Super-evil mastermind fun
To the most important, gameplay. The CoV gameplay is very much the same as CoH, even tough all the archtypes are diffrient. However the archtypes are much like the types in CoH just reversed. i.e instead of tanker, wich primary is defensive powers and offensive as secondary, you know have "Brute" wich primary is offensive and secondary is defensive.
On paper they look much the same, but it very diffrient gameplay, as Brute you solo much easier than a tank, specially in the early levels.
But it is not just reversed class'es, we have a new truely new archtype called MasterMind.
The mastermind IS the class to all the MMORPG pet lovers, we have seen those classes before in older MMORPG's such as the Necromancer in EverQuest, Bonedancer in Dark age of Camelot and Warlock/Hunter in World of WarCraft.
If you love to have a pet do the work for you, then the mastermind is the class. Myself im a huge pet-gamer, so i was very thrilled to play a MM.
You can choose between serval pet types includeing: Robots, Undead, Ninja and Mercenaries. All with thier advantages and disadvantages.
In most MMORPG's pet classes get 1 pet and maybe 1 tempoary if they are lucky, but in CoV you can have up to wooping 8 pets if you play a Undead/Dark powerset. The dark secondary benefits for an additonal pet at level 40, so it feels like you have your own group with you all the time, and therefor MM's solo VERY well.
However with such a big group as a solo Mastermind, you can imageing the chaos if 3,4, 5 even 6 or 7 masterminds team up. and thats the MM's weakness. grouping. THey are not wanted in groups because they cause lag and block doorways. Unfourtanly CoV mission maps are tight indoor/cave maps and dosnt fit MM at all.
However if you do sit back and watch your pets do all the work i would recommend CoV to you allready, it will be well worth it.
And finally i will mention the great sound design of the powers in CoV/CoH, the great sound and flashy graphics makes the combat in this game the most fun in any MMORPG out there.