Not naming the hero Josh Strife Saves is a tragic missed opportunity.

I mourn for thee

Fuck, it I'll do it then just to commemorate this vid

Missed opportunity birthed this joke so we good lol

josh strife loads

Could have been Johnny Kage

The Clark Kent approach is genius though "Look, let him keep his 9 to 5. That's 8 hours less a day he's out there stopping us, so just go with it!"

One system that Josh didn't encounter, it seems, that I really enjoyed, was the Nemesis system, if I recall its name correctly. You get to use the character designers to create your character's arch-villain or rogues gallery, and you'll have arcs and one-offs against them, eventually capturing them. Then you can make a new nemesis, if you choose. I forget if they can escape and reappear, but I thought it was pretty cool that I could give my characters personalized opponents to face. PS: This is no ordinary storm!

yep, it was great (and yes, they could escape)

It could be way better tho. The way the missions are given to you is extremely obtuse (that your best bet at getting your nem minions to attack you so you can get a clue is destroying stacks of chairs until one pops a boost.. its so wild) Also could be nice if the last mission didn't bug so often

Ah yes the nemesis system that champions online blatantly ripped from Shadow of Mordor, 10 years before it was made! (this is a joke.)

Yup... the Nemesis system.

My friend played this. Due to the level of customization my friend was able to make an accurate Monarch Henchman from Venture Bros. And he actually found more people that did the same and they ran like idiots acting like they're Monarchs henchmen.

I remember making Dr. Orpheus, good times.

Can't say it enough. What makes good commentary is the preparation and writing. Josh consistently delivers and makes every video top notch. "As fleshed out as She Hulks supporting cast".

Regarding the lack of design for flying characters in the dungeons -- it's probably a consequence of flight not being the only travel power in the game. I remember reading reviews of this game near launch which said that super-speed and other ground-based traversal powers were completely inferior to flight, because a lot of the maps were designed with cliffs everywhere. If you couldn't fly, you would often have to spend ages climbing up staircases to get from place to place, and those staircases often contained a lot of mooks standing around the landings to slow you down even more. It's possible that the dungeons were designed so that they wouldn't slow down ground-based characters... at the cost of being incredibly boring for flying characters.

By coincidence I logged into Champions Online for the first time in five years about a week ago, and saw a character called Josh Strife Hayes standing atop a building. I flew by thinking 'Wow, an impersonator'. But no, I now see it was the man himself. ^^

You know you're dealing with a true mmo player of the old days when they still use ^^ in 2023 ;-P

@@MrBoooooring plop ^^ xD lfg

@@MrBoooooring Oh no. Guilty as charged. ;;

​@@MrBoooooring me, when someone indicates that "^^" is old: :

I tried a couple of weeks ago, but the servers seemed down half of the time and it crashed when I was loading my character.

I loved this game as a kid. I remember making my super hero called The Light who was a Brazilian doctor. While tending to a small village a meteor fell from the sky and touching it gave him powers. He used golden energy powers and healing abilities it was such an experience.

Doutor brasileiro XD, coincidentemente eu era um dos poucos brasileiros que jogava esse jogo.

reading about a brazillian person touching a foreign object...... cesio 137 flashbacks💀💀💀

@@uyfg7u6 NÃO NÃO NÃO NÃO

He also loved tibia and ragnarok online.

I was always a big fan of just taking every ability that gave me a pet and stacking them up as much as possible. The results were an absolutely massive army following me around, so much fun.

Same lol my Diablo 3 build was crazy with all the shit following me😂

I love playing Pikmin in any game I can

I played this years ago. You see that Ghostbusters-esque pillar of light shooting into the sky from the top of a building? I flew there once and there are two NPCs named Gatekeeper and Keymaster on the roof! It's actually a Ghostbusters reference. I did not expect to see that in a MMORPG, but it's really cool they did it!

Josh, I absolutely love the way that you never really give a good or a bad review. You just leave it up for the viewer to decide how they feel on their own from what they saw in the video. It's such a cool way of doing a review, love it. Subscribed!

This was my first MMO. Brings back memories but is so sad how MMO has fallen due to time and newer games.

I loved the customization options in this game. You could make just about anything. **proceeds to make The Uninspired Bulk**

I've a few thousand hours in the game and I can confirm that the character you saw the absolute most was a big green guy called The Incredible HuIk (with an uppercase i to dodge the name restriction)

@@Varsaar I’m not surprised. 😂 I remember making a really nice Samus Aran and would just spend hours making random-looking costumes.

@@Varsaar My favorite Hulk clone I've seen was someone who'd named their character, "The Inconsolable Sulk," and taken their green beefy boy and gave him an emo haircut.

I am sorry my dear but I no agree four you are say. He try his best his branes. Hulk is very xcelent and working hard four study the book and make the mussels four green power. I enjoi and I hope you improve four understanding how games working my sweet.

@@StarkeRealm Hulk is dark and emo

The amount of knowledge Josh seems to have about superhero media is honestly impressive. I didn't know he was into so many things. Good chap, good nerd.

"Like a family guy character falling down" What a creative and beautiful description which is also true at the same time. Bravo.

