My take...

[roland]

i think they could have put some more thought in designing the actual game play. I would rate this game 2 stars out of 5. The character creation is awesome, but the gameplay feels relatively too easy and except for various costumes, there really does not seem to be a desire or need to make more than 1 character. There is no "class role" in the game - no character has a defined role. In a game like ultima online where you have to work on skills and there is no leveling, that is one thing. In a game where leveling is involved and end content expects encounters where healing in vital in the game play, it is critical that you have certain, clear defined roles in character creation.

I feel as if I am already thrown into Superhero mode. I can take out level 13 / 14 mobs - 4 or 5 at a time - at level 11. I am able to solo random master villans at my level.

I was also going to comment saying it feels like a solo game and no need to group right off the bat. But, I will say this is an unfair assessment at such a low level. I see they sort of implemented the concept of "public quests" as well.

Maybe it'ss too early to tell for me if it is a keeper or worth a second account so both my wife and I can play. But there is something about it that keeps me trying the game - not sure what it is; but it has kept me away from WoW. It might be just the newness of the game and trying to experience what it has to offer.

My biggest pet peeve right now is I don't see them putting this game on the shelves by September 1. There are some pretty major issues with the game thus far. I reported this afternoon 5 broken quests. There is a LOT of character balancing that needs to be done. I tried an archer / force combo type character for about 3 levels, and it was painful to see that not only did archery not do much damage, but the range was too close to start firing.

But there is something about it that is "appealing" - not sure what that is though.

[Vallen]

I agree with most of what you said. The game doesn't seem to offer anything new or unique. It seem like a less repetitive CoH where leveling is a bit quicker.

I would say that the game will be ready for the launch date because I have seen much less stable games go to launch. Aside from the occasional server disconnect I have not encountered really many bugs. The game play is fairly smooth so far. I will agree that some powers do seem a bit more powerful...forcefields being one of them...I do not however feel that it is game breaking balance where everyone who wants to solo has to take forcefields.

The game plays well and it does have something, as you said, that keeps you playing, which i agree could just be the newness.

We'll see how i feel in a week or so. I would like to love the game enough to buy it but as of right now I cannot say.

[wooze]

I feel as if I am already thrown into Superhero mode. I can take out level 13 / 14 mobs - 4 or 5 at a time - at level 11. I am able to solo random master villans at my level.


This is not an accident. You are thrown into being a superhero asap. They purposely designed the game around taking on multiple thugs being the norm. By the time you got a few attack powers and maybe a defense power, they wanted people feeling like super heroes.

Taking on 5 baddies at once is a relative thing, it is not an indication that balance is off. They could easily have made a single street thug hit 5 times as hard and have 5 times the hit points. It was a design decision that people feel like superheroes throwing 5 or 10 baddies across a room, not so much super plinking away at a single guy in that same amount of time.

As for grouping:

Personally I liked some of City of Heroes design a lot. If you weren't in the mood to group, you could pound away at story arcs(connected missions with unique villains at the end) and slowly make some progress. But...if you wanted to group, it would go much faster, challenge would scale, and you'd get more xps. You were rarely required to group in the day to day missions and leveling, but you were encouraged to in xps and fun that comes with groups.

There were special missions that could not be solo'd ever, and couldn't even be started without a group. I have heard these missions are in Champions. Read a few posts saying that the game isn't WoW, and doesn't require dedicated tanks, healers, etc, but in these missions you will do much better keeping those archetypes in mind when forming a group.

Oh well, and outsider rambling, maybe I'll try to get into beta, I've got a 3 day weekend:)

[Vallen]

I like that you get to choose your own archetype. You can be a forcefield tank if you want to instead of a big brute. I noticed as I build my characters I build them with solo in mind but if I grouped regularly with people I would choose different powers and define my own role in that group. As it stands right now there are neat abilitites out there that have no usefulness unless you are grouped.

If i do stick with the game I think I'll easily have a few solo and a few group characters each of which has a different style. On not to mention a PvP character or two :P