City of Heroes

Rating:
Summary: You have to pay every month just to play!!!
Review: I had been looking forward to this game for many months. I still don't know if the game itself is any good because on receiving it I discovered that in order to play the game you have to pay a subscription fee every month. Not only have I paid my US$36.99 for the game but I have to pay an extra US$15 per month just to be able to KEEP playing. Unless you subscribe you can never play it! Ridiculous. This is the most evil scenario in gaming I have ever heard of...I will not play any game under these conditions.

Steve

Rating:
Summary: CITY of Heros equals City of Creativity
Review: This is one heck of a game. It offers a unique look at the comic book world of super heros as it makes them out-populate the everyday citizens of the city by lord knows what ratio. It is a three-dimensional world where havok and mayhem ensues and where your hero may be the one strong enough to save the day. This game has a few solid good points to it as well... for instance, when you play in team mode, it promotes team work and cohesion. While there have been a few teams I played on that were cut off from each other, theree have been a handful of teams where the commradre was similar to that in real life and characters actually cared about each other... at least in a digital sense. The other awesome aspect of this game is its creativity feature. You get to design your character right away and you have so many costume combinations to choose from, it is nearly impossible not to have fun doing it. Your character can reflect your personality, whether goth or flamboyant, subdued or gaudy. This game offers some cool action moments as well and as you venture out into different parts of the city, you discover that it is harder and the bad guys become more challenging and sometimes, they seem invincible. I love this game. It has provided hours of endless fun and enjoyment and the fun has only begun.

Rating:
Summary: First and last MMORPG I will play in a looooong time.
Review: First off, to the idiot a few reviews down who gave it 1 star because of the "pay to play" thing...Are you that stupid to not know that EVERY MMORPG is pay to play? Ok, with that said this is the first MMORPG I have tried and I love it. I bought 3 other MMORPG's and haven't touched em. They are Lineange 2, Everquest Evolution, and some other 1 I forget the name. I bought this game the day it came out and have been hooked ever since. Not even Halo 2 and my XBOX can pull me away from COH. Yes, the game got kind of repetitve BEFORE all Issue's 1, 2 and 3 came out but now it's on fire again. So many things to do and now there are badges, new trials, task forces and many more interesting mission story arcs. The task forces and trials can be extremely difficult but fun at the same time. Too bad Marvel has to be such jacka$$es and sue Cryptic for copyright infractions. Marvel wants to sue them and get enough money to make their own superhero game. What kinda crap is that! Marvel has NO experience in MMORPG's so they can kiss my cracker a$$. Anyways, if you are a newcomer to the MMORPG experience like I was this is the game to get. And City of Villains is coming out this year too! Also, with Issue 4 PvP will be introduced as well as a whole new line of costumes, etc. This game will live on for many years yet.

Rating:
Summary: AWESOME!
Review: I have been playing COH for a year. This game is so much fun. Lots of fast action missions and hunting without all the debth required... in some games. I wanted a game filled with fast action without all the hassle of making armour and weapons. This game is well thought out... and support totally rocks. COH is always improving their game and adding new features which makes it continually interesting and fun. There are tons of ways to make your character look. Lots of options to create a total separate identity. Have fun!

Rating:
Summary: Lasting fun for me
Review: I have been playing this game since May 2004.

Yes, it is "pay-to-play," with a $15 monthly fee. Yes, I am an adult with a full time job, a house, and all the responsibilities that come with that. I'm not a power gamer. And, that is exactly why I like this game so much.

I won't describe the game or gameplay much here; others have already done so. I also won't bother to detail the character creation and graphics -- as others have said, they are fabulous. It's easy to play, with intuitive navigation and controls, which can so easily make or break a game.

Unlike many other MMORPGs, there is no (or limited) commerce system; you don't need the latest and greatest in-game equipment (the biggest sword, the newest armor) to rock and roll. It lends itself well to playing an hour here and there (though I must admit I play more than that) or for much longer stretches. You don't need high level friends and a giant group to go through most missions (at least until you get up into high levels yourself..). This game can be played solo or it can be played (to much better effect, true) with groups.

Yes, some of the missions can be tedious at certain level markers. However, I can also say that slogging past those to see the high level content is worth it.

Another nice facet of this game is that it is not overtly violent. Even though you are shooting or smashing or burning, there is no blood, and you "defeat" and "arrest" rather than kill the bad guys. Sometimes they escape from prison and you encounter them again.

As for the complaints that character archetypes have been ruined by patches...come on, is an amazon review the place for that? It's an MMORPG, by definition it is dynamic, get over it.

I have also had great experiences with in-game and out-of-game support (usually a bugged map, these have been less and less common as gameplay has continued). We even have had great support when it was our-end user error -- GMs have been patient and willing to help when, for example, we missed a spot of the map with the last bad guy to complete a mission. I'm not going to say I've never had a frustrated moment because of map designs or other game issues, but I will say that they have always been resolved to my satisfaction.

Yes, the game does require a lot of processing power, a broadband connection (though you can play with dialup), and a higher-end graphics card.

