Monster Island is a higher level zone in Champions, and is the home of Dr Moreau where he carries out his sick experiments on animals in the hope of creating a 'manimal' army. One of the Champions' leaders, Dr Silverback, is one of these creatures; a gorilla with extraordinary intellect, Dr Silverback escaped the clutches of Dr Moreau when a group of heroes raided the island. Sadly, another manimal Gorilla, Qwyjibo, was made into a monster when faced with a terrible choice to save his village or sacrifice himself.

Other zones include a frozen Canadian area and Snake Gulch, which is infested with evil robot cowboys. You don't see that in an MMO every day do you?

Another major part of Champions is PvP. Fans have argued that heroes on the same faction shouldn't be fighting each other, however, PvP takes place under the guise of competitions and events. Along with regular duelling, characters can also take part in organised arena teams, which reward titles and costumes, or free-for-all events such as 'BASH'. And combat is certainly interesting and varied when you consider all the different methods of attack. Duel-wielding swordsmen versus casters versus fist-fighters makes for an interesting battle!  There are also apocalypse maps set in a high-security prison which play out a little like DotA, where one team of players faces another. One team must try and escape the prison while the other team must prevent it.

A feature in Champions that stands out is the Nemesis system. What would a superhero be without its very own arch enemy? Players actually get to design their Nemesis, who will tackle them throughout the game until the inevitable show-down takes place. With a Nemesis around, characters can never rest easy. You might be relaxing in Millennium city or fighting mobs in Lemuria when a group of minions attack you, but there's always the main Nemesis storyline to complete, which is likely to require friends at times.

Groups are important in the game, hence the 'multi-player' part of 'MMO'. At the end of each major story arc in the game, players will be faced with an event that requires a group, but dotted through Champions, players will find 'lairs', which are known as instances or dungeons in other games. Players will find some of the best content and toughest challenges in the game here. However, because superheroes don't fall strictly within the 'Healer' 'Tank' or 'DPS' roles, Cryptic has had to be creative with boss fights. Content designer Kevin Stocker talked about this in his recent developer diary:

“The goal is to develop an interesting gimmick within the encounter that doesn't rely on a particular group makeup.

One example of how we do this is in Andrith Ruins. The main boss, Vikorin the Blind sits immobile on a temple in the center of the room. Without getting too specific (you've gotta figure it out yourself!), the positioning of your team can affect what powers he uses. There are several environmental hazards in the room that turn on and off and get more and more hectic and difficult as the fight progresses through three distinct phases. This creates a fun and dynamic fight without being centered around, "the mage needs to decurse."”

For more of an in-depth look at the game, be sure to read our hands-on preview from May, which includes thoughts from the game's design director, Bill Roper.

Throughout development, Cryptic has released dozens of screenshots, showing heroes in various situations and displaying the massive variety of costumes, powersets and abilities open to players. You can browse through images of in-game NPCs, fight screenshots and concept art in our Champions Online gallery. There are also many videos and trailers for Champions, some showing certain game features like 'Swinging' , a particularly cool way to get around, or an overview of the character creation process. You can see all the videos here.

We were also treated to an exclusive look at all the Hero and Villain profiles recently. If you want to know what makes the important characters of Champions Online tick, read up on their backgrounds in the lengthy features.

Champions Online goes live in NA today, and in Europe this Friday. Visit the official site for details on how to get your hands on the game.

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