2 stars (Good overall.) - I have enjoyed playing this game. I only give it three stars due to the constant changing of the superhero's powers. As your superhero increases in level, you will choose powers and enhance those powers to your liking. As soon as you design your superhero the way you like, you log on one day and the game has a new version with changes to some of your powers. I think it's also safe to say that the changes that I have seen so far have weakened most powers. This may not seem like an issue to some of you but it is very frustrating to spend 4-5 hours a week for a few months playing this game just to have your favorite powers drastically changed. I actually cancelled my account over the last version. My two superheroes powers were so drastically changed that it was not fun to play them anymore. Beware!! If you like stability, do not buy this game!!!
1 stars (never got to play it) - I saw the reviews here and was so excited to get the game. I read the instruction book a kazillion times and watched every trailer on the coh website. Well, I happen to live in a town where the only internet available is dialup. However, i was able to play halo pc despite this problem so i didn't think this would matter. Here it comes. I went to execute the game and it wouldn't let me because "you have to run the updater first" okay clickity clich-gasp! 1375 hours was the approximated download time and it never dropped and if i disconnected it started over. Screw that! I sold the game and bought a psp.
3 stars (Good for Awhile) - City of Heroes made for an enjoyable summer of 2006 for me. By the Fall of 2006, though, it was too much to stomach. Before I address the bad, I will evaluate the good. There are two huge plusses that CoH has:
1) An incredible variety of costume creation possibilities. Multitudes of colors, design schemes for different body areas such as shoulders, boots, hands, pants, chest, emblems, and helmets. The downside is that not all designs are available until later levels. When capes were introduced, the game designers utilized the reason that capes were a "prestige" item. I am sorry, but Robin the Boy Wonder (Batman's sidekick) in his little yellow cape is hardly prestigious. To deny capes and other costume designs at character creation phase is simply a thinly-veiled marketing tool to keep players as subscribers for longer periods of time. Nothing prestigious about that.
2) A huge positive for City of Heroes is the innovation to allow players of greatly varying power levels to "adventure" together is "sidekicking". As long as your sidekick remains within a reasonable range, his/her power levels are raised dramatically to be just a bit lower than your own. This permits a new player whose friends have already been playing the game for a considerable amount to time, to jump right in and be a part of the team.
The downside to City of Heroes, and it is considerable enough to warrant only 3 stars in the rating, is the requirement to of searching for a team at around midlevel. This is a trap many massively multiplayer online games fall into. No longer can a player solo and hope to have any success at all. The missions a hero receives as simply too difficult as the criminals advance in their own powers and technological gadgets. When on a limited playing schedule as nearly all working family adults and studious teens should be, the endless wait to enjoy the product already purchased and continuously subscribed to each month makes the game experience be almost criminal. |
