The Mighty Spelling Bee: Champions Online

I’m gearing up for the Champions Online Early Access on Friday. The Beta server is still open, and so I’m beavering away at trying to convert my old City of Heroes characters.

Spelling Bee in City of HeroesSpelling Bee in City of Heroes.

Spelling Bee in Champion OnlineSpelling Bee in Champions Online.

I have a little work to do before I fully recapture his beelike majesty. OK, I admit it, he’s hideous. This is not helped by the complete absence of horizontal stripes as a costume pattern option, and the limited colour choices, which are almost all far too glowy. In truth, Champions character creation seems a bit more limited than CoX, which surprised me seeing as it is essentially the same team behind it. Turns out I also prefer the graphical engine of CoX in general, as Champions seems kind of fuzzy and weirdly lit most of the time.

I greatly enjoy City of Heroes, and often pop back for some Bee fun, so I am hoping that Champions will eventually fill a similar gap. Currently though it feels a lot more limited. While it is unfair to compare a fresh game with one that has 5 years to mature, it is still the case that new games should be expected to be better than their ancestors, and I am unconvinced that Champions is. Or possibly I’m just bitter about the horizontal stripes thing. I only spent a little time in the open beta, so it is too early to jump to too many conclusions, but Cryptic’s previous work still provides strong competition. Cryptic must work hard to speedily add all the features that folks have come to expect from a superhero game.

I’ll write more on Champions once I’ve had more of a chance to play it on Live.

2 comments to The Mighty Spelling Bee: Champions Online

  • Malk aka "Gotthardt"

    I’m on the fence about whether or not to give Champs a try, I definitely wanna, just not sure I’d play it past the first month. In case I do, what server(s) you on? I’m pretty sure I’ll give KotoR3, er I mean Star Wars the Old Republic MMO a try when it comes out, but thats still a ways off andf I’m w/o MMO at the mo’.

    • There is only one server for everyone (With as many instances of each zone as needed), so we’re safe there. I’m still not convinced about Champions, but being in need of a game, I pre-ordered.