Every now and again a game comes along that shocks people and lives on far past the shelf life of some radioactive materials, champions online looks set to be one of those games. Now that I got that over excited statement out of my system I’ll continue, champions online does look set to be an immense game but you have to really like the genre to get swept into it. I’m not saying that Champions online is the best game out there and people will all rush to buy it like the madness of GTA IV. What I’m saying is if you like MMORPG, as well as comics, then you better start saving your pennies because your holy grail is set for release.
I’d heard rumours about champions a while ago now and figured it for a city of heroes clone but I was wrong, dead wrong. Although COH can still be seen in many aspects of the game Champions goes that little bit further to really make this a stand alone title. The game setting is a world gripped by fear and chaos, all because of the classic “bad guys”, seriously they’ve thrown everything in there.
Let me explain, when you start champions you choose your hero and when I say choose I mean you really choose everything. You choose their sex, look, powers, costume the whole deal and champions offers a massive selection. You choose height, weight literally everything to create the hero of your dreams. You choose whether or not they have powers, magic, gadgets any other hero gifts.
As well as this you can create your hero’s arch nemesis so every now and again they’ll pop up causing you havoc. Another interesting thing to note about this feature is that your nemesis will randomly generate into other hero’s missions meaning they get to share your burden too. The plus about this is you will have the chance to face some truly original, and downright weird, villains. However as I’m sure people will remember from creation sharing on spore you could also face people made to look like a huge penis, it’s stupid but it happens.
Originally there were concerns that the game was to be released on just the PC but the creators have assured everyone that the game is being released on xbox, I promise. As well as full custom creation regarding appearance, powers and even your nemesis there is another feature that champions has in the bag. It’s the enemies you face and the areas you explore. 
Fighting of a couple of muggers, thieves, gangs, etc is all well and good but not worthy of champions.
To help make your champion worthy of park statues you have to face, evil corporations, aliens, monsters from other dimensions and spell totting bad guys people that your run of the mill hero just can’t handle. This means as well as getting to explore your heroes world, you get to explore space and other dimensions. All this and the game is created using “live ink” giving that extra comic book feel so even if you’re character is getting their ass kicked you still can’t help to stop and think this looks just like a comic book scene. Best wait till after the fight though, so because of all these incredible features and rich detailed game world champions is definitely something to keep your eye on.
Even if you’re not that into superhero stuff but like rpg’s this is still the game for you, with so much to explore and so many adventures to be had it’s a game with hours of solid game play. I can’t say for definite when the release date for this little gem is, for xbox anyway, but the PC versions are being released on July 14 so I’d imagine the xbox versions will be close behind.
On The Level 