Rating: 
Summary: A Great Game for the not so hardcore crowd.
Review: Don't enter this game thinking that it is Everquest with superheroes, it's not. This game appeals much more to me rather than those typical games in the genre due to the fact that I can play it before going out to do something else, while those other games tend to take a couple of hours to accomplish something of any meaning.This game is not based on power leveling or grabbing the most powerful stuff you can. It is more about enjoying the novelty of being able to fly like Superman, or jump across towns in a single bound like the Hulk. All and all I would only recommend it to people who don't want to play a number problem disguised as a game by graphics, but rather enjoy themselves for a few moments on their lunch break.
Rating:
Summary: Listen all y'all it's a sabotage?
Review: These 1-star reviews are inaccurate and suspiciously anonymous. You can click my name and see that I'm a real person who writes reviews on things I buy, so take that into consideration. I think these 1-stars are someone trying to do a little sabotage. This is an awesome game. As of right now, it does not incorporate player vs player combat, but I understand that's going to be part of the upcoming expansion called City of Villians. There is a great variety of enemies to fight. Initially you'll mostly see street thugs and small robots, but later you'll start fighting undead, wizards, ninjas, bigger and nastier robots and street thugs which have started picking up a variety of superpowers. There's also "swamp things" and aliens and things ranked higher than "boss", and I'm just talking about the stuff you'll run into by the time you hit level 20. Variety is not an issue. There's an endless stream of missions (quests) to do, as well. Don't run around killing stuff at random -- go to your contacts and get missions. They have storylines and XP rewards and they'll send you into "dungeons" like office buildings and science labs and sewers to fight a variety of bad guys, as well as "patrols" and search-and-destroy type missions. Grouping is technically optional, but I urge you to try it, especially for missions. If you do a mission by yourself, it will tailor it for a solo attack. Enemies will be in groups of 2-3. If you do that same mission with 6 friends, then enemies will be there in groups of like 10 and every fight is like a small war. There's so many area-effect attacks in the game (grenades, rains of fire, etc) that doing a mission with a group is a ton of fun! It's not the old EQ "mezmerize the group and pull 1 to fight", you generally just engage in a war. For parents reading, combat is pretty much what you'd expect from a superhero comic book. There's no blood or dismemberment but there's plenty of punches and "knockbacks" (where you punch someone and they go flying) and general cool effects. AI and dungeon design is good too. Between the AI and the placement of enemies, you'll find yourself getting ambushed on missions or having to deal with an enemy that teleports in, heals some bad guys, then teleports away when you try to attack him. This is really the best combat I've seen in any MMORPG. I haven't had many technical problems, either. Launch was the smoothest I've seen -- no serious bugs and everything that's in the game appears to be finished and ready to play. Only problem I had was waiting 40 minutes for my NCSoft account verification email so I could get started. (Well, one other problem I had was a graphics glitch that went away when I updated my drivers, so I can't really blame that one on the game.) It's worth another warning that this game is $$/month to play (via credit card or purchasable game card), but that's just the way MMOG's work -- rather than playing Baldur's Gate with 6 people, you play City of Heroes with thousands of people, but you'll have to pay-per-month to play. (As of right now, it's $15/month if you pay by month. Less if you pay by 3/6/12 month plans.) Anyway, I'm enjoying it a lot. Awesome PvE game with a promise of optional PvP when the expansion comes out. These 1-star reviews are simply not accurate.
Rating: 
Summary: Please read all th reviews before forming your opinion to bu
Review: many of the recent posts are quite negative and I feel unjustly so. They were also perhaps written by those who have not had a lenghty experience with the game. This is quite an entertaining game that has ours of enjoyment in it. Yes, there is a monthly fee but that it expected of all games of this type; anarchy Online, Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, so why should City of Heroes be any different? I played several weeks and beta and had such a fantastic time that I immediately signed on once the game went live. There is a fantastic online super-hero community nowe alive within this game. I am not a power gamer and never will be. This game is very suitable for a casula gamer ho wishes to log on for a half hours here, couple of minutes ther,e and so on. As for technical issues, I have not had any. I am sure that otheres have but that's a fact of computer life. I am pretty sure that I am safe in saying that there are far more people who hafve had not technical issues than there are that have. The character generator is fantastic. The game play is fun, especially in team mode and there are very few negatives. Asfor the adversaries, yes you do start off with 3 or 4 different bad guys types that you see for the first 7 or so levels but they increase from there and as you go up in level more and more portions of the city are open to yoou which means more and new types of villains. For some more reviews of the game other than the COH Boards head over to vnboards.ign.com for more write ups on the gameplay, charaacter, villains, and etc and you will see that it is overwhelmingly positie.
Rating: 
Summary: Abysmal first release, do not buy.
