Champions Online Gets Classes
Now, the one thing that made me suspicious of Champions Online Free for All was the exclusion of the acclaimed creation of your character’s powers. I wondered how a game that was famous because of the fact that it had no classes, was going to do with the sudden introduction of classes. I’ll say this now, the classes aren’t extremely unbalanced, they aren’t perfectly balanced, but they are fun, and that’s what counts. The classes, unlike following typical MMO archetypes, follow your typical super hero archetypes. You’ve got your Behemoth, which is a Hulk-like class, The Mind, which is like a Professor X, and all your other classes, ranging from a Wesley Gibson (Wanted) type archetype, to a Human Torch, and so on. Sadly, not all the archetypes are available to free-to-play players.
There are some archetypes, specifically the cooler ones, such as The Specialist, which focuses on guns and swords, sort of like Deadpool. This is somewhat baffling as one would assume that Freeform characters, the characters one can create without following a specific archetype, would be purchasable through the cash shop but, unfortunately, they’re only available to those players that subscribe. This is also confusing considering that this basically puts Champions Online more in the area of an unlimited trial, instead of making it more like a Turbine free-to-play tile, one that has all the important and core content available, and makes all the bonus content not only purchasable with real money, but obtainable in-game through hard work and determination.
Of course, as with any MMO Champions Online has it’s vast amount of quests. These quests are your typical MMO types, go here, beat up this bad guy, go there, beat up that bad guy, but what makes Champions Online a bit special are its Open Missions: missions that take place in the game world, are non-instanced, and can be joined by anyone. These missions can be just about anything, from protecting the mayor, to stopping a jailbreak, and they help add some depth to the world and promote player communication.... sometimes. There are also Nemesis Missions. Missions that involve your own, custom built nemesis, which is obtainable at level 25, and adds an extra layer of fun and customization to an already customization-heavy MMO.
Champions Online isn’t the best MMO out there, but it accomplishes what it wants to do: it 
manages to be fun no matter how you create your character, and allows you to practically live out your wildest fantasies. Whether it be replicating one of your favourite heroes, which in my case was a Kamen Rider, or creating your own hero and nemesis using nothing but your imagination, Champions Online manages to be a blast to play and, in the end, that’s what really counts. Rarely have I seen a game where I hear quite a few players being overjoyed that they can fly and fight crime and declare they’re having so much fun they’re going to subscribe ASAP. Most likely, that’s Cryptic’s plan. Make you have a blast playing with what is essentially an unlimited free trial, and leading you to convince yourself that Champions is worth the subscription price.
