by NCsoft

Member Reviews: Review City of Heroes Yourself!

Pros
•  the best character customization features
•  very easy to pick up and play
•  nice graphics
•  very stable
•  regular updates
•  free comic book
•  can play solo if you choose to
•  the classes are well-balanced

Cons
•  no pvp yet
•  not deep
•  can be very repetitive at times

The Bottom Line - The best MMORPG for the masses yet. 

Link: Official Site

Review

Outside of possibly Star Wars, City of Heroes is the biggest fantasy fulfiller to date in a MMORPG. Just think about how many people have fantasized about being a super hero in their lives. Yes, Freedom Force whet our appetites for a comic-book super hero game but City of Heroes has served up the main course! Never has a game allowed so much character customization before you even start the game. You can easily customize the look of your hero from head to toe in order to shape him or her to the picture in your imagination rather than being limited with only a few options.

Once you enter the game, you can learn the basics quickly by starting in a tutorial area. The tutorials allow you to get used to your hero's powers (you get primary and secondary powers like fire, ice, energy, dark powers, stone etc) a little before heading out to the main game world. Once in one of the two starting cities, you will get you get a better idea if you want to keep the class you selected or not. The classes are very balanced, but there are still a few that standout like a few scrappers and a fire-fire tanker. The fire-fire tanker that I play with allows me to solo quite nicely whenever I just want to explore the game on my own. In addition, the game also allows for fun group play because each class can serve a different role. For example, a tanker can attract mobs because they can take the most damage by far while blasters and scrappers are much better damage dealers. 

The biggest criticism about City of Heroes is that there is a lack of depth and that its get repetitive too quickly. These criticisms are justified, but I have also noticed less of a grind in this game than most other MMORPGs. Furthermore, there is no PvP element yet. Without a doubt PvP is one of the top features sought by the majority of MMO gamers and it is definitely a glaring no-show here. However, City of Villains (the sequel to City of Heroes) and the next big free update entitled "The Arena" should take care of this missing piece of the puzzle quite nicely. 

All in all, City of Heroes offers a nice amount of value despite a hefty $14.95 per month subscription fee. Besides stable servers and regular updates that add considerable amounts of content, you get a $2.95 comic-book about the City of Heroes universe. Thus, if you are tired of the usual swords and magic formula used by most of today's MMORPGs or you are a big fan of comic-books or even if you want a MMORPG that you can easily jump into, then City of Heroes may be the MMORPG that you have been waiting for. 

Game Ogre's Rating (out of 10): 

9.25

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