Champions Online

The Qularr also serve as very numerous but still quite easy fodder for your hero (and other beginners - this isn't a solo instance) as you learn the basics of combat. This is something you'll actually have to do, as Champions has a striking, charge-and-release energy-based system that's unlike most MMOs and, for that matter, the majority of RPGs.

You still have skills, just a couple to begin with, but there's an important distinction between them; one does mild damage and charges up your energy, and the other expends energy for heavy damage. Also, rather than clicking these skills and waiting for predetermined cast times and cooldowns to play out, you're modulating the energy gain or cost, and how long the skill is effective for or how powerful it is, yourself. This is done by tapping or holding down hotkeys, or joypad buttons - Champions has been designed with the Xbox 360 controller in mind, even if the console version is currently off the radar. There's also a highly effective block that you won't need much in the early stages but will clearly be very important later on.

It's a flexible, rhythmic and satisfying scheme. It's easy, cathartic and fun to deal with large groups of enemies, even if the target selection is a little clumsy - and that's greatly assisted by the fact that enemies drop health, energy and power buffs. These really reduce downtime and keep the pace of combat high, close to hackandslash action-game levels, and in their way are just as satisfying as filling a bag with loot (although there's some of that, too).

Loot seems one of the weaker aspects of the game at this point; it's often hard to identify what slot the mystifyingly-named equipment items are for, and what benefit they'll have within Champions' initially obtuse RPG system. It's also hard to crave improvement to your appearance when the character editor lets you create such absurd and impressive heroes.

It's clearly in skill customisation - something you don't get to explore until the end of this five-level introduction - that Champions will offer its long-term reward and opportunities for showing off. However, once again, the skill-up interface - accessed from a database terminal - is a little confused and could use some clearer instruction and information. Champions Online's UI overall needs work - it's clear and attractive enough, but often doesn't offer the options and information you want, or where you'd expect to find it.

Before you get to spend skill points, you'll need to run through missions, mostly simple fetch-this kill-those save-them collect-that variants, although made more exciting by the dense enemy placement and brisk combat. Coming up on level 5, you'll be instructed to join an open mission, helping the hulking Ironclad repair and defend a giant cannon from the invaders. This works exactly like a Warhammer Online public quest, moving through three increasingly tough phases with differing objectives, although it's possible to solo with Ironclad's help. There's a player leaderboard at the end, but no loot.

Capping off the game's introduction is a solo Stronghold instance that has the player enter the Champions' HQ, which has been overrun by Doctor Destroyer and his robots - they've used the Champions' equipment to summon the Qularr invasion. Overcoming a mini-boss and some tight enemy groupings isn't too tough with the AI help, although you'll notice that long aggro ranges can make sticky situations tough to get out of in Champions Online - they're clearly tuned for the fast travel powers. Tiny, but well-staged and well-paced, this Stronghold bodes well for Champions' group content and set-piece missions.

Rewarding its completion with a travel power might seem a bit premature to City of Heroes veterans. But it's surely getting to create and fight your nemesis that presents the tempting medium-term levelling in goal in Champions Online, and there's a lovely logic to getting to set the seal on your character with another defining power - flight, super-speed, super-jump, teleportation, jet boots, swinging, acrobatics, ice slide or burrowing - at the end of the tutorial, and before stepping into the game proper. MMOs are rarely so generous.

All in all, it's a very encouraging start for Champions Online. I only had time for a brief glimpse at the content beyond these five levels, but it seemed of a similar density and quality, spread over much larger and more open zones (a desert and the Canadian wilderness). Cryptic has some work to do to clarify its interface and Champions RPG system - but the good news is that the raw, tactile accessibility and pace of the combat, and the bright, graphically slick setting more than make up for that in the early stages. We'll bring you more from the beta in due course as Champions heads towards its July 14th release.