Champions Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on the table-top game of the same name and developed by Cryptic Studios, the group that brought us the innovative City of Heroes and City of Villains. Champions is almost City of Heroes 2.

Cryptic is the shepherd of the Champions intellectual property — which Cryptic purchased outright from Hero Games — so some pen-and-paper RPG enthusiasts will already be familiar with Champions and the HERO system. First published in 1981, the Hero Role Playing Systems is a well-respected and robust system known for its character creation and customization process — two features that Cryptic has down pat and are building upon.

Highly customizable characters, from costumes to powers? Check. The character creation system is robust. It allows you to select color themes, provides you color palettes to choose from and also provides the most outlandish accessories you can think of. Instead of classes, a player selects powers and then customizes the powers. Players can also customize their character’s standing and moving stance as well as set facial animations.

A vast world? Check. Champions Online isn’t City of anything. True, there are cities. But they are large massive cities. There’s a whole world to play in with different factions, mad scientists and Godzil ... I mean Dinosaur Island. There are both mutant lizards and baddies to play with and destroy.

Expanded and improved sidekick system to allow players of differing levels to play together and yet both benefit from the experience? Check. The sidekick or apprentice-mentor system has manifested in many MMOs in various forms since it was introduced in City of Heroes, and Cryptic promises us a “new and improved” version of it in Champions Online.

Player vs. player, crafting and exploration? Check, check and check. So what makes Champions different from other MMOs out there?

For one, there’s the Nemesis system. How this translates in-game is that at the same time you are creating your hero, the game is creating your AI nemesis — your direct evil counterpart, your evil twin, your malevolent shadow who dogs your steps. He is mildly annoying and works to thwart you or put obstacles in your path in the lower levels, but you manage to get him thrown into prison somewhere between your 25th to 28th level. He breaks out of prison, though, when you reach level 30, when your powers and his come into their maturity and Nemesis missions begin.

Champions, the original pen-and-paper game is also unique in that it had an evolving universe. Heroes die and villains are locked away. Cities are destroyed and rebuilt, and Cryptic intends to retain that flavor with in-game world-changing events.

At the E3 preview, we were shown through several different world areas and several transportation devices, including a jetpack and a very cool flying disk. With fully customizable characters, it can be difficult at first glance to know what level a character could be, and one of the equipment cues that Cryptic uses are transportation devices. That flying disk started out looking like a manhole cover, but after many upgrades, it looked like a fancy flying saucer with twinkling lights and vapor trails.

Billed as an action-oriented online combat game and developed for PC as well as Xbox 360, Champions brings all the hallmarks of a classic action RPG to the MMO sandbox. Instead of waiting for bars to recharge, having to carry around items to replenish health and power, or depending on a teammate for heals, boosts can be found in game that provides different stat boosts. To use, run over them. Beware though, the booby-prizes or negative boosts also may be dropped. Mobs are tricky, you see, some may be still lethal after death. This actually is a way to control “boost rolling,” and the quantity and quality of boosts dropped is a method of scaling or tuning a scenario easily.

Due to launch in the fall of this year on the PC platform — with announcement of the Xbox 360 version to follow shortly — Champions is currently in beta. Good-looking graphics, fast-paced action, highly customizable characters, personal Arch Nemesis storylines and the team behind City of Heroes behind it: looking really good there, Cryptic!