Champions Online is a lot like its predecessor, City of Heroes, sans the City of Villians side. In it, players assume the role of a superhero of their own creation and do their part to protect the world. It's not a completely new setting, as the superhero MMO has been done a few times before, but one can't help but feel a little excited to spent time outside of the typical swords-n'-sorcery backdrop that so many MMOs take place in.
Cryptic has done a wonderful job of taking the superhero mythos and making a believable world out of it. The areas to play in are huge, and once you have a travel power (such as flight, super-powered jumping or tunneling), you can rise up above it all and take it all in. The sounds are also pretty great, with music and sound effects that resemble the sort of things you'd hear in a 90s-era comic book cartoon. Most of the MMO staples present are molded to fit the superhero universe; guilds are supergroups, parties are teams, equips take the form of DNA mutations, and so on. And then there are all the Champions Online Gold that constantly zip and zoom around it all.
The players of Champions are one of the most important aspects of the game's atmosphere, and that's an awesome thing for an MMO to accomplish.
There is an insane amount of customization to do before entering the world. No one need worry about being stuck in an avatar that resembles everyone else's; with all the avatar options, you can make literally anything you want. In my case, I made a gunslinging, seven-foot-tall reptilian pirate. I've also seen elaborate mechas, flying monkeys, and even a superhero version of Zach Morris from Saved by the Bell. The only limit, besides the fact that you can't make your hero fat, is your imagination. A bit of your character's detail is lost once you enter the game Champions Gold, but it doesn't take much away from the fact that you still feel like something of your own creation among thousands of other works of imagination (or clever rip offs of pre-existing creations).