I actually draw my own hero characters and was amazed at how well I could replicate the looks and abilities of those characters in this game.

As one of those few remaining dedicated Champions Online players, this was a decent review! I will say that there is a LOT more to the game then just what's shown here. The character customization is even CRAZIER with all the different unlocks you can get and that they are still making more and more of every week! A LOT of the game CAN be earned for free, but there IS definitely a lot of predatory microtransactions available, though none that are really necessary. The Archetypes you can unlock are a good way to get a taste of the game, but the fully customizable Freeform character slots really are the BEST way to experience the game. They were more easily available when subscriptions were still a thing, but you don't HAVE to purchase the expensive Lifetime Membership option, you CAN purchase singular Freeform character slots for $30, which might seem a bit pricey, but it IS a one time purchase that lasts forever instead of a monthly subscription. Leveling up is definitely a slow grindy pain, but there are ways to make it easier if you ask for advice, and the mechanics can be a bit confusing, but the community is always willing to help out and give advice if you ask. The fights can sometimes be a bit repetitive, but the world and the lore and the stories and missions can be great if you give them the chance, and there is TONS of it. So, yes, it is a 14 year old MMO with some bugs and rough edges, but honestly, I've NEVER found a game with better customization in your character design and abilities, and with a Freeform character there is a surprising amount of depth to explore in making your own build. I whole heartedly LOVE this game, and I'll be here until they pry the servers from my cold dead hands.

I loved Champions, not so much for its world or game mechanics but for the greatest custom character designer ever made and a range of freeform powers (and devices!) that had a good go at supporting any daft concept you could imagine. Combined with a great, helpful, chill community that were just there to have fun and run costume competitions. And then it went free to play and the game basically stopped existing, just people standing around AFK at spawn queuing for the next currency farming instance. If they'd kept an old-school subscription server running like Runescape I'd still be there today.

i played heavly for the first 3 years. i won nearly every costume contest hosted during that time because of the character creator lol

City of Heroes (COH) maybe? Now that was the game back in the day and it is the same company that created this after all.

You are dedicated to an MMO that has a hundred players? That isn't really anything to be proud of

Grown ups don't generally base their love for media on the size of the fanbase.

The countless digs at other superhero franchises during this playthrough has me laughcrying like I was hired under J. Jonah Jameson for the Daily Bugle

Ah you were a drama teacher! That lines up. Good video as always!

Indeed

I was one of the original beta testers and I bought one of the first lifetime subscriptions to this game which I still have. This was my first MMO. To this day the character customization is still amazing. And there's really no other MMO that offers what champions does. It also still has some of my favorite events I've ever seen in an MMO like Halloween Zombat Those who know, know.

I remember when they shut down City of Heroes. Support and devs gave management the middlefinger, and rumors of sourcecode leaked. Players recieving massive reimbursements. It was an amazing community and devs/GMs and players ran around side by side. Sometimes a new thing needed testing and they would ask if anyone ingame wanted to join the fun. A one time amazing online gaming experience, never seen since.

It was a sad time

This concept is so promising, I would love to see the devs make a sequel with adequate support and just full send this idea

Not naming your character "Josh Strife Shades" is a tragic missed opportunity

"Turns out it's harder than Homelander in a dairy factory" is not a sentence I expected to hear today, but I'm still here for it.

Oh boy, I almost forgot this game, but now seeing it gives me serious nostalgia. I remember creating a robot character with ice powers. He had a backstory about being a fridge that gained sentience and updated his mission from preserving food to preserving humanity. There was a charged frost shot ability with a modification that would deal extra game on every hit against a frozen enemy. But the additional damage would be the same regardless of how long you charged the shot. So I would freeze my enemies and then spam uncharged charge shots for ridiculous dps. I don't know if the skill was intended to be used that way, but it sure felt like bug abuse to me back then.

That backstory is amazing. Now I want to build a warforged paladin in D&D with that backstory!

City of heroes did it better.

That backstory puts a whole new meaning on "preserving humanity!"

Putting villains on ice, eh?

That wordplay in the mission statement switching from literal to figurative is peak comic book logic. :D

Ah man. I remember actually playing a game of Champions for 2 sessions where I was a Gun slinging cowboy with a tazer pistol. It shot a lazer that exploded in a stunning explosion at the point of impact, and I had a secret identity, being a scientist during the day. My wife hated my super hero identity. Thanks Not Strife for another video.

I still have a physical copy of this game from when it was new. I had a great time with it and convinced some friends to join in. It's a real shame to see what it's become.

What's funny here is that at launch the Qularr invasion was the start of the game and thus the tutorial, the "Crisis Zone" of Millennium City. EVERYONE started there, and the videos in the Powerhouse were added much later. Like...years after launch after. Defender's lines about the beacons were a meme.

I'd really love to see Josh's take on any of the revived CoH servers. Homecoming, Victory, etc.

I have been playing this game since beta and had a Life Time Subscription since then. Part of my problem is that I try to encourage others to play and they tell me how daunting it is to get into the game and this showed me how drastically the new player experience has changed. Like all those videos? THEY ARE ALL NEW. The invasion was the thing from Earlier in the game.

