City of Heroes - worthwhile? (1 Viewer)

[Alex Spindler]

Progress report

Still having a blast playing. I can see the criticism that it lacks the complexity of many games, but I'm not feeling like that is a limitation. I had grown to love some of the those aspects that were present in SWG but not in CoH, but I don't think its a lesser game for it. It keeps it from being a 'MMO clone with different graphics' that I seems to be the consensus on many newer releases.

Instead the game feels almost like a less reflex intensive beat 'em up ala a 3d Final Fight, which means it always feels involving. Their very generous xp and reward distribution system means you're never penalized for not being the highest damage dealer. As a Tank, I hit pretty weakly, but I get an even distribution of xp, as do the healers and controllers.

I love how the game slow changes as you increase in level, from early solo friendly play to random pick up grouping and play through Perez Park, then advanced play requiring all of the roles played well to survive the much harder Task Force missions. The game even deals with death in a friendly way, accruing you with debt instead of losing xp, so you only retard your progress by 50%, but still progress.

I've finally got my brain wrapped around how the enhancements work, so I can really start tweaking my abilities to best fit the role I'm after. And I LOVE that there don't feel like many totally wasted abilities. Even if you are just experimenting with an early skill, it can still be useful through the right application of tactics and proper slotting of enhancements. Of course, making a new character is fun and leveling them can be very fast.

I do miss a bit of the subtle mathematical work I did in SWG, but I recognized it as a bit of a grind which many would not enjoy. This game even makes level progression feel fast by subdividing levels in to little sub progress bars, so it always feels like you're moving forward, even when you have a lot of xp to get.

I have high hopes for where this is going. Having just reached level 16, there still feels like huge sections of the game world I haven't even started on. Getting in on a pick up team is a snap, especially for in demand archetypes. I do miss some of the chat innovations that SWG had which made it so easy to converse, but it handles capably enough by being able to chat with your friends, supergroup, and your team pretty easily. I just have to figure out a keystroke to enter the chat window because clicking the mouse to enter chat is hard when you're in combat (there must be a way!).


If I had any suggestions, I'm sure there would be some call by many to increase the available powers to get closer to the hero they want to make. The storylines have some nice connectivity to each other if you pay attention to the accompanying text and the verbal banter of your enemies. It would be kind of neat if they built a smart storyline builder that could do a mad-lib like arcing story for you to follow that was specific to your background. I have all kind of ideas on how the City of Villains expansion could work, especially in a PvP angle. I think that could open all kinds of additional complexity should they decide to introduce it. Moreso than any other game, I'm pretty excited by the upcoming content for this launched game. The existing stuff is extremely solid and feeling as close to bug-free as I ever thought an MMO could be, but the potential for growth appears impressive.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

For the better part of a year I've been playing Planetside, the first and so far only MMO-PvP-FPS. Yeah there are games that have a few dozen players but that's not "massive". (On the other hand, being the pioneering game that it is, Planetside has its share of frame rate and lag problems in the heaviest battles.) I'm not the world's best twitch shooter but it's still a very fun game for me.

I tried SWG, and frankly I found it overwhelmingly boring. I always had the feeling that I was not where the fun was happening. How many times would I have to construct a whatchamacallit and deliver it to some guy on the opposite side of town before it started to become fun? I don't have the patience for the slow level grind.

I read several reviews of COH and it sounded like it might be more along the sort of thing I'd enjoy, so I bought the game yesterday. The registration was FUBAR because it took nearly two hours for them to send the verification email, meanwhile I was impatient and having it resent to my different accounts, so when the first finally arrived it wouldn't work because I had already done several resends at that point. So I was spamming myself with verification messages, none of which would work except for the final one. At one point I was receiving them out of order. Anyway, if you buy the game, be prepared to wait several hours for the verification email before you can even finish signing up to play, and don't be impatient by doing resends or you'll have to wait even longer.

Anyway, after scoring extremely low marks on the out of box experience, once I was able to play the game I was impressed.

I'm already playing on Justice, but I won't tell you the name of my character until I have one that I'm happy with and intend to keep developing. I want to try out all the different archetypes first.

 

[Tim Markley]

I've decided to give this a try. After playing DAoC for so long, I thought that this would be a good change of pace. I'll be picking it up this week and hope to join up with at least some of you soon!

 

[CaptDS9E]

Romier spoke of our super hero group before. Think it now has like 15 or so members. We are having a blast with this game. For all those who have stayed away from these massive games this is a lot easier to get into. No running around a hour to get to another part of the game(there are actually trains), no having to upgrade armer and buy 100's of different items. Just lots of ass kicking and going on missions

capt

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Last night I created and played a scrapper for a few levels. Then I played a blaster with electric powers for both primary and secondary up to level 6. That was fun. I think I'm going to choose blaster, but I still need to try tanker, defender, and controller.

