City of Heroes - Loving the Latex
If instant gratification is your thing, then Cryptic Studios'
on-line RPG City of Heroes will be right up your alley.
Unlike many MMORPGs, right from the start, your character's
going to be able to kick some serious ass, and I don't mean
over-sized rat ass, either.
City of Heroes is all about fulfilling that comic-book
childhood fantasy: being a super-hero, beating up super-villains
and saving a grateful city. Sorry, "arresting"
super-villains. Arresting them right into the pavement.
Arresting the living snot out of them. Oddly, no-one seems
to get read their rights.
City of Heroes has one of the best character creation suites
in the on-line role-playing market. There are literally
thousands of variations for appearance and costuming, and
while you can, if you want, lovingly replicate your favorite
super-hero, it's rare to see two characters round the game
who look even vaguely the same. It's just so much fun to
let your imagination go. You choose your character's origin,
their basic 'type' (blaster, tanker, scrapper, defender,
controller), put your underwear on the outside, and you're
off. Movement is keyboard-controlled, which might take a
bit of getting used to for players used to mouse control,
but there's a nifty wee tutorial to go through first.
CoH is entirely Player vs Environment. Though, oddly, you
can't do any major damage to the environment, which is going
to disappoint some people, especially with all those tempting
parking meters and lampposts lying around. It's really easy
to join character parties - just click the button and someone
will be inviting you to join their party pretty soon. Also,
Cryptic have introduced a genuinely innovative "sidekick"
system which allows low-level characters to be "adopted"
by higher-level ones, which makes the game genuinely fun
for casual players.
CoH is a great game for groups. Because you can get stuck
in right from the get-go, and groups can be as large as
eight characters, it's the ideal game for a LAN party. The
class balance seems to be pretty good with the possible
exception of the controller, but the different powers interact
well, so the best groups are going to have a balance of
different types.
Some people are going to find the action in City of Heroes
a bit repetitive and limited. The game really only does
one thing: killing bad guys. It does do it very well, though,
and the game is ideal for people who don't want to give
their soul to a role-playing game, but just want to dip
in and out. There's some questing element in instanced environments,
which adds a bit of variety. There's already an expansion
out, rather predictably titled City of Villains. As a nice
touch, Cryptic sends out a monthly comic book to all their
subscribers.
The AIs are pretty good, too. Different levels of villain
(minion, lieutenant, boss) behave in different ways. The
more favors you do for your contacts, the more information
they'll give you.
The graphics are great, within their own style, and the
game doesn't get sluggish even in a warehouse packed with
characters letting go whoop-ass special-effect-generating
powers at full tilt. The sound is fairly minimal: there's
very little music, and most of the effects are of the expected
'kapow' variety.
Overall, City of Heroes is just a blast. It's FUN being
a superhero, and they know it. You just can't get too serious
in tights.
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