Moving to the City...

...The City of Heroes that is! For those of you that are not aware of City of Heroes, it is an up and coming MMORPG that I grew quite fond of when I was beta testing it. After the beta ended and it went from being free to subscription based I stopped playing. Games are a lot more fun when they are free.

Unlike other games that I have played, despite the fact that I will have to shell out $13 per month to play it, I miss playing City of Heroes so I am going to get into it again. My buddy, Spyder is the one who turned me on to this game and I am greatful. I think City of Heroes has a greater lasting potential than some of its other competitors. Let me explain.

Everquest attracts a different kind of gamer than City of Heroes. In Everquest, people camp and tool around for hours to get a certain item that will grant them some spiffy ability, like the Fiery Gauntlets of Squirrel Milking which adds a +4 to Endurance when milking said squirrels. It is a draining experience trust me....something that would make you want a smoke when finished. Anywho, there is no camping and there is no questing after rare items in City of Heroes. Come to think of it, there are no items in the game at all. This is where the hardcore "marry that sexy elf in your guild and divorce your real world wife" people get turned off. "No items," you say. "What is the fun in a game where you don't get stuff to build up your character?" In response, you do build up your character but it is with buffs that you win after fights. There are no super rare buffs or power-ups to my knowledge but you are able to develope your character over time using the simple ones. There is also a levelling system that suits the game very well. The bottom line is, hardcore gamers that are level 60 in Everquest becasue they play 9 hours a day, will not lord over City of Heroes like they do in Everquest and it gives the little guys a chance to have fun.

Next cool thing about COH is the city itself, IT IS FREAKING HUGE!!!! There are so many places to explore and no overly long loading times to wait for to go from one place to the other. Transition between areas is smooth and does not affect gameplay most of the time. Spawn points are a little better thought out than in EQ and when you go on quests it changes to make the experience unique to your group. Seven groups could be doing the same mission but it would be a totally different experience from group to the next. COH is very smart in this area.

Lastly and most importantly is character creation. If you play COH, hours will go into character creation. IT IS A BLAST! In all of my time playing the beta, I never saw someone that looked the same as someone else. There are so many variations and colors that super heroes are like snow flakes in the game. Very cool. If you like comics, you will like City of Heroes.

The only downside to the game is that there are no capes, but they are coming and there is no PVP...yet. City of Villains will be the next expansion and that will change everything. You will be able to be the bad guy and have a base and all sorts of other stuff bad guys should have. Lot of fun to be had there.

In closing, I will probably start playing again on Friday. I am getting anxious. BTW if you are wondering why I only compared the game to EQ it is because that is the only other MMORPG that I have played extensively. I have just been craving games horribly the past few weeks and I am hoping this will satisfy those cravings. If you want to learn more about the game I have included a link in my sidebar that will take you to the COH website. Now I have to start coming up with names for my hero again.