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After four years of high level addiction to this game, I recently lost all of my inventory due to a known bug ( I sent in a petition to reclaim my inventory and was told that 1) since they did not track current inventory and 2) I had not earned said inventory in the last week - not gonna replace it. The new game is not nearly as complicated or addictive, but at least it works as it is intended. Inventory loss is only the beginning of their problems. I petitioned almost constantly in-game, and seldom had any responses. The list goes on and on and on.
Every time they add a new update, it comes complete with additional bugs, and the last batch has yet to be fixed. In short, the game is basically unplayable. "No proof" ). I have recently stopped my subscription to this game, and am now subscribed to a competitor. This game is simply wonderful on it's own basic merits, but the CoH team is too busy adding additional content - rather than fixing current bugs.
The online team is simply swamped with calls for help. Many missions become unbeatable if you have a teammate with a certain power that for some reason behaves in reverse for this or that particular villain.
Overall the game in her opinion is fun and exciting as she has more things to do with 50 levels which keep her busy. Anyway you should really buy this though you might wanna keep this game for Teens over 17 as your allowed to exclaim curse words and there are some "characters" you will meet along that don't have the most kind personalities. To install the game it takes approximately 4 hours and about 20 or so minutes then you put the disk in and have to wait about an hour or so to load again. At first installing the game was a problem and there were no instructions. The game packaging was not as expected though it only came with one little bubble wrap piece and the game itself could have become broken. The price first of all was very affordable. It was delivered fast though after the holiday in mint condition. To add the time from the little DJ card was hard as my daughter did not understand what to do.
The two gaming worlds, the "heroes" and the "villains", are mostly separate, but intersect in a handful of "PvP" (player vs. player) and cooperative zone, where heroes and villains can battle it out or cooperate fighting a greater common threat.First, the negative aspects of the game: - story lines are shallow, - graphics and visuals are getting old: the game was published in 2004 and while it has been gradually updated and improved, the engine's age is showing- insufficient high level content. When an opponent gets knocked down, the body motion physics and animation are calculated on the spot. The audio effects are well timed. The slight tweaks to their armor or color of their pants or hair braiding are insignificant. And the target reaction animation adds realism to the game. In other popular MMORPGs players in the same class tend to look alike.
All level 35 night elf hunters in World of Warcraft look more or less the same. - every power/ability can be "tuned" (through purchased or constructed or found enhancements) to emphasize different aspects of the power/ability. And it's highly enjoyable. In CoH/CoV costumes range from human to animal to robotic android to demonic to angelic to an average office worker to a medieval knight and so on, mixed which ever way the player wants to mix them, with highly customizable faces, sizes, masks, color patterns, wing designs (for those who want wings), capes, horns, beards, glasses, chains, auras, etc.The over-all look and feel of the game is realistic and gritty. - depending on the choice of initial and subsequent "contacts", who assign "missions" to be completed in various story arcs and unrelated random missions, different story lines can be explored.All this makes for a good variety and good replayability.Another very positive aspect of the game is the visual and audio effects accompanying the use of different powers. It's a 3rd person "over the shoulder" view 3D game (1st person view is possible, but clumsy). this is compensate by the appeal of creating and playing new characters of radically different buildsThe positive aspects of the game: - a large number of "archetypes" ("professions" for the lack of better description) to play, different ones on the heroes and villains sides- each archetype has a choice of a large number of power sets (abilities).
Every power's animation sequence looks different. So the combat doesn't look like the same motion over and over and the opponent's reaction to the attack is more viscerally satisfying than only seeing a string of numbers whiff up into the air.Yet another aspect of the game that sets it far apart from other MMORGPs is the highly customizable look players can get from very beginning. NPC "chatter", both by enemy factions and by "innocent civilians", creates an interesting ambiance.CoH/CoV (or CoX as it's sometimes referred to) occupies a previously empty niche in the MMO games: the super-powered heroes and villains of the American-style comic books. CoH/CoV are two games in one. - every power set combination creates a different game experience. Multiple costumes become available for every character, allowing interesting role-playing for those who are into it.
I purchased this game just to try out.On the box it says it includes 30 days of game time, but it only gave me 14 trial days.Am I doing something wrong.The game itself is fun enough for an adult like me, but it takes lots of time just to create your character.If you liked dressing your Barbie doll as a kid, this might be a good one for you.
This "Good vs Evil Edition" of City of Heroes INCLUDES the City of Villains expansion. COH is going on 5 years old as I write this review. It's also suitable to both those wanting to team and those wanting to solo, unlike some MMOs that pretty much force teaming on you if you want to do anything. One of the huge strenghts of COH is their friendly, mature, and open community. If you have questions even before you buy the game, just post on the forums and you'll get dozens of helpful replies. But amazingly, in 2008 the game publisher dramatically *increased* the staff working on COH, so we're going to see even more dramatic improvements to the game moving forward.
At this stage many games start to get stagnant. In COH some players tweak their costumes for hours because there are literally thousands of costume pieces to choose from. You can create the exact look you want, and you won't see virtually identical clones of your character everywhere. This brings user created content to MMOs for the first time.
In this game it's not about rushing to the level cap, it's about enjoying getting there. The latest example is the Mission Architect. The crafting isn't as deep as it is in some other games. PVP is present but not terribly popular. So if you're considering a first MMO, this is a good one.
Weak spots. But now it's all officially one game. Well, if you're an experienced WoW player you may be disappointed that there's not a ton of epic raids when you hit the level cap in COH. In most MMOs, beginning characters of the same class/race look basically the same, with minor differences like hair color. If you check out most games' forums, you see lots of immature and combative responses to questions ("lern2play n00b."). Do you have a friend that plays a lot more than you do.
You can still find some old games listed on Amazon that are the old-style separate products or pricey bundles. This aspect of the game, while not literally part of the software, is priceless.A last technical note: When City of Villains was first released it was as optional expansion you had to buy separately. COH has the most amazingly flexible character creator of any MMO. But don't let the rich possibilities of the character creator intimidate you: if you just want to jump in and play you can press a Random Costume button and start right off. This will allow players to create their own story arcs with multiple linked missions (or "quests" as some other MMOs call them) for other players to try play through.
Buy this edition. Don't buy them. City of Heroes (COH) is a very innovative MMO, yet it's easy to jump in and start playing. COH invented the "Sidekick" system (that has since been copied by some other games) that allows a higher level character to mentor a low level player so they can both enjoy the game together even if one has far outleveled the other. If you've read this far, I strongly recommend you check out the game's forums at boards.cityofheroes.com.
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