HOME ABOUT SUPPORT US SITES WE LIKE FORUM Search Fanboyplanet.com | Powered by Freefind FANBOY PLANET
ON TV COMICS WRESTLING INTERVIEWS NOW SHOWING GRAB BAG
 
Video Games Today's Date:

City of Heroes: The Review

Do you have a flaming desire to wear spandex? Want to fight crime by day and thwart evil doers by night? Are you an avid online gamer, tired of storming the elven stronghold?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then NCSoft and Cryptic Studios have a new game for you. City of Heroes is the first massively multiplayer online superhero role playing game available and it is here to take your world by storm.

For gamers with MMORPG experience, City of Heroes will seem very familiar. Create a character, choose a few abilities, grab some friends and have at it. Where CoH sets itself apart from the rest of the MMORPG lot is that is remains tightly focused on fun and adventure rather than time consuming aspects the bog down games like Dark Age of Camelot and Everquest.

You begin the adventure by creating your own comic book style character. CoH offers hundreds of costume options to make each character a unique creation. You'll also have a variety of powers to choose from. Mind control, radiation, fire, ice, electricity, hand held weapons, artillery, healing, hand-to-hand combat, and more are available. Pretty much every power you can think of that is found in modern comics is represented.

Once you've got your tights on, you'll enter the world of Paragon City, a metropolis recently ravaged by an alien invasion that is trying to put itself back together with the help of its super powered citizens. From the moment the game begins, you'll be fighting crime in its various forms from purse snatchers working your way up to archvillains. You won't have to spend thousands of hours fighting swamp rats and baby cubs to advance your character.

Combat is fast and fun. With such a variety of powers, each crime fighting team that you join will be different from the last. Players can accept missions from their contacts throughout the city and then tackle them together. Again, the emphasis is on fun and adventure, not 20 minute horse rides to wait in line to fight a group of evil trees.

The interface is very user friendly and should be easy for even a first time player to quickly get the hang of. It may actually feel stripped down to an experienced player, but there is still a ton of customizing and tweaking you can do to your character to pass the time, if you choose to.

Unlike Star Wars: Galaxies, the game feels packed with enemies to fight. You'll be able to wander around in the safer areas of town patrolling the back alleys or travel easily to areas of town that have been overrun with gangs, undead, fascists and cults. There is never a shortage of things to do.

One of the major gaps in online role playing games is that between the hardcore game and the casual gamer. Cryptic has addressed that with a "sidekick" option that will temporarily raise the level of a lower class character to one near their mentor..

This means that even if you are level 35 and your friend, who rarely plays, is only level 10, you can still play together and not worry about one of you not having fun.

Cryptic Studios is clearly on the ball, not only in the production of the game, but also on their server support. Bugs are quickly addressed and the "3 day head start" that they offered to people that bought the pre-order disk was the smoothest game launch I've ever been a part of.

The only downside to CoH, aside from the standard $15 a month playing fee, is the lack of anything to do once your hero reaches level 40. In Dark Age of Camelot, you could take your character into battle, storm castles, zerg trolls, etc… Right now, there is nothing like that in City of Heroes, but with an expansion pack called City of Villains on the horizon, that problem may be addressed soon enough.

Also, there is the possibility of major events generated by Cryptic Studios. For example, at the end of the beta test, a few hours before the servers shut down, Cryptic had huge space ships fly in above the buildings and transport down aliens that eventually killed everyone. It was AWESOME and shows that there are still surprises that we have yet to see.

City of Heroes is a must play game for comic book fans and fans looking for a more enjoyable online adventure. Have I mentioned the game is fun?

A little trip through the tutorial...

City of Heroes

City of Heroes Subscription Card

Michael Goodson

Our Friends:



Official PayPal Seal

Copyrights and trademarks for existing entertainment (film, TV, comics, wrestling) properties are held by their respective owners and are used with permission or for promotional purposes of said properties. All other content ™ and © 2001, 2014 by Fanboy Planet™.
"The Fanboy Planet red planet logo is a trademark of Fanboy Planetâ„¢
If you want to quote us, let us know. We're media whores.
Movies | Comics | Wrestling | OnTV | Guest | Forums | About Us | Sites
Google