City of Heroes

"If this is the life of a superhero...."

Then I'd have to decline.

When I got city of heroes, I figured it'd be really great to be a hero in a city. Fighting crime, leaping from building to building, doing missions, forming a group of like-minded heroes and fighting deadly arch-villains. So I preordered my copy of CoH (city of heroes).

Here's the bottom line:

Graphics: 9/10

The graphics are quite good. No doubt about that at all. A lot of the powers look great and the character creation is really quite unique. You can have literally 2 million or more different types of costumes (including the different styles, colors and add-ons). There's robotic arms, fedoras, Robotic armor, alien faces and more. CoH doesn't fail here.

Sound: 6/10

Fairly good I would say. There isn't a LOT of music in this game aside from when you enter a new area. Most of the music for said areas is quite good I think, and really add to the mood of the zone you're in. The other sound effects are run of the mill. Nothing special really.

Gameplay: 2/10

This is where the game fails, and a game failing in gameplay, isn't very good. I'll explain. When I first got my game and starting playing it, I thought it was simply AWESOME. Just fantastic, and no doubt you will feel the same way too. Most of the other reviewers on this board are in the same position I was in at one point. They loved CoH and couldn't wait to write up a positive review of the game. Many of the game companies (Gamespy etc) played this game for like 20 hours, or even 40. The game will stay fresh for that long. You have many, many options. If you don't like your character, remake him. If you don't like your powers, change them. The problem lies in leveling mostly. First of all, leveling from 1-15 is pretty easy. If you play frequently, you can get to 15 in 2 or 3 days, maybe a week if you're truly casual. But once you hit about 18 or 19, the experience you need to level up becomes around 36,000. To get my char from 22-23, I need

48000 XP
Not a bad number considering most MMORPGs/RPGs right?
Wrong.
The problem with this is, if you're in a full group fight REDs (3 levels higher than you), you're getting about 10-12 xp per kill. That's 3600 mobs you must kill to level up, and let me tell you, THAT does NOT stay fresh. You're fighting one faction of bad guys over and over and over again just to get to the next level. You're using the SAME tactics, and the SAME powers over and over again to get the job done.

And it's all you ever do. You grind your XP. The only way to avoid going through this process is to find an overpowered ability and exploit it. There have been several instances of this happening, and there are already people who are level 40 (the current level cap).
Most other games offer SOMETHING else to do other than fight. Crafting, mini-games, questing for armor/weapons etc, but this game has none. This game doesn't even bother to hide the fact that all you do is fight.
I know some of you who are reading this might say you can talk to people, join a supergroup or just hang out, and I ask you, WHY?!
If I wanted to "Hang out" or "Talk", I'd wouldn't be playing a GAME. I'd go out with friends. I don't want to pay 15 dollars a month so I can sit around talking. I can do that for free.

The missions in this game are so mediocre, that they're no consolidation. You get basically 2 types of missions.
1.) Hit the streets and kill X amount of Y gang.
2.) Go to location and kill X leader of Y gang (And his guards WOOT!) and defuse bomb/rescue idiot/find clue of this.

There are also missions called "Task Force missions" that are essentially several normal missions strung together with a small backstory. These can keep you occupied for a bit.

My characters have completed about 10 "story arcs" and after the third one, it just ceases to matter at all that I'm working toward something. When you complete a story arc, you get a trinket that explains what exactly you did to complete the arc. It doesn't DO anything. It doesn't boost your power, or make you look any different and no one else knows you have it unless you tell them. So in essence, it's useless.

Realistically, if you're like me, and enjoy variety, you can expect the game to keep you happy for maybe 3 weeks -> a month.
Most people who play MMORPGs thrive on the leveling grinding aspect and refuse to believe that this game is any less than a leveling treadmill, which it basically is.
People will tell you that this game is full of innovation but they're only have right. The only innovation here is the heroic premise and the modern city setting.

Overall: 2/10

This game fails to come through. If the life of a super hero was really like this, I would say NO

THANKS 10 times out of 10.

Buy?: I would say NO unless you absolutely must try being a superhero. Like I said, it's fun for a few weeks.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/04