Scarab

Scarab is my Gadgeteer. The goal of the build is to create a solid core out of the gadget powers and go from there. I went through a couple iterations of the gadget build before settling on this one.

Powers

Sonic Blaster (Rank 1 + Refraction of Sound) — This is a nice energy builder with decent damage (as energy builders go) and a good energy return rate. With the advantage, it goes from a single target attack to a cone and this makes it even better because then it can be used as a carrier for the dreaded Sonic Device.

Gauntlet Chainsaw (Rank 3)– Ok, so I go from being a hero to being that guy in Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Well, I am supposed to be arresting the bad guys, not killing them so… maybe the chainsaw just stuns them! That’s it! It’s a Taser Saw!!! Overblown rationalizations for a silly power aside, GC is a great melee power, perhaps one of the best in the game. It is a high damage, maintained, cone melee attack that ticks every half-second. Its only drawback is the fact that it has a prohibitive energy cost.

I putzed around with lots of different builds with lots of different attacks, and had even tried the Chainsaw and dismissed it because of its high energy cost. However, I later revisited GC and specced into a build with super Endurance and Intelligence. With the extra energy and reduced power cost, I could now run the saw for a full maintain, cutting through bad guys like teens in a slasher flick. If you spec correctly, you can cut through henchmen, villains and even master villains in a few seconds, making this the signature power of the build.

Sonic Device (Rank 1) — Though this power does good damage, its main purpose in Scarab’s build is for crowd control. I charge in with my cone Sonic Blaster and then click on the device and all of the henchmen are either dead or stunned. More fresh meat for the Chainsaw!

Personal Force Field (Rank 2) — PFF is a power that has taken its share of criticism and rightfully so; it is probably the least useful passive defense in the game. Still, I was determined to make use of Personal Force Field and Scarab can do so because of his mix of super Endurance, great crowd control and high damage output. Scarab is hoping to stun and kill (taze) his opponents quickly and only needs the “up-front” defense that PFF provides. Is PFF going to fail me at higher levels? That is part of the experiment.

Field Surge (Rank 1) — This power allows me to regenerate my force field and doubles as an oh crap power when things get dicey. I would never take PFF as my defense without also picking up Field Surge.

Munitions Bots & Medical Drones (Rank 1) — I took both types of bots because I wanted to go with the Power Suit/Gadget theme and I thought robots would be cool. The munitions bots are pretty good pets, doing great cone damage in their immobile turret form. The med drones are ok as a maintenance heal, but when there is an emergency, they are either healing someone else, on a cooldown, or dead. Fortunately, between my highly offensive style, my force field and field surge, I rarely need the drones.

Field Eruption (Rank 1 + Gravitational Polarity) — This power is used almost exclusively as a damage buff.

Stats

Scarab has super Endurance and Intelligence. This combo allows me to run the chainsaw with impunity and has the nice side effects of reducing cooldowns and buffing pet damage (though I think the way pets scale with stats is pretty weak).

Tactics

My tactics on Scarab are pretty simple: energy build, trigger sonic device, chainsaw. On tough enemies, I can use Field Eruption for the damage buff and make sure the bots are in their offensive turret mode. Large groups, or very powerful enemies can surprise me with their incoming damage and so against such foes, I have to keep an eye on my health bar and use Field Surge as soon as I start taking damage (meaning my force field has dropped). Unfortunately, this leaves my

Thoughts

Though it is common knowledge by now, one thing to note about Scarab’s build is that he lacks Experimental Blaster, the default starter attack for a gadgeteer. This is a low-damage, long-charging blast that has a number of wacky effects that have anywhere from a 1-20% chance to proc on an attack. Well, what I would really like to proc is DEATH, so I think this power underperforms. If you save your cash through the first 5 levels, you can respec out of that starter power and get another. I dropped the blaster and got Gauntlet Chainsaw which is infinitely superior.

I have mixed thoughts about Scarab. On one hand, he is fun to play and pretty effective… and a snappy dresser to boot! On the other hand, at level 21, I feel that the build is mostly complete and that any powers I get now are just gravy. This brings up one of the design oddities of Champions Online: there aren’t any cooldowns on attacks and thus, you don’t need to acquire multiple attacks to form a chain. For Scarab, this meant that quite early, I had my full attack chain (Sonic Blaster, Gauntlet Chainsaw and Sonic Device). Similarly, at the moment, I don’t feel the need for any more defenses. That leaves utility powers and there aren’t many. So, though I may be having fun with this guy, being “done” with his build at level 21 is a little disheartening.

