12/05/05 >> City of Villains (PC)
Genre: MMORPG
In the world of the MMORPG, many games can come and go in the blink of an eye. Some manage to stand against the giant World of Warcraft, while others get crushed by its success. One MMORPG that has survived is City of Heroes, and it's been so successful that it's spawned a stand-alone expansion: City of Villains.
For those of you who never played City of Heroes, you, the player, got to create your ideal super hero. You fought on the side of good, saved people from the evil factions in Paragon City, and fought off alien invaders. But… something has been missing... Where are all the super villains? Look no further. NCSoft and Cryptic Studios have let the villains loose on the world to cause as much destruction as they can in City of Villains!
Using the same amazing character creation process as in City of Heroes, you make your ideal villain, his/her appearance, his/her character class (Brute (a powerful tank like character; a Stalker, which can become invisible and instant-kill their targets; a Mastermind, which involves a pet system, where you can have a