Anti-Aliased: I like walking into towering infernos (like the Champions Online C-Store)
Yes everyone, it's one of those articles. I promised you guys way back before the launch of Champions Online that I would talk about the C-Store when it finally came out. Well, it finally came out last week, and you guys certainly had a lot to say on the matter.
To many, this is just another bad move on the part of Cryptic. However, according to the general MMO population, every move that Cryptic has made has been a bad move. (Yes Kdolo, Sakura Park, we heard you the last 50 times.) If I took every comment people told me about Champions Online as truth, then I'd think it was a buggy, unplayable mess that's powered by unsympathetic robots who want to do nothing more than suck all of the cash out of your wallet.
Unfortunately for the naysayers, I actually play Champions Online. And, like I did before, I'm going to give my honest opinions on this next move from Cryptic.
Holy costume sets, Non-Copyright Infringing Baatmaan!
First of all, don't let anyone tell you that what was added to the C-Store was this unexpected surprise. Unless you've been intentionally overlooking the launch coverage of Champions (or were just skipping over the sentences where we talked about what was going to be in the C-Store) Cryptic has kept to their word. The things added to the C-Store are costume pieces/emblems, service items, and the infamous buyable retcon (which we will talk about later in this article.) These three things are in the same categories Cryptic told us they would add at launch. No surprises.
At first, I was a little taken aback by Cryptic's pricing on the costumes. "Three bucks for a costume piece?" I thought. "You have to be kidding me!" I wasn't cool with pieces being offered for three dollars a piece. One dollar... that's more my style. Three dollars, that was just too much.
Then I actually awoke from my daze and realized it's three dollars per costume set. As in, "You get all the pieces of this set for three dollars." Now, certainly, it may not be as extensive as one of the ten dollar booster packs from City of Heroes that comes with emotes and extra powers, but it's still not bad.
For the price of one City of Heroes booster pack, you can buy yourself 3 costume sets and pocket the last dollar. Or, heck, you can spend that last dollar on an entire series of new emblem options. You may not be getting any new powers for your purchase but... oh... wait... what's that? The Celestial power set is being added for free? As in, you don't have to buy anything from the shop? I guess you are getting new powers for the low, low cost of you not paying anything.
Are these costumes particularly great? No, not really, and I think I'm going to save my points and skip over this set. I don't have to buy them if I don't want them, and I don't want them.
Verdict: Costumes are reasonably priced when compared to City of Heroes. In fact, you save a dollar and get more variety. Plus, there are Halloween options available through the events contained in Blood Moon.
Service items taste like service
At the very bottom of the store, tucked away in the shadow of the purchasable retcon, are the service items. By nature, they're pretty mundane -- name change for $3.50, four character slots for $15, and two additional costume slots (on all characters) for five bucks.
Once again, the services, compared to other games, are very competitive. World of Warcraft offers name changes for 10 dollars, Guild Wars offers one character slot for 10 dollars (compared to 4 for 15 dollars), and while I can't compare the costume slots it's still only 5 dollars for 2 slots on all 8 (or more) characters.
Verdict: Still pretty reasonable. Not much to say here though. Would I personally buy these? Nope. Don't have a need for them.