This game is great in the way you can choose to team up or go solo, and to go on missions or just go kick ass in the streets.

I always get a laugh out of some of the names and costumes that I see.

 

[Tim Markley]

I picked this up yesterday and created a scrapper named Bucky Katt last night on the Justice server. Seems pretty cool so far although I'm still trying to get used to the interface. Is there any way to "stick" to a mob when in combat? It's kind of a pain to have to chase them down when they take off running.

 

[Romier S]

This will setup Auto Follow and allow you to target a tad easier:

Type the following: /bind z "target_enemy_near"

If you come across a mob just hit the z key to target one of them and then press the f key (to setup the follow) and you'll automatically follow them around and stay within melee range.

Also if you control-mouseclick on a power it will autotrigger that power after that so you wont have to keep pressing the button. I've been doing that with my main blast power as I set it off every recharge anyway.

Group is really coming together on Virtue. A great deal of our members are up in the mid-teens and we're having a blast. There is almost always someone on at various times of the day so if you want to join in feel free to check out P.O.R.N Headquarters.

 

[Tim Markley]

Thanks Romier! That'll really help. I'm used to hitting "stick" from DAoC as soon as the mob gets in range and was feeling a little lost without it.

It looks like the HTF people are split between Justice and Virtue. I've also got a friend on Guardian. I've already decided to start my char over since I've read a little today and found out that I messed something up. Now I don't know which server to play on. Which server are the Pacific time zone players playing on? I'm usually on late at night and I'd like to find some people that are on at the same time.

 

[James_Kiang]

Tim -

I'm a SoCal person playing on Justice. I'm typically on over the weekends late night (Thurs-Sun at least, sometimes Mon). Give me a shout.

Sunshadow - level 10 Fire/Fire Mutant Blaster
Citizen Destiny - level 10 Illusions/Kinetics Mutant Controller

 

[Tim Markley]

That sounds good James. If I decide to stay on Justice, I'll definitely look you up.

 

[Dean Martin]

I just picked up COH and I have to say that it is a lot of fun. More fun in fact then the last 5 supposedly 'great' games I bought.

 

[Dean Martin]

Just wanted to check back to add to what I have pretty much already posted.
I think this is a great game and very worthwhile. I'm not a fan of these types of games or an advocate of paying a monthly fee to play a game but in this case it is worth it.

I'm not really far along in the game but what has me sold on it can be nailed down with one word. Discover.
Back in the classic console days of Nintendo & Sega, the thing that kept me up late nights playing games from level to level was the element of discovering what was going to happen next. You worked and got a reward and if the game was well balanced it would flow and hold your attention for hours.
That is what City of Heroes can do. Why is that? We have all thought about being superheroes at one time or another and this game gets it right from square one. You create your character from his/her size, to his look & colors all the way to his/her name.
Then as you progress of course you get rewarded with powers and other things that really make you want to continue to see what is going to happen next.
Then there is the environment. If you thought Grand Theft Auto was cool, everyone should be playing this game because it reminds me of that. you have this huge sprawling city and you can go anywhere and do just about anything. You can play in linear and non-linear fashion.

Today was my first time I was asked to be on a team which I wasn't really keen on doing but now that I have I'm anxious to do it again.
The topic of this thread asked if COH was worthwhile. My answer is, Hell yeah. Not only that, but you should put down whatever other game you are playing, or trade in any you have collecting dust right now.
This is not my type of game, or actuallly that is what I though. I guess it is my type of game now.
Currently I'm using a somewhat boring character (my first creation) named Bolivar, who is a cigar smoking Martial artist. Named after the famous Cuban Cigar.
I have a few other characters I created, which is a lot of fun in and of itself.
The include: RAY DEATOR (Justice Server)- A huge green guy with a nuke symbol and he shoots fire.
SYLVER SAINT (Virtue server) a natural character that shoots a gun and throws webs.
SPIDERMAN WEST: My idea of how SpiderMan may have looked in the old West.
SPEYEDERMAN: A spiderman rip off with an eye on his chest. Clever, no? I saw another guy in there called SPADER-MAN with a spade on his chest, LOL.

Well that's all for now. See you in the city.

 

[Tim Markley]

I'm enjoying it too. I ended up on the Guardian server because my friend was already there and it seemed like Justice and Virtue always have the most people on them. I've been trying out a few different flavors of Tanker to go along with my friends Blaster and have settled on Invulnerability/Energy Melee. I'm hoping to really start gaining some levels now.

 

[Dean Martin]

I'm up to level 7 now and I have some more flight speed but it's still slow. I probably wasn't wise to pick flight over more power, but who doesn't want to fly?

 

[Vlad D]

Just got this game and I'm loving it. Are any of you guys still playing?

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

I am. My main character is a level 33 fire/fire blaster on Pinnacle.

 

[Tim Markley]

Nope. I quit playing a while ago. It got real boring for me after less than two months.