City of Heroes is a MMORPG (Massive Multi Player Online Roleplaying Game).
As such, it can only be played with an internet connection and requires a monthly
charge to be paid.
I feel that before beginning this review, I should declare a possible conflict
of interest. For the last 2 years i have been playing a rival MMORPG
World of Warcraft)
and whilst I'll try not to compare the two, inevitably I will have to.
I was genuinely excited when I was asked to review CoH, as I have been a fan of
Marvel and DC comics since as long as i can remeber and so the opportunity to
create my own superhero and run/fly/hop or teleport around solving crime and
beating up the bad guys was appealing.
The actual version of the game I got had the City of Villains game included in
it which, as the name suggests, allows you to play the bad guys but I went for
the good side.
The character creation is a lot of fun. You get to take control of much of the
creation process even down to the size and look of your character. There are
only humanoid races to chose from, but the decisions you make about what
skills and powers to have and the source of those powers seems to have some
effect on how you alterations affect the actual look of your character. Whilst
it is possible to to crash straight into the game, you soon get left feeling you
have missed out when your standard and fairly shapeless blob begins to mingle
with the other inhabitants of the world.
Once you have created your character, you get a choice to enter the training
area to begin learning the skills you are going to need to survive. As with any
training zones, patience is required as you read through reams of text in order
to understand the different skills you have and how to use them.
A big plus
at this point is that the radar and objective indicator are good at getting
you to where you need to be and you can quickly get to the objectives, with
out wasting too much time wandering around wondering where to go next. Once
you have been given a few tasks, gained a few levels and mastered the controls
a little better, you are directed out into the big bad world.
From this point forward, as with many games, you begin the long grind to max
level. And it *is* a long grind and at times it's boring, but the progression is steady
enough and there are new skills to learn along the way and new powers that
become available you so you always have an objective to work towards and keep
you interested... expect that they dont.
As well as playing and building up my own character, I also got the chance to
check out a level 40 Tanker character called Nando Canuki, a
with the abilities of Energy Melee, that allows you to smack your enemies into
next week with the addition of pure energy and what may sound like the obvious
help of invulnerability, but you're not protected against Psionic attacks.
As a gamer, while it was fun to play a higher level character for a while, the problem
is that I enjoy the sense of satisfaction i get from unlocking, secrets/characters/new
weapons or skills, which you don't get from entering straight in at such a high level.
Also, I like doing another level and getting a bit further and, ultimately,
completing the game. MMORPGs are slightly different, as there is no end as
such, you can carrying on playing long after you have reached max level, as it
is often the case that a new world opens up when you do so. However, the problem
with CoH is that I don't want to.
I know the amount of effort and time that it is going to take me to get to
max level. I know that I am going to have to work at it and that if I am really
honest, i do not think that CoH is good enough for me to want to do that. The
graphics are good - but not great, the powers are different - but not mind blowing
and the areas that you go in to to complete missions are nice enough but not
in anyway shape or form outstanding and certainly are not good enough to
justify the inordinately long load times.
There is nothing in this game to
encourage me to get invested in it. If I did not have to pay a monthly fee, I
would certainly enjoy playing it every now and again, but I just cannet see me
getting interested enough to justify that monthly fee.
It is a shame really. After all, who hasn't wished they could fly like Superman
or swing around the city like Spiderman? A lot of recent games titles can give
you the chance to do that with out the monthly cost and are, in this reveiwer's
opinion, far better.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
City of Heroes is a MMORPG (Massive Multi Player Online Roleplaying Game).
Once you have created your character, you get a choice to enter the training
area to begin learning the skills you are going to need to survive. As with any
training zones, patience is required as you read through reams of text in order
to understand the different skills you have and how to use them.
As a gamer, while it was fun to play a higher level character for a while, the problem
is that I enjoy the sense of satisfaction i get from unlocking, secrets/characters/new
weapons or skills, which you don't get from entering straight in at such a high level.