I loved all the superhero themed jabs given throughout this entire episode. Got to hand it to Josh, he goes for a theme and sticks with it completely.

The ones in Genfanad and Albion are my favorites.

'Harder then Homelander in a dairy factory' was definitely one that had me chuckling.

I didnt get the she hulk one

3 days after "harder than Homelander in a dairy factory" and I am still not okay.

Such an entertaining series. I think the best on YouTube

I think some of the voice overlapping is that while the box of text is being read it doesn't prevent the in-world characters nearby from also saying their voice lines every x seconds.

My biggest problem with CO is that Jack Emmert was so bitter about his split from City of Heroes (most of the dev team at the time stayed and renamed to Paragon Studios) that he made an "anonymous" forum account to try and poach players to Champions. He used a ton of the suggestions and wishes the CoH players had in order to craft Champions into a convincing facade of a better game. Unfortunately for CO, the reason he left CoH was that he wanted to incorporate WoW-like systems into it and no one would allow it. We played CoH specifically because it *wasn't* WoW, so none of us were surprised that CO was stuffed full of gear grinds, auto-attacks, and a combat system that punished you for trying to play it alone with an overly-specialized/concept build. In my experience, most of the people who play/played CO did not come from the CoH playerbase. The largest CoH private server's population dwarfs CO's active population, too. Sure, CoH is technically "dead" and CO isn't, so I guess Jack "won," but I know which of the two games is better.

CoH Homecoming FTW

I worked at Cryptic Studios a while back, and although Jack had been gone for probably 10 years when I started, he was still legendary for being the most epic asshole anyone had ever met.

I had an extremely displeasurable run-in with Jack on the COH forums when he was still the Design lead. I'll never forget what a terrible liar he was when asked if he was putting the game on "a skeleton crew" ... only for every game he's been in charge of since then to have the same exact pattern of abuse

And _this_ is funny because our current head dev, one Julia Sprenz, has repeatedly gone on record stating that CO "wouldn't be dying if it was more like WoW." Unsurprising that each new change to the game punishes non-MMO-trinity gameplay aggressively, and breaks more and more nonmeta playstyles and builds, and she also goes out of her way to make balancing decisions to spite players she doesn't like (like the Anniversary 2022 rework to Force and Auras (as well as under-the-hood changes to pet AI in following weeks) where she bragged about doing it specifically to get rid of Decimatrix, and... you know. Those changes wound up forcing literally every single player in the game to play differently, and introduced a host of new problems like aura fighting that have gone entirely unfixed because fixing them would require admitting making one singular mistake, which our "you're all gaslighting me to make me buff your favorite powers!!!1!" head dev would never do.) Don't worry though, her prior work experience is (apparently, if she's not talking shit) running a fan-made MLP MMORPG, so she absolutely knows what she's doing more than all the players who quit after she targets them with "balancing" tweaks.

Fun little tidbit, City of Heroes is actually still playable. Since the rights were lifted, some of the old Paragon Studios employees who developed, picked it back up and the servers are functional. Basically all holiday events go on all the time randomly.

I can appreciate this series, cause I've played some bad mmo's. I have a couple suggestions for you, Josh. First my favorite game Dragon's Prophet. After Sony dropped it a small studio has been slowly patching this stuffed game and it has a dedicated player base due. the last NA server still live is by Adept Gamer and the ceo Seiichi would be most willing to give you a interview about the history of this classic. Second is Aion, its not as forgotten and has decent player base now but viewer ship has also completely tanked on twitch.

The Qularr invasion used to actually be the first thing that introduced you to the game and it wasn't a simulation. After the qularr invasion you would get dropped into the power house and yeah, you actually used to have to visit the powerhouse to level up and it let you test abilities there. The weird video things were not there in earlier versions of the game, they added that later if I remember correctly.

You do, indeed, remember correctly.

that's such an odd choice, huh. thanksgiving for clarifying that for the rest of us

Thanks for the confirmation, I was pretty sure that was what I remembered but not 100% sure. I actually don't even remember the Powerhouse existing, but it's been a long time.

@@ShjadeNexayre The Powerhouse used to be super-important in the days of freeform builds, but once the game standardized on boring classes, it didn't really have a purpose. It's a relic of a more fascinating age.

@@bwarhol I played before they changed to the F2P model. Had a light powers/dark powers mixed character with fire flight (because turning that on changed her outfit from white to purple for the light/dark aesthetic switch) whose whole schtick was being, essentially, a Death worshipper who brought the blessings of life as well as its endings, etc. etc. It's just been so long that I don't remember a lot of it, like the Powerhouse. That's all. ;p

