The City of Heroes games finally get some decent polishing
How come?
Well I've read many, many reviews both here on Gamespot and on other forums, tsk, tsk, and you'll no doubt have realised that most reviews fall either pro or anti CoX. I think this is mainly because the truely addictive, most entertaining aspects of CoX take a lot longer to appreciate than in other MMO's and, possibly more importantly, many players/reviews come from traditional fantasy-based MMO's such as WoW, Everquest, Lord of The Rings On Line and, in fact, the greatest majority of MMO's and other role-playing games that make up the whole space.
So how is CoX different to other MMO's?
Without wishing to repeat a lot of the good details in other reviews here it's best to say that CoX is very different and does not play like a conventional MMOG. For a start the game is really all about developing and using your super powers and abilities as well as creating truly unique new super-heroes (or villains) and the game really excels in these two areas. Unlike any other MMOG you start the game with an enormous variety of character customisation options with thousands of different costume pieces that can be coloured and combined in millions of different ways - and that's without mentioning hundreds of face options, skin colours, facial details and body types (male, female and 'huge') all of which can be scaled to create absolutely unique new characters - before you even start. If you're a true comic-book fan, as I am, then game delivers fantastic value in that one little area alone and that's even before you hit the streets of Paragon City (or Rogue Islands) where all the real action begins. The differences don't end there though:
Different to most fantasy MMOGs is the fact that, character development aside (for a second), the game is really about fighting, developing your powers, improving your moves, teaming with other heroes and getting on the next level (and power combinations) as fast as you can. You often see critism from other reviewers saying the game is too repetitive and too linear, which is definitely true compared to other, more traditional, fantasy-based MMOGs. But not everyone wants to play a Elf, Human, Dwarf or any of the other textbook fantasy stereotypes and go collecting mushrooms with all the other stereotypical fantasy archetypes. It is absolutely true that CoX does not offer a great variety of mission types but I feel that many reviewers are bound to think that coming from a fantasy background. And going in the reverse direction, playing a traditional fantasy MMOG is very repetive (in that you still mostly run around from sillly quest to silly quest) but without having an excellent fighting system and graphics to break up the monotomy.
On the other hand, the CoX games almost definitely have the best fighting animations and effects and variety of attacking options and customisation of any other MMOG. The foes are never that clever, which can be disappointing, but taking them apart fast is often hilarious and deeply satisfying (as well as profitable).
So is CoX only good for fighting?
Well this is where many official reviewerss get this wrong. For the last two years I have been teaming more or less with the same online players - you make new friends and join Super Groups much faster than on MMOGs - and we all play the game for the same kind of reason: we love developing and playing out new characters. But long term character development, or rather refinement, of the your characters (toons) is what we play for.
Recent changes
More recently, a couple of months ago at the time of writing, the CoX games were given the latest free upgrade to content, now up to issue 9 (i9 the inventions system). The inventions system has been commented on as the CIty of Heroes answer to a loot, crafting and trading system (which many players didn't actualy want) but the Inventions systems brings in a lot more by way of unique and rare costume options too - as well as unique new ways of refining and empowering your toons (with unique and more powerful extensions to your powers). So for traditional, fantasy MMOG players there now is this extra new facet to the game and for the die-hard CoX fan (and there are a lot of them) there is also a lot more to do to continue refining and empowering your characters.
The i9 Inventions update also ushered in a very good new end-game style mission for the high-level toons, with a brand new Statesman's Task Force (a long, detailed and very hard raid-like series of events for a large high-level team) and so, finally, high level toons have a lot more to do than they did before.
I would say that the i9 update goes a long way to balancing out the whole game but especially the end-game scenario on CoH and as of this week the details of i10 have been announced: This also looks like a very good step in the direction of adding good new high-level content that is also driven more by story. i10 will see the re-invasion of Earth by the insidious Rikti (a mind controlling race of aliens) with plenty more content and joint hero/villain missions where the Earth itself is at stake.
It has been muted that i10 is also a stepping stone into more outer-space and perhaps Moon-based missions (and story developments) from i11 onwards and so finally it looks as though the developers have begun to mesh all the critisms (and adoration by the coveted fans) into a well thought-through series of solid (in not overly spectacular) updates to the game.
If you haven't tried CoX before or if you're looking for a really friendly, team-orientated game with great commaradery and action then CoX could be for you. And if you can leave your fantasy-llike expectations behind and look instead at the great team-play, commaradery, fighting and long term development of your own set of truely unique online heroes (or villains) you might just see this game for for what it is: a little gem of game (that's finally getting some decent polishing).