I am done with Cryptic and Champions Online. I feel like I finished and mastered the game and there is nothing left for me to do.
I stopped having fun a week ago. The only reason why I kept playing is because I loved creating new heroes and coming up with new builds. I enjoyed seeing them in action. Unfortunately, that has lost all its appeal as well.
I am so frustrated and annoyed with all the horribly broken powers in this game. By horribly broken, I mean that they are massively overpowered. Cryptic has released a ton of patches since I first started playing this game back at the start of open beta. Yet, they keep overlooking the most powerful abilities. I simply cannot understand Cryptic’s behavior. There have been countless threads in the official forums detailing all the issues with broken powers. Yet, with every patch, Cryptic fiddles around with minor power imbalances, instead of dealing with the major issues.
The combat is still a high point of the game. I like the freedom and how it feels like an action game. It’s more realistic and natural to me than the typical MMORPG combat. Unfortunately, this game is horribly easy. After too many hours of mindless, stupidly easy combat, I’m bored to tears.
Today, I solo’ed a 5-man level 42 instance, except for the boss at the end who overwhelmed me by constantly summoning armies of monsters. It was so easy. This instance is meant to be one of the most difficult dungeons in the game…yet I solo’ed it without any issues at all.
PvP is a total joke. PvP is all about exploiting the most broken powers. Unless you have enough of the broken powers, you simply cannot compete. As a result, casual gamers have been completely driven out of the PvP minigames. If they enter the arena, they get destroyed without making any impact whatsoever.
This means that the PvP minigames are basically full of ‘exploiters’, who do far too much damage and have way too much survivability. It’s the ultimate FoTM (flavor of the month) game. A huge percentage of the players have the exact same builds because they simply load up with all the broken powers. Since Cryptic has given out several full retcons, far too many people have completely rerolled and created even more FoTM clones.
More recently, guilds are teaming up and running premade groups in all the PvP minigames. This is even true in the solo deathmatches where it’s supposed to be ‘every man for themselves.’ If you get 3 people working together in a solo deathmatch, it completely ruins the dynamic of the game.
There is no real level 40 content, nor will there be for a long time. PvP is a joke. I’ve done most of the quests in the game…many of them, I’ve done multiple times. There are massive imbalances. The game is stupidly easy. There is basically no team or raid content. Guilds are chat channels since there is little you can do together.
I’m done with CO…for now.
CO is a great game for casual players who don’t like PvP. If it ever gets released for the Xbox 360, I think it could do very well. Unfortunately, I’m not a casual gamer.
I’ll keep my subscription running for another month. I’m clinging to a thread of hope that Cryptic will release a miracle patch that fixes all the problems.
Maybe in a few months…6 months…an year…CO will be worth playing again. Until then, I’ll keep trying to play Aion and wait for the next major MMORPG release. I have a ton of single player games I’ve kept on the backburner as well.
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I am glad you enoyed the game and its not a waste when you at least get a few months of enjoyment out of one. City of Heroes had terribly over powered and easily exploitable toons in the begining also. I abused each one systematically =p There was no PVP though so it was less important.
While the makers of MMO’s hope to have you on board for years to come , most seem to only be able to hold people for a few months. That is normal its like a console game in that way. I remember getting XBOX games thinking well this will be fun for a few weeks and that is fine.
I am sticking with AION. I kind of envy the people that ask in trade “What does AFK mean ?” or any number of question like that. They are new….and that means its all magic.
As a vetaran MMO player the leveling process for almost any MMO is going to be a drag but there is a prize at the end. That is having a fully realized hard earned toon that I can spend hours perfecting.
I wonder if MMO designers have it all backwards now. Should they make us go through hours and hours of simplistic leveling? Maybe they can really, really focus on end-game content and what players are going to do with there toons. So that leveling is just a way to let us learn our toons and let us get on with it. ( Like GW does and is doing) Can I fill out a form saying “look I have a million hours of MMO time let me at the good stuff now!”
By the way sometimes AION trade or general chat is special sometimes…as in it just makes me wonder what is the general populace is like? I guess I should just ignore the obligatory trolls .
Greetings
I’m sorry to hear that fervOr. But I totally understand. And I think I also understand what Meths is getting at, as well.
