City of Heroes

"Truly a Heroic Game"

Note: This review is as of Issue 6
Almost every kid at one point or another dreams of being a hero. Flying through the city, fighting crime, saving innocents. Now you too can don a cape and live out your fantasy. Welcome to Paragon City, the City of Heroes.

In City of Heroes you choose a hero archtype and go out to stop evildoers. You can choose from a Scrapper (close range high damage), Tank (big guys with lots of defense), Defender (healer), Blaster (long range high damage), or a Controller (control an element and ensnare villains). Then you get to use an extremely well made costume creator to make hero look virtually any way you want and you're off into the big city.

Once you start adventuring it isn't long before you can join, or create, a supergroup and go heroing with a group of friends. You can also build a superbase and decorate it any way you choose. (City of Villains, the sequel to CoH, is required for the superbase content to become active.)

Graphics - 10/10
The graphics are amazing in this game. Skyscrapers tower over cityscapes, lush forests choke the park, dank tunnels wind through underground caverns. CoH has created a new standard for mmorpgs.

Sound/Music - 9/10
The audio is great in this game. The sound effects are well done and really add to the game. However some more music in the cityscapes and dungeons would have been nice. Would would have made this perfect is if you could do streaming music with a hi speed connection from a CoH dj station.

Play control - 10/10
The controls are easy to learn and amazingly deep. You can do interactive animations, easily immerse yourself in combat, or just chat with friends all with the same ease.

Story/theme - 10/10
You really feel like you are working your way up the hero ladder in this game. You start out fighting gang bangers and graduate to mobsters and eventually duke it out with super powered criminals. Some of the trials, like the Terra Volta trial where you fight inside a nuclear reactor, really make you feel heroic.

Once you hit the level max, currently 50, you still have lots of content you can explore. Fist off you gain access to a new epic archtype, the alien Kheldians. You can collect badges, do high level trials, or start a new hero and do everything over again. Not to mention holiday special events and new content is added to the game every 3-4 months.

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Overall an excellent game. There is a huge community that has grown up around this game. Who knows what will be added to the game down the road.
The only drawback right now is some lag issue with people with slower connection speeds. An up to date computer is strongly recommended for this game.

Before this game came along I never even considered playing an mmorpg. The only one I had ever seen was the ugly mess that is Everquest. This game has made me a believer, and a permanent resident of Paragon City. Long live City of Heroes.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/17/06