Review: The best part about this game is the character creation. There are thousands of different combinations. I spent a good while constructing my first character, and was excited about the potential. It took me several hours to log in. The account creation requires you to go to a website which takes your details and then supposedly sends you a registration code. This took a long time to arrive, and by the time it had my login process had expired and I had to start again. Which requires you to receive another registration code. Which again takes a long time to arrive. Luckily I actually managed to get this done, and set about creating my character. Once into the game I was immediately struck by the horrible lag. My character would run ten paces, then immediately be teleported five back. Moving around inside locations where you are required to steer yourself through a door is a headache. Watching other characters disappear when you try to click on them is annoying. I was disconnected from the server once, was told it was unavailable twice, and was kicked to desktop due to a runtime error twice, all in the space of two hours play. After crashing to desktop because of the runtime error, you are then unable to log back in for a while because the game believes you are already logged in. This is a revolting first release. Doubtless a patch may clear up some issues, but I played Everquest when it was first released and did not encounter this many problems in such a short time. I will stick with it in an effort to get my money's worth, but the other reviews on Amazon have not been encouraging.
Rating:
Summary: Survey says? BZZZZT. Wrong.
Review: Uh, you have 3 types of things to kill: Helicopter-ee badguys
Human Purse Snatcher badguys
Undead badguys How many billions of times can you see the same _exact_ 3 badguys, or 6 badguys (2 identical sets of 3, one boss and 2 lackeys) in a tug-of-war over some lady's purse, or hurling insults at a cowering Cop, or pedestrian? You have exactly 3 types of mobs to kill ad-nauseum. Also, you are a superhero but guess what? You're illumination challenged, and you have no flashlight. I mean, I can leap tall buildings in a single bound, hurl lightning at badguys, but I can't buy a flashlight to see my way around? Wtf? How many times can you see some teenybopper running around with a name like Phussy Liquor with a fro and a costume that looks like he got dressed in the dark? While intoxicated? The power sets are a lot more limited than you may have been led to believe. You get *alot* of folks with the same powersets, in fact one group I was in of 9 people, 6 had the EXACT same powers of MachineGun / Devices (oh, but they looked different). ...and I had a discussion in game with a fellow gamer of what we counted to be 25 glaring oil slicks on this games' road to glory riding the "finally a superhero MMORPG" road to riches... Anyway, there has been a ton of positive media presented on behalf of this game. Yes it looks great, yes the controls are smooth etc. It might make a great storyline driven single person RPG, but at this admittedly early stage of development, it is more "Tick" than "Hulk".
Rating:
Summary: So far...
Review: If the phrase "Massively Multiplayer Online" has "must subscribe to play at an additional charge," hidden somewhere in it, then I'm sure I'll be able to revise my # of stars upward. So, to reiterate what now is at least listed in a *review* somewhere, you have to pay seperately for time on their server(s?). Which it says in tiny print on the box, I see, now that I have it in my hand. Nor will it let me open an account without giving credit card info, despite the fact that it says I get a free month with the purchase of the game. Horrible introduction to this game format.
Rating:
Summary: BUYER BEWARE!!!
Review: Do not even begin to think about wasting your time or money. If you want to really know what the game is like, why don't you check out the forum at www.cityofheroes.com ? Specifically the technical forum. Inside you will find hundreds of dissatisfied gamers who have been ripped off. Sure, the game looks like it'll be a lot of fun. Even when you start it up, everything is fine. Create your character, which is great, lots of options available, now okay are you ready to play? Well too bad. Because the majority of gamers who have spent their hard earned money on this game can't even play it, because of the constant disconnections to the mapserver. At best, you'll get past the tutorial and never step foot in the actual 'game', if there is one. What you need to keep in mind when you read the other reviews on this site and others, is that companies have their own people who browse the web and 'write reviews' for their products at different sites. Hence the 5/5 star ratings. Now, you might wonder what Cryptic, the company behind the game, is doing about all of these problems? NOTHING. Send them a message asking to be helped out, and they'll reply 'Check your DXDiag' which is a test of your DirectX program. When the tests come out fine, they will respond 'Update your video card driver', not knowing that us poor saps already paid hundreds of dollars to ensure that we had the very best sytsems running so the game would play well. And when you go to reply to that email, you'll get a message saying 'You haven't responded in over 72 hours, so your problem has been labeled as solved'. Unfortunately for you, it has only been 24 hours, so not only are they lying to get out of it, but your problem is NOT solved. So you'll speak to all the other gamers on the forum about the problems you're all having, and when the dev team finally does respond on the forum, what do they do? They reply 'Thanks for your input', and then they CLOSE THE THREAD, not allowing you to speak about the subject anymore. Oh and by the way, you think you'll just return the game and get a refund? Too bad. Each game disc has a special code that you activate to play. Once the code is activated, that disc cannot be exchanged. You're stuck with it. We're all suckers for these creeps. What this is, people, is a RIP-OFF. This company is knowingly taking everyone's money and giving you nothing in return. That is illegal. It has nothing to do with your system being too low, because even those of us with high end systems have the same problem. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY ON THIS 'GAME'. I hesitate to use the term 'game', because there's no such thing to really speak of. If you want a super-hero online game, wait for Marvel Comics' version, coming in a year or two. Belive me, it will be better to wait than waste your money on this fraud.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: Bad Stuff:
