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From Paragon City:
The Fifth Column Takes On The Council
City
of Heroes has been laden with numerous little events
to reward the poor souls who play religiously. The beta test
ended with an alien invasion, Issue #2 kicked off with the
appearance of interdimensional raiders, and Halloween was
celebrated with a game of “trick or treat” that
either gave away goodies or spawned holiday-themed enemies.
Well, it looks like the boys at Cryptic
chose to reward all the little gamers who so diligently
tested the upcoming Issue #3 by kicking off ANOTHER war
last night. That’s right; a war taking place all over
the streets of Paragon. One that plays into both the plotline
of the game and the design changes heralded by the new update.
For anyone who doesn’t know, the big
deal this time around are Kheldians. They’re aliens
that can merge with human beings, allowing players who reach
the current end of the game at level 50 to start all over
with a new character, name, and unique archetype that can
be swapped over to at the push of a button (it also looks
like you can avoid the annoyance of having to copy over
friend lists and other information).
The other result of the Kheldian introduction
is that a certain villain group has been taken over by less
friendly ones. Unfortunately, it had to be the favorite
villain group in the game: the 5th Column.
Again, for anyone who doesn’t play,
the 5th Column are the result of a failed Nazi invasion
of the USA that led to the creation of a secret Aryan army
infiltrating our own ranks. After the Rikti War, they started
popping out of the woodwork more and more, actively recruiting
and training on the streets of Paragon City. Their members
range from simple footsoldiers to WWII-themed weapon-toters
to robots to mutated werewolves to genetically engineered
vampires.
The 5th Column have been the most aesthetically
pleasing villain group, largely due to their militaristic
appearance based around the old German helmets and Nazi
detailing that still make groups such as the Empire in Star
Wars so identifiably evil. But now, they’re The Council.
The Council look like a combination of the
Airborne Rangers and Mussolini’s Fascists, in the
early game. Then they start to gain some sillier looking
comic book villains in the midgame. The end result is a
more diverse but less intimidating 5th Column.
Why did they do this? Well, aside from constant
attempts to expand on gameplay, this was in response to
reported complaints about the appearance of Nazis in the
game (just to clarify, the word “nazi” is auto-censored
in the game, no swastikas appear, no villains speak German,
and there’s no anti-semitic dialogue either).
It’s hard to imagine Americans objecting
to such mainstay villains as Nazis, which is why further
examination has revealed that German anti-Nazi laws forced
the removal of such content if the game were going to be
opened to that market. While there’s no denying that
Germany could offer a good number of gamers, I personally
disagree with the move to open up a German market by dropping
one of the most beloved features of the game (beating the
tar out of Nazis) when Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft
are already siphoning off players.
And, as the City of Heroes forums show,
I’m not the only one who feels this way.
But, in an attempt at catharsis that will
hopefully leak over to the main game, Cryptic gave the hard-working
souls on the City of Heroes Test Server a chance to answer
the ultimate question: who would win if the 5th Column fought
the Council?
Yes, the two groups squared off last night,
beginning with minor 5th Column raids on Council recruiting
positions and leading to the standard “two-man brawl
surrounded by cheering villains” setup we see so much
in the game. But then people noticed that, if you stood
there and watched long enough, the supporting villains eventually
unslung their weapons and started killing each other!
This resulted in blood baths all throughout
the server as 5th Columnists and Council goons tore each
other up in every city zone (much to the delight of onlookers).
The best sight I saw took place on the docks
of Talos Island where I followed a group of laser-wielding
Council Adjutants to a brawl with a swarm of Raserei Ubermenshen.
Some heroes stood by and watched while others ran into the
fray to aid whichever group they were rooting for. As dozens
of baddies fell to the ground, dozens and dozens more came
running out to reinforce them. Though the battle eventually
came to an end, I have to say watching hundreds of villains
slug it out like that goes down as one of the most enjoyable
rewards I’ve gotten for playing the game.
The
5th Column may soon be gone, but they didn’t go without
a fight.
Earlier
City of Heroes coverage:
Interview
with The Statesman, Jack Emmert
Review
of the game
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