This game has SO MUCH CONTENT IT NEVER TELLS YOU ABOUT! Legit after I hit level 40 I thought the game was basically done unsure what else to do, but then people told me that that's when the game actually BEGINS. And indeed, the time before and after level 40 are like 2 different games. The end-game content is cool and requires teamwork. There are giant bosses that require an effort of like 30+ people to beat and the cycles where it's done are agreed upon in between players, aka you have no way of knowing how and when a cosmic boss will happen unless you ask people about it. Luckily the community is extremely friendly and welcoming for new players, very willing to help out and tell ya the things the game just doesn't. Controary to the reviews, this game is actually NOT really pay to win as the best end-game content is locked behind currencies you can ONLY get through doing end-game content like cosmic bosses or hard adventure packs. No matter how much you pay you will not get the best gear and the stuff from the premium shops is outright worse compared to what you can only get by grinding, a lot. The expensive part is getting the most desired "Freeform" character slot. Aka instead of a specific archetype ya choose at first, you can pick a list of ALL abilities in the game and mix match them pretty much however you want. This means that the creative building potential in terms of what character playstyles you can have in this game is astronomical, and of course, complex to understand and of course the game tells you NOTHING about it. You again rely on advice from other players. Getting a slot like that either requires you to be playing at a time when it happened to be given away for free (which happens around once or twice a year), grind a load of questionite and convert it into Zen to buy it, or spend money on Zen to buy it. Also like you said, a lot of the items from the premium shops are sold on the autction house where ya buy stuff for a regular in-game currency that drops from anywhere, meaning that people who don't spend a penny get access to those items just by playing the game, and those who spend money have a quick and easy boost of wealth. Some parts of this game are indeed boring and repetetive but some others are extremely fun. So as a guy who was playing since 2022 halloween I would actually reccomend to try it. I didn't spend a penny on it and have no need to. Lockboxes and stuff are a thing but they're basically all cosmetics and when it comes to the realistic power stuff ya can get from them, ya can also buy directly from an auction house, so no need to dabble in those at all. In fact I got multiple characters to lvl 40 before I decided to open my first lockbox :D

I remember being obsessed with this game as a kid, I would have my main character then unlock costume pieces and just make alt heros and remake them over and over creating all new characters every day just fell in love with the customization and have always wanted another mmo like this, retail wow has gotten a lot better but not even close to this!

Always had a soft spot for this one. I played it exclusively for the fashion and character building. Just to chill in the fashion contests and around the place just dripping out.

3 minutes in and now I just want Josh to make a stand up routine.

I loved all the superhero comparisons, metaphors, and jokes in this review.

Oh man. The customization potential in this was actually incredible.

*laughs in WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain*

City of Heroes did it better years before

@@puzzlejinx City of Heroes customisation is just insane. Recently played one of the new fanmade private servers. You can make almost any damn character you want.

@@Dynamo33 hey what is the server called? I'd like to check it out. How populated is it?

Too bad the gameplay really wasn't there. In my opinion city of heroes was incredible. Now that I think about it though I only had a pretty shifty computer to play it on so that probably accounts for a lot of that.

To be fair, the exterior fire escape stair design is a remedy for buildings that only had one interior escape stair for older buidling. Really it is preferable to two interior fire escape stairs, since escape down an exterior escape staircase, you can be exposed to flame though windows. I can reccomend continuing working though the "fire safaty talent tree" :P

Champions Online is often rough and downright janky, but it's got great customization and it's still around, unlike many other MMOs. Easily my favorite MMO. With some more support and funding, it could have been truly great. Edit: As of today, and for the next month, CO is having their 14th Anniversary Event, and you can get a Freeform slot for free, which is a character slot with full customization, where you can use any powers you want. They usually give away a freeform slot every year or so. If the game sounds like something you'd like to try, now is the best time to start.

When CO first came out, you could pick and choose from all of the powers. Add in the hundreds of costume options, and CO was uniquely customizable.

As a Champions online fan for over ten years, I honestly kind of want you to go further into the game and explore the other elements of it that you didn't experience yet.

seeing Ordinary Man come out of the same customization system that gave us Knife Dad was absolutely wild

If you wanted to do City of Heroes for the Worst MMO series it is still going. A group of fans got access to it after it shut down and created City of Heroes: Homecoming. They've even been updating the game since they acquired it and every time I get on to mess around in nostalgia for a while, there're always people playing.

No way! Really? I checked for ways to play it a few years ago and things were looking bleak. Super cool to hear someone picked up the torch!

@@barkedog Yep! It felt awesome doing a sewer run with people at level 1 again. I cant justify putting any real time into a private server but just being able to relive a bit of City of Heroes was enough for me. Miss it constantly!

@@barkedog It's true. Finding the downloader is a bit weird, iirc, but Google should be able to get you there. The folks running it have done a lot to improve it for a small team of fans.

its still considered a private server so its unwise to make a video about it. josh for certain wont do a CoH video and shouldn't really..

i saw another that said city of heroes: freedom. or is that original site that is somehow still up?

You mention the fact that Champions Online doesn't use the vertical space in their dungeon design and I'd like to share one of my favorite MMO memories related to that design concept. In City of Heroes I was playing an Illusion/Kinetics Controller doing some group content in one of the instance missions that takes place in an office building. At one point, our group got separated in an area that had three or four floors all open to each other through a space in the middle. The tank was on a floor in the middle with most of the enemies, the two dps were on different floors with smaller groups of mobs, and I was flying from one floor to the next and back again doing my best to throw out crowd control and healing to keep them all alive. It was exceptionally fun and an experience I have not found in any other MMO to date.

