Flavor

[rowyn]

Kasadya Daitya and Asmedaj Daitya run along a rooftop in Atlas City. Asmedaj's seven-and-a-half foot form towering over his much shorter female companion. He reaches the edge of the rooftop and looks down. "Three ... no, four Hellions down there," he says, sizing them up. "It'd be a rough fight. Look, since we're so close to our real target, let's sneak around them to the back door and just get on with the mission."

Kasadya sidles along the brick railing of the roof, trying to get a look at the thugs below. "What are they doing, Asmedaj?" she says, by way of answer.

The tall, dark-skinned and horned man gives a nearly inaudible sigh. "Stealing an old lady's purse. Let's get them." He leaps from the edge of the roof and lands amongst the criminals, fire blazing from his fingertips. Kasadya smiles, her eyes glowing, as she follows.

---

One of the things City of Heroes has over the other MMORPGs I've seen and played is that you really feel like a good guy in this game. It's not slaughtering rats and snakes for their meat. It's not "Oh, look, there's a Gnoll standing around over there. My guildmaster told me gnolls are bad. Guess I'll kill it." It's not even "That griffon is trying to kill me! I must defend myself!"

It's "Those thugs are trying to kill that homeless man and use his body for fiendish experiments! I'll save you!"

And when you knock out all the thugs (who are promptly transported to prison) the homeless man runs back to you and thanks you.

Yes, it's still all spawned mobs and hitting them until they go away, and scripted responses. But it feels just a little more immersive. It's a little more possible to tell stories about my character's adventures, and feel like, if I tell it right, she sounds like a hero.

Does it really matter what the game is about, if all the mechanics are the same?

Yes, I suppose it does.

Comments

[oceansedge.livejournal.com]

Seems as though it would be a bit more real that way.... real is good. Being able to be 'heroic' in a heroic game is also good :)

[rowyn]

It's a far cry from "realistic". You can't ever really lock anyone up, or make a difference in how much crime there is on the streets (lots of it! Eeek!) There's an endless supply of villains to fight, because that's what the game's about and it'd get boring if you actually won.

Still, it's a big improvement in "feel" over the previous ones I've played & investigated. :)

[koogrr.livejournal.com]

Everyone seems to be playing it, so good value?

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Yes, very good! The game is $39.95 from a Best Buy, or at least it was; the package was marked $49.95 but the cashier rang it up as $39.95. It's $14.95 per month. It's a lot of fun, especially once you hit level 14 and can use flight or superjump, assuming you planned to get one of the travel powers. My character with superjump was able to scale a skyscraper and get to the very top.

The city really feels alive. You can look around and SEE a city. No wimpy fogging out of details. This is an awesome engine.

There are lots of NPCs walking around or shrieking in fear as they are held up by thugs.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Couple catches: no cat-ears for guys yet, just for girls. Guys can sort of fake it with pointy ears and puma-type facial markings. Animal heads may be down the road along with other costume additions.

[rowyn]

Oooo. Costume additions ....

:)

[rowyn]

Lut has played, in the last couple of years: Neocron, EVE Online, Earth & Beyond, Anarchy Online, and City of Heroes. CoH is the first one that I've actually been interested in playing, based on the way he talked about it and watching him play.

I have personally played three other MMORPGs: EverQuest, Shattered Galaxy, and Jumpgate. SG and JG are both rather different from most typical MMORPG fare, which is what interested me in them.

Neocron, EVE, E&B, AO, and CoH are all very similar in play to EQ.

It's got some things going for it. The costuming is a lot of fun. (Sadly, you only get to play with costumes when making up characters; you can't change your costume later, at least not at the present time.)

I had thought, at first, that the game wasn't going to punish you for soloing, but it looks like it's going to push grouping pretty strongly after all. This may or may not be so much of a concern to you. On the bright side, you do already know several people who play. :)

It is, primarily, a levelling game in terms of play. You knock out thugs so you can get new powers so you can knock out tougher thugs. There's some skill involved in terms of handling your character, but the odds are you will be able to master all the skills needed for your level range long before you are through with that level range. A lot of it is mindless application of the same skillset over and over and over again. If you don't like levelling games, you won't like this.

But if you have even a fairly modest affection for levelling games, yeah, I'd recommend it. Hey, I'll send you Lut's review of the game -- that'll give you a better idea of it than I can. Tufty has the price right: Best Buy is selling it for $39.95. Everywhere else that I know of is $49.95. No additional charge for the first month, subsequent months are $14.95 each.

[queenofstripes.livejournal.com]

From what I've heard of it so far, City of Heroes is probably the first MMORPG I'd seriously consider playing...

[rowyn]

The costumes, vixie. Think of the costumes. :)

OK, OK, so their range of animal-like features is so limited it's practically non-existant, and everyone has to be very thoroughly humanoid in bodytype and proportions. (There's a decent range of robot-like looks, though).

But still ... mmmmm ... dress-up. I bet you could get a latex-clad robot if you tried ....

The crawling edge

[garyamort.livejournal.com]

There are times, few and far between, that I wish I had a more up to date system.

This is one of them.

None of our systems are even close to running the dang program.

[kelloggs2066.livejournal.com]

Hmm!

Helping the good guys seems a lot more
appealing than beating the bad guys.

[rowyn]

Exactly right! Moreover, when you get into a fight to help the good guys, then you can feel a lot more confidence that the people you're beating up are bad guys. :)

*GLEE*

[krud42.livejournal.com]

Will they let you make a character with bunny ears?

For example, like this?

That would be cool.

No bunny ears. :(

[rowyn]

They don't even have cat ears for the male characters -- only female ones.

But now I have the urge to make a pink catwoman ....