User Rating: 9.8 | City of Heroes PC
By jonmase | Review Date:
OK, I'll be frank: i almost wet my pants when i first read a big article about this game in PC Gamer about a year ago. It sounded sooooo cool to be able to make a hero and live out EVERY human being on earth's childhood dream: to be a superhero. After much waiting (and almost forgetting about the game while i waited and saw other cool things come through the pipeline) i was allowed into the beta (thank you sooooo much gamespot). Well, now that the game has been out for about 2 weeks now, i must say it has come a looong way in the 1 and 1/2 months (or however long its been) since i got in the beta. In the beta, mapserver crashes were commonplace, as was horrible griefing by high-level players. Even then, though, it was ten times better than any other MMORPG i have ever played (earth and beyond, FFXI). The game is now out, and it is BETTER than i could have imagined. Creating a hero is one of the best times i have ever had designing spandex (not that i ever did that before CoH). There are SO MANY options that finding your exact duplicate is (roughly) 1 in 1000000000000000000000.2. That may seem like i am exaggerating, but i have seen a LOT of heroes, and none of them even came close to another when it came to costumes. The only way to make a duplicate char is if you get the specs for the costume from your friend, if you are trying to make 2 of the same chars. Gameplay-wise, combat is not EVERYTHING, its just the only thing that matters. And unlike some other games like EverQuest or Star Wars: Galaxies, or even Final Fantasy XI, you don't start out killing bunnies and giant rats. You jump straight in the fray and start stopping crime or rescuing Citizens in distress. Some people may be turned off by this, because they may enjoy selling items or (dare i say it) Player-Killing to pass the time. There are items (enhancements and inspirations, I will get to these later) and currency (or influence, as the game calls it) in the game, so while it IS POSSIBLE to just create a character with the sole intent to sell stuff to others, you won't have much fun doing it. Player-Killing is not implemented in the game, and that is a matter of taste. In my opinion, I don't wanna start off at level 1 adn get mauled by a level 20 player looking for kicks. I do not like player killing, and if it is implemented in City of Villians (the first announced expansion) I hope that it is for fun, and not experience. In some other games it would be bad that combat is the sole focus, but CoH pulls it off nicely because combat is always fun, no matter what you are fighting or what level. It is actually entertaining to go back to a low level area once you have outgrown it and pick off a few baddies that may have killed you when you were weaker. Combat is great in this game, no questions asked. There is a HUGE variety of enemies to kill. There are three ranks of enemies, from the weakest to the strongest: Minions, the most populous, are the weakest of a group and generally form in small to medium-sized mobs, usually with a leiutenant. Leiutenants, which occur less frequently, are tougher than minions and may have some special ability, liek a machine gun or a laser beam. Bosses are some of the strongest foes around, and often lead a pack of minions and leiutenants. they ALWAYS have a special power, and can be Extremely dangerous if not handled correctly. There are three special types of enemies that only appear st special or random times and places: SuperVillains are the main baddies of a group. They are the ones in command of all the monsters or thugs below them. They are multiple times stronger than bosses, and it is almost mandatory to have a team together when fighting them. Monsters are huge versions of Bosses, and can be even stronger than Supervillains. They occur randomly and rarely in Paragon City, and if you find one, get a team together and take it out, for they are always worth truckloads of experience. Underlings are byfar the weakest. They may spawn from bosses and are mainly an annoyance. Easily taken out by even teh weakest hero, these are no problem. This brings me to the experience system. Every level you start out with 10 black wedges (or bubbles, or orbs, these have many names). After you fill up your experience bar, that experience is transferred to the closest empty bubble and you start to fill up another bar. After filling up 10 bubbles, you gain a level and the whole process starts over again. If you are killed by something, to do not LOSE any experience, so you will Never level down. You instead get DEBT, which is a dark purple bar that appears inside your current exp bad (and perhaps future bubbles if you have a lot of it). Whne you gain experience with debt, half goes to working off the debt, the other half goes towards your experience as normal. BE careful, though, because your Maximum debt is half your needed experience for the level. If you die constantly, it is possible to need 1.5 times as much experience to level up as it would normally. Well, thats about it. I have to tell you that the game is gorgeous and it sounds good (not stellar, but good). The players are generally nice, and there is little to no griefing noticable, unless you look for it. Anyone who has always wanted to try a MMORPG, this is a good place to start. Any seasoned veterans of MMORPG's, you must play this game. I hope that it stays around for many years to come, because if this is any indication as to what to expect in the future, it may De-throne Everquest as the King of MMORPG's. I give it a 9.8 out of 10

Other Helpful Reviews for City of Heroes

Load Comments (0)