City of Heroes

"Fun for a whole two days."

I waited for this game since it was first announced. City of Heroes, a game from the developers of the famous Lineage, NCSoft, was supposed to be the wet dream of every person who had ever wished to be a superhero. With a deep character creation system, nifty powers and effects, vast gaming world, and an easy-to-use combat system, CoH looked as if it could have been the MMORPG to end all MMORPGs. And when you first pick it up, you think it just might be. But within the first ten minutes of play, you have experienced just about everything this game has to offer - and you realize how sorely lacking it is.

This is not to say that CoH is a bad game. It does a few things very well. It just feels somewhat empty compared to all the other, deeper MMORPGs available right now.

When you start up the game for the first time and prepare to begin adventuring, you choose a class for your new character. The classes are fairly basic compared to other MMOGs. You can choose from a Blaster (long range fighter), Controller (mezzer/debuffer), Defender (buffer/debuffer), Scrapper (low input, high output fighter) or Tanker (exact opposite of Scrapper). After you have chosen a class (and a fairly inconsequential "origin" that only matters later in the game - by which time you will have probably lost interest) you are presented with one of the deepest character creation systems I have ever seen in a game. Compared to other MMORPGs, it is far and away the best. You can customize just about every last detail on your character, and create the superhero you have always dreamed of being. Or you can hit "Randomize" for a good laugh. From old-school, spandex-clad comic book heroes to badass robotic justice machines, the possibilities are endless. Once you have finally customized your four-feet-tall muscle-bound shirtless guy with a hot pink 'fro and a Fu Man Chu hanging from his upper lips, you can choose his power sets. These are wide and varied, but somewhat unbalanced. However, you can still enjoy the game if you pick one of the "worse" sets, as said imbalance is fairly minuscule and not really hindering. Another issue I have with the sets is that at least one of them is repeated entirely (the Controller's secondary set is the Defender's primary set), but again, it's not really a big deal. After you have chosen your power sets, you can type up some backstory for your character, name him, and then you're off!

The first thing you will notice is how stunning the graphics in this game are. At later levels, you really can get on top of that building you see in the distance! Light reflects well off of any shiny materials your character might happen to be wearing, foliage is rendered believably, pedestrians walk the streets, and incredibly high-leveled Police Drones patrol danger zones and stand guard at the entrance of important areas - for example, the transitway. The fantastic graphics and vast maps are accompanied by some great and convincing sound effects. Electrical bolts make a nice crackling sound, pyrotechnics give off a satisfying "whoosh", and completing a mission causes a catchy, heroic theme to play. The only complaint I have with the sound is that some of it seems "broken" - i.e., there were no sound effects (when I played, at least) of broadsword or katana attacks connecting with their targets, really taking away from the experience.

Going back to the game, it drops you off at the beginning of a brief tutorial, allowing you to familiarize yourself with the controls and the streamlined battle system. And speaking of streamlined, allow me to tell you my real beef with the game. The entire thing feels streamlined. Playing through, it feels like "MMORPG-lite". There isn't a lot to do in this game aside from killing mobs, killing more mobs, receiving quests telling you to kill some mobs, and receiving more quests telling you to go to an instanced area so you can (sigh) kill mobs. "Instanced" refers to a zone created especially for you and your quest (and any fellow players in a party who might happen to be tagging along), and it is CoH's main quest template. Few missions require you to kill mobs on the street. Many tell you to enter "a" building, destroy "x" of "y", then get some influence (the money system) and experience and repeat. Doing this over and over again is NOT fun. Due to the great battle system in CoH and all the nifty special effects that appear when you use an attack, battling is enjoyable and simple. However, doing it 50 times in a row makes it tiring, irksome, and leaving you wishing there was more to do in the game.

Sadly, there isn't anything else. There is no crafting of items like in so many other popular RPGs. In fact, there are no items at all. The only things resembling items are "Inspirations", the equivalent of potions in any other MMORPG, and "Enhancements", basically bonuses for your powers. That's it. There are no machine guns or shotguns for Punisher-type characters to use, only a multi-purpose "Assault Rifle" Blaster power set. It kind of hurts character customization, and limits your character's power to their level, not the gear they're using, which is a shame. NCSoft doesn't even capitalize on CoH's great battle system by including Player vs. Player combat (known more commonly as "PvP"), which is such a staple of MMOGs that the game seems lacking without it. PvP is promised in the upcoming expansion, "City of Villains", as well as the obvious ability to, well, play as a villain, but it should have been included in the original package. This promise of upcoming features is something that almost all MMOGs fall prey to, and it sucks, because "upcoming features" should have been included in the game you shelled out hard cash for.

In the end, City of Heroes is great at what it does, there's no mistaking that. If the developers had put some more time into making the game deeper, and included features that are coming by way of updates, it could have been a strong contender for best MMOG ever created. In its current state? Not a chance.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/04