I tried playing it and discovered three really big diffrences I hated about CO.
1. Costumes SUCK GIANT SWEATY HAIRY BALLS! - Seriously they do! Each class is nothing more than a Specific character. I am suprised that you are not Forced into having a certain name for your character since all of your powers cannot be changed or picked. You MUST have a katana if you are melee and nothing you do can change that.
Those are Archetypes, pre-made character builds, not "Costumes". If you want to select all your powers, you have to subscribe and take a Freeform character (or buy a single Freeform character slot for $50, but I wouldn't recommend that), though even the Archetypes have a few levels where they can choose between two powers, and they can still choose their talents and specializations.
In other words, no, you don't have to have a katana if you are melee. Even free players have the choice between The Behemoth (which uses powers from the Might framework), the Blade (which uses Single Blade framework powers), and the Unleashed (which uses Dual Blade framework powers); and subscribed players also have access to Unarmed, Fighting Claws, Heavy Weapon, and even Bestial Supernatural. And even though they're primarily ranged frameworks, Telekinesis has a few psi-blade attacks, Gadgeering has a chainsaw, and Power Armor has a laser sword.
And they are customizable. In fact, the "Blade" powers don't even have to be a blade, let alone a katana. Axes and cudgels are alternate models. See here:
http://champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Dual_%26_Single_Blades2, Costumes suck and make you feel like you are playing every other character out there. - I cannot....NOT have a hood which makes it impossible to see what my hair or face looks like.
... you can take off the hood. In fact, if it's your first character, I'm not sure how you can even put on a hood (since costume choices are limited until you get any character to level 10; after that, that and all future characters have a much wider selection of costume pieces available). The game has an extremely robust character creator once you get past that Level 10 gate.
Hit "Random" to get rid of the hood, and play with the options. (What isn't immediately obvious is that you can click on the "header" of each section, and it turns into a dropdown menu where you can pick more options. I had that problem at first, too)
3. Some player of about 20 levels challenged me to a dual the moment when I entered the game.......yeah....In CO you have to deal with that sort of thing which I hate.
I've only been challenged twice, and both times I just hit "No" and they didn't press the issue. (... but they can be turned off? Nice. I didn't realize)
I actually like DCU a LOT more than CO.
To each his own, I suppose, but it sounds like you're hating CO for mostly non-existent reasons.
Edited to also reply to:
I am not sure what you mean. I picked a guy that looked like an elf, has eldritch bolts, another set of powers I dont get until level 35 and his AT is some french word that starts with a G.
... "Grimoire"? While that word has French origins, it's been part of the English language for
approximately 300 years now.
And you can change him so he doesn't look like an elf. That's just the default costume. None of the default costumes have to be kept, any more than the random costumes that popped up when you made a new CoH character have to be kept.