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The Blood Moon event for Champions Online is in full swing and Takofanes’ horde of undead is shuffling through the streets of Millennium City. Out in the desert and wilderness, opposing factions of werewolves and hunters duel to the death. And, in a forsaken village, a small band of heroes tries their utmost to hold back a zombie horde led by an undead hero.  All in all, there’s a good deal of stuff to do in this Halloween themed event, so your pals at Ten Ton Hammer are here to reflect of what Cryptic got right, what they got wrong, and what we’re looking forward to in the future.

Blood Moon is the first holiday themed event for Champions Online and it followed, rather closely, the launch of the game which could have meant that the effort put into the event could have been less than desired. However, I am pleased with the effort put into the event and have been pleased by the Blood Moon content. Of course, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for improvement as there is.

First, let’s start with the Dawn of the Undead Heroes. This mission chain to free the souls of 13 undead heroes is the centerpiece of the event. The quest to free the heroes is nicely designed, with a two tiered approach to each hero. First, you defeat them as they lead a horde of zombies out of a portal into Millennium City, and then you enter the crypt to free their trapped souls. The mission is challenging, but not impossible, plus you’ll find yourself grouping with new allies to fend off the undead menace. The negative part of this event is that some of the portals were bugged at the event launch, plus the countdown to the next appearance of the hero was a ludicrous 90 minutes. I found myself a few times waiting at a portal for the countdown to expire, and when it did, the countdown would reset with no undead hero spawning! Fortunately, Cryptic had the problem fixed within a day, but I still question the 90 minute countdown (now reduced to 30). I mean, there are 13 portals, and it seemed that each portal was in the 70-80 minute range when I was flying past them to check on their time. I know Cryptic didn’t want players finishing the mission too fast, but most people who could only afford to play an hour or two per day would never be able to finish it.

Next, we look at the Zombie Apocalypse PvP map. This is a quick and fun rumble against zombies and other players. A group of heroes must fight off a zombie horde in a remote snowbound village. The wrinkle is that the zombies are led by an undead hero (a random player). If a hero is struck down, they, in turn, become part of the undead forces. The goal of each player is to be the last hero standing. The longer you can hold out (the zombie horde is always victorious), the more acclaim you receive. Overall, this is a great idea, and I’ve enjoyed playing it. The only downside is that it can go extremely quickly. There are times when I’ve found that I’ve been the first hero eliminated (why do the flying undead heroes always target me?), but haven’t been able to get into the fray as that the other heroes were eliminated by the time I dug myself out to wreak my vengeance upon the living. A suggestion for Cryptic would be to add a hit point boost to all players to extend the playing time a little bit. The other problem that I had with this scenario was that it was level restricted on the first day. My character (level 26) wasn’t able to do it the first day, but afterwards Cryptic lowered the threshold down to level 5.

The duel to the death between werewolves and hunters is an extended battle. This event, located in the Southwest Desert and Canadian Wilderness, is pretty well done. You pick a side (whose representatives are shown on your map) and then fight to kill 100 of the enemy players, or kill 100 of the enemy npc forces. When you talk to a rep, they’ll give you an item that allows you to transform into a werewolf or a hunter. It takes a little time getting used to the new powers you’ll be using. However, there are a couple of problems with this scenario. First, if one side has greater numbers than the other, the lesser side will be wiped extremely quickly. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve respawned next to the hunter to see a mob of werewolves milling around waiting for somebody to transform. However, I don’t see how Cryptic can adjust the lack of balance for opposing sides as that it requires player participation. The second problem is that I’ve been close to finishing the mission of killing 100 enemy players, but left to come back the next day due to the other side giving up or my side being too overwhelmed to continue. When I have come back the following day, the token to change your player is gone. The only way to get it back is to drop the mission and take it again. I don’t care that they’re trying to push this as a daily mission. Killing 100 enemy players takes a lot of time. If they want to keep it as a daily, with the token going away the following day, then they should reduce the numbers of players you need to defeat.

The last event that takes place during Blood Moon is Takofanes appearing and the heroes attempting to put the smackdown on him. I can’t give you any positive feedback on this as that I’ve never been able to engage him, much less see him. Every time he appears (and it appears that he spawns rarely), I seem to be on the opposite side of the map. By the time I fly over to where he’s located, he’s already been defeated. There are a few things Cryptic could do to make Takofanes more a part of Blood Moon. First, have him spawn more often. Second, when he spawns, just don’t have him announce his presence. Have him, or something else such as an emergency police broadcast, state where he is, such as, “All units! All units! Takofanes has just appeared in Chinatown (or the Westside Docks)!” In addition, you could increase his hit points to allow him to stay up longer. It would be nice to at least catch a glimpse of him in-game before the Blood Moon event is over.

There are a couple of other nice touches during the Blood Moon event. I do like how the night sky has been replaced by the ominous Blood Moon, which washes everything with a blood red glow. The costumes, that are available in the C-Store, are nice, but I would prefer that you could get them from a drop or as a reward. I had hoped to see more Halloween decorations around the various zones, but there isn’t any. In the future, it would be nice to see some Halloween decorations around the zones, especially Millennium City. Having temporary costumes as drops from mobs or bosses would be a nice touch. Another idea would be to get candy that would be used as stim packs or, even better, to increase your energy (sugar rush!). It would also be nice to see in the future, some trick-or-treaters walking around the city. In addition, there could be some more missions added as little quickie missions, such as a citizen running up to you and saying that somebody is robbing the costume or candy store.

Overall, Blood Moon is a good event, especially in the light that it came on the heels of the game’s launch. There were some problems to begin with, but Cryptic did fix them right away. Some of the events could still use some tweaking, and I hope to see more Halloween themed things added to this event next year, such as decorations, more costumes, and more enemies. It would rock to have a Headless Horseman scenario in the Canadian Wilderness zone. Blood Moon is a good first holiday themed event, but there should be more stuff added for next time around. Till next time, heroes!