|
City of Heroes Review for PC
Posted on Sunday, June 13, 2004 @ 12:34:37 am E.S.TIn recent years, the MMORPG genre has become a lost art. It's seen many games, but they've all been of the same substance; Tolkien-esque creatures, like goblins, orcs, and elves, have invaded the genre and have shown up endlessly throughout the games. Where games like Everquest used to rule the land with their unique style and concepts, the same type of game has become overloaded with more of the same, dull ideas. Enter City of Heroes, a game that attempts to stride away from the stereotypical MMORPG formula by mixing in a little bit of a comic book fix, along with some other changes in gameplay that make the game unique. Does CoH succeed at being distinctive? It does so with flying colors that would make even the most stunning heroes in tights envious. However, as out of the ordinary as it could be, is it any good? Yes, and needless to say, this epic game is just what the MMORPG genre needed, rather than just another Tolkien-esque title.
Paragon City: “The Birthplace of the Hero." A city of peace, a city of freedom, but without its trusty superheroes, a city of crime and sin. City of Heroes drops you, an upstart superhero, in the middle of all of the chaos to help put a stop all wrongdoing and help return peace and justice to the city's streets. CoH is a profound game with a lot of mystery within its stories. As you begin your game, you are asked to go to your contact, which varies depending on your choice of character. From there, you have the choice of taking one of two missions. As the game continues, the segments of the story, otherwise known as story arcs, unfold in a way that’s reminiscent of the “Choose Your Own Adventure” novels. These story arcs can take you from uncovering the secret plan of the evil Clockwork, to ensuring the demise of the nasty Vazhilok. No matter what you choose in your path, however, the stories are deep and exciting from beginning to end.
City of Heroes puts you in the boots of your own personal superhero, which is formed by what may be the most open-ended character creation modes found in any game. The total number of costume combinations possible is 2,240,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, or 2.24 quadrillion, give or take a few million, according to developers Cryptic Software. So far, I’ve seen nearly anything imaginable, from a bumblebee pimp to a rooster, even a “naked” Smurf. The sheer amount of costume combinations that are possible is seemingly endless, and as you explore the depths of Paragon City and its suburbs, you'll find outfits that will make you laugh, but also some that will amaze you.
There are only two main crimes within character creation. One being that, once you’ve chosen your costume, there’s no going back; it’s yours forever, and you can’t edit it. The other is that, even with all of the options, there is a big exclusion of one of the most famous objects in comic book history – the cape. That’s right. No capes. You’ll see nearly everything imaginable, from masks to armor to boots and emblems, but you’ll never see a cape. Even though this seems like a minor ommision, it’s a shame for those of us who have wanted to live out the fantasy of being Superman. All in all, character creation is one of the most fun and unique points of the game, and proves to be a lot of fun before you even step into the realm of Paragon City.
When you first create your character, you are asked to choose how your character was created, with options such as “mutation” and “technology," and your archetype, which is what kind of character you have; you can choose from Blaster, Scrapper, Defender, Controller and Tanker. While at first this may seem like a way to make the game seem more true to the comic world, these choices are also integral to your character and their future abilities. For example, if you are a scrapper, you're defense will be considerably lower than the other archetypes, and you’ll have moves that are only slightly damaging. However, those attacks are very fast on regeneration, allowing you to use them repeatedly. This can prove to be effective in damage, but the lack of defense that your character will have could put you in a near-death situation in a matter of moments. Conversely, if you’re a Blaster, your defense is high and your attacks hit hard, but they take longer to regenerate, so you’ll have to choose what manuevers you use carefully.
A unique system to attract new players to CoH is the inclusion of the sidekick system. With this system, highly developed players can select friends that recently started playing CoH and help them level up faster. When the sidekicks are within a close distance of their more experienced acquaintances, their statistics are boosted to a level that is similar to their mentors. This is a unique system that has no downfalls for either part of the equation, and should prove to be very helpful to many players over time.
