A continuation of City of Heroes that cackles in your face, slaps you thrice, and tells you, "rob some banks!"
Even though this is technically a City of Villains review I find that I have to mention City of Heroes because of the fact that they're basically the same exact game with the exception that in City of Heroes you run around saving old ladies from scruffy looking men that you would probably be calling, "nerf herders," if this was Starwars Galaxies. However, in City of Villains you dress up as a scruffy villain that would probably be referred to as a, "Sith Lord," in Starwars Galaxies and proceed to terrorize other villains, genetically manipulated creatures, ghosts, weak policemen, other villains, gangsters, other villains, Longbow (superheroes), the rare superhero, villains, bank vaults, sentry turrets, mailboxes, villains, Longbow, lizard people, boxes, cars, SWAT Vans, other villains, and the urge to get down with your bad self while people play generic techno music in the middle of a lightly guarded fortress.
City of Villains gives you the ability to do all the things you'd expect to do playing a villain, to a degree. You attempt to kill superheroes while robbing banks and blowing up various amounts of property between killing said superhero and robbing said bank (which generally includes five minutes of hopelessly blasting at an extremely thick bank vault with extremely generic superpowers) and that's basically it... From the stand point of a normal video game City of Villains does have a lot to offer, as you can create your own villain from scratch giving him a pretty fair amount of different superpowers which covers most of the elements (such as fire and lightning) and make him look like whatever you want with an immense variety of different skulls that all look the same and endless amounts of spikes and zombie faces. Even though I don't make it sound very exciting City of Villains like its predecessor City of Heroes has a vast amount of character customization which allows you to create your own villain to your own imagination's whim without it looking exactly like someone else's (unless of course you use a pre-set or full set of a certain armor. Even if such was true you'd be a different color, at least) and thus giving you an extreme sense of satisfaction despite the fact that everyone around you has the same exact powers you do. I'm being honest, your character customization and ability to be nothing like the people around you ends with your look and your character's background story as to why his angsty life turned for the worst through an experiment gone wrong or a backhand from society when you reach the page where you pick your character's powers. The powers aren't bad, and in fact I don't see any reason why any person would dislike the powers that you can choose from and level up to get more and more powerful and various besides the sole fact that twenty-five percent of the players around you of your class will essentially have the same primary or secondary powers as you do. The one down-side to this game is that there's only approximately seven primary and seven secondary powersets to choose from, each containing roughly fifteen different powers. Beyond that once you reach a certain level (most likely your second day of playing this game, maybe the third if you don't sink a lot of time) you get the option to choose your character's tertiary powerset, which is generally either a travel power, a healing power, or a leadership power. I'd say seventy-five percent of the players in this game either are flying, teleporting, or have superspeed.
For your convenience reader (who for some reason is still reading...) that last paragraph was essentially all based around the character creation system.
Gameplay is a pretty straightforward affair (wow, that might be the most overused statement in review history) as you'll scrounge the cities (which are on islands... So you know) clicking on scruffy looking gangsters, evil lizards, corrupt police officers, and other individuals of villainous intent and getting close enough so you can press a series of numbers to activate the corresponding power to vanquish said villainous foe. There are two things wrong with that last sentence with the first being that I could never figure out why Superheroes in City of Heroes fight gangsters, evil creatures, and villainous people; while villains vanquish all of the above. Apparently, fighting villainy is just as prominent in the islands under the control of the evil mastermind Arachnos as it is in the good and wonderful Paragon City (which is just as confusing as there must be several million heroes cracking down on crime in the city...). Unfortunately, the game itself is a bit repetative as running around and targeting individuals who went awry in their normal lives and decided to become targets for the angst of a player base in denial of the fact that they've been pressing the same five+ numbers on their keypad for the past week (up to probably five years) will be graciously pressing several different number keys on their keypad to enact the same pretty moves that you've been using since day one to vanquish the same foes that you've been vanquishing since, well, day one. The fact that action in this game is limited to the amount of numbers on your keyboard and your willingness to press them, doesn't distract from the fact that all repetativeness aside this game is a wonderful addition to your list of money-sucking blackholes that you'll look back on years from now and wish you had never looked at, while you cry and listen to the world's smallest violin playing in the back of your skull.
Missions themselves are of a strange variety as the most fun you'll ever have playing City of Villains will be centered around three different events. First off, the game will lovingly acquaint you with Paragon's wonderful line of banks which generally involves you running half a mile across the island to a submarine which is mysteriously parked on the edge of said island to transport you to a mission area in Paragon City (that is to say this is technically a dungeon in which you and anyone you bring with you in your villain party are the only players in) to destroy pretty much every object that isn't a citizen (villains don't terrorize citizens? Ok, you can fire at them and throw balls of lightning and fire at them, but you don't achieve anything other than the satisfaction of watching them scream and run away. They don't even drop their money! Much less food...), street light, or building; do away with endless amounts of police officers and Longbow (once again, wannabe superheroes); and then eventually rob a bank which triggers the arrival of an actual superhero which generally any single person can get rid of on their own (with a good amount of effort, as generally the superhero is powerful enough to put up a decent fight). The second part is the Arena which stands on the second island that you will visit in this game (assuming you follow the guidelines and go from island to island as you level up and complete quests) that allows you to fight other villains (once again... Villains fighting villains... I know there's that whole bragging rights and reigning supreme thing but when you have a city FULL of powerful superheroes should you really focus on eachother?) for brownie points, as I'm not aware of any real rewards except titles (as you progress in the game you can gain 'achievements' of a sort. At your will you can click on the achievement and have the name of the ordeal in question added under your character's name as a second title.). The third is the ability to raid superhero bases for the sake of annihilating good guys (which you can't hate, because obviously supervillainy is a lot better) and gaining powerful loot that gives you and any other villains in your 'Villain Guild' (that's not their actual name, but they might as well be Villainous Guilds... They're Guilds of Calamitous Intent, deal with it) special passive bonuses and the necessity to be raided in turn by superheroes.
Although I may sound as if I'm putting this game down (which I am... But don't let that fool you!) it actually is a fantastic game. City of Villains thus far is the only game that lets you create your own supervillain from scratch in your own design with some very decent lines of power that, at the least, include electricity and fireballs. As well as you are allowed to create a archetype (fancy term for class...) called the Mastermind who's main ability is calling forth ninjas, mercenaries, the undead, and robots; all of increasing power and effectiveness. Just as well, there are rewards for any player that reaches level 50 as you unlock an additional two archetypes which I have never experienced, but have been told can be somewhat enjoyable.
Would I recommend this game to you? Yes. However, this game is only for people who want to put the time and money in to it. If you can spare endless amounts of hard-earned cash (through either begging your parents with fake tears or getting yelled at / yelling at people, the latter being less hard-earned and more well-enjoyed) and look past some of the repetative aspects of the game you'll find a wonderful universe full of millions of other supervillains (and I do mean FULL, as there is a generous amount of other players to spend time with). The two games themselves pack an interesting story and history behind them as well as some fun times. Plus, at the very least, City of Villains (like City of Heroes before it) continues vast amounts of partying and dancing to generic techno music with several other players. Perhaps the best selling factor of these two games is the fact that nothing brings together supervillains like a generous list of techno songs that all sound almost the same.