Review: City of Heroes
by PinkRoziz
information
06/25/2004
PinkRoziz
PinkRoziz
City Of Heroes is on the easy end of the MMOG’s being released today, easy as far as the learning curve goes. There really is minimal complexity to the game, no crafting for example, but yet it still has that addicting effect. The most difficult part of the game is picking your costume and picking your powers. Graphically, it has some great special effects, an excellent environment rendering, and decent NPC AI. Even though it may come across as a GTA3 with heroes in a MMOG world, it still holds its own. It’s a breeze to play – and to top it off it is most enjoyable for hours on end.
Character Customization
When you first log on, be sure you have a few hours set aside because the character design will take you a while. After choosing a server, you will first be asked what archetype you want to be, like a blaster or tanker, and what your origin will be, like magic or technology. There are archetypes and origins to choose from. You will then choose a primary power and a secondary power. As you level, more powers will be granted to you that you may choose from. You will also have the opportunity at level 6 and above to pick up to 4 special power sets like flying or jumping. In each archetype you can choose from many different power sets, but the powers coincide with the archetype chosen.
For example, let’s say you would like a Hero who is Magic in origin, a Controller, has a primary power of Mind Control and a secondary power of empathy or healing. The hit points for a defender are low, but most attacks are ranged and basically a controller’s job is to hold off the mob you are fighting until you have the chance to beat them to a pulp and ‘arrest’ them. The added bonus of empathy is your ability to heal others and yourself. On the other hand, you can choose a Hero, who is Natural in origin, a Tanker, has a primary power of ice defensive (like shields) and a secondary power of ice offence like an ice sword. The hit points for a tanker are high, but its primary powers are focused on defending because that is their job – to be a tank and take a beating while beating the enemies to a pulp.
There are 5 archetypes - Blaster (ranged powerhouse), Defender (support and ranged), Controller (crowd control and support), Scrapper (melee and defense), and Tanker (defense vanguard and melee). There are also 5 origins - Magic, Technology, Natural, Mutation, and Science, but origins do no play a huge role until you start using dual or single origin enhancements. Before you settle your main character on a specific archetype, be sure to make a few characters and play around to see which power sets you like best. The best part of playing any game is exploring it and playing a few different types of characters on the same server, or different servers for that matter.
The best part of character creation is picking your costume. Girls, if you loved your Barbie dolls, buckle up. Guys, you will find this part fun too, it just won’t take you as long to get ready. You can pick and choose from a vast array of looks by modifying the head, upper body and lower body. I swear not many Heroes look the same, unless intended like the Ambiguously Gay Duo, which gave me a good laugh the first week the game went live. Picking your Hero’s costume is a lot of fun, but be sure to pick wisely because you will not be able to change it until the ‘big patch’ comes out sometime this month. The color palate has a nice selection of colors too. Only problems I have are that that capes and the ability to play a non-steroid body type Hero are not an option. As far as body types go, you can either be a huge Hulk like male, or a buffed muscular male or a busty muscular female. What if I wanted to play an old fat Italian Widow looking for revenge? Sadly the costume and body type would not match the stereotypical old woman, but you can get an old wrinkled face. Then again, when was the last time you saw a Super Hero that was fat and bald?
In the beginning…
The next step is the “Outbreak” tutorial. It will show you the basics of the game and is a pretty decent introduction. You will also gain a security level by completing the tutorial. I just think an option to not go through the tutorial should be implemented if you make multiple characters. After making about 20 characters over the course of beta and live, I found myself racing through the same tutorial in record time. After completion of the tutorial, you start playing the game.
You will be given the option of going to one of the two starter zones – Atlas Park or Galaxy City. Within Paragon City there are zones each suited for specific levels. You will be restricted from entering certain zones until you reach a higher security level. Every zone within Paragon City has varied levels of enemies. I recommend buying the Prima official strategy guide for further detail of where each type of enemy can be found. Trust me when I say you do not want to go through a zone that you don’t match the mobs combat levels – no matter how fast you run. At least wait until you have the ability for the level 14 special power sets to get around some of the tougher areas. After you get that power, you will find you can get around much easier.
The AI on the streets is really coded well and enemies will react to you by fighting or fleeing. Same applies to indoor missions, but it is more of the same killing grind over and over. You will also see citizens running away in horror and cars driving by blasting rap music. It is not a perfect world, but neither is any game. They did pay attention to environment detail, like when you see roaches in the sewers or a piece of newspaper floating by on the street. Combining those basics with the extraordinary attention to detail of each of the heroes powers, it makes a nice game to look at. Every power looks different and you can tell them apart after playing the game a while. I like the absent cookie cutter feeling when it comes to costumes and power’s effects. With most MMOG’s on the market today, seeing the same flavor of the month type characters gets tiresome real quick. The developers are doing a good job in avoiding any one archetype from being too overly powerful or dependant. It is quite balanced, but who knows how it will be when PVP is introduced.
