Ever been tempted to play an MMORPG but thought they seemed too complicated and time-consuming? Try CoH: "MMORPG-lite"
User Rating: 8.5 | City of Heroes PC
I've played CoH for about three months. My only other MMORPG experience is the Matrix Online beta. I tend to play stuff like Half-Life (single-player), Warcraft III (multi and single), Jagged Alliance, Knights of the Old Republic. City of Heroes is still very new, so it has less content (zones, missions, items, etc.) than some current MMORPGs (though less bugs, too). Even so, it's not the kind of game that you play for years, so don't worry about getting sucked in. There is no economy, crafting, PvP, etc. There is no roleplaying to speak of. This really is more of a multiplayer action game than a roleplaying game, with super powers instead of guns. People create characters, play them for a few weeks, then make another. If leveling is what you care about, then you can get a character to the level cap in a few hard weeks. If leveling is not what you care about, then you'll probably just get in the classic CoH cycle of creating new characters every week or two, then quitting after a couple months. Leveling is the name of the game. This is not Evercrack. This is an MMORPG for an ADD world: pretty and simple. Here's what makes CoH different from every MMORPG out there AND makes it more fun to play than just about anything you own right now: 1) Combat is BEAUTIFUL: the particle effects and spells are just amazing. I have no idea how they are going to sustain that when PvP comes out next year. 2) Awesome developers. They read everything on the forums, they play the game, and there really are NO major bugs distorting gameplay. 3) Costume design. This sounds dumb, but having a character that looks absolutely nothing like anyone else right from Day One makes a big difference, especially when you're playing for weeks at a time. 4) Major (and free) updates every two months (new zones, new trials, etc.), not to mention city-wide events with increasing frequency (e.g., alien invasions, etc.). You might hear people say that it gets boring after a while. Just keep in mind that they've probably been playing for a couple months. What other game do you have that you could play for several hundred hours before it started to get boring? But overall, I'd say that if you want action, buy a good first-person shooter or RTS--they're cheaper and less addictive--and if you want roleplaying, go for a more traditional MMORPG like the upcoming WoW or EQ2. 
