The Best MMO I've played in a long time!!! Absolutely Mind Boggling!!!
A lot of people dislike it because of the small details such as repetitive levels and somewhat comic style graphics... fair enough, so it’s no Metal Gear Solid when it comes to stunning visual effects. But consider the rest of its features, such as the game play, character creation and development, sound effects, vast cities and team-based missions.
What people do not take in to consideration is that the game is not just about being attractive to the eye, but more to do with the depth of the character that you create. Consider games such as Star Wars Battlefront 2 - a brilliant game I must say, BUT you do not play as one consistent character; there is variety of different people/bots you can play as. However, in City of Heroes the fact that you play as the same character throughout the game (unless you create another), means you become familiarised with his/her capabilities, strengths, weaknesses and traits, therefore allowing you to utilise them to their fullest potential.
When you level up in City of Heroes, it’s not like other games where you are given a new ability, and you have not choice about it - you are given a choice from various different power sets that you chose at the character creation screen. once you progress to certain levels then new advanced powers are unlocked; consider that level 14 (for those who have played the game) unlocks all of the secondary powers from the pool powers, such as Super Speed, or Fly or even Teleport; level 20 unlocks further powers, such as Group Fly, or Team Teleport. As you can see, the character development is a very important part of the game, and one that many reviewers disregard because they take it for granted.
On to the PvP game modes. City of heroes allows MASSIVE PvP battles to take place, either in an arena's or in PvP areas such as Bloody Bay. The game allows players to team up and take on other teams in huge battles, more importantly the different heroes in each team varies immensely. Many teams prefer to be completely 'hands on' and have a team of Tankers and Scrappers; other teams are a bit cleverer and incorporate a variety of Tankers, Scrappers, Controllers (being the most powerful Archetype), Defenders and Blasters, which allows them to defeat players far more easily and effectively.
Conclusively it can be said that the game incorporates the basics of online gaming, and combines it with unique qualities such as the Character Creation, and allows player to enjoy Online Gaming like never before.
Look out for my City of Villains review, which I will write once I’ve played it.