Rating:
Summary: So ya wanna be a Hero....
Review: Hero's Online
With a massive library of colors, clothing and physical body types - you are encouraged to cater your hero's look to it's powers, or to something totally 'unreal.' Heck, I spent an easy hour fiddling in there before ever seeing the game!!

The game is a solid showing in the Online Game market, and a first for the "Hero" specific genre. The types of powers and effects, are various and cool. I also expect that this will be expanded in future updates (It would be a crime not to!!) The mission system is solid; leading the Hero around the town's various areas, giving the player the experiences of "living" the Hero experience of squashing the various menaces that plague the city. The game has a solid following, with players on at all times, although it can be a little lean in the off-hours. Don't be afraid to ask people to group up to finish missions, it's a necessity after 7th lvl! Solo adventuring is easy in the city with gang members tucked in alleys, parks and various roof tops. (When you can fly, roof tops are the way to go.)
For a first in it's genre, this a great game.


Rating:
Summary: Beware: There's a MONTHLY FEE
Review: I bought this game with high hopes that it would be fun and worth my time. Now, I can't belive how incredibly wrong I was. Be very carful when considering buying this game. If you don't read *everything* on the box, you'll miss the EXTREMELY SMALL print that says "additional online fees required." That is a big rip off, and all these people trying to argue against that FACT must have millions of dollars in their bank accounts to afford what they all call a "small" monthly fee.

Who markets software that, once you pay for it, you have to KEEP paying for it over and over again, every month, for as long as you decide you want to play it. Note to the maker of this game: People have jobs, most of them. They don't have time to sit at home all day and play games on their computers. Most of them don't have money to put aside every month for a freaking computer game. This is crap. This game was NOT made with the average working woman or man in mind.

[...]

I can't believe so many people brag about this like it's the coolest thing in computer gaming. I'm sure it would be cool if you're very rich, without a job, and have no other life whatsoever outside of City of Heroes.

Rating:
Summary: Most Unique MMORPG Out There
Review: I've played Everquest, tested Everquest II and WoW, and I have to say...

Boring.

WoW and EQII are pretty much same-old same-old, elves and halflings running around killing rabbits until they can get to the point where they can kill wolves, then the get to go kill something else.

Wow.

City of Heroes allows you to be just that... a Superhero. With capes, flight, laser beam eyes, super strength, or, in my case, Storm Summoning and the ability to throw lightning bolts. My main character (I have 8) is 27th level, and she is just as much fun to play now as she was in the beginning.

The game is centered around groups of superheroes (how many MMORPG's are out there for SOLO play? None), so if you have at least one other person (for me, my husband) to play with the game can be that much more enjoyable. You have a choice of bad guys to fight: Trolls who were once human, mutated by alien chemicals; Zombies that are part human, part servo, created by a demented Dr. Vazhilok; gangs that have somehow developed super powers similar to yours, such as the Outcasts; or evil Mages out to destroy the fabric of the universe, like the Circle of Thorns.

And this is all before level 20! New and improved bad guys hit you post 20, like the Devouring Earth, mutated elementals, or Tsoo sorcerors and their Ancestor spirits... you get the picture. And, if you manage to follow a Story Arc you get rewards for finishing that Arc, like a special Enhancement.

And the third installment says it will give us new Epic Archetypes (high level power sets), new bad guys, and new Archetypes (available at character creation) for people who have taken a character above a certain level. It also says it will give us MORE standard powers.

I look forward to it. And, for those of you who are parents (I am), this game is wholesome. There is even a foul language filter that is turned on automatically; you have to manually turn it off, so you don't have to worry about that.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely disgusting
Review: I have been playing this game for 2-3 months now. In issue 3, which is the latest patch for this game, NCSoft has drastically reduced the powers of certain player types making them worthless. NCSoft should have done this at the beginning of the game not at the middle of the game. I played 2 months to develop to the level I am in & now I realized that my archetype has become less powerful & more or less useless. I am a regeneration scrapper & they have taken down my shield in issue 3. I contacted NCSoft but they said they cannot do anything about it. Now If I had known in the begining that such changes will be done for this archetype, I would not have chosen this archetype. This is not ethical game development where one day NCSoft wakes up & drastically reduces the power of one archetype. They have absolutely no consideration for player who play a particular archetype & how their decision will affect these players. I spent so much time in developing this character and now I find my powers reduced making my character partially useless.& the response which I got from NCSoft is that I should not complain to them about this but should post it in the forum so that various members can discuss. What jerks?? This company does not know how to develop games, & one fine day they may wake up & cut other features, reduce features of an archetype etc., without even considering the players who are playing it. So there is absolutely no point in playing this game.


Further more in this game, there is only one thing to do kill..kill...kill -> get xp at a very very... slow rate -> level up. & this becomes very frustrating when a player is between 37-49. I am also playing World of Warcraft right now & to tell you very frankly World of Warcraft is WOW. Players have got thousands of things to do & explore besides killing.Well, I will be switching over to World of Wwarcraft permanently.