User Rating: 8.2 | City of Heroes PC
When is too much saturation in an already over-saturated market really TOO much? Just ask the dozens of company's releasing sub-standard and broken Massive MultiPlayer Online RPG's. Luckily, Cryptic Studios offers a new and exciting look on the down hill market with City of Heroes. No more days of killing rats with your long sword so you can grind to the highest possible level for the sake of being the best player there is. You are in the more modern setting of Paragon city, which is sprawling with living and breathing people. And instead of killing dozens of rats as basic enemies, you are fighting more realistic gangs and evil humans that have supernatural powers used for wrong doing (a big no-no in Paragon City). The thrill of City of Heroes starts off with a bang with the games terrific character customization. Each piece of apparel you choose for your character to wear has its own sub menu and lists many different details that can be applied to your costume. Of course, before you can do any costume creating, you have to choose a particular archetype, there are five to choose from: The Blaster; who makes up for his lack of defense with a myriad of powerful offensive maneuvers. The Tanker; a good addition to any team by absorbing large amounts of damage. The Scrapper; who isn't capable of taking as much damage as a Tanker, but he is adept at dealing huge amounts of melee damage, he is a giant among giants at hand to hand combat. The Controller; with rather weak powers and meager life, isn't for newcomers to the MMORPG genre, especially those who aren't willing to use her very useful gravity/confusion attacks. The Defender; the essential piece to any team who is looking for an effective all around figher AND a player who can provide for healing and offensive buffs. With these five archetypes in mind, it won't be difficult to find the right character to fit what type of role you want to fill. A factor that often detracts from the game is the fact that every time you create a new character (which will happen quite a bit), requires that you go through a monotonous tutorial that cannot be skipped. There are also a plethora of powers to choose from, although, many of the maneuvers that are in the same power set tend to be very similar. There are also power ups called insipirations that serve as a temporary boost to your health/defense/damage/accuracy. "Enhancements" are permanent augmentations (unless you remove them) to your powers. Different enhancements have altered affects depending on which powers you apply them to. There is also the ability to combine them to allow more space for more enhancements. During the earlier stages of the game, the interface is clean and streamlined, for the most part. Yet, when you reach the later levels, the screen will be cluttered with several different trays that make routine activities a hassle. The economic system is quite poor, especially without any real sort of trading, auctions, and the questionable idea of NOT recieving a substantial amount of "influence" (what money is called in City of Heroes) when you complete a mission. City of Heroes is going to keep you busy for a month, maybe two months at the most. It just doesn't have enough variety to keep you playing for an extended period of time compared to games like Everquest or Dark Age of Camelot. Keep in mind that the two months that you do play City of Heroes is going to be packed with action and entertainment. 
