Champions Online

The basic rhythm of the game is this: hammer away at a single main power (firing bolts of Dark energy out of our fingertips, in our case) in order to build up a resource called Equilibrium, which you can then spend on the rest of your powers - we have telekinesis, a stronger energy beam, a force-field knock-back and others. It's a clever way of re-wiring the standard RPG resource mechanic so you always have something to do - always a button to mash. It's repetitive, but fast-paced and satisfyingly rhythmic; although it's not quite a brawler, positioning and timing are definitely more important than most MMORPGs.

There's a little more dynamic scripting and interaction than you're used to from MMOs, too; get spotted by a scout and guard-raptors will suddenly spawn around you in groups, while you can pick up and hurl level furniture at your enemies for a spot of extra damage. That said, it's not a radical departure, for the most part working on the same principles of "pulling" monster spawns and keeping an eye out for wandering patrols. Target-selection is simple and trouble-free at all times, and aside from health or buff pick-ups, regular monsters don't drop loot to slow you down.

"Whether it's PC or console, we're striving to introduce action to the genre," says Saffronoff. "Consoles just make it an easy door into that, actually. We're tackling combat for console by just giving players a reason to move around, and giving them some kind of visceral feedback for their actions."

What we can't get a sense for, in solo cheat mode, is how party dynamics will work when there are no set classes, and each player can mould their powers however they want. Experience with City of Heroes suggests that this will all sort itself out, somehow - but Cryptic isn't going to leave it to chance. You'll be able to switch between standard group roles that will accentuate that particular side of your character; for example, pick "healer" and your health will be lowered, and Equilibrium increased to make you both more vulnerable and able to heal more. There'll be no penalty or cost at all for swapping roles - you'll effectively be switching from "solo" to "party" mode, and picking which archetype you want to play each time.

A similar "good problem to have" that Cryptic faces is this: when it's possible to create such striking and individual character designs from the outset, how can players get the visual feedback of character progression through armour sets that is the primary motivator for most MMOs? "Obviously being able to show off your trophies, as it were - 'I've done this, look at me' - is a big part of every MMO," says Saffronoff. "There's a social aspect, a competitive aspect." Although loot is less central to this game, there will certainly be desirable costume elements (think City of Heroes' cape) that you'll need to unlock through expense or effort, though any of these can be turned off if you want to showcase your pure, original design. "There are going to be pieces of costumes that you can only get if you've accomplished a lot," Saffronoff reassures us.

It's impossible to get a sense of the scale of Champions Online from a poke around one instance, but what Saffronoff tells us suggests that Cryptic is, sensibly, opting for a relatively small number of relatively large zones at launch - all the better to fit into the game's tight development schedule. "The three zones we've already talked about" - Monster Island, the Desert, and the Canadian Wilderness - "we're delivering at least that many more," he says. "But each of those zones has several neighbourhoods in it, and each of those neighbourhoods has several areas where players can go. My expectation is that if you go to the desert, by the time you get to the end of it you'll have seen a huge variety of different mechanics, and even very different environments."

Beyond that, there's just a list of unknowns. Player-versus-player will be in at launch, but what form it will take is unknown. The exact skill and character development system is still being worked on. The business model - whether it will be subscription-based, whether it will focus on expansions or free updates - is to be decided. Cross-platform play is up in the air.

So is perhaps the single most exciting feature in the game - Nemesis creation. Every character will have an opposite number that you'll design yourself, encounter in the game - and even play. But Saffronoff won't be drawn on details yet. "On the tech side, we're committed to it and most of it's already in place," he admits. "But it's something that will be going through several iterations... there are so many things that could change." We wonder whether this feature might slip, but Saffronoff firmly denies it. "It'll make launch," he states confidently.