Rating: 
Summary: Step aside JLA, its our turn now!!
Review: As everyone else who preordered this game, I have been taking part in the beta testing for this game. While I cannot give away any specifics, I will say, this game ROCKS!!!! My first night to play this game was insane! I speant over an hour making up my first character, choosing from the literally thousands, upon thousands of different costume ideas. Then I was off into the immersion of Paragon City... One suggestion I will give any first time players, let your friend and family know that you will be disappearing for a while when you first begin playing; this game is highly addictive!
Rating: 
Summary: Good game, unsure buy
Review: The game looks as though it has potential, but as a gamer, I'm not sure I'm ready to pay the monthly fee that the company has yet to decide on. Also, these games are supposed to be "never ending" but take an example from Earth and Beyond, it's ending after two years, with a similar type of product. Just be ready to drop the game, for after a while, it will become obsolete. Summary:
Taken from the CoH Website,
Question
What is the probability that we will have to pay a monthly subscription fee for CoH?
Answer
There will definitely be a monthly subscription fee for CoH. The exact fee hasn't been established yet, however, but we'll let you know on the web site just as soon as it is.
Rating:
Summary: Most excellent.
Review: I'll be the first one to admit that when I first heard COH came out I scoffed. "Superheroes," I stated in no uncertain terms, "will make for one terrible game", and I had dozens of legitimate reasons for hating the game without ever having played it. Until I played it. Oh man, is this game fun! The extent of my MMORPG experience to date has been around a year of Star Wars Galaxies and random dabbling with Everquest. Everquest never caught my attention because of the idiotic camping of the "phat l3wts" and blatant elitism of the majority of the player base, who appear to be overweight nerds who sit in their basement excreting in socks and empty Mountain Dew bottles to allow them to snipe the Sword of Invincibility +300 out from under another nerd who is doing exactly the same thing a thousand miles away. Star Wars Galaxies involved much the same thing, except the macro system allowed you to avoid having to "go" (so to speak) in containment vessels because you could leave a macro running and get all the "phat l3wt" or levels you wanted without even having to sit at the computer. In addition, the technical support and patching on Star Wars Galaxies is atrocious, in some cases leaving horrible problems in the game and fixing minor issues, in other cases fixing a major issue and introducing dozens more bugs. Not so with City of Heroes, which in addition to having excellent technical support staff, actually accomplishes things with its patches and exhibits the ability to fix issues without breaking ten other things that previously worked perfectly. As for graphical quality, the game's graphics manage to be cartoony without being -too- cartoony, in keeping with their comic book world, and the effects on your superhero's attacks are brilliantly done. In addition to everything else, NCSoft is planning to release an expansion next year called City of Villains that will introduce not only the ability to be a supervillain instead of a namby-pamby goody two shoes, but also apparently the missing element in COH, PvP combat. In short, COH is everything that other MMORPGs like Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies lack: A dev staff that actually knows what it's doing, fun, and a total lack of camping for that ausome Brassiere of Invulnerability or whatever the item du jour happens to be. If you don't want to have to do a number two in a sock or write a long macro to have fun with your game, try out COH. You won't regret it. My only beef with the game is the lack of capes, which will hopefully be addressed in a future megapatch.
Rating:
Summary: A great game
Review: A much needed change from traditional medieval MMORPG's. No loot to squabble over, no camping and for the most part the subscriber base is 'mature' or at least acts so. The game is your rudimentary, kill / level / skillup but there is a LOT of room for improvement. Nonetheless a great game and a nice waypoint for those wanting to dtich the monotony of Everquest while waiting for WoW
Rating:
Summary: Zero Problems
Review: My wife and I play this together and we have an absolute blast! The game runs flawlessly for both of us.. I would expect that it would run fine on my machine (2.4Ghz./512MB/GeForce128) but it even runs well on her machine (800Mhz/256MB/GeForce64).. although it is not as pretty and maps take a little longer to load, it still runs fine. She is, however, now bucking for a system upgrade ;) Granted both of these run GeForce cards (I've heard/read the stories about problems with ATI cards), but those that tell you that you need a high end system to run it obviously have something else wrong with their systems! Mission layouts can be a little repetitive but they get better as you increase in levels (those of you that are sub-20.. it gets better... believe me). I've read a couple of reviews that state that leveling is too long... uh... I personally think that it is too fast! You can get to level 10 in an evening if you so desired! Character creation has seemingly limitless possibilities.. yes there are no capes, but Cryptic's excuse for not having them just yet is a valid one! Nothing like telling your users that the reason there isn't capes is because they want to make sure they do them right! Archetypes, Power sets, Origins... it's all here for you comic book fans (of which I am one)! I was completely against a game that made you pay for play after you purchased the game.. but from one day of free beta playing, I knew I was going to have to purchase the retail version. I was hooked! Those that complained about paying to play after they bought it!?!? Give me a break.. take some remedial reading courses.. looks like you need them!
Rating: 
Summary: Extremely Disappointing.
Review: I had really high hopes for this game. And, at first, this game didn't let me down. I mean, the price of the game seemed a bit steep, but the graphics were awesome, and the character creation screen was by far the best I've ever seen. And then they put me into this beautifully rendered comic-book city that just had a fantastic atmosphere... almost puts you right in the comic book. Exactly like it's supposed to. And so I actually enjoyed this game for about two days. But then I realized: there's no content here. None. The game consists of the following: 1) Walk up to a bad guy.
