Champions Online Beta Nears, New Details Offered

Bill Roper, who is the leader of Cryptic Studios, offered quite a few new details related to the superhero MMO under development, Champions Online.

Roper talked about the fact that Champions Online would have a level of difficulty, which would try to provide a challenge without frustrating the player with frequent failure. The bosses will be hard to take down due to their adaptive behavior, which will see them shift tactics and forms in the middle of the fight.

Roper also underlined that it's easy for those playing Champions Online to get into quests, because the game would have “open quests,” meaning that players could complete a particular task with others that happen to be in the same area.

Champions Online is based around the pen and paper Champions system, which offers players a chance to design a super hero from head to toe, naming his/her power source and special powers. Unlike the efforts to create a MMO around the Marvel or the DC comic book universes, Champions is less known, so there will be no rush for everyone to create a version of Superman. The emphasis is on options and this concept will be reflected in gameplay.

Bill Roper added that it was natural for a MMO to get experienced players in the beta stage, in response to accusations that it had been farming the player base of City of Heroes, which Cryptic also developed, with recruitment messages. He said that “Every game tries to get the people that will play it. When I was at Blizzard, World of Warcraft did exactly that. 'Hey EverQuest 2 and Dark Age of Camelot players, you should check out our beta test!'”

The PC version of Champions Online is set to arrive on the PC in June. If that proves to be a success, the people at Cryptic might think about creating a version of the game for home console. A beta for the title will be launched soon and will be the last chance for players to get some feedback to the developers.