Not a "Wow Killer", but doesn't need to be.
From some points of view it is, but, thankfully, not from mine. My biggest complaint about CoH/V was that the open part of the world felt like a contrivance simply meant to add travel from instance to instance. While Champions certainly has a fair share of instances, a great many of the quests exist within an open world. The world has its share of citizenry and npc's as well as crooks and such. While the characters and settings haven't yet proven themselves to be in depth to the degree of Wow or Everquest, they fill the need enough to satisfy me.
Plus, I'm also finding that I care less, because my focus is more on my hero himself. While I'm still a story man, there's much more of a rush to the combat here than other MMO's. While not exactly what I'd call real time, there is a more interactive element required to be successful, such as blocking and movement. Plus, the combat has some really attractive animations and effects that add to the allure.
The launch was a bit of a trial, but, happily, the recent patches have solved a great many issues for me. The game runs pretty smooth on my older pc, and great on my newer laptop. On the recommended levels the cel-shaded graphics look great, and I enjoy just flying my hero around to enjoy the visual.
I'm very excited to see how the nemesis element plays into the game. At level 25 you create your own arch enemy, who will plague you as you continue to level up (I'm sooo close!).
My biggest problem so far has been committing to one hero, and not filling every slot with someone new. There's so many options that rock, it's pretty hard for someone as indecisive as myself.
UPDATE 1/3/10: After a few more months of development and play I felt like I really needed to update my original score. As time has gone on I've found myself avoiding this title more and more. I've found that the best part of the game is developing powers and costumes, and the game in between is just a time sink to make these more exciting. Quests are mostly bland, and even ones that aren't lose some luster because of such a lack of consequence for dieing. Case in point was the first doctor destroyer dungeon. All death meant was I had to run full tilt back to the main room. As long as one person lived it was like nothing changed.
Sadly, I gambled on the lifetime membership, so I'm stuck. After all these months of development time, I no longer believe Cryptic is going to add meaningful content. With that in mind this would be a good title to pass up.