2) Press "3" or maybe "2" in order to punch, kick, or slash that guy.
3) Lather, rinse, repeat. There are no items. Therefore, there's no game economy. Therefore, there's almost no reason for players to interact. Sure, it can help you level a little faster to create temporary, informal groups. But there's no place where players congregate, chat, roleplay, or make friends... you see a bunch of players grouped around the level-up points sometimes, but there's actually no reason for them being there. Further, there is absolutely no way to advance your character other than running up to mobs and pressing a number. There's no crafting, or any non-combat skills whatsoever. Advancement = XP, and XP = combat. There isn't even any PvP. You could create the most powerful character on the server, and won't even get the bragging rights of taking down the second-most powerful in order to settle all debate of who's better. I'm told this will be addressed later, when they'll give you the opportunity to shell out another $50 for the expansion pack. By the time I had played this game for a week, it was becoming intensely repetitive and boring. It's nothing more than trading damage with mobs and watching your XP grind upwards at an agonizingly slow pace. This is less a game than a test of your boredom threshold.
Rating:
Summary: Zero Problems
Review: My wife and I play this together and we have an absolute blast!
The game runs flawlessly for both of us.. I would expect that it would run fine on my machine (2.4Ghz./512MB/GeForce128) but it even runs well on her machine (800Mhz/256MB/GeForce64).. although it is not as pretty and maps take a little longer to load, it still runs fine. She is, however, now bucking for a system upgrade ;) Granted both of these run GeForce cards (I've heard/read the stories about problems with ATI cards), but those that tell you that you need a high end system to run it obviously have something else wrong with their systems! Mission layouts can be a little repetitive but they get better as you increase in levels (those of you that are sub-20.. it gets better... believe me). I've read a couple of reviews that state that leveling is too long... uh... I personally think that it is too fast! You can get to level 10 in an evening if you so desired! Character creation has seemingly limitless possibilities.. yes there are no capes, but Cryptic's excuse for not having them just yet is a valid one! Nothing like telling your users that the reason there isn't capes is because they want to make sure they do them right! Archetypes, Power sets, Origins... it's all here for you comic book fans (of which I am one)! I was completely against a game that made you pay for play after you purchased the game.. but from one day of free beta playing, I knew I was going to have to purchase the retail version. I was hooked! Those that complained about paying to play after they bought it!?!? Give me a break.. take some remedial reading courses.. looks like you need them!
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing combat, little depth.
Review: First off, I would like to say that I love superheroes. Ever since I was a kid I loved them, and the prospect of this character creation system was just an amazing chance at being a character that I cherished. I bought this game BECAUSE of the character creation system, and it did not let down. I have been playing for 2 and a half months and only now has the novelty worn off. This game, simply put, is a combat game that just happens to feature multiplayer. It really isn't a role-playing game. You don't manage stats, there is no inventory, and your appearance only changes if you pay for it, and it has no effect on your skills. This, of course, is why the game shines. Most people don't want to devote hours and hours and hours trying to make their elf level up, and they surely don't want to be stuck fighting rats and snakes, and the occasional crocodile (that's right, I was a troll in EQ :D). This game is quick paced, addictive, and overall fun. That is until the killing gets old. It's basically either kill badguys on the streets, or go through a total of 5 types of mission maps, over and over again. I swear, it's fun for a long time, but it gets old. And with no PvP for such a long time, I don't really care anymore. I just want a more detailed game. I, myself, am switching over to Galaxies, but I do recommend this game, if only for the 30 day trial.
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: I never looked so good in spandex
Review: I had been interested in MMORPGs and I loved comics. City of Heroes (COH) is the best comic oriented game ever. It breaks down like this.
[Backdrop]
Fictional Paragon City is being overrun by various villains both super and ordinary. Paragon is realized in an amazing amount of visual and audio detail, people walk the streets, cars drive the roads, boats in the harbor, night & day etc.. The city's zones are HUGE!
[Character Creation]
You can easily spend hours tweaking all the costume options that are available for your heroes. There are literally billions of possible combinations. (With issue 4 coming out soon it will add even more costume options.) You can make your hero truly your own.
[Controls]
The game controls are VERY easy to learn without being simplistic. They make it very easy to get going in the game and offers more depth with advanced options. Using your powers is as easy as clicking a target and a power icon in your power slot. Anyone who has played NeverWinter Nights will recognize this type of control setup. It's played from a 3rd person perspective and offers you total control of the view of your character.
[Graphics]
The visuals are very good and support playable framerates on video cards even a couple years old. The power effects and animations are really convincing and draw you into the action.
[Community]
It's very easy to communicate with your fellow heroes with several chat options (Local, team, supergroup, broadcast, buddy list) and even in game Emails. I've been a COH player for almost a year and there have been 3 MAJOR updates. These are MAJOR updates because they added things like new zones, enemies, powers, options, gameplay upgrades. These have all been FREE. I don't think you'll find a better level of support from any other MMOG. Minor bug fixes are handled automatically as needed as well.
[Overall]
Pros: Great character/costume development. Great support for the game with free updates. Great gameplay. Nice player community. Good leveling curve. Many types of game play available, (offensive, support, defense, buffing, debuffing).
With new Issues (Free Major Updates) coming out every few months COH really holds it's value and keeps players engaged.
Cons: Only one small con, there isn't really much "Role Playing", this is a massive online superhero game, not really an RPG.
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