Excessive

City of Heroes Review - By Amaranth

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The Good:

A metric fuckton of build options. Which of these 5 Archtypes would you like to play? A buffing type class? Well, which of these 6 extremely different power sets would you like to use? Oh, and which of these 5 secondary powersets would you like? Oh, and just in case that's not enough, here's a pool of 40 powers to choose from anyone can pick up to flesh out their toon.

Character design is nearly on par with SWG, which ranks it up there in the "holy fucking shit" area. Huge guy with demon horns? Check. Athletic guy in tights? Check. Chick in a bikini whith a gas mask and a mohawk? Check.

Continuing with the fuckton of options theme, how about we let you pick and choose not only powers to take, but also let you choose which ones you want to concentrate on and how? Want to be the guy that never misses - Go ahead! Want to be that guy who hits like an atomic bomb doing at least 60mph over the speed limit? Have at it. Or maybe you're the type of guy who wants to fling death from 5 miles back? Have a ball.

Story elements are bloody cool. When not busy on the streets taking down drug dealers and muggers, I'm pounding away at the vicious cybernetics maniacs known as the Freakshow, or taking back devestating artifacts from the evil Circle of Thorns. Over-the-top comic book themes all the way.

Have a lazy buddy who plays 1/10th the time you do? No problem - Sidekick his lazy ass, and suddenly he's able to keep up and help in your battles. No more perpetually left behind syndrome.

Downtime? 4m to regen from 1 health to full. 1m to regen from 0 stamina (mana) to full. What is this downtime you speak of, and how may I make sure I continue to avoid it?

Un-fucking-believable battles. Solo'ing? You get 2-3 mobs in a group. In a group of 8? Try 15-20 mobs, with stronger versions of the same mobs tossed into the mix. Battles are at the same time chaotic and exciting. Add in that your basic powers are going to refresh pretty damn fast, and take concious action to activate (sorry, no auto-attack afk's), and you have a very good recipe for a non-EQ'esque "Hit attack, then kick every 6 seconds".

Holy fucking shit, the Dev's nerfed something hard, decided it was too much, and boosted it back to around midway. WTF?? Not only that, they broke one power on accident, admitted to it, apologized, and fixed the shit fast. Surely a sign of the coming apocolypse.


The Bad:

Some very lopsided classes and powers. Who needs a Controller to lockdown the enemy when a Tanker can resist 85%+ of the damage, and has AE taunt? Who needs a healer when the mobs are only going to get 2-3 hits in on said Tanker because the Blasters have wasted them? Who needs a group at all when another Tanker can resist 70% of the damage, and put out a constant location AE comperable to a Blaster going full-tilt?

Levels 8-15 are absolute hell on earth. Missions scale all wrong, and the teams just don't have the diversity or powers to deal with it yet. These are solo levels for those who can, and torture for those who can't.

Some of the missions are put in absolutely stupid area's. You're level 12? Ok, go to this place infested with level 19's, that way you can hit the ground and be in XP debt before your screen even loads on exiting. Thank you for playing, have a nice stay at the hospital.

Content - Immerse yourself in the story, or else. When it's boiled down, the game is defeat this mob, get the prize, repeat until suicide. No crafting, no real equipment, no real achievable goal other than levels. Enjoyable battles can only hold that system together for so long.

Whoever designed the aggro system was on drugs. Aggro is gained when you activate a power. Damage is done at the end of the animation. So basically, the mob is pissed at me for killing him with a ball of fire before it hits him. This leads to lots of fun with high damage powers in groups: If you would like to step into this group of mobs, activate your PBAoE of Nothing Survives, then get beat into the ground for the 3 seconds it takes to actually go off, please click yes. Thank you for choosing to visit the hospital - You have gained 9,300xp, and 15,000 debt. Please play again.


The Ugly:

Scrappers. Call them Paladins/Shadowknights, Champions/Thanes, or whatever suits your fancy - They are hybrids. 2nd best at 2 things, better known to those who look for efficiency in groups as good for nothing. For the most part, they simply stop showing up on the LFG lists past L20, either from having quit to play another Archtype, or having realized their fate as the premier solo Archtype. (Note to Rangers: Those of you without AM3/EQ can add yourselves to this list. Bloody GARs)

Looping sounds. Some of the powers in the game have cool SFX, others are just all right, and some of them will drive you around the bend. A beeping targetting drone in the background 90% of the time is enough to make you want to throttle someone, and it's just one of a handful of toggle powers that make Baby Jesus cry.

Female models with very little muscle mass have heads 3 sizes too large for their bodies. It's disturbing. Make it stop.


8/10 in my book - Needs polish, and needs a good bit of balance. The current content push and planned expansion both look pretty good, so we'll see. Still, it is by far the best Superhero game I've ever played, and doesn't fall victim to the curse of pure suck that 95% of Superhero games do.

Amaranth

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992 words