Others say...

"One year in the City of... World and happy"
I have been playing on both City of Heroes (CoH) and City of Villians (CoV) for one year now and am still happy with the gameplay. Occassional delays due to updates occur, but they are managable and may result in a few hours of dealing with issues, it is not that serious of an event. These stoppages usually occur briefly after a major update to the game, about every two or three months. A lot of drama over them from some people, but I can handle it. The gameplay is "grinding" in style (go hit, hit, go hit again, etc. not any puzzles or searches etc.) but you rarely feel that way while playing. The graphics are beautiful, and compared to other games, I find them the the most appealing. The main draw is the community of people. You play to find a niche of players similar to you...mature, casual gaming, player versus player core, role-playing, you will find the type of crowd you want to be with. The hundreds of character design options is fantastic (compared to the relatively minute offerings of other online MMORPGs), the character types, and the numerous badges and side missions are set up where you cannot get them all in one shot, you have to branch out in different characters to see all the content. Only a markdown in rating due to graphic and software compatability issues, but the company's customer support is great and very helpful. Last bonus...fairly solid kid safe play environment (my pre-teens play it), profanity filters and a core of mature players keep the field nice for young ones as well.

"City of Fun!"
City of Villans is a great addition to the City of Hero's. instead of the 8 chearacters you would get if you had either one singally, add villans to an existing account (or get Hero's to add to the account you start with villans) and get 12 characters per server! the character design is where you'll have problems deciding what you want, as there are soooooo many costumes! The game play can get repetative but it's not too bad and the scenery is quite stunning. Over all I give game play 3 stars but character design 5 stars!

"Quality of Service"
I wanted to take a moment to tell you about *why* I bought this game. I play City of Heroes, and what makes it a good gaming experience is that the path--from taking the shrink-wrap off that box to playing the game--is short and sweet. The way PlayNC runs the company has impressed me again, and here's why:

I purchased this boxed set at 29.99. It costs me no more money than I'm already paying to have a City of Heroes membership, but what's more, there's a free month of gameplay in the box that will go into my account and give me a credit of 14.95. Do the math and I'm only paying about 15 dollars to join.

But I ran into a problem: I didn't set the game's account up right. I meant to "upgrade" an existing game instead of "adding" a new game. I had to call tech support.

Tech support answered on the first ring. Not only did they go out of their way to apologize for the inconvenience, but in 5 minutes I had an e-mail from them setting things up so that my game account could be fixed. Shortly after that, I was up and running.

I'm sure I'll enjoy this game at least as much as City of Heroes, and I'll update this when I've put some hours in. In the meantime, you should know that the company that runs it is the best company I've ever had to deal with, and I couldn't be happier with the quality of service. These people know how to run a business.

UPDATED, 7/20/06: I've logged several hours in City of Villains, and it's quite an impressive package. The game plays a great deal like City of Heroes, but with a few extras tucked away here and there. For example, I created a villain similar to my Hero, but her class of character offers some really interesting ways to play that I can't do with my hero. There are extra gameplay elements added, such as "mayhem missions", but that doesn't make you locked into the kind of mono-minded over-the-top evil that your typical comic-book villain possesses. There's a lot of room in this game to make choices and build your character's particular style of villainy. Having to walk through the "beginner"/tutorial phase again, I can tell you that this game is still one of the easiest MMOs to figure out: it holds your hand, revisits you when it's time to tell you something new, and there's a menu for just about anything you might need to find out about. Often if you're not sure about something, you'll still find a lot of people online who have written you a guide--they even publish guides to their guides, and guides to writing a guide!

I see the price is lowered--if you're even curious, think about the fact that you get a free month (a 14.95 value) with your purchase, then grab a copy.

"City of Heroes/Villains"
I think that I fall in the middle of the previous reviews. I am a veteran MMO player starting with the Ultima Online beta test so many years ago. I haven't played them all, but I've played a lot of them.

The most popular game on the market now is World of Warcraft. Its smooth interface, superb art direction, and easy game play attract many players. But, like any MMO it gets boring after you reach the top and start grinding high end content. Enter City of Heroes/Villains.

City of Heroes/Villains is not quite the polished game that WoW is, but it has some very compelling elements. While the back ground stories and world may not be as rich, they are better than most MMOs on the market. I played CoH when it was released, then went to WoW. When I became bored with WoW I tried other games, but being spoiled by Blizzards production value I found them lack luster. Not so CoH. I can still play this game without feeling the grind too bad.

CoH has a quick mission (quest) system that gets you in the fight quickly. It has a group matching system that quickly easily allows you to find other players to do missions with. In my opinion this is better than WoW. No running around LFG (Looking for Group) to find players to adventure with. The interface makes it quick and easy and people use it.

Most missions are short and can be done quickly. You can usually be in and out in :30 to an hour. There are longer chained missions (called task forces) for those that like longer games and greater challenges.

There are no "Magic Items" to pick up. Rewards come in the form of "Inspirations" (temporary buffs), Enhancements (permanent augmentations for your super powers), and Influence (like money - used to buy alternate costumes and custom augmentations for your super powers).

The power sets are many and compelling. The travel powers are interesting. They are comprised of Super Jump, Flight, Teleport, and Super Speed. All are fun (particularly Super Jump) and get you places fast. Not only that, they are fun to use and explore with.

CoH/CoV has a lot to offer MMO fans. I would consider it the number 2 MMO on the market and I highly recommend it if you need a break from the fantasy genre.


"NCSoft's latest financial results say it all."
NCSoft recently published their financial report for the first quarter of 2006. Revenue for City of Heroes/Villains is down 58% in the last three month period. Keep in mind that many people sign up for 6 or 12 months at a time so this only reflects the people who's accounts have expired in that time. Also keep in mind that this is a 58% decline after including any new players who signed up during that period.

They have so thoroughly ruined the game that most of the people who still have accounts are not playing them (choosing just to let them expire rather than play). They are offering incentives just to try and get people to log on once a week! (Check out the City of Heroes web site for more info).

While other online games (like World of Warcraft) are growing through word of mouth, City of Heroes/Villains is hemorrhaging users en mass. The reason is simple, in order to slow leveling in the game they have made the game a tedious bore to play. You no long feel like a super hero/villain.

Now you could trust the people giving this game a positive review keeping in mind they have a vested interest in getting people into the game to play with, or you could trust the nearly 60% of the players who quit the game in the last 3 months. You have only to go to their own site to see the incentives they are offering just to get people to log on. Fun games don't have to offer incentives to get people to play, people WANT to play.

Avoid this one like the plague folks.

For more info on their latest quarter search for:
"NCsoft Announces 2006 First Quarter Financial Results"