"decent game if you know what you want"
I have played both CoH (about 5 months) and WoW (about 3-4 months) and CoV (since it came out) and I will try illustrate the differences in my reviews.
Gameplay:
In CoH missions get really repetitive, you talk to contact, contact give you mission of 2 types. 1st type is to street hunt (open area) certain enemies. 2nd type is to go into instances to kill.
Of course, in Wow, you do a lot of similar things such as "kill 10 demons and get their collars", "go to this area which is infested with monster and get me this battle plan", etc. So in the end you are killing just the same.
In CoV, they have improved it somewhat to
1. reduce the number of street hunting mission because street hunt with group is just not fun.
2. added a new feature so that you can get mission anywhere by reading newspaper.
3. added more types of mission layout. I remember when I played CoH, how boring it gets to see the same office/cave/lab/warehouse over and over again. It still needs improvement, but still much better than before, though in terms of atomsphere of the cities and area, Wow still beats the game.
4. if you and your team member both have the same mission, you will be able to complete both in one run.
5. Pvp zone tasks.
6. More friendly interface for finding group members, imagine you have a text box where you can type in comments and a "find" button to find all that are looking to group instead of screaming in your guild channel/look for group channel/general chat in major cities/using "who" command in Wow. The life is certainly better.
*7. The most important improvement of the game, which a lot of reviews failed to notice/mention is Super Group/ Villain Group base construction. It is more than just a place to hang out with your guildmates. It adds a lot of the gameplay. I will explain a bit in detail below.
Key differences with Wow:
1. Compare to Wow, travel time between missions and zones are relative short, you don't have to pay a wingrider and watch the thing fly for 5-15 mins to get to a new area. Each hero can take travling powers (fly/teleport/super speed/super jump), that will enable you to get from point A to point B really fast.
2. Most missions are instances in randomly generated dungeons, instead of open ground.
3. When you lvl you get more abilities, instead of upgrading the same spell you have seen using over and over again since lvl 10 in Wow. So lvling motivation here is new skills not new loots in Wow.
4. If you die from monsters, you will incur some sort of xp penalty, so afterwards when you gain more xp, half go to your penalty, half go to your normal xp.
5. Open areas are divided into zones that will require loading time (relatively short) instead of wow's open zones with no loading time besides going to one continent to the next.
6. No skill trees, you simply pick a super power that you can get at your lvl or slot them with enhencements( making that power more effective)
Of course, that's not all the differences but should be some of the most significant ones.
*SG/VG Base construction:
People initially probably think it is nothing more than a place to hang out, but it is more than that, first of all, it is completely customizable. You SG/VG leader will be able to spend "prestige" that the members earn to construct the layout of the base, textures, objects, lightings you name it, and it is probably in there. SG/VG get "prestige" mainly from the group members, anyone who have joined the SG/VG will be able to enter a "SG/VG mode" in which case you can change the color of your costume to match the guild's official colors, etc. In this mode, you will be trading slighting less "infamy" (money) for "prestige points" for your SG/VG. Don't worry, in CoV, the "infamy" you get from missions are monsters are travial, it is nothing compared to the money you make from selling loots. "prestige" can be then spent to buy new structures, objects, rooms and of course paying bi-weekly rent.
So you ask: "what's the benefit of a SG/VG, everything you just talked about still look nothing but a hanging out place." Here you go:
Want to show off your base to other SG/VG that you have coalition with:check
Want your private SG/VG hospital: check
Want your private SG/VG portalt that allow you to go to different zones: check
**Want your own "items of powers" that will give bonuses(dmg, def, xp, etc) to every member of your SG/VG: check
***Want to have SG vs. VG battle in your base: check
***Want some defense to defend instruders: check
***Want a salving station that can salvage the parts your SG/VG members get from monsters to unlock new objects recipes/getting construction materials: check
**Items of Power:
Those are items you will have to get from usually doing SG/VG specific missions/tasks, or ***raiding other SG/VG. the good items are very rare and provides a very large bonus to all members of the SG/VG. You put them in your base to gain their benefits.
***SG vs. VG base raiding
Since you have all those awesome "items of power" in your base, it is normal to assume your opposing faction 's guild will also want to get their hands on them and that's when you have SG vs. VG base raiding. Your own SG/VG can schedule a raid against the opposing faction guild in their base. In which case, if you are successful, you will be able to rob their items of powers and have it in your base. Of course, getting there won't be easy, as you will have to pass through their base defense structures and the defenders. Of course, if the base defense gets too annoying, you can always try blowing up the power generator or central computer to shut them all down. In the case when getting to their items of power get too frustrating, remember you can always try to do as much damage to their bases as you can before you leave, they will have to spend more prestige/materals to repair it. Of course, it is not all gain for the attacker and nothing for the defenders, if you raid other bases, rest assured that they can also raid you.
Sound: an improvement over CoH, adding more appearing tracks, not certinally still not the strongest point of CoH universe.
Graphic: Got a pretty decent upgrade from CoH, especially the new ragdoll physics, it makes knock back much more enjoyable.
Good: pick up and play, easy to group, nice organization structures, new powerset/ classes such as the new minions class master mind.
Middle: no loot, only power, if you grind a lot for loot in wow, this is probably not for you.
Bad: missions still get somewhat repetitive, weak end game content compare to Wow, hopefully SG/VG base constructions will make up some of it.