With the recent resurgence of the superhero genre, and the release of the Good vs. Evil edition, it is perhaps time to take another look at the City of Heroes/City of Villains games. Almost 3 years have past since upstart developer Cryptic released their comic book themed MMORPG; let’s examine how well it stands up.Visually the game still gets the job done. The added details from City of Villains, as well as the addition of ragdoll effects for enemies, are nice touches, and the semi-stylized comic book look of heroes and villains remains fresh. The costume creation system in particular still shines as the absolute best in the field, with new additions appearing in each Issue lately. The new content added in Issue 7 and the upcoming Issue 8 promises more exciting visuals executed with Cryptic’s standard of excellence maintained.
The in game story continues to evolve, with new zones and missions, including some cooperative content on the horizon that allows villains and heroes to join together against a common foe. Story has always been a strong point for these games, and remains so. More than any other factor, the story of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles keeps fans coming back.
The in game music, as with most MMORPGs, can become stale on repeated hearings. City of Heroes/Villains is no exception to the rule, despite the excellent guitar and techno pieces in the varied levels of the game. It can always be turned off though, and the game runs just fine with an MP3 program chugging along in the background.
Unlike the other big contenders in the field, City of Heroes/Villains has little endgame to speak of. The lack of a loot system means there are no raids for that rare doohickey to make your max level character just a little more powerful. There is some content of this type – a monster raid Hero side and a repeatable Taskforce Villain side, as well as a trial available at random times to acquire a buffing item for your entire guild/supergroup. Veteran players will tell you that unlike other MMORPGs, the endgame of City of Heroes/Villains is more about the alts than raids. With the wealth of archetype and power combinations, as well as the significant amount of content (it is literally impossible to get every mission in one trip through the game on the Hero side, a situation likely to become true for the Villain side soon as well) the experience more than just a repeat of your first character.
City of Heroes and City of Villains are still very much a contender, a fact in no small way helped by the fact that they remain the only entry in their subset of the field. Rather than coast on their laurels, Cryptic maintains a steady stream of top quality content to keep the fans coming back. After three years, they are still going strong.
I am an IT manager and sometimes artist who has been playing games since his first ATARI. I generally enjoy playing RPG and Strategy games, and lately have been playing quite a few MMORPGs. I generally enjoy games which are both fun and visually pleasing, and I tend to play games until there is nothing left to do in them.
