Champions Online vs. City of Heros: Battle of the Free-to-Play! - Edit 1
Before modification by beetnemesis at 21/06/2011 05:17:33 AM
So, Champions Online became free to play on Steam last week. City of Heroes has a one-week free trial. I decided to try them both out, and see what's what.
Full Disclosure- this is after level 2 characters to around level 11 Champions Online, and one character to 12 in CoH, over the course of the last few days)
In the end, it almost comes down to what you'd expect. City of Heroes has more content, Champions Online (with its more modern engine) is just slicker to play.
City of Heroes has an awesome character creation system- choose a role (blaster, mastermind, tank, out of something like 9 choices), choose an "origin" (such as Science, Mutation, Magic, and more), then pick your powers out of a large grouping of sets, different for each role.
Champions Online character creation system is not as good. Instead of the interesting combinations, you pick one archetype, and that's it. So, if you pick "Fire Guy," then you're a blaster, and that's that. There are about a dozen choices, though only around half are available for those who want to play for free (there are "tokens" one can buy, for a relatively cheap price, to unlock various things ingame)
The COSTUME creator, on the other hand, is much better in Champions. The graphics are just... better. Every single costume option has multiple (at minimum 2, often three or 4) color elements to manipulate. Not to mention texture elements, and an extremely customizable body maker.
CoH has a metric ton of "pieces" to use... but they're all kind of faded. They're from yesteryear. Everything is a bit smaller, a bit less detailed. There's less customization. (EXCEPT in powers. City of Heroes lets you customize the look of EVERY SINGLE one of your powers; you need to pay to do that in Champions Online)
Combat. This is tricky. Basically, City of Heroes has a lot more powers to use, all of which can be modified with "enhancements" that burn out after a level or two, so your lineup is constantly changing. You have a ton of cool powers (by level 10 I had 5 or so attack powers, plus 3 or 4 defense modes). The only problem? It's boring to use them! You essentially just stand there and click 1, 2, 3, 2, 4, 2, 3... until its dead. Combat is interesting, but not dynamic.
Champions Online, on the other hand, is almost the exact opposite. Combat is very dynamic- there's a lot of movement, there's real-time blocking, your "energy" (mana) levels go up and down a LOT (energy is restored midbattle by using more basic attacks or blocking), positioning is a bit more important, you can pick up pieces of the environment to throw at enemies... But you have very few powers!
Like I said before, there are many, many fewer powers in CO than in CoH. There's a single track, and you definitely do not get a new power every level (sometimes you'll get a "talent," which is basically a feat that gives you +8 to one stat, +5 to two, or so on) (also sometimes, you'll what's basically a "skill point" that you can invest in a current power, to beef it up or modify it slightly. Problem is, most interesting stuff requires more than one skill point)
So, at level 10 in CoH, I had about a dozen powers. In Champions Online, at level 10, I had... I want to say 3, and a buff. My basic ranged attack, a charged up blast, a neat AoE that deployed lightning rods around me that enemies would attack instead of me, and a passive buff that raised my stats and gave me an irritating glow.
Compare to City of Heroes, where my monster rabbitman (Kottontail) had: a basic punch, an electric punch, an eletric cone attack, an electric smashing attack that knocked bad guys around like bowling pins, some dark armor, some dark armor that protected me from elements, and some dark armor that continuously sucked the life from my foes.
So, yeah. While combat is faster moving in CO, it also gets a bit more tedious.
However, that brings us to our next major feature- TRAVEL POWERS!
Travel powers are one of the most iconic things about being a superhero. Pretty much every superhero there is has some cool way of getting around. Champions Online recognizes this- as soon as you finish the tutorial/hit level 5, you get to choose a free Travel Power. Without paying, you have access to Flight, Teleportation, Superspeed, Super Jumping, and Acrobatics. They all have different pros and cons- Superspeed gives you bonuses to melee, but no altitude. Flight makes your energy recharge slower than the other types. Acrobatic isn't as good as Super Jump or Super Speed, but it has low energy drain and gives you speed buffs if you get hit. Teleportation lets you pop in and out wherever you like, but it has limited use in the middle of a fight (getting INTO and OUT of fights, on the other hand...)
That's not even counting the pay options, each of which costs under 5 bucks to unlock )I should note that subscribers don't have to deal with this "unlock" nonsense. Pay options include burrowing, jet boots, ice sliding, swinging, and a few extra versions of speed and flight with various tradeoffs.
