| PAX
East 2010 Game Preview:
City of Heroes -- Going Rogue
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| Seeing
the dark mirror of Paragon... |
It’s
time to fire up the interwebs and dawn the cape and tights
once more. The worlds most popular and longest running superhero
MMO, City of Heroes (COH), is getting ready to
release its first official expansion pack since 2005 - "Going
Rogue" - and the gamers at PAX East got an exclusive
sneak peek!
During
its almost six-year lifespan, COH has mined almost
every superhero story line imaginable, from archvillains,
to time travel, to battling pseudo-Nazi crime syndicates.
Saturday at PAX, a panel of COH designers, artists,
and developers took the wraps off the new features they’re
bringing to the enthusiastic gamers that packed into the
panel session.
After
a quick overview of the dozens of powers, improvements,
and tweaks that have been added to the game over its lifespan,
Lead Artist Dave Nakayama introduced the fans to Ultra Mode,
available in April as part of the free Issue 17: Dark Mirror
update. Ultra Mode brings the graphics technology of COH
into the 21st century.
Rather
than a complete replacement of all models and textures,
Ultra Mode combines a handful of features available through
the power of modern graphics cards such as realtime and
self-casting shadows, better control over lighting contrast,
and realistic reflections on metal, glass, and water surfaces.
That’s right, like the Man of Steel, you too can admire
your reflection as you fly past a shiny building. Nakayama
showed a series of before and after photos and the combination
of new effects brought a striking level of detail to the
existing locations in Paragon City.
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| A
new demon summoning power... |
But
what about new locations? The Going Rogue expansion, which
will be available for purchase later this year will give
players a slew of new locations in Praetoria - and alternate
dimension version of Paragon City. Praetoria is designed
from the ground up to take advantage of the Ultra Mode eye
candy, but more importantly, it will also open up new gameplay
styles.
Praetoria
offers players the ability to create new characters and
explore an entirely new set of challenges from Level 1 to
20. Additionally, Praetoria is a utopia under the control
of a dictator - think 1984 with beautiful gleaming towers
- where the player doesn’t choose to be good or evil
but over time becomes a loyalist to or resistance against
the ruling regime. Praetoria will feature four new zones,
and a slew of new content for new or experienced COH players.
A new
land also means new enemies, and Going Rogue has them in
spades. The new enemies reflect the ambiguous morality of
Praetoria, with your resistance fighters taking on the Praetoria
Police and your loyalists battling an anti-government syndicate.
The character designs were slightly futuristic, and all
very detailed. Going Rogue definitely looks to make the
most of your PC’s gaming hardware.
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| Who
will use their powers only for good? |
Going
Rogue will also give players the chance to, well, go rogue.
For the first time, players can take the hero that they’ve
carefully crafted and lead him through his fall from grace.
Likewise, a player-created villain could start to walk the
long road to redemption. The missions that change your alignment
are numerous and spread apart, making the transition seem
like something that could actually happen to your character
over time. And once you’ve changed your character
from good to evil or vice versa, you can choose to start
on the path back!
Next
the developers showed some exclusive videos of the exciting
new powers that will be available to players soon - wielding
dual pistols, kinetic melee powers, electricity control,
and demon summoning. The motion captured movement and lighting
effects on all of the new powers was really impressive,
and the crowd in attendance couldn’t wait to unleash
them on their foes.
All
told, COH’s Issue 17 and Going Rogue are both packed
with enough new features and new content to make any virtual
superhero soil his tights. If you’re looking forward
to exploring the land of Praetoria for yourself, City
of Heroes: Going Rogue will be released for PC and
Mac later this year.
And
if you want to get your feet wet in Paragon City before
you commit to an alternate reality, never fear - there is
a 14 day free trial available at http://www.cityofheroes.com/trial/index.html.
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