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Starting Out
You start the game out much the way you start out any super hero game in the character creation screen. Now if you are anything
like me, you finally enter the game about five hours later because there are so many options and sliders to play with during character
creation. Seriously, there is a ton of optimization available for you to utilize in making your character your own.
The Tutorial Begins...
The tutorial starts out with Millenium City under attack. The feeling is very epic and gets your adrenalin pumping right off the bat. You
will find that there is a good story arch of quests that will lead you from beginning to the end of the tutorial.
It is very easy to find yourself finishing the tutorial with out realizing you just spent time leveling up in a MMORPG. The reason for
this is the fact that the game play is very fast paced and action oriented. It doesn't feel much like your traditional MMORPG mob and
quest grind. I felt more like I was playing through an enjoyable game rether then trying to chase the carrot to the next level. That is
a breath of fresh air these days as most MMORPGs just make you feel like you are working a second job at times.
At the end of the initial tutorial area, you will enter an instance and go through a scripted fight to defeat the "boss mob" for that
area. The scripted events in the game seem very fleshed out with high quality voice overs and enjoyable battle sequences. I truly wish
more MMORPGs would do away with the whole "reading" thing. I love voice overs in my games. I hate reading paragraphs at every NPC just
to know the lore involved in a game. Good job Cryptic!
Breaking in to the second tutorial area
After you finish off the initial tutorial area, you should be right around level 5, and you are given the option of either going to a desert
area in the south west or a wintery area in Canada.
I tried both of these two zones, and I have to say that the desert area to me was a LOT better and enjoyable. The Canada zone just felt a
bit unfinished to me. But, it might have just been my preference for the theme of the content in the desert zone which ranged from old west
ghost towns to nuclear fall out test desert wastes (akin to the movie 'The Hills Have Eyes').
The leveling in these two zones move on a nice steady rate, and you can easily go from level 5 to 12 here if not more. I personally got to
level 13, and then I opted to go check out the end-of-beta event in Millenium City instead of continuing on.
Millenium City
Bravo Cryptic... Bravo! This is the kind of sprawling city that you would expect for a super hero based MMORPG. It is HUGE and BEAUTIFUL!
This is the kind of city that City of Heroes should have been. Running around in Millenium was mind blowing to say the least.
Power Sets, Skills, Attributes, Etc
 To be able to fully run down all the kinds of options available in this game for your character customization would take a lot more space
then I am going to put in to a game review hahaha. Seriously, you can customize your character to your hearts content. By the time you reach
level 40, you will have enough points to spend on your powers to build a truly custom feeling super hero that is your own.
On top of the number of powers to choose from, you also get to choose the color of each of your powers effects, and in most cases you even get
to choose where your power's effects originate from.
As an example, I created a character named Lightning Boy that was a master of Electricity and Gadgeteering pets. Some of my lighting blasts
I had coming from my palms while others I had shooting out of my fists. Then I also had one that I had come from my chest. Not all powers give
you the option of where they originate. Many of them do, and it adds just that much more character customization to the game.
Overall Opinion
The Open Beta of Champions Online is now over, and the early access to the game starts this weekend 8/28. I had the opportunity to
play the game this past weekend, and I have to say that this was one of the smoothest and most enjoyable MMORPG beta tests I have ever
been in.
Over all, Champions Online is a very well designed, developed, and realized MMORPG. The graphics are beautiful! The game play is extremely
fun! The character customization is better then any other in the industry!
I give Champions Online a 9.5 out of 10. I would have given it a 10, but there is no such thing as a perfect MMORPG and there never will be.
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