Champions Online: First Impressions

Well, I've had this game for a week and so far it seems like a solid MMO. Albeit, I haven't gotten TOO far into the game yet. I've got a level 11 Munitions guy and a level 13 Supernatural cat-dude-thing. There's a ton of options and sometimes I get lost in them. The most fun I have is making the characters (there is a ton of customizing options to choose from) and trying out new powers, although I think I'm messin' up my character's specs because I'm having trouble soloing stuff while other people just tear it up. Probably due to me choosing the wrong powers or spreading out my stats too much, either way I'll figure it out.

Another thing I've grown fond of is the Acrobat travel power, but in the world of Champions it's all about flight (and I just happened to choose what's suppose to be the worst travel power, but I have no complaints about it). I can see why flight is the "main" form of travel since you can get more or less anywhere with no hassle, but for a hardcore details guy like me... It just hasn't fit any of the characters I've made, so I don't use any of the flight powers. The only thing that gets me sometimes is I tend to draw a lot of agro since I have to run/jump everywhere, but if you plan your routes right you can avoid most of it.

I had a chance to try out a few PvP matches, which are pretty cool. Only thing I got to play in was a "UTC cage match" or whatever it's called, basically a team deathmatch. The matches are set for players levels 11 - 20 (for my particular level set) and you're automatically leveled up to 20 for the match. This is good in some ways since it gives you a bit of a fighting chance, but you're still behind power-wise if you're not already 20. Since my characters were on the lower half of the level set I didn't fair too well, but I still managed to get a few 'kills' in with the help of my teammates. Looking forward to trying out more PvP in the future.

The quests are fairly basic "collect this, kill that" type of stuff, nothing really amazing in that area. The boss battles so far have been interesting, but also pretty basic. The story is "meh", but good enough to keep the game flowing. The world scenery is ok, I haven't seen anything that's made me go "Ooooooo" yet. All in all, I figure I'll keep at it and see if anything changes my mind on these points. If anyone wants to elaborate on these, be my guest. =P

That's about all I have right now, if I have the urge I might write up another little summary of my thoughts and progress as I venture through this game. =)