Making you're own hero(ine) in a virtual world and doing missions with a team is a great idea..or isn't it? I did it..
City of Heroes makes you wonder how they could bring such a city to life. Making you're own hero(ine)? Saving the city? Wow.. sounds nice but can they make it real? YES, let me explain.
The most important part of this game is making you're character at the beginning. First you couldn't change his/her appearance after the creation but they changed that later, so you won't have a hard pressure on you for making the best there is. The character creation is very wide, I made about 10 chars over my time and all looked very different. You start by choosing your gender, class, powers and looks(I even saw a character from Half-life in the game). This is always fun, you end up having multiple characters who all have different paths.
The classes are very important because this game is mostly team-based. There are 5 main classes: Defender, Controller, Tank, Scrapper and Blaster. The role of these classes is very interesting. The names say a lot but here is an example. A tank runs in at first and taunts the room, then he makes sure that almost every enemy targets him so the rest can attack them. He is an enemy controller and the base of a team. His job is to die first. Of course tanks may choose their style but this is the best way. So a team has to work together in order to finish the mission.
The interface is good and it has many features. The latest I've seen was "Global chat". This makes is possible to see what your friends are doing, even when they are on a different server or character. You can team up and to each other's missions and you can make Supergroups to gather people in a bigger scale. Supergroup's can make a base, attack other bases, do supergroup missions and so on. A lot to do there.. The most weird and yet good thing about the interface is that you don't really have an inventory. If you want to change your characters appearance you go to a tailor. If you want to improve your attacks you use your enhancements. You don't have those stalls in the city because people want to sell stuff. Money doesn't even exist, it's all based on fame points. If you clear a mission you get fame points.
The gameplay is very nice. I just love to go on a mission with a team you created and battle! Everyone would just do his job in the team. The battle system is weird at the beginning. You target a enemy and pick a move you want to attack him with. I won't tell much more since it's better to find out yourself.
The powers represent your hero(ine). You can choose between Primary powers and Secondary powers. For example if you choose to be a Scrapper(damage dealer), you have options like: Archery, Assault Rifle, Electrical Blast, Energy Blast, Fire Blast, Ice Blast and Sonic Blast. You can upgrade you're powers with Enhancers.
The missions where a lot of fun. There are numerous missions you can choose: Kill 5 of these type, clear that base, save hostages and a lot more. There are even "Giants" to kill in the city or outskirts.
The graphics are great. The city is put together nice and the battles are eye-candy. The sound is not bad but I muted it to listen to music while gaming so I can't tell much about that.
The community was one of the best I've seen in an mmorpg. Almost everyone was nice and helpfull. Sometimes even a level 50 (highest) helped you on a mission you couldn't handle. The age of the gamers reaches from 10 to 60 years old. Sometimes I was teaming with people that had children teaming with them. The support worked hard to make the game bug free and were there fast. When I had a bug, I e-mailed, got a reply and a GM in less then 20 min.
In the end I was suprised by this game. It didn't last that long with me ( I have that a lot) but many of the players I know are playing it for 2 years. Maybe it was because it's all about fighting. Some players do other things in the game (costume contests, emotes) but for me it seems like preparing to fight, fight and feast of the fight.
Good:
- You can fly!
- Good battles
- Nice community
- Great character creation
- Variety of missions available
Bad:
- Not a lot to do besides fighting
- Sometimes you need a lot of humor to connect to other players appearance
- After a while the missions get boring because your having deja vou