Normally I only review free to play MMO’s, World of Warcraft put me off commercial games after I found I could get a better game experience from free online games, however when given the chance to review the popular City of Heroes / City of Villains I couldn’t resist, after all it was an opportunity to show that there is no point paying a monthly subscription when there are free MMO’s. I was proven very wrong, there is a good reason people pay monthly subscriptions to these games, and City of Heroes does a fine job of pointing that out, it is by far a much more enjoyable experience then any of the free to play games I have played, and that is a lot of games.

City of Heros / City of Villains is an online only RPG game which puts the player in the shoes of a comic book super hero or super villain, the player will pick every small detail about their characters, how they got their powers, what powers they have and can even write a Biography for other players to read, topped off with near endless customization options you can guarantee a 100% unique hero or villain, once customization is done and the character is made then the player is thrown into a huge open world where good vs evil is constantly playing out with hundreds of other characters, this can be daunting for new players, but with a little patience you soon learn what your supposed to be doing.

Gameplay is slightly different from other online role playing games, instead of clicking on an enemy and watching the fight, you are instead actually taking part in the combat, by pressing the number keys you can string together different skills and combos to more effectively take down your opponents, this makes the game play more like a beat-em up then an RPG, which in fact suits the whole super hero game genre much better then just watching your characters fight for you.

The whole action elements to this game really drag away from leveling, instead of killing monsters to level your character so you can kill stronger monsters, instead you find yourself hunting the streets looking for a fight, just for the sake of a fight, and leveling to get more quests, rather then doing quests to level.
The game has a nice backwards formula to it which completely breaks away from the standard RPG style of working to earn levels, levels are pretty much just for playing solo missions and progressing in story, and with the quests, team missions, personal goals you set yourself and the wonderfully fun combat system earning those levels is just part of the fun, and doesn’t feel like work as it does in other games.
You can also play with a higher or lower level friend with out having to keep at the same level, if a friend is higher level then either they can temporarily lower themselves to 1 level above your level, or you can temporarily become 1 level below them, this creates a very social game where new players are not alienated from higher level players, and means there is no waiting for a month for a friend to catch you up.

There are large numbers of skills to choose from as well, so with every new skill brings new potential combinations and tactics for taking down the enemy, from standard punches to the ability to launch your enemies into the air, the combat skills are varied, plentiful, and more satisfying then any fantasy fireball other MMO’s have to offer.

Its not all Combat skills either, there are loads of little skills you can give your character just for pure entertainment or to shorten travel times, and yes, the ability to fly and the ability to jump over buildings is in there as well, you really can swoop from building to building like super man, or launch yourself over a warehouse just for the hell of it.

Each one does however serve in battle, Air combat is a good part of the game, chasing space ships, bombers, bad guys with jet packs and flying monsters is great fun, the ability to jump over buildings is extremely useful when chasing enemies that decide to run away, or jumping over cars and barriers which are being used as cover by gun-men.

As well as huge variety of skills, each and every skill you get can also be customized with little upgrades, by adding items to your skills you can customize and upgrade each to suit your gameplay style, from adding +5 damage on your mace swing to stun effects on your punches, nearly every part of this game you can tweak to your own personal tastes, you can even customize flight speed or increase how high you jump and its not limited to 1 upgrade per skill either, you can also add slots to the skills to allow for more upgrades, and combine upgrades to make more powerful ones.

Character Customization seems to be the main part of this game, and it really shows, you can choose ever piece of the character, choose multiple different colors for every piece of your suit, what type of piece it is, what the piece looks like, what type of texture it has, what its made from, how its painted… you can spend hours (or in my case even days) just making all kinds of weird and wacky characters, if you love Sims or Spore Creature Creator then you have to try this game, its got loads more options then The Sims and comes fairly close to Spore Creature Creator in terms of content.

Sadly with there being so much to do before you can really start playing it can be very daunting and confusing for new players, like a fool I skipped the tutorial thinking it would be like all the other MMO’s, I spent the whole of my first day just learning how to do basic things like walking round, fighting and talking to people, so eventually I created a new character on the villains side and did the tutorial, even if you don’t skip the Tutorial area it isn’t very helpful and explains next to nothing, but it is damn good fun, the tutorial area is just as action packed as everything else, you start in a jail cell in a high security prison, a series of explosions blow the walls and gates out the prison and every bad guy in there rushes to escape the burning ruins, however the security guards are well armed and it isn’t long before super heros swoop down to save the day, your then forced to learn as you go with nothing explained, its not all that hard to beat up the security guards and escape in a helicopter, while it may not be the best tutorial ever, it does provide a fairly easy and fun area for you to learn the basics with out it becoming boring, and serves as a very good introduction to the story.

City of Heroes is very story driven for an online game, quests are genuinely exciting and include cut-scenes, instead of being sent to an area and told to grind the same monsters you have fought a thousand times already, you are instead told to sneak into enemy bases and plant bombs on their planes, sail into the sea and intercept a cargo ship to steal its cargo, destroy enemy research labs to stop them developing super weapons, and my personal favorite, go into the huge underground caverns beneath the city to stop a race of mutant snakes taking over the world.

Each character type has his/her own story depending on how they got their powers, a hero that got their powers from their knowlege of science must fight the Vahzilok, a group of people who bring corpses back from the dead and make huge abominations from bits of dead things, while someone who has become a hero through natural means such as heavy work out routines or natural born abilitys will be fighting The Councel, a group of crazies that want to take over the world.

If you run out of solo quests, then there are huge amounts of team based quests as well, for the bad guys most of them involve robbing banks, but you get a large area, and you must fight to the bank, break in and get the goods, then escape from the bank with the loot while fight hundreds of policemen and getting rid of any pesky heros which think they can stop you.

Every area of the game is also highly detailed and carefully crafted, each holding its own story as well as large scale events such as Alien Invasions and Bombings, these sometimes happen more often then you would like, there is nothing more annoying then trying to beat up some corrupt cops when a bomb siren goes off half way through and they run off to find cover. However the eveants are excellent fun and break away from the usual combat.
All the NPC’s have their own personalities, the mutant snake people hiss at you, corrupt policemen randomly resort to police brutality on near by civilians, drugged up homeless people lay about in the streets and religious fanatics run round with big signs and crossbows.

In conclusion the game is a huge open world straight from the pages of the best comic books, not only is game vast and enough to keep you entertained for as long as you can afford to play it, as new content is added regularly, but it also your game play experience will be unique and well worth every penny you put into the game.
If you don’t think this game will be your thing (I know I didn’t think I would enjoy it this much before playing) then they offer a 14 day free trial, so you really have no excuse not to try this game, in that 14 days you can do a LOT of fun stuff which you are not be able to do in other games.

Gameplay: 9/10 – Wonderful and very varied from other online games, a little complicated to get into though.

Graphics: 8/10 – while they are not “next gen” you actually look like your in a comic book, rather then a 3D game, and for that alone it has to score high marks.

Story: 10/10 – Compared to other MMORPG’s its 100% perfect, every character type has its own story complete with cut-scenes an lots of action, and from that the player will make his own unique story by mixing and matching multiplayer quests, live events, personal goals and a huge variety of other quests by helping other players.

Sound: 7/10 – Not perfect, but the music is excellent and it can build a very suiting atmosphere.

Controls: 7/10 – Very complicated at first, but after a while you realize they have to be complicated to be able to add all that depth to the game.

Overall: 9/10 – if you like MMORPG’s or want to try an online action game, this is a MUST, you have not played an MMO until you have played this. Not even Tabula Rasa or World of Warcraft can compete.