One of my favorite World of Warcraft commercials has always been Mr. T and his Night Elf Mohawk. Blizzard as part of their five year anniversary has added the Nelf Mohawk grenade.

The Nelf Mohawks are outside every races starting zone. Go visit the Mohawk himself, make him “pity the fool” and he will give you five grenades. You can go back and acquire more once you run out.

Throw the grenade at another player and everyone in that area will receive Mr. T’s famous hair cut. Its in the game today. I pity the fool who don’t get a Mohawk grenade. Faq’s are here. The commercial is here fool.

My Champions Online review is below starting with character creation.

Character Creation: Simply put, character creation in Champions Online is one of the most verbose systems I have ever dealt with.  The closest thing to compare it to is City of Heroes, which makes perfect sense since Cryptic Studios developed that superhero title as well.  In Champions players can create the most insanely awesome, copycat or downright ugly characters that their imaginations allow.  There is a metric ton of typical options, sliders for body type attributes, and even more options that enable you to modify those attributes into robot parts, wings, a demon tail or objects that are barely describable (T-Rex arms!).  Assuming you manage to pull off a sweet design you can even save and share it with friends.

Character creation doesn’t end after the ‘Play’ button though.  Throughout the game players can specialize their character in numerous other ways, some purely cosmetic, some that actually impact gameplay.  Cosmetically, one can chose where, and with what color, our spells fire from.  Want fireballs to launch from you chest and appear as iceballs?  So be it.  Gameplay customization can be summed up as specializing, but Cryptic enables players to chose basically anything.  To the point that you can horribly gimp your toon.  You can roll these poor decisions back – a tanking toon with threat reduction is bad? – but it’s a costly process.

For all the choice built in to the feature, Cryptic did botch one aspect of creation.  Costume creation contains so many options, with so many dropdown boxes that it’s common to be unable to locate what you want to modify.  The developers seemed to realize this, because they allow you to click on specific parts of the costume to modify in an attempt to pinpoint such things, but it isn’t that accurate.  A minor, but rather annoying, inconvenience in one of the title’s most stunning features.

Opening & Lore:  Thanks to Cryptic’s acquisition of the entire Champions intellectual property Champions Online has quite a bit of lore.  Although the stories and heroic deeds done by the property’s heroes aren’t well known to the general public, it doesn’t make them any less enjoyable.  From the early tutorial to the powerful super villains, everything has a greater purpose.  Much of lore is forgettable, but the truly epic stories and tasks are ingrained in players thanks to the an extra detail, full voice acting.

The early public quests sets the tone for the rest of the important battles.  A champion rises to the cause, explaining the requirements, setting the stage and pumping up the participants for the multi-stage task.  The task(s) isn’t all that memorable, but it’s amazing how eloquent voice acting and good character writing can sear a setting in one’s brain.  On the flipside, it goes to show how easily all the text-based lore and character development is forgotten.  One can only hope that Crytpic realizes the importance of voicing future content.

It’s worth noting that Cryptic initially filled the website with new lore.  An act that has tailed off since launch, likely due to devs being busy with fixing and extending the game itself.

User Interface:  Champions Online sticks with the User Interface that has become common since the original EverQuest burst on to the gaming scene.  Spells and abilities are launched from a default bar on the bottom of the screen, the inventory pops up on the right side of the screen, and the ever popular minimap resides in the upper right corner.  The basics are nothing but familiar except for the gear that boosts character statistics.

Because Cryptic Studios wanted to make the costume players chose last the entire game, or until they wish to change the look, the gear equipped has absolutely no impact on a character’s look.  This means that loot isn’t applied to a character in the same way as most popular MMOGs.  Out goes your token slot – head, waist, legs, shoulders, etc - Instead players are given nine slots to work in whatever boosts they can finagle without overlapping types.  An interesting design decision, even if it is a little confusing at first.

