even while not being in its glory days anymore, this game still recieves sometimes updates, has a community and is in my opinion still the best Superhero Games out there.
It had me returning to it many, many times, and each time I did enjoy it.

Rolhirgamer
Rolhirgamer

I have played this game off and on for around 8 years. While I've never been as invested in the game as I have with other MMOs, it has drawn me back in ways that other MMOs do not. While many MMOs are highly focused on balance and engaging endgame content with a gear grind, Champions Online focuses on being fun. If you want to be able to design a tremendously customizable superhero and beat up bad guys while looking and feeling like a badass, this is the game for you. While the game doesn't hold my interest for months on end, day in and day out, I continue to come back to try out a new character idea.

I will say that playing totally F2P is much less satisfying. Purchasing a freeform archetype is where the real fun comes in allowing you to mix and match powers from any of their many sets. At at $30 one time cost that you can then use til the game servers go offline at some point in the future, I'd say that's a heck of a lot better value than a 2 month sub to any other MMO out there.

Zephyrus
Zephyrus

I cannot recommend Champions Online, which absolutely breaks my heart. At its core it is still an excellent superhero game, but for returning players the game has completely changed into something inaccessible.
I have a stable of freeform characters that I lovingly crafted and built. I used to pay the subscription, even when it became optional, so that I could enjoy the game in the manner that you would expect of a superhero game: with nearly limitless customization. Well, that subscription is gone now and, thus, so are my freeform characters.
To get access back to my 12 characters, I would have to pay $30 EACH. That's... not reasonable.
I was hoping to get back into CO to spend some time while locked inside during the quarantine. That hope is gone.

Briarcastle
Briarcastle

Want to use a power? Wear a costume piece? Go somewhere?

Gonna cost you five bucks.

Bunktavious
Bunktavious

This game is eleven years old. I remembered it as being fun though. I'd played it years ago. So I reinstalled and looked. I had a handful of characters, all created when I had a Gold account, whatever that was. To play them now, I had to downgrade them to Silver, with no explanation of what that meant. Well, ok then. I installed it because I'd heard they'd created freeform character design anyways, so what I really wanted was to try out the system.

Except I don't have a Freeform character slot. Well, ok, I saw online that they were giving them away back in April, so they can;t be that bad - I don't mind tossing them a few bucks. Let's see... 3000 Zen bucks, which translates to about... $40 Canadian. In an eleven year old game.

Yeah, where's the uninstall button?

Luckford
Luckford

I played this game years back, enjoyed it even though my PC sucked and it looked terrible on it. I just booted it up again and WOW... you want to see what Free to Play can do to a game.... here it is. So the game itself... is fun. The TRAPPINGS around it... is a shamefully gated experience. What's the point of having all of these options if it costs so much just to use it. It's not worth it.
This game is a treat, it should not be an investment to enjoy it. It just limits the audience even more.
I can't recommend this to anyone anymore unless you are very bored and don't mind a minimalist experience while every custom thing is advertised in front of you, OR you just have money to burn.

GreYtorade
GreYtorade

City of Heroes private servers exist, so this game is technically right back where it started: a mediocre second banana to a much better superhero game.

DeathSheepFromHell
DeathSheepFromHell

Steam won't let me review the game I'd actually prefer to review for a badge, so a dummy entry here it is!

... although frankly, CO is a decent enough game (my hours played should be evidence of my opinion in that regard). But I doubt that a review is going to convince anyone to try it that isn't already going to do so.

LockheedTristar
LockheedTristar

An amazing game soon after it's release. The character creation system and storyline was awesome. The nemesis option was a really neat feature. I created an amazing PowerMan-like Afro Samurai who's nemesis was The Man, aka Colonel Sanders, decked out in white suit and everything. His henchmen were CIA operatives and they'd pop up in the middle of quests and attack. It was amazing story telling. Sadly, the content was slow to come out and after a while it got boring. Tried to reinstall it recently only to find that it's been turned into a major cash-grab. All of the unlocked content is now paywalled, and you're only allowed simple customization. It doesn't look like much has changed since I left, apart from a complete castration of the game unless you pay for every single option.

It's tragic that such an amazing IP has been destroyed by greed. Makes me think of a plot for a comic.

ZeroPriority
ZeroPriority

Game won't ever get past connecting to account server. Left it here for two hours, came back, uninstalled and played something else.

merusalem
merusalem

Fantastic character editor. Superb costume editor.

Wait - I should review the game? What game?

Deetex
Deetex

No, do not recommend.
Steam has only recorded some 170-ish hours of time for me, but I've been a lifetimer since the game launched.

Long story short; _Currently_ an inferior product compared to its progenitor: City of Heroes.

Despite the fact they are still selling off (Lifetime?) subscriptions; the devs still see fit to push (ILLEGAL) Lootboxes every other drop, the MTX store has more content than the game itself, and while the character creator might be considered by some as being more expansive than her competitor(CoH), keep in mind half of that stuff belongs to Paragon in the first place.
In terms of gameplay; yeah... even as a walletwarrior you -STILL- need a supporting cast thus living up to the Massive part of MMORPG, not much RP in it, though... ever since that fateful takeover much of the story in this once-promising title has been taken out.
If you like the Champions IP, stick to the pen-and-paper variant... but if you desperately want to play a Superhero game on a computer, I would recommend looking up City of Heroes: Homecoming.