Back when I played this, I think the things I liked the most were not being locked in to one specific move set, and the nemesis system.

I've played this on and off for years. It was one of the first games on my Steam account to surpass 100 hours. Will always have a special place in my heart. The freeform hero slot was definitely worth the money, for me.

This was a great game. I miss it sometimes. Free to play isn't worth it though. You miss out on way too much (classes/costume parts mostly) I played this when it first came out. Still looks awesome. Those tutorial videos are new. The invasion was the first thing you did in the game. You actually loaded into there.

I played this game several years ago, and it's honestly what held me over until the release of Guild Wars 2. Similar systems, and I absolutely loved exploring it. You can also choose if you prefer flying, super speed, super jumping, etc. And you know what? Flying might be more freeing, but I really enjoyed my parkour.

I was there from the beginning. Part of the CO beta, Lifetime sub bought way too early, and seen it devolve... The original tutorial IS the Qularr invasion. It's actually been cleaned up since it's original inception. Then you went first to either the Desert or Canada as your starting zones. You didn't go to the City until level... 15? 20? I don't remember, the main quest eventually sent you there. The videos you complained about were actually added later as part of their Free-2-Play relaunch to address complaints of confusion over the original tutorial. Also the F2P conversion introduced the problems with the voices overlapping.

I was going to say this, but you already said everything that I was going to. It's sad that it's fallen so far, and hasn't seen any real content added in almost a decade now.

@@dientimuri3956 This is what happens when PWE buys any developer. They monetize and destroy any quality in their sight. I currently haven't finished the videos but so far a lot of the issues he has expressed were introduced after Perfect World acquiring them.

I was there too, still prefer COH (Homecoming) to CO, although I do log in occasionally mostly to maintain the account, and to see if they added anything new ... they haven't not really.

i was about to bring that up, i was a demo player as a child and recalled that the start WAS the invasion, not a simulation of the invasion... really sad i never got to play the game originally, by the time i could buy a subscription it went f2p and gutted the cool part with microtransactions as far as i could tell.

@@number1fen Yeah, the second F2P update they did, when PWE acquired them, gutted the crafting system in favor of the garbage system they have now. Why? They make more money off this system, they can sell catalysts and whatnot. Star Trek proved the system, and they tried to retrofit it to CO.

Champions Online, with all it's faults and odd design, is still one of my favorite games ever, simply for the RP. The sheer amount of freedom you and other players have for character conversation creates some amazing, sometimes insane moments. The one I experience the most, like a lot of people (especially those like me who still play it) who RP, is hanging out at the Caprice Club, talking about random stuff, a bunch of superheroes, nightmare creatures, animal people and normal ass dudes just standing around with each other and talking in character about whatever comes to mind.

I spent the whole video just praying that by some miracle Josh would run into Knife Dad

While the game was in maintenance mode for awhile, they've been doing some with it lately in terms of revamping powersets. There are several unique aspects to CO as a superhero MMORPG. Freeform allows you to mix and match powers from all the powersets to create your own unique build, but now requires a lifetime subscription or purchasing a freeform slot. It has functional vehicles, which is handy for some character concepts. Later on you can use the Nemesis system to build your own rogues gallery who will then randomly send their henchmen to pester you or initiate criminal schemes you must stop. It also has the most varied character creator of any superhero MMORPG by far. While City of Heroes is the best superhero MMORPG available, Champions Online has some unique virtues such that it is still worth playing for fans of these types of setting.

Well. Never expected to see my old stomping grounds get covered here, glad to see some old faces again (still miss you Piffle, hope you're doing alright). Hell, I still log in at least once a week to make custom characters whenever I can, it's always fun to see just what's possible via the costume pieces I unlocked piecemeal through community events and grinding.

So many fond memories of this. Could really make some very very custom hero's ended up making most of my heros varients on a small lizard species with gear based on power set. Had so much fun and my main tiny space marine melee tank was so much fun. My alternative lightning tank with yellow crystals spread across various bracers and across his armour to match the lightning colours looked amaizing! Adventure packs were also the most fun I had in the game, great system.

Lifetimer since 2011 here. Still playing quite regularly. This is a very fair video regarding the good and bad things the game has to offer. It is also very frustrating to think about what it COULD have been, had Cryptic learnt to ride the superhero trend wave, when we see what it currently is. But this is a place where we can be anything thanks to one of the best, if not the best, customization system in any MMO. Many of the dedicated players have dozens of alts just for the fun of creating very different characters, powers and appearances wise. And it never feels out of place because this is a superhero game, so you can have ninjas running alerts with cyborgs, aliens, werewolves, mutants, whatever. Also fun to see one of my ingame friends, Alto the robo kitty, helping you out on the missions. So yes, game is outdated, left to die in the dust by the people who are supposed to keep it alive and growing, but we still love it. And any new player is welcome. There's a non-official Discord channel to help newcomers. Feel free to give it a try, folks. In memory of Scott "Thundrax" Bennie.

It was PWE that dropped the ball on the superhero trend. Shame Gearbox has maintained the status quo.