Quests & Grinding:  Quite simple, questing is your only option.  The mobs in Champions Online offer so little XP per kill as to become negligible when compared to the massive amounts of experience gained by completing quests.  With the balance heavily favoring questing – something some players hate, and others love – the problems arise when players clear an area’s quests but aren’t high enough level to progress to a new level.  Thankfully Cryptic has been adding extra quests for those sparse areas.

Dungeons:  Solidsamantha has over two dozen hours clocked but has never entered what one would call a dungeon.  She’s cleared plenty of group content, villains of varying difficulty, but there’s never been a dungeon crawl, complete with a loot-hording boss at the end.They do exist, Cryptic calls them ‘Lairs.’  These challenges have been available to her, but have never been worth the effort. Following the path of least resistance mantra, Solidsagart has progressed through solo content.

Polish:  It’s obvious that Champions Online needed more time in the oven.  It’s been over a month since going live and the game still has issues.  No MMOGs ship in a perfect state, but Cryptic continues to have problems across the board.  Cryptic is handling it well, issuing patches and community updates to keep players abreast of the situation and show them that the developers are aware of the issues.  To make amends Cryptic has issued free playtime and retcons – aka respecs – to subscribers.  A small measure that actually goes a long way.

Uniqueness:  There’s only one obvious comparison that can be made, City of Heroes (and Villains).  Considering that Cryptic Studios also made CoH, it’s easy to assume that Champions Online is simply CoH v1.5.  The assumption isn’t far off the mark at first glance, and likely why the stigma still remains, but Champions is far deeper than a weird rip-off.

Sure, both titles feature fast-paced action and revolve around superheroes, but Warhammer Online and WoW feature fantasy settings and they aren’t the same.  Just like the fantasy pair, the worlds of CO and CoH are drastically different, enabling the developers to go in a variety of directions.  The reoccurring knock of v1.5 is the result of Cryptic’s developers not diversifying the title from the get go.  This was likely a conscious decision; having some familiarity is a good draw for MMO gamers in general, not just former CoH players.

To be clear, it’s the worlds that diversify the content – the story, the writing and the presentation.  The combat remains fairly close to CoH’s, although Champions’ combat is faster and more arcade-y than CoH’s already arcade-y combat.

Overall:  Champions Online offers a unique experience in today’s crowded MMOG genre.  It’s extremely casual and alt friendly, but is hamstrung by a lack of group content early on.  By and large the game is entirely soloable up until the lairs become a more frequent occurrence later in the game.  Champions Online is far from perfect, but as one of the few non-fantasy titles available it holds its own and will only get better in the coming months.

I’ve been talking with friends about Champions Online builds. Few games allow the amount of freedom and choice seen in CO’s character development; it is by far the game’s strongest point. However, such freedom doesn’t come without cost. A game with an open build system risks having powers that are must-haves, or on the opposite side of the scale, powers that are useless when compared to other powers of a similar type. This leads to players making similar “cookie-cutter” builds so as to be as effective as their peers. Another possibility is that with so many choices, some players are overwhelmed and make bad decisions, gimping themselves and quitting the game in frustration.

Fortunately, building a character in Champions Online is easy. With a little forum research and experimentation, you can make lots of viable character builds that are effective and fun to play. In the next few posts, I am going to go over five character builds that I am currently enjoying. I will give you an overview of the powers and advantages in the build, the ideas behind it, and my play experience with it. I am under no illusion that these builds are the absolute best builds in the game, but they are fun and effective and I think you will like them.

Paragon

My goal when I build a character is to take an idea, stick with it and make it as effective as I can. With Paragon, the idea was a Power Armor build focused around melee. Now, melee builds are generally considered to be weaker than their ranged counterparts, due largely to the fact that the melee powers do only a small bit more damage than ranged powers and are a ton more inconvenient to bring to bear – no big deal if we are sticking mostly to PvE. Let’s see how it turned out.

Powers (in no particular order)

Wrist Bolters– Nothing special; just a run of the mill energy builder. At one point I used a full respec to try to spec out of Bolters and get the Gadgeteer’s energy builder, but could not then get the rest of the powers to fit, so I am sort of stuck with these.

Laser Sword (Rank 3) — I did spec out of the Power Gauntlet and took this as my second power and then proceeded to max it out. It is the bread and butter power of the build.