Your first missions are fun to play, solo or in a group. In the beginning any type can solo easily. You get your missions from various NPC’s located throughout the city, these are your contacts. After completing missions for each contact, you establish a relationship with them in which eventually they will open up shop with you and you can call them on the cell rather than seeing them in person. Contacts also introduce you to more contacts which mean more missions. The storyline is contained in some of the missions given to you by the contacts and clues you recover during those missions. Personally, I found the storyline to be slow, but interesting and creative all the same.
Missions can be either door based (dungeon maps), arresting a certain amount of a villain group on the streets, or patrolling an area. Sometimes part of a mission will ask you to deliver something. The different groups of bad guys vary from electric shooting robots called the Clockwork, to drugged up gang members called the Trolls to the Mafia Family. Again, the Prima strat guide provides a great reference as to what level enemies and what type of enemy is in each area within the zones. I do find myself wanting more out of the storyline and I would like the missions to have more substance to them. Shooting the same enemies over and over does gets tiresome, especially that a mission with same level enemies takes at least 20 minutes to complete.
Going on the streets and hitting up various mobs is also an option for action, you don’t have to just do missions. The more advanced you get, the larger the mob in numbers – literally. Advancing is pretty smooth until you reach your mid teens, then it slows down a little. You will find a trainer in most of the zones, as your different contacts. You will find your contact list getting larger as time goes on, but after you finish doing a few missions for them they will go to the bottom of your list permanently giving out no missions. I find it odd that they just stay on your contact list providing nothing and their store´s enhancement offering becomes too low for any use. A few issues like this are annoying but no enough to where I would throw in the towel. Lots of parts of the game does become monotonous after a while, but so are a majority of MMOG´s out today. At least COH is smooth running and an ease to learn.
As you advance, more powers will be made available to you to pick from. Every other level you will grant you a new power. Alternate levels grant you two enhancement slots and sometimes extra inspiration slots. For each power, you can make them more powerful with enhancements. Enhancements and Inspirations are the game’s “loot”. Inspirations are temporary boosts similar to potions in other games. There are 3 types of enhancements – training, dual origin and single origin with single being the most powerful. Each enhancement has a level and your goal is to use enhancements closet to your level. It’s an easy color coded number - green (good) and red (bad). The single origin is the most powerful, training being the weakest. Also to use the dual and single origin enhancements you must be of that origin. For example, a hero with a magic origin can not use a technology/natural dual origin enhancement.
Teamwork
The chat system is easy to use once you get used to it. However, there is no server chat room, only zone’s broadcast, local, team, request, or supergroup. Supergroups are the clans or guilds in the game. The supergroup interface is easy to use and provides you with a list of everyone in your supergroup and other information such as rank and last time they signed on. You can also change the colors of your costume to reflect the supergroup´s colors that the leader chooses. Slash commands as well as point and click options are available. You can also program key binds and macros, and not just for chat but for virtually anything.
An important part of this game is to team up with your fellow heroes. The grouping system is easy to use with slash commands or point and click. Experience and loot is automatically distributed which I found really fair and a much needed system to any game. A good diversified team works best that let´s say a team of only one type of archetype. Join a team or start your own it is up to you and finding team members is very easy in this game. There is always someone looking for a team, trust me. Also, there is a neat seek team feature - turn it on and let other heroes know you would like to join a team. The seek feature allows you to see a list of other heroes who wish to team up. The grouping system was well thought out and works well, especially if you are grouped up with others within one security level of yours. Only feature missing is the ability to make someone else a leader of the group. It does default to next hero on the list, according to when they were added on the team, even if the current leader logs out - even if they go link dead. Around your teens, if you are in a full group and have about eight hours on your hands, you can team up for a task force. Basically it is a list of missions that you accomplish and it is tied into the ongoing storyline of the game. Experience is divided among the group with a little extra going to the higher leveled.
Once you reach level 10, you can sidekick another hero who is at least three levels lower than you. Once sidekicked, combat powers - including healing - gets raised to near your level. For example, let´s say you are a level 20 and you sidekick someone who is level 12. As long as they stay near you, they will fight at level 19-20, but they will retain the same hit points. Only thing that is gained is the combat powers - no other benefits. I think a little pizzazz, like a visible label, should be implemented.
Conclusion
City of Heroes is a well made game and I think the developers have succeeded in providing an easy to play game with stunning effects and decent content. As a gamer, I found this game to provide me with a nice diversion from my regular games, and I found it relaxing. At the same time, I need more to keep me paying $15.00 per month for this product. Frequent tweaks are nice, but it needs more content. We shall see what the first big patch brings supposing this month. Maybe once the PVP expansion pack, City of Villains, will make this game more appealing to me and pull me back in. Until then, I give this game 8 out of 10.
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