I played this one 10 years ago when I decided I'd had enough with WoW, and the video unearthed memories of other mmorpgs I tried alongside it. There was one not even in beta state where you could only create a character and walk around, it looked extremely low poly and surprisingly enough, there were people in it. I wonder if it still exists. I bet you'll eventually make a video about it if it does.

Josh, you... are a damned fine theater actor. Thanks for slumming yourself down with us all the time. It's very kind of you, sir.

Hi Josh. I played this game for several years back in uni (mostly RPing in Club Caprice). My username was created to be my character in the game. Fun fact, if you flew up to the blimp back in the day, you could often catch people ERPing in proximity chat Had a lot of fun with the customisation and I had several unique-looking characters I really enjoyed playing. Sadly, because you can't monthly sub any more, a lot of people are locked out of their best characters without paying for $200 lifetime sub. If they ever change that and I can use all of my gold slots again, including my Holgast character, lemme know - I had the VIP lounge unlocked after 4 years of monthly sub and everything

I have spent hundreds of hours into this game, a good chunk of that only creating a variety of costumes and different characters. Back in the days, costume contest held by players was pretty popular.

this was actually the first mmo i took seriously as a kid , where i cared about the world and community enough as 9 yr old to even remember story beats all these years later. I had no idea it was still live

The Qulaar Invasion was actually there from the start. It's just that it's place narratively has changed. Originally you were actually one of the heroes that responded to the invasion proper, but now it's considered a "historic event" that is used as a training scenario for new heroes.

its

Honestly that’s really cool, especially for a game as old as this. I think it fits perfectly for a narrative of superhero mmo as well.

@christurner4873  I'm talking about the second "it's." As in "it's place"

The tutorial invasion was introduced when the closed beta launched, and has undergone several minor changes to all the missions in it. It was for a time also the only decent source of a couple of Qularr cosmetic drops, but the drops disappeared with the item rework (though I think they were added somewhere else after a while).

Huh, like how FusionFall's future timeline tutorial would be swapped out for an "academy" tutorial, representing how time had passed and everyone had prepared for Lord Fuse's invasion.

God this game was my obsession in early high school, so seeing it again is wild. The character creation is easily the best part of it, though I never really got too deep into the gameplay itself (I was more about the game's roleplay scene). And the story is a thing that exists. Also wow the game looks empty, that is so strange to see.

Hey Josh I noticed you haven't done a worst mmo revive for mabinogi and I honestly thought it would be a pretty good idea to make a video about it seeing that they're about to upgrade to unreal 5 and remake, rebalance, and remodel a LOT of things in the game :)

I remember i had a character called the puppeteer because everyone in pvp assumed it was a summon build. It was not a summon build it was a mele oriented dps, and the enemies were the puppets he punched.

Longtime CO player here and I agree the level 1-15 area isn't *terrible* but it's my least favorite part whenever I decide to whip up a new character. I far prefer the other areas (canada especially) and I worry that any day now we'll be slapped with a "sorry we're shutting down" notice, so I hope to make another return trip in at some point to make sure I take care of everything I've wanted to do in the game but never have. Unfortunate, but at least the existing playerbase seems passionate enough that the devs don't care enough to shut it down yet.

Sorry if anyone has pointed this out already but the video tutorials definitely were added after the invasion tutorial. The original tutorial at launch was you actually taking part in stopping the invasion. It was reframed as a simulation later to explain why you're level 1 but fighting on-par with these max level heroes. But Ive never even seen those video tutorials so they must have been added recently source: me, someone who played champions since the original beta and stayed with it for far far too long... I also own a lifetime subscription, which were originally introduced when the game still had a monthly sub

Nah, video tutorials have been there for years. It's just that they're not mandatory because they're getting them by pretty much just talking to the Head Trainer in PH and choosing such an option. Figuring things like that out can generally be done intuitively, and I found these tutorials when I already figured all this stuff out (playing since 2012)

Regarding the Power House. It's actually 100% still the main way of leveling by veterans. There are a few fantastic benefits, such as being able to try your powers/upgrades on holograms. The main benefit though is that any points you spend on leveling can be freely refunded and reallocated until you leave the Power House. So it's key for build crafting and experimenting with new powers/upgrades to see if you like them.

Also, most veterans are running freeforms, so we actually have build choices, instead of it just being given, at most, two choices, and told to kick rocks.

@@StarkeRealm I mean, a FF build that just takes an AT and does ALL the choices is usually pretty good. might need a few tweaks, but there's good stuff to use.

I always thought it was a brilliant idea for theorycrafters, being able to try out lots of different things in action, and holding off commitment until you're happy, is truly great.

Very cool, I really enjoy this series. I first played this game in like 07/08 at Comic-Con SD. They had a long row of computers with the character creator open for people to try out the game. There were no chairs and I stood there playing until legs ached and my arms went numb. I downloaded it at home years later and played for a short period. The freedom of the character creation was definitely the strongest aspect of the game, followed by the comic book aesthetic.

I remember playing this game and watching a pvp fight between two people and watching it go on for 8 minutes straight of consitent actions with each player almost reaching 0 hp then reversing thier position and it was really interesting to watch. Overall it was an ok game, if you've played WoW the controls are identical so its easy to trasition to play. The quest were similar in format as well. It was an overal OK game. The customization of abilities if you do pay to play from various classes is neat, playing a static class feels lacking which i suspect is by design.

