Champions Online (PC)

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Champions Online is the spiritual successor to Cryptic's City of Heroes

Character customisation in Cryptic’s superhero MMO Champions Online is brilliant. And it can only get better. This claim is based on a mere weekend’s worth of solid play in the closed beta, currently running on and off as we speak. It will be improved between now and the launch of the open beta in August, and between then and the game’s official launch on September 4.

It really is remarkable. I’m not talking about choosing your class, or your race, or your gender, or any of that bog standard stuff you’re asked to decide upon in your average MMORPG. I’m talking about costume creation. The tool that’s used to design the various superheroes that are already flying about Champions Online’s various zones is a wonder. You can get into the nitty gritty of tweaking this and that and everything in between, but there’s an unbridled sense of childish joy in just spamming the “randomise all” button and seeing what the game spits out at you.

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The sheer variety is what impresses most. Robotic limbs, demon eyes, dragon tails, mech armour, skin-tight suits, Kill Bill helmets, Rorschach-style trench coats, hulking giant Hulk-like tanks, flying vixens, or even good old spandex and cape combos. You can even tweak how your heroes walk and the hue of their powers. Cryptic has taken the good work done with its previous game, City of Heroes, and turned it up a notch.

All these things are possible, in any combination – male female, tall, small, fat, thin – whatever. In Champions Online there are no classes in the traditional sense, although the game does ask you what feels like a “pick your class” question right at the start, calling it instead your “power set”. While this decision does seem to determine your base aesthetic, from there it’s really a case of doing whatever you want.

The hero creation system is really a marvel

You hear MMORPG developers claim the following a lot: “you’ll never see two characters the same in our game.” Usually it’s nonsense. In World of Warcraft, when you get to the end game most players of the same class are after the same loot, so the only thing that distinguishes them from each other is their race and class. In Warhammer Online Mythic at least implemented a paint system that allowed you to change the colour of your armour. With Champions Online, perhaps for the first time in MMO history, Cryptic would be able to say: “you’ll never see two characters the same in our game” and it wouldn't be tosh.

Here’s what I did: I selected “Might” as my power set – described thus: “Everything around you is a tool you can use. Every enemy is a potential toy to knock around. You excel at slow heavy attacks, massive knockbacks, and locking down your opponents. The longer you fight, the harder you hit and the less damage you take.” This description appealed to the child in me, the fan of the Hulk, Juggernaut, Bane and all superheroes big, bad and ugly. Funny then, how my hero ended up looking.

After dipping my toe into the various aesthetic affecting sliders (I find in-depth character customisation tools somewhat overwhelming and intimidating), I settled on hammering the “randomise” all button. It’ll be like love, I thought to myself. I’ll know my hero when I see it.

And so it was. When the short, sexy female popped up on screen it was love at first sight. She was wearing some kind of bicycle helmet thing with a black visor – and a deep crimson skin tight suit. That’s her. She’s the one. She’s my hero.

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