Invulnerability (Rank 3) — This is a good passive… not as good as Regeneration at low levels, but I think it outpaces it at higher levels.

Energy Shield (Rank 2 + Laser Knight)– Laser Knight is a great advantage for melee characters as it causes a weak version of your shield to automatically trigger every time you use a melee attack. Most experiments put LK’s damage resistance bonus at around 30%, which is well worth the 10% damage penalty you take for using it.

Spark Storm (Rank 2)– At some point, I realized that I wanted a better way to deal with loads of henchmen besides charging around the battlefield trying to get a whack at them with the laser sword. I looked for a PBAoE that would fit the “Android Galactic Bounty Hunter” vibe that I had with the character and Spark Storm fit the bill. It is a little clunky because it targets randomly and often knocks enemies away, but it works well enough especially when used in tandem with…

Sonic Device (Rank 1)– Sonic Device is an awesome crowd control power when piggy-backed off of an AoE attack. This power followed by Spark Storm is a typical opening move that kills most of the henchmen, leaving only the villains to face the wrath of my laser sword.

Unbreakable (Rank 1) & Resurgence (Rank 1) – When things start getting hairy, these powers gives me time to heal and reassess the situation. Between her invulnerability and these two emergency powers, Paragon is hard to kill even when facing hordes of enemies.

Arcane Vitality (Rank 3) — I think of this power as my healing nanobots. As you can see, Paragon is pretty serious about her defense. AV provides a nice maintenance heal if necessary, though I don’t have the presence to pull off any emergency healing with this power. It is also a nice teaming tool as it can heal in a cone and generate aggro.

Demolish (Rank 1 + Below the Belt) — Demolish is a great power that reduces the damage resistance of the target by up to 21% when fully charged. When fighting tough villains, this is a great opener. Followed by…

Force Eruption (Rank 1 + Gravitational Polarity) — FE + GP makes for a great power. For a low-energy, almost instantaneous tap, you create a small buffing cloud that increases your (base) damage by 20%.

Defensive Combo (Rank 1)– This power is a crappy attack that generates some threat and provides a single stack of the Defiance buff (which I think is about 6% damage resistance?). Of course, at one time this power provided multiple stacks of Defiance, which made it pretty darn overpowered. Now, with only a single stack, it is mostly a throwaway power which I keep for the odd occassion where I have to generate more aggro than my fire-wielding duoing partner.

Stats

Paragon has a 3-stat build with CON and END super-statted and STR built through talents and items. Constitution is important because of Invulnerability (and the hit points don’t hurt either). Endurance gives me enough energy to get 5-7 taps of the Laser Sword after some energy building. Strength enhances the Invulnerability and allows me to open fights by throwing vehicles… which is just plain fun.

Tactics

For most combats, I toss something large and heavy at a random opponent, doing some damage and knocking one or more enemies down. Then, I charge in with Wrist Bolters blazing, waiting to get some energy. Once I have enough of an energy bar, I turn off the Bolters, click Sonic Device and then hold Spark Storm which nukes and stuns the crowd. By now, most of the henchmen are dead, or knocked away, leaving a villain or two who are no match for my Laser Sword.

Tougher combats have a similar start (henchmen do quite a bit of damage in CO and so getting them dead is often a priority), but I usually follow up with Demolish and/or Force Eruption (just a tap to create the Polarity buff) and then go to town. It is a pretty simple attack sequence, but it is very effective.

When things go bad, I can use Unbreakable and Arcane Vitality to halt the incoming damage and heal, or I can use Resurgence to “reset” the battle. I can also use a fully-charged Force Eruption to knock everyone away, or tap Sonic Device and then tap Force Eruption for a stun. Hopefully, one of these two tactics will give me time to back off, break line of sight and then use Arcane Vitality to heal and get me back into fighting shape.

I almost never block-turtle with Paragon, since I find that tactic boring, and it is largely ineffective unless you are have Regen. However, when facing ludicrous odds, I will sometimes aggro a spawn and block while flying backwards, looking for a corner or obstacle to break line of sight. The spawn will then spread itself out some as the enemies charge me, allowing me to pick off a few before the main crowd arrives.

