definitely worth playing. Loads of fun, I just wish more people played this.

After six tries I couldn't get past the simulation/tutorial. There was no option to skip, so I just kept dying over and over. I give up.

Champions Online is an old game made from the structure of 1950-60s pulp comics; it very clearly shows how old it is when you load it up for the first time and it defaults to 1024 resolution. Graphics are super outdated (bloom effects can get super wonky over 200%), there's almost nothing to do at endgame as a single player, and there's almost never enough people around to do group activities unless you miracle your way into prime time, but beware of severe server lag and rubber banding up the wazoo. The past, present, and future of this game seems to be a cash-grab from new players to fund Arc's development. Despite having logged however long on Steam, I have ~2.5 years logged into this game, with about 40+ level 40s with tons of costume addons on an account I can't access anymore, back when there was a subscription service. The game's abilities change fairly often, but 1-40 is the same ol' grind.

Pros: This game has one of the best character creators and ability planners, ever. Gear obtained in the game rarely changes your character's costume (temporary items will, like mind control hats and gas masks), but at the very least there are costume NPC's who allow you to redesign your costume for a price. Unless something has changed, every time you level a character to the max (40?), you get another character slot.

Another pro is the sheer quantity of abilities available. It's worth investing in the freeform class since the game's archetypes are kind of generic and lacking in survivability, especially if you're intent on soloing dungeons to have any kind of fun in a game with very low player population; if you have friends, you can totally make a Holy Trinity group and explore nearly every aspect of the game, but for us soloers, the freeform class is the way to go. There is some crazy good synergy between the various abilities: my favorite build was a psychic astronaut witch who could debuff large groups so badly that she could stand around them and not need to heal while simultaneously draining their life, buffing allies, shooting magic missile barrages, and summoning small/big black holes. Hilariously fun.

There are holiday events, but they're a mixed bag. I thought the Halloween event one year was super amazing since big bosses spawned in the starting city, allowing for high level players to fight bosses for loots with newbies. When player participation goes up, fun increases (but so does lag ;P).

Cons: Combat is generic tab/auto targeting unless you play as a melee build where the game becomes more fun as an action beat'em up with random heal/damage/defense boons that get spat out of dead enemies. This game runs on ancient servers that make most actions take fractions of a second longer to use and players need to delay their next action until after the previous action is performed. Abilities that are flagged as "0.67 second" cast timers are basically instant, but require players to wait for their cast timers to go off or the ability will fail to cast; you can turtle with the block mechanic and use instant abilities in and out of blocking, but if you didn't wait for the spell to connect, the game will act like the giant beam of light you shot out your forehead was nothing at all, and you'll waste valuable time. This game's abilities are extremely detail-oriented, so if you're not into planning extensively for your future, you're in for a bad time.

There's only one real addition to combat mechanics: the block button. Blocking is about as boring as you'd expect, except with server/personal lag you oftentimes need to block a full second before the big explosion comes your way so you can survive it (especially if there's other people around). Blocking is an essential mechanic to survive most any encounter, especially against large groups of higher-level enemies; most endgame content requires spending valuable advantage points to improve block damage reduction, and some blocks are better than others. Obviously you can't use any ability while blocking, so you need to alternate between blocking and pushing buttons to get the best survival. Turtling is almost always the best strategy.

Server lag and rubber banding is just the worst in this game...really, most games on Arc have the worst lag, to the point where it is almost impossible to move, let alone enjoy yourself. If you can get past this game's many, many faults, this game is halfway decent, if not an amusing distraction from your main hobby. The game is, after all, free, so you might as well spend a few hours playing it on Steam (I do NOT recommend using Arc's platform - very buggy), and if you want to see the game's real strengths, spend $22.50 on a freeform slot (and maybe a cheap costume addon for better immersion). This game is genuinely fun and challenging at lower levels. Oh and spoilers: there's a "Fu Manchu Chinee" villain whose accent is played for laughs. Pretty bad.

Recommended to players with disposable income + patience.