Compare this to City of Heroes. In City of Heroes, you walk around like every other schlub until you hit level 7 or so. Then you get to pick a new power, from a new themed set (ie if you chose "Electricity" and "Dark Armor" as your sets at character creation, you can pick a power from "Medicine" or "Stealth" or other sets.) If you chose an attack power, great. Or, you can choose from some of the Travel sets.
The Travel sets are all groups of 4 powers. The kicker is, you won't get access to the "real" travel power until you hit around level 16. Want Super Jumping? Well, you can either take a drop kick attack, or "Combat Jumping," which is just slightly higher normal jumping, for now. They're prerequisites for the real thing after tons of grinding.
Same with teleportation (must start with "teleport friend" or "teleport foe"
, Superspeed (starts with some general fast punches or recharges), and Flight.
It just kind of irritated me.
Finally, content. Champions Online has refined City of Heroes in some ways- quests are more streamlined, for one thing, and the areas are slightly more varied. But City of Heroes just seems to have a richer story. Currently, when you make a new character, there seems to be some odd alternate history thing going on, where the ruler of the city is evil, and you can either work for him or join "The Resistance," or work for him while feeding info to the Resistance, or work for him but just being a giant glory and fame-hound... it just feels richer. Compare it to Champions Online, which can feel extremely artificial- the town square is basically just a bazaar of different superpower structures. Ironically, City of Heroes feels kind of like an actual City, while Champions just feels like a city only filled with superheros.
CONCLUSION
Honestly, I don't think I'll be playing either very much longer. City of Heroes is fun, but not enough for me to pay to play it. Champions Online seems like it has the potential to be much better than CoH, but it needs more powers, more origins, more content, and just a bigger world in general (that's something I forgot to mention- while CO does very well with the altitude of its cities (climbable skyscrapers, tons of places to fly and teleport to, etc) it seems extremely small, horizontally).
My Champions Online character has spent the last 5 levels winning every fight the same way- teleporting into a group of 3 or 4 baddies, slapping down her AoE, then backing off while using her two blast attacks. It's effective, but it can get boring. Whereas with City of Heroes, I just stand there and watch the timers countdown on my abilities so I can use them again.
Full Disclosure- this is after level 2 characters to around level 11 Champions Online, and one character to 12 in CoH, over the course of the last few days)
In the end, it almost comes down to what you'd expect. City of Heroes has more content, Champions Online (with its more modern engine) is just slicker to play.
City of Heroes has an awesome character creation system- choose a role (blaster, mastermind, tank, out of something like 9 choices), choose an "origin" (such as Science, Mutation, Magic, and more), then pick your powers out of a large grouping of sets, different for each role.
Champions Online character creation system is not as good. Instead of the interesting combinations, you pick one archetype, and that's it. So, if you pick "Fire Guy," then you're a blaster, and that's that. There are about a dozen choices, though only around half are available for those who want to play for free (there are "tokens" one can buy, for a relatively cheap price, to unlock various things ingame)
The COSTUME creator, on the other hand, is much better in Champions. The graphics are just... better. Every single costume option has multiple (at minimum 2, often three or 4) color elements to manipulate. Not to mention texture elements, and an extremely customizable body maker.
CoH has a metric ton of "pieces" to use... but they're all kind of faded. They're from yesteryear. Everything is a bit smaller, a bit less detailed. There's less customization. (EXCEPT in powers. City of Heroes lets you customize the look of EVERY SINGLE one of your powers; you need to pay to do that in Champions Online)
Combat. This is tricky. Basically, City of Heroes has a lot more powers to use, all of which can be modified with "enhancements" that burn out after a level or two, so your lineup is constantly changing. You have a ton of cool powers (by level 10 I had 5 or so attack powers, plus 3 or 4 defense modes). The only problem? It's boring to use them! You essentially just stand there and click 1, 2, 3, 2, 4, 2, 3... until its dead. Combat is interesting, but not dynamic.
Champions Online, on the other hand, is almost the exact opposite. Combat is very dynamic- there's a lot of movement, there's real-time blocking, your "energy" (mana) levels go up and down a LOT (energy is restored midbattle by using more basic attacks or blocking), positioning is a bit more important, you can pick up pieces of the environment to throw at enemies... But you have very few powers!
