Champions Online Open-beta First Impressions

[Damionic]

As the NDA is lifted, I can run off a few things.

After Several hours downloading and redownloading and patching the game client at 2:00 in the morning (GWT) I got in......yea don't be so smug...remember lama client....nuff said.
So when in and after selecting a few options like keyboard layout choices. I get to create my first hero...and I just like to point out the customization from CO ****es over DDO for a country mile...everything you can think of is there (you can even add elven ears should you feel inclined)
So after a few minutes (I'm quite like spending my time creating toons..I remember spending hours creating wrestlers on my brothers "Smackdown" games.

I come up with "Nimbus"...always liked the concept of STORM from the X-Men and wanted to create a male one.


His skin has a "Metal" reflexion to it to give it this look (which I may change later on) and the "Eyes" not just glow..but they have a customizable "Twinkle" effect which is quite nice to look at.



GAMEPLAY
Bearing mind I was tired last night I managed to try a few things out.

COMBAT SYSTEM
This is the Crux of the matter (Is this combat system as good or better then DDO) and..I'd say yes..The combat system takes the best bits from your beloved game and improves it. For example casting spells now have a "charge up level" to increase the damage output but this costs more endurance (you SP if you like) but you never run out of it as you have an Endurance builder for each Power set.
If you want to just going round beating things up then you can..the same way you do in DDO.
At the start I don't think there is a designated "block" button (or I haven't found it) but that can be easily keyed via "key settings"

GRAPHICS
This is a comic game and that is reflected in the game so poorly made toons will look very cheesy but I'm sure the already extensive graphics options will be improved over time (I remember DDO from Beta!)

A few things...
Monsters DO Respawn
The Quest system is quite like Warhammer (do one and more open up) which I quite like as it gives a sense of achievement that random quests via DDO didn't.