I don't think you mentioned free form characters which lets you make a fully custom class from scratch. Some great ideas and the customization was always so good. I might play it a little again since I got the lifetime ages ago when I was very deep in the game.

"It look like a cosplay convention marched through a Pride parade and they ended up teaming up" - best description of anything in all written works throughout history

I had a lot of fun in this one back in its heyday...I had a skeleton wearing a suit and a fedora who was a psychology professor who was killed by his rival professor and came back to life for revenge. His powers were all mind-related, and his name was Professor Osteo.

A slight correction: Champions (the ttrpg) is specifically for a superheroic setting. The HERO system is actually a universal ruleset for any kind of game you want to run. Fantasy Hero (fantasy), Star Hero (space), Ninja Hero (martial arts), Danger International (spies), and Champions (superhero) are all based on the same rules.

Played the fourth edition just last year with a friend. Super flexible, but a bit complicated when you're used to current D&D, we houseruled a lot of simplifications and put a few powers off limits.

@@Stonegolem6 yeah, I imagine it's still a little more complicated than d&d if you take advantage of the entire system. I grew up with Fantasy Hero, so a lot of the more complicated features like throwing people through walls, tracking endurance for everything, or exotic powers didn't get in the way like they can in Champions. Once characters were rolled up and approved we barely needed the books for anything during a session.

And don't forget Dark Champions for the vigilante fans. Though in fairness to Josh it was Champions originally, it got turned generic after Champions 3rd edition with Hero System 4th edition being the first of the line in 1990.

I started to play Masks from Powerd by the Apocalypse with my group recently. I can recommend that, if you want to experience a narrative focused super hero story about super hero teens. A bit like Teen Titans. :D

Thanks for that bit of info!

Most of the good in Champions Online, they already did in City of Heroes. The Nemesis system is probably the exception. It's pretty interesting and I'd love to see more games do this.

I remember really thinking they nailed the hero power fantasy during the beta, then it launched with a balance patch that made it feel terrible.

The details in this game are so cool. Love the love put into it.

I certainly can't begrudge you for not sticking it out, but one of my favorite mechanics of the game is the Nemesis system that unlocks at level 25. It allows you to create a supervillain as your nemesis who then shows up several times as you level to impede your progress. You get to customize them like your own character, and even get to choose their henchmen, and a generic personality. Like most systems in the game, it never got as many updates as it should have, but I loved deciding on who my character's archnemesis would be as I got closer to that level.

I remember this game being very fun to us COH vets, I really like the grapple movement power. Glad you got to play it!

The customization is so limitless that Josh decided to do the most unexpected character *ordinary man*

To be fair, whenever players are given such robust character creators they always go overboard and try and make the most freakish and inhuman abominations possible. So to see someone running around as just a normal guy in a vest and slacks, they end up being the unique one.

@@smward87 honestly yeah, and just think the creator in this isn't even a third of what they had in city of heroes, coh's character creator still legendary as the best character creator ever made for a game.

@@TheMichigami That must be something the CoH remakes are missing then because I recently tried it and the creator is far more limited than CO's is.

@@TheMichigami The customization in CO is much more than what they have in CoH. CoH has great character customization, and I like the style better personally, but CO simply takes the cake--what you can do in that game is ridiculously crazy, it's so crazy that it's not even about opinions anymore, it's just a fact lol.

Having just started, his costume options were actually quite limited... for CO.

I remember really enjoying this when it first came out and playing it right up to it becoming Free-to-Play, at which point, despite me having a subscription the whole time, they locked every single one of my characters behind a paywall and wouldn't allow me access to them unless I purchased the power sets/cosmetics I was already using on them. Never touched it since.

A heads up if you end up reviewing city of heroes private servers; if you get in a pug and the tanker rushes like a maniac but then back all the time, its so the team can wipe that next mob following him faster. Its a sport for us to 100% clear things fast but we often do so as a weird team not a team, in that tankers love to try and hold 30+ enemies at the same time even if the agro cap is 16. Edit: usually theres also other heavyweight maxed characters there to destroy the “bleed over”.

I loved this game, and it was legitimately fun to make themed heroes- I had a radiation shooting Iron Man rip-off called Iron Curtain with the Arch Nemesis Mecha-Lincoln- I also had a gun hero called the Gunisher. But when the company running this changed and changed again, my account was basically lost and my cosmetics with it, plus all my heroes. It was a huge shame- if not for that I think I may have stayed indefinitely.

I remember playing this many years ago when it was still shiny and new! The customization was absolutely insane, but the paywall stuff ultimately turned me off from the game. I remember it being pretty fun for what little I played of it, though I also don't recall getting particularly far. I do remember they had an option to dual people and a friend of mine tried to dual my character and I was able to fly completely out of range of their super jump and just kind of hover there with them unable to hit me, lol. I didn't have any ranged attacks and he couldn't hit me so we ultimately just forfeited the dual.