1) Your character appearence does not change. I know a lot of people like getting new swords and helmets and whatnot in other games that make your character look different but this does not happen in COH, there is no equipment looting in this game. 2) No PvP. Ok, a lot of people consider that a plus but it's a shame to have human-player Super Heroes and no human-player Super Villians to go up against. 3) Pay-to-play. Worth mentioning, this is a Massively Multiplayer Online Game. You play with a great variety of people and that doesn't happen for free. Good Stuff: 1) Character creation gives you a TON of options. In a week of playing on the busiest server I have not yet seen anyone that looks like me. Frankly, this makes your character more unique than in a typical game where all high-level players tend to have the same high-level gear and look very similar to each other. I've made several characters that I don't play just because the character generation is that cool (note: you need to uncheck the "color coordination" button if you want to play around with the colors of each piece of your suit). 2) There is a planned expansion called "City of Villians" which will apparently have optional PvP between heroes and villians, good news for me. 3) Combat is excellent, more more interactive than other MMOG's. In fact, there really is no "auto-attack". Every attack requires a press of a button, some special move you want to do and there's a big variety of special moves. You can't watch TV and fight at the same time in this game. 4) AI is excellent, honostly the best I've ever seen in a MMOG. I don't want to bore you with names and details, but let's just say that when you get to fight the group called "Tsoo" you'll understand that this is some vicious AI that someone put some time into. 5) Missions are fun and maps are excellent. Best "dungeons" I've seen in a MMOG since Everquest, with a lot of detail to them. 6) Instancing. I didn't think I'd like it, but it works well. When you enter an office building on a mission, that is your "instance" of it. Your group joins you there but another group doing the same mission in the same place will enter a seperate "instance" -- you have the building all to yourself. This makes for more sensible missions as your group can clear it from top to bottom, beat the boss and go get another mission without interruption or annoyance by random other people who show up. 7) Great variety of superpowers. Not only does nobody look like me, but nobody totally fights like me either. Blaster is one of 5 available archetypes, so there's lots of Blasters like me. But Blaster has 5 major powersets (pick 1), 5 minor powersets (pick 1) and I'm not sure how many pools of extra abilities (can pick up to 4) plus every individual power can be customized with "enhancement slots" (for an eventual total of 40) -- more damage, more range, more accuracy, etc, pick what works for you. All in all, a surprisingly strong game.
Rating:
Summary: A massively multiplayer game that's actually fun! (updated!)
Review: Update: I've now been playing for almost a month. I have one character (Empathy/Radiation Defender) now up to level 20, and a Fire/Fire Blaster at Level 14. The game continues to be at least as much fun as it was in the beginning. Went on my first Task Force mission over the weekend, got to level 20, took Group Fly as the new power at that level which is a lot of fun, etc. I don't quite get what all these no-star reviews are trying to say; this is the best computer game I've ever played. Beyond the first 7 levels or so, the real fun comes in grouping with other players to take on higher level missions and all of the social interaction that happens within a good group. Grouping is very easy and there's no problem finding people to group with even when you don't know anyone. Pretty soon your /friends list will be full. -- I pretty much ignored this title until recently. I mean, a game where you get to play a "superhero". How childish. How stupid. How wrong. After seeing the incredible buzz that this game has gotten in the week or two since release, I actually looked into it and decided to give it a try based on all the positive comments and reviews. My previous MMOG experience has been limited to a couple failed attempts to get interested in EverQuest (a humorless torture mechanism that will suck the very living soul from your body as it crushes your will to live and tries to push you over the edge toward becoming a homacidal maniac) which I couldn't really get into for some reason. But City of Heroes sounded like it might be good as a diversion for a while and, sure enough, even after a relatively short period of play I find I'm having as much fun with this as with any computer game I've played. There are a lot of good things to say about this game, but for me the thing that ultimately matters is that it's actually *fun* to play rather than just being an experience grind to gain ever more levels. Right from the beginning when you find out you can jump high enough to soar over fences, trucks, walls, etc. (though not buildings with a single bound, at least not until later in the game) it's fun running around beating up bad guys, doing simple missions, etc. The character customization capability is one of the standouts in this game. I don't think I've yet seen two players that were similar enough to each other that you could confuse them. The urban terrain works very well (and is a nice change from dungeons and hobbits). The skills and character development options are many and varied, making replay or multiple-character play rewarding. And then there's flying. I haven't gotten to a high enough level yet to get the ability to fly, but you have only to read the descriptions of other players to see that they've managed to capture one of man's oldest desires in a convincing way. Even if you're not a superhero fan (and I certainly wouldn't have described myself that way) you may find that all that changes once *you* get to be the superhero. G.
Rating:
Summary: This is just an overall great game
Review: If you have the time, you should definitely check out this game. Even though the price is steep, it is so much fun to play, whether you prefer to battle alone or with a team or supergroup. Combat is fast paced and takes strategy, something that many other games of this type lack (if click and forget is your cup of tea, refrain from buying this game). There is a wide assortment of powers and an even wider assortment of costume options that combine to let you create almost any hero you could think of, from ninjas to cyborgs to the classic character in tights. You will level reletively fast at the beginning, but later it slows down. If you want to be a powerful character in this game you are going to have to invest some time. Great for almost everyone, especially anyone who has ever wanted to be a hero with super powers.
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