Thoughts

I think Paragon’s build shows the crazy stuff you can do with Champions Online’s character system. I have powers from no less than seven sets in her build and still she comes out as a well-themed character (with the tiny cheat of the “Healing Nanobots”). She is also effective and fun to play. Ultimately, I would like to get her a Munitions power so that I have a reasons for the holstered pistols in the costume.

That’s it for now. I hope you like the build. I will fire off another in a day or so. Happy Hunting!

In an attempt, possibly last ditch effort, at regaining Age of Conan’s hundreds-of-thousands of lost subscribers Funcom has announced some brand new incentives.  For starters, there’s double experience gain through the end of the month.  Should you continue to subscribe for two months after November’s demise, you’ll be granted access to the upcoming The Secret World beta test.

But that’s not all! Continue further and you’ll unlike these fabulous gifts.  The higher tiers include the bonuses from the lower ones – ie. a one-year subscription gets everything.

• Subscribing for 1 month gives 7 days extra game time for no additional cos.
• Subscribing for 3 months adds a guaranteed spot in the open beta for The Secret World.
• Subscribing for 6 months also gives a level 40 helmet with a 10% XP modifier.
• Subscribing for 12 months gives a free copy of the Rise of the Godslayer expansion.

Hello,

In recent blog posts from Tobold and an MMOCRUNCH writer the subject of story has come up. My thoughts about story from any traditional RPG standpoint would be comparable to a terrific book that the player just started reading. These are details that we must plod through as our characters get fleshed out as we level ‘through’ the story.

However, in MMORPG’s I always felt as if storyline was an understatement. Or a backdrop if you will to my own set of experiences built from playing. Whether it be on a group, solo or raid level, I am interacting with others. My interpersonal experiences make much better memories than the what the game company could write for me.

As in EVE, the backstory of the game is an afterthought. “Oh, I can’t do any more caldari missions because it’ll ruin my Gallente standing”, would be the extent of the storyline impact on my character. If you read back some of the past announcements I spoke about on the show, you find far more interesting ‘dirt’ so to speak.

One thing I might add, even though Dragon Age:Origins has a converging main storyline, it has many choices of inter-character interaction. Each one of those multiple choice questions you answer has an impact on your story. Akin to TES:Oblivion as you have a main storyline and many offshoots or side quests as we call it, much like MMORPG’s. Although your choices rarely affected the fact that the Emporer (left) would die in the first few minutes of the game, and his son at the end of the main storyline. Those sidequests were great distractions and added plenty of replayability to the game.

Now heres a thought, what if we added that aspect to an MMORPG. Multiple choices in a common storyline for different outcomes and rewards. Add a possible PVP element and you might have more people paying attention to your choices other than “accept quest”, “finish quest” and “quit”. It’s just a thought.

I realize that Dragon Age: Origins has no place here other than it is built and plays exactly like an MMORPG. The elements of the game: Stats, gear, combat and even the story has been giving me the “I wish this was  online” feeling. I got that feeling from Fallout 3, another story driven game from Bethesda, the same company that made TES:Oblivion.

The truth on my experience with Fallout 3. I was into it for one week and grew extremely bored and stopped playing it. Oh, the storyline was great, as I heard from buddies that junked out of the game for weeks on end. However, it lacked one fundamental aspect: That interpersonal interaction that I was used to from playing MMORPG’s. I was spoiled.

Soon after that I was invited to the Fallen Earth beta. I thought that this was going to be answer to my prayers. Unfortunately, there is exactly zero story to Fallen Earth but the chat window provided enough drama to keep me interested.

One of the main draws of gaming is having people make interesting choices. If I am not immersed somewhat in my environment then the people become the catalysts to make those choices. If I do not have that then the game has a chance to enter what I call “Game Limbo”. Which is located on a shelf directly over my computer monitor.

For now neither Dragon Age: Origins and EVE have suffered that fate. EVE gives me 100% interpersonal connection, I am in a corp of great people and we are having a great time playing together.  DA:O, on the other hand, is giving me one hell of a story so far. I am enjoying both, but if it was the other way around I wouldn’t play them.

Why? Because I am so done with the traditional sword and sorcery online game and it’s scary to be in outer space all alone; In space no one can hear you scream.