Like I said before, there are many, many fewer powers in CO than in CoH. There's a single track, and you definitely do not get a new power every level (sometimes you'll get a "talent," which is basically a feat that gives you +8 to one stat, +5 to two, or so on) (also sometimes, you'll what's basically a "skill point" that you can invest in a current power, to beef it up or modify it slightly. Problem is, most interesting stuff requires more than one skill point)
So, at level 10 in CoH, I had about a dozen powers. In Champions Online, at level 10, I had... I want to say 3, and a buff. My basic ranged attack, a charged up blast, a neat AoE that deployed lightning rods around me that enemies would attack instead of me, and a passive buff that raised my stats and gave me an irritating glow.
Compare to City of Heroes, where my monster rabbitman (Kottontail) had: a basic punch, an electric punch, an eletric cone attack, an electric smashing attack that knocked bad guys around like bowling pins, some dark armor, some dark armor that protected me from elements, and some dark armor that continuously sucked the life from my foes.
So, yeah. While combat is faster moving in CO, it also gets a bit more tedious.
However, that brings us to our next major feature- TRAVEL POWERS!
Travel powers are one of the most iconic things about being a superhero. Pretty much every superhero there is has some cool way of getting around. Champions Online recognizes this- as soon as you finish the tutorial/hit level 5, you get to choose a free Travel Power. Without paying, you have access to Flight, Teleportation, Superspeed, Super Jumping, and Acrobatics. They all have different pros and cons- Superspeed gives you bonuses to melee, but no altitude. Flight makes your energy recharge slower than the other types. Acrobatic isn't as good as Super Jump or Super Speed, but it has low energy drain and gives you speed buffs if you get hit. Teleportation lets you pop in and out wherever you like, but it has limited use in the middle of a fight (getting INTO and OUT of fights, on the other hand...)
That's not even counting the pay options, each of which costs under 5 bucks to unlock )I should note that subscribers don't have to deal with this "unlock" nonsense. Pay options include burrowing, jet boots, ice sliding, swinging, and a few extra versions of speed and flight with various tradeoffs.
Compare this to City of Heroes. In City of Heroes, you walk around like every other schlub until you hit level 7 or so. Then you get to pick a new power, from a new themed set (ie if you chose "Electricity" and "Dark Armor" as your sets at character creation, you can pick a power from "Medicine" or "Stealth" or other sets.) If you chose an attack power, great. Or, you can choose from some of the Travel sets.
The Travel sets are all groups of 4 powers. The kicker is, you won't get access to the "real" travel power until you hit around level 16. Want Super Jumping? Well, you can either take a drop kick attack, or "Combat Jumping," which is just slightly higher normal jumping, for now. They're prerequisites for the real thing after tons of grinding.
Same with teleportation (must start with "teleport friend" or "teleport foe"
, Superspeed (starts with some general fast punches or recharges), and Flight.It just kind of irritated me.
Finally, content. Champions Online has refined City of Heroes in some ways- quests are more streamlined, for one thing, and the areas are slightly more varied. But City of Heroes just seems to have a richer story. Currently, when you make a new character, there seems to be some odd alternate history thing going on, where the ruler of the city is evil, and you can either work for him or join "The Resistance," or work for him while feeding info to the Resistance, or work for him but just being a giant glory and fame-hound... it just feels richer. Compare it to Champions Online, which can feel extremely artificial- the town square is basically just a bazaar of different superpower structures. Ironically, City of Heroes feels kind of like an actual City, while Champions just feels like a city only filled with superheros.
CONCLUSION
Honestly, I don't think I'll be playing either very much longer. City of Heroes is fun, but not enough for me to pay to play it. Champions Online seems like it has the potential to be much better than CoH, but it needs more powers, more origins, more content, and just a bigger world in general (that's something I forgot to mention- while CO does very well with the altitude of its cities (climbable skyscrapers, tons of places to fly and teleport to, etc) it seems extremely small, horizontally).
My Champions Online character has spent the last 5 levels winning every fight the same way- teleporting into a group of 3 or 4 baddies, slapping down her AoE, then backing off while using her two blast attacks. It's effective, but it can get boring. Whereas with City of Heroes, I just stand there and watch the timers countdown on my abilities so I can use them again.