City of Heroes versus MMORPG (general)
City of Heroes does not have specific equipment that'll boost your stats. In the beginning of the game, you choose a costume, a look. Your costume does not give you and stats, so wearing a spiked chest piece (made up) does not mean you have stronger armor compared to someone wearing a leather chest piece. Instead, the makers of City of Heroes, let you choose something in which will make you look unique compared to other fellow gamers. So instead of gear boosting your stats overall, you have enchantments. These enchantments are not equipped onto your gear but onto your known spells. Instead of upgrading your, I don't know, stamina, you upgrade the power of your spell. During the process of leveling, it'll give you more slots in which to enchant your spell with. And there's an option to upgrade a current enchantment simply by finding/buying the same enchantment but on a stronger level. So if you had an enchantment of level 1 and another of the same also at level 1, you can combine them and make it into a 1+. A fair "unique-ness" compared to other MMO's, agree?
Your privilege to get a mount is taken away. Instead, in City of Heroes, you basically are the mount. As you level, you have the option to choose whether to fly, increase speed massively, teleport, or leap. Of course, you also have another option to not choose any of these and learn a different skill they allow you to have. Some will like that, other won't. Yes there are still trains where you can go to for fast access to different areas. I think that City of Heroes is an incredibly good game. Due to the fact that it's rather unique to MAJORITY of other MMO's. I would suggest you at least get a 10 day free trial, try it out. It's worth the money, but that's for you to decide.