Play safe, Frank

PS: Callan, stats are not story, experiences make stories. The stats on that gear that you got is just a trophy but the 2 hour long fight to down the boss is the story. But I’m sure that most people couldn’t tell me why they were fighting that boss in the first place.

Any RPG that bases its re-playability on loot is going to be compared to MMOG.  Considering that most of the endgame content in Borderlands is based around gathering loot, a common draw to stereotypical MMOG, the comparison only seems fair.  The enticement of gearing out your character and reaching the level cap – level 50 in Borderlands – isn’t its failure though, but its greatest success in claiming anMMOG label.  Rather it falters in other impersonations, including story, NPC interactions, and connectiveness.

Borderlands is a beautiful game, set in the colorful, and hard, world of Pandora, but the story is downright dreadful.  It isn’t poorly written, it’s, for all intents and purposes, simply non-existent.  That may be a bit hyperbolic of me, there is a story, but if I were to layout the story in a text document it’d likely only reach a few pages.  The story is in sad state, and ultimately a missed opportunity when one considers how well the extraneous dialogue – quest text, NPC and players barks – was delivered to players.

NPC interactions are encompassed in that extraneous dialogue, and each and every one of them was fantastic.  Through a combination of art, video directing and hilarious writing, each non-playable character was given its own place in Pandora, its own personality and reason for existing.  Some were bad guys, others good, while one is as blind as a bat that constantly jokes about his condition.  They nailed the delivery, but not the quantity; there is only a handful of NPCs, be they quest givers or boss mobs in the game.  A desolate world indeed.  Borderlands was light on the interactions for a standard RPG, let alone a title being compared to an MMOG.

Gearbox Software missed a perfect chance to create a strong Borderlands community.  The company started things off right, releasing an interactive spec page ahead of release, but failed to capitalize post-launch.  Outside of the forums – which are currently rife with bug complaints – there’s nothing to grow the community.  No loot database (yes, the loot is largely dynamic and random, but there are common factors and drops that could be tracked) or even a helpful manual to explain the intricate specializations to newbies.  Had the company chose to invest in growing and supporting a community Gearbox would recuperate those expenses, and then some, on DLC.

Let’s get one thing straight, Borderlands was never advertised by Gearbox Software as an MMOG.  The comparisons have all been made by gamers and writers, such as myself, who saw the common trends in game design merging in the FPS/RPG hybrid that is Borderlands.  Gearbox didn’t perfect this blend, but that doesn’t stop the title from being chock full of character and re-playability.  Oh, and fun as hell.

In a surprise move by many a loyal fan, Blizzard has introduced non combat vanity pets to the blizzard store. They do look very cool, but I am not sure if they are worth the $10 fee. The pets are bind on account, so every character current and future can have the pet. Here is the post by Blizz;

Today we’re pleased to introduce the Pet Store for World of Warcraft, a new way for players to obtain in-game pets to join them on their adventures in Azeroth. Two brand-new companions are now available for purchase exclusively at the Pet Store in the online Blizzard Store: Lil’ K.T. and the Pandaren Monk.

Make a Difference: Pandaren Monk Charity Pet

Enter the Pandaren Monk, ( Panda ) a martial-arts expert who’s here to help celebrate the upcoming fifth anniversary of World of Warcraft. He may be cute, but he’s proof that even the softest of critters can overcome the hardest of circumstances. For every Pandaren Monk that finds its way to a player’s side between now and the end of the year (December 31, 2009 at 11:59 PDT), we’ll donate 50 percent of the $10 purchasing price to the Make-a-Wish Foundation in an effort to brew up a little hope, strength, and joy in a child’s life.

Lil’ K.T., the Littlest Lich

Lil’ K.T. is a miniature lich who bears a striking resemblance to the legendary lord of Naxxramas, Kel’Thuzad. But don’t let his diminutive stature fool you: Lil’ K.T. has a diabolical laugh and wields true power at his bony fingertips, randomly wreaking icy havoc on critters who dare to cross his path. You can now buy this new pet for $10 on the Blizzard Store. (Lil’ K.T. )

In order to receive a purchased pet, you’ll need to merge your World of Warcraft account with a Battle.net account. For more information on Battle.net, please visit the FAQ.  For more information on the new Pet Store, visit the Pet Store FAQ.