One of the dilemmas that reaching higher levels is that, sometimes, it feels as if you’ll never reach the next level. Once you hit the teens, leveling becomes extremely slower than what it was in the early stages of your character’s lifespan. Again, this has good and bad points – when starting, you won’t feel far behind those players that have logged in dozens of hours, but once you do reach the higher levels, it feels like you’re not advancing as much. Overall, throughout leveling, Cryptic has implemented a number of excellent systems that will attract many newcomers, but may deter some of the more experienced players from continuing to hop on the game and kick evil’s ass.
An excellent way to interact with other players, while still being able to complete your own missions, is the team mode. In this feature, you can select other players to join forces with and create a party to triumph villians with. If you get comfortable enough, you can make a supergroup with these friends once you reach level 10. This is an advanced version of team mode that will allow you to create supergroup-specific costumes, emblems, and sayings. Needless to say, team and supergroup modes are both excellent ways to level up, interact with others, and advance through the game.
Improving your character is a breeze, and although it doesn’t alter your character’s appearance, there are significant changes in your statistics and attacks. When you gain more experience, you’ll be able to choose more abilities. These attacks [Just attacks?] then can be modified with special power-ups called Enhancements. These change your abilities in various ways, ranging from faster regeneration to skills with greater effects. The ways you can upgrade, while not visibly noticeable, are seemingly never-ending, and provide more inspiration to continue to play and upgrade your character.
One of the high points in CoH is its stunning visual presentation. When running on a high-end PC, the game is simply stellar. Every building, character, and object in this game really gives CoH a good feel of the “Golden Age” of comics. It definitely helps make the game feel more like you really are a superhero instead of just controlling some commonplace video game character. The only setback is the lack of animations. After a while, seeing the same movements does tend to be a tad boring. Even though they do include some stellar effects, the attacks that you have chosen cannot be changed. There could have at least been some customization options to your attacks as PC hit Freedom Force had, such as changing the colors. There are also some nice animations outside of battle, ranging from the humorous, such as performing yoga and flexing your muscles in downtime, to those that can help make decisions, such as dice rolling and playing Rock-Paper-Scissors. Even with what sounds like a massive amount of different animations, though, the number of them does seem slim as you play the game over a long period of time.
Audiophiles won’t have much to be amazed with in City of Heroes. There is some music whenever you enter a new area, and there are some nice sound effects when in combat, but besides that, the mundane sound of footsteps doesn’t do a lot to compliment the game. It would’ve been really nice had they included something like basic theme music whenever you defeat an enemy, similar to the famous sound of victory in the Final Fantasy games. Instead of a small jingle to make you feel triumphant, you get a simple note of music. This is very disappointing, and with the amount of potential that a game featuring superheroes could have, it quite doesn’t match up.
One of the things that is sure to turn off casual gamers is the cost to play per month, which is $15. The good thing is that, when you purchase the game, you get one free month of play. Seeing as the monthly price is high, this helps you get to get a feel of the game and helps you decide if this game is something you can play on a long-term basis, or if CoH is just not for you.
When all is said and done, City of Heroes is a game that definitely delivers the immersive online superhero experience that I had expected. The sheer amount of creativity and depth that Cryptic put into this game while still maintaining a little bit of streamlined play is amazing, and it looks to only increase as updates for the game are continuously released, starting in June with the first big additions to Paragon City, and climaxing with next January’s huge expansion pack, City of Villains. However, enjoying this game all comes down to personal taste. If you don’t enjoy online gaming and never had the childhood fantasy of living the life of a superhero, then this game isn’t for you. However, if you’ve always wanted to don the tights of legends like the Green Lantern and become a superhero, and if you’re willing to put forward the $15 per month to play this game, you’re surely not going to regret it. Review By: Matt Hack - 6871 Reads
City of Heroes Review Scores for PC :
| Gameplay |
| 8.5 |
| Graphics |
| 9.0 |
| Sound |
| 6.5 |
| Replay |
| 9.5 |
| Overall |
| 9.2 |
|
Go Back |
Reviews Index |
Post About It
|
