City of Villains

"Do you have what it takes to survive in a City of Villains?"

Introduction
City of Villains is the standalone sequel to City of Heroes, a unique Superhero MMORPG released in 2004. You play as a Villain in the Rouge Isles, a collection of small islands off the coast of Bermuda owned by renowned arch-villain, Lord Recluse.

Gameplay: 8/10
Most of the game is combat, presented in interesting and varied ways. You walk/run/fly/teleport/jump around the city, doing missions and dispatching various baddies, ranging from run-of-the-mill thugs to massive robots with plasma guns and rocket launchers. Combat is very fast-paced, often only lasting a minute or two. You use your powers to defeat the enemies, be it by controlling them and letting teammates do it, or sneaking up and assassinating them from behind, or even running in and smashing them in the face. Missions are the quests of this game, and are given by Brokers and Contacts. Brokers are people you are introduced to the first time you walk into a Zone, who allow you access to the Newspaper, a source of infinite random missions. Contacts are given by Brokers after doing a Heist, accessible by doing a number of newspaper missions and then returning to the Broker. Contacts give Story Arcs, which are a connected series of missions with a storyline, normally ending with a large boss battle of some sort. Missions are interesting, and range from kidnapping a reporter, to stealing a ruby to power your giant space laser. There are also Bases, which play a big part in PvP. Your Supergroup(like a guild) can create a Superbase, and fill it with lots of things, ranging from decorative sculptures, to Teleporters that can teleport you to any zone. The interface and feel of base editing is a lot like the Sims. There are also Items of Power that grant your whole SG a bonus. Once you place one, your SG is open to be raided by other SGs. You schedule it for a certain time, and then try to steal their Items of Power. But before you start robbing banks and mugging people, you need to create your villain. City of Villains features an extremely comprehensive character creation system. The first step is choosing one of five Archetypes, somewhat akin to classes of other games. After choosing an Archetype, it's off to powerset selection. The powers you receive throughout your career are determined by your choice of a Primary powerset, and a Secondary powerset. These can be anything from Fire Control, to Necromancy. Your Archetype determines what kinds of powersets you can get. For example, only a Mastermind can get the Poison secondary. Finally, it's time to create your costume. There are thousands of costume options that can be mixed and matched for millions of combinations. After creating your character, you're thrust into the City of Villains world, in the middle of a prison riot at the Ziggursky prison in Paragon City.

Story: 6/10
The premise of the game is that you play one of many prisoners sprung out of the Ziggursky prison, for Arachnos' Operation: Destiny. Arachnos Seers foretold the coming of the Chosen One from the prison, who would rise to power and help Lord Recluse take over the world. There are also many story arcs in the game that you can do. They are strings of missions that form a storyline normally ending with a boss battle of some kind. At the end you receive a souvenir recapping the plot. The writing is incredibly well done.

Graphics: 9/10
The graphics have received an overhaul since City of Heroes. There is now many new effects such as Bloom, Full Screen Anti Aliasing, Ragdoll physics, an improved particle effects system, and more. If you have the computer to handle them all cranked up, it looks absolutely beautiful. The sunsets and sunrises look simply awe-inspiring.

Sound: 7/10
The sound is fairly well done. You'll hear gunshots, fireballs exploding, sparks shooting off swords colliding, wolf-men howling at the moon, and more. Sound quality is high, and with 3D sound turned on it is very immersive. The music is mostly Rock/Techno, made from the same large pool of samples mixed up a lot.

Conclusion: 8/10
Overall, a very good game. There's some shared powersets, SFX, and music between City of Heroes and City of Villains, but that doesn't stop it from being an exceptional game on it's own. If you already have City of Heroes and you have the $50 to spare, buy it. You're only missing out otherwise, with no added monthly fee and the extra character slots. If you've never played City of Heroes, go ahead and give it a try if you're into being bad. The first month comes free so you can return it if you don't like it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/10/05