I’m a pretty big fan of sim games, especially the Sim City series, so I was pretty excited to get my hands on Cities XL.  Cities XL is a next generation city builder game that combines elements of MMO games by allowing you to interact with thousands of others city builders.  Monte Cristo, the developers behind Cities XL, have done something that Maxix (developers behind Sim City) hasn’t been able to do for over a decade, completely revitalize the city sim game.  Check out the Cities XL review below.

As with any MMO, the first thing you do in CitesXL is create a avatar.  This is mainly pointless as your avatar just sits in a little window at the top of your screen watching you as you build your city.  You can take you avatar on a stroll through your city or other players cities, but again it’s very pointless.

Next we are taken to Planet mode, this is where we can select our location to build our city.  Each location on the map has certain resources such as fuel, water, food and holidays.  Holidays just means your cities resource will be tourism.  Most cities give you two or three resources and you have to decide what you want.

Cities XL City Building

Now we can finally get to actually building our city.  The game is a bit complicated and works off a different system than the SimCity series did, so I would definitely recommend taking the tutorials.  Cities XL works off a class based system, you have unqualified, qualified, executive and elite residence.  Unqualified workers require much less city services such as education, health, police, etc.   While elite residence require the best of everything which can make your city budget explode.

The class system is the biggest change that Cities XL brings to the genre as well as the best.  I always found in SimCity once you got over the initial hump of starting your city, the game became extremely easy.  With CitiesXL as you grow your city the game actually becomes harder making you really have to watch your budget.

Cities XL also provides mega structures that you can add to your city like the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower and other famous structures as well as a blueprint feature where players can create there own mega structures.

Cities XL Trading

Another change is the trading system.  There are about a dozen or so resources you can produce in your city and it needs all of them to be successful.  However it is not possible for a city to actually produce all its resources so you will be forced to trade.

If you are playing solo there is a default corporation you can trade with, however you will not be able to bargain with them as you would with other players in online mode.

While innovative this is where my biggest grip with Cities XL is.

The way trading works is you don’t buy X amount of resources, you create a contract with a player that basically states I pay you $X each month and you give me X amount of resources.  While this doesn’t sound like it’s a big deal, it is.  City resources and budgets are constantly fluctuating which causes contracts to constantly break.

A month in the game is a few mins, so 5 mins from now I might not have the money to keep my contract going.   Contract breaks are not always your fault either.  The other person might not have the resource or money to pay you, so it will break because of them.  As you start getting further in the game you will constantly have the trading window open, which makes the game frustrating.

I would much rather work off a unit system where I buy 500 units of fuel, then once I start to run out I can buy more.  Not as realistic, but much less of a hassle.

Cities XL vs SimCity

Aside from the class system and trading, what separates Cities XL from the SimCity series is that you can build your city in any manner you like.  You don’t have to have industry, office building or huge highways if you don’t want to.  You can create ski or beach resorts, instead of a city, create farm land and provide food to other players.   Become a industrial power house and provide that to other players.  There’s more than one way to create a city with Cities XL which also provides more replay value.

Cities XL Subscription

While you can play the game offline, trading is an important aspect that adds another level to the game, plus it’s just fun to compete with other players.  However the current $9.25/month price is just not worth it in my opinion.  Even at the 3 month price of $6.32 it’s still too high.

Aside from trading and viewing other peoples cities there’s really no reason to pay a subscription fee.  I have yet to chat with anyone in game and most of the time I feel like I am playing a solo game anyway.  The price seems way to high just to be able to trade resources with other players.  I would consider $2/month, but it really should be free.

Overall the game is great, if you were a fan of SimCity your going to love Cities XL.  If you’re not keen on paying a monthly fee you’ll still have a blast playing in solo mode.  Hell you never know, with the recent switch of some MMOs to the F2P model, I wouldn’t be surprised seeing Cities XL as a F2P game sometime in the future.

This past weekend I trekked to Oaks, PA for the first GameX convention and located the Hi-Rez Studios booth for some hands on time with Global Agenda. Michal Adams, an Associate Producer and PR person for Hi-Rez, was kind enough to sit down with me after my play session (shown) for a lengthy Q&A session covering the title, the company, Global Agenda’s creative pricing model and more.