I have a recommendation for a game to check out for this series. An old browser MMO called Sherwood Dungeon. Made by Maid Marian , the game starting in 2002 as Sherwood Temple but then in 2005 was reworked into Sherwood Dungeon. The game is basically a roguelike crawler meets MMO to be honest. There is one main dungeon IIRC that your gameplay kind of revolves around. With a few outside realms to explore and quest in as well. Would be worth checking out as its still online and playable on their website.

Back in the day this game was indeed lit. No limits to what you could make, everyone was creative and helpful, nothing toxic, cool music and effects. Just simply fun. I personally won a costume contest for my power armor/strength build that kinda looked like a Japanese take on Iron Man. My dude even had a cool backstory involving him delivering the power suit, but then having to use it during the initial Qular invasion to help the city win. After that, the suit's a.i. recognized him as the only user, and thus his story was born. Fun times

That backstory sounds a bit like Gizmoduck. nice.

I played this game when it came out. The Qular invasion was the first thing people saw after making your character. And it was an actual invasion, it wasn't something that happened, it wasn't a training module. The videos are a newer thing added after cryptic got bought by whoever owns them now. After the invasion there was a choice to go into different maps, a desert or Canadian mountains where there was a second sort of tutorial but this map was reduced with the story saying that the bad guy had put up an energy fence or the energy fence was added to contain the situation. After finishing this mini story arc you would go to the city for a larger story arc. After finishing the city story you could go back to the maps of the second tutorial but this time the fence was removed and the entire map was available to you.

I loved this game, the character creation and Nemesis systems were great!

Honestly been binge watching alot of these lately. I love seeing you pick apart MMOs including some I've heard in passing, classics I've played before, etc, in a very unbiased and detailed manner. This is a lot of fun and I look forward to continuing to catch more! On that, I'd suggest you check out Chimeralands! It was a game I was so excited when I first jumped into,and then.. oh god. The cash shop things 🤣 Would def love to see your thoughts on that one!

What's funny: I played this back when it went free-to-play on Steam, and the alien invasion was the original intro-slash-tutorial, they've added those awful videos somewhere in the years since. I have absolutely no idea why they'd do that, the invasion worked really well at the time. The adventure packs used to be pretty much your character getting on a plane and flying elsewheres to fight evil-doers. I put a lot of hours into it, watching goofy movement powers like rolling up into a ball and blasting off, saving the cast of lost, rescuing cats. You didn't get far enough to get a Nemesis (I think? Maybe they paywalled it or just removed it all 'round)--you get to design your character's arch-rival, give them powers and a backstory and all sorta sorta. They'd then pop up periodically doing evil things that evil people do, starting short questlines. I personally loved that, it gave the whole thing a bit of camp that superhero media often needs--here I am as a hulking supermodel transformed by radioactive champagne, being chased by a grotesque lizard-woman who tried the same thing but didn't have the good fortune.

Yeah. That was one of the better idea's they had.

In this game healers can heal permanently with the energy mechanics. It's fun in alerts. The lack of rewards while leveling is bad but you can have gear that level up with you.

My head cannon is that josh's character just completely forgot to change into his super awesome hero costume and didn't realise the whole time

I think he fits. The way Josh intended 👌

What if that is his super awesome hero costume.

@@HappyBeezerStudios he runs into a phonebooth classic superman style and comes out in a different vest and shirt

I've always wanted a hero who just doesn't bother with a costume. You go to rob a store and one of the randos checking the beef jerky proceeds to wreck your entire gang, because they're that one hero who doesn't bother with a costume. Someone posts a video to a youtube expy of 'worlds worst bank robbery' and it's that same person who stepped out of line when the robbers came in and thrashed them. That kind of fun angle.

I remember when I was a kid and this game came out I got it for christmas and at first I really liked it. For that time and as a kid it was actually exciting, the combat classes and customization for me were really impressive. Some time later it turned into the basic free mmo and I actually learned what makes a mmo good so yeah. But I wish it was better, superhero mmos seemed like such a cool ideea and the comic bookish style was nice, DC online and Heroes vs Villans always seemed dull and depressing

My firmest memory of Champions Online, aside from balance issues reworking how my character functioned on a near daily basis even after launch, and the company resisting my cancellation costing me a couple hundred dollars... is Arcanaville from the City of Heroes forums responding to a statement by Jack Emmert that was just a mess of mixed metaphors. The exact quote that stuck in my head all these years was "this tells me that they don't understand how their own math functions." As a note, I don't know who Arcanaville is in real life, but she was a mainstay on the CoH forums, often providing good advice to the devs on how to tighten up their math and code. One user asked her why she didn't apply to them for a job and her response was "they can't afford me." She had some sort of career in high level mathematics. And while I can't remember anything other than that one line... I do remember her comprehensively, calmly and clearly tearing apart Jack Emmert for being a lackluster game developer.

shame you didnt get to see all the content the game has, One of the cooler systems are the freeform slots where you basically get free rein to make your heroes powers and its super fun and a lot of the other classes would probably be more fun then Mr punch. Im glad you covered this, I do love this game, would love to see if you cover stuff like CoH P server or maplestory and maybe Star Trek Online