I find CO overly-simple as well (I have solo’d the entire game so far, only getting help on a few of the … whatever the 3 headed intsances are). It’s no problem to take aout a Super Villian and a handfull of henchmen even if they are a couple levels higher than you. And I’m just a Close Range Brawler.
But, given the ungodly amount of whinning and pissing and moaning I heard at launch at ever little hic-up, I can understand Cryptics point (if they indeed have one) as well. MMO is now for casual lazy whinning semi-gamers. They think that all games should be like their old GameBoy or Wii games.
If you made an actual difficult game that required things like thinking and strategy and tactics…. it would fail. Hard.
Sad to say, but true.
Personally, I’m still having fun on CO. However, I am a casual gamer now, older, full time job, married with kids just does not allow time for serious gaming. I usually only get an hour or two at most a session, which isn’t a nightly ritual.
I’m still enjoying the one build I’ve really perfected playing, and look forward to spending some time on the others I’ve been neglecting. Meanwhile, like you, I’m hoping for more content.
I didn’t get a few months out of CO yet, but in terms of total hours played, it was definitely worth it. I did have a lot of fun…so no problems. In a way, I’m sad that the experience is over. I guess I was hoping for an MMORPG that would grab my interest for a longer time period, but honestly, I knew CO had an expiration date from the very beginning.
It really does feel like a console game in so many ways. It is quite clear that Cryptic had the Xbox 360 in mind from the very beginning. CO is perfect for sitting on your couch and enjoying a MMORPG experience for a couple hours at a time. I even tried hooking my 360 controller to my computer and it plays great.
People did do a crazy amount of complaining, whining and bitching about this game (me, included). But I don’t think it’s different from any other MMORPG. It’s partially because one MMORPG can’t be the perfect game for everyone. It’s also because the general gaming population is just normal people…people LOVE to complain.
I’m not surprised that Aion is loaded with the same types of people.
Meths, I agree that a big motivation for playing and leveling in MMORPG’s is the ‘fully realized hard earned toon that I can spend hours perfecting’ With every level and item upgrade, you feel a little bit closer to the end goal.
In a way, that’s why there is the leveling grind. If it was easy to earn a master toon, then it isn’t worth earning. There is little sense of accomplishment or attachment to your character.
Cryptic missed the mark here. They jumped on the casual bandwagon and made the game so easy and quick to level. Unfortunately, they forgot that fast leveling MMORPG’s require a heavy emphasis on the endgame. WoW is a very fast leveling game, but when you reach the level cap, there is an endless raid progression where you can continue to improve your characters.
In CO, you level fast. There is no endgame to speak of. Right now, level 40 gear is nothing special. PvP gear you can buy after playing a TON of minigames is horrible and useless. The open power system makes you feel like your character is always a work-in-progress.
So right now, CO is a game where you reach level 40, pat yourself on the back, then reroll a brand new character and start all over again.
I read your post over at Massively so came and checked your article. I’m curious as to why the game is so easy for you, yet so hard for many others. I find myself right in the middle, I’ve made it to level 21 with my main and while I can generally solo any enemy supervillain or less without much trouble, I’m easily overwhelmed by superior numbers.
What makes your character so godly that they can round up 20 mobs at once and survive? I’ve tried almost every defense power in the game so far and haven’t encountered any that seem even remotely that strong.
I have no intention of changing the defense power on my main (he’s a concept character), I’m just curious what the “big OP powers are” so I can avoid people using them in PvP :p
@Graktar
I just wrote a short guide about how to be stupidly overpowered in this game.
http://ferv0r.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/guide-to-being-overpowered-in-champions-online/
Unfortunately, it is hard to avoid people using the most broken powers in PvP. The most ‘hardcore’ PvP’ers are all running around with the most broken powers (TK shield, Mindful Reinforcement, Ego Blade Breach, etc.)
I highly recommend that you stick with your concept builds. The game isn’t fun when it’s too easy.
My problem is that I’m a minmaxer. It’s hard for me to enjoy a character unless I know that I created a good one. I did limit myself a bit (so I’m not stupidly overpowered in PvP), but it still makes most PvE into a big joke.
at the end of the day the game is crud. Cryptic have turned most of their attention to the C-store ignoring requests for balance and more content etc.
CO needed alot more time for development and a shit load more in BETA.
In level 23 now. 7 more to beat a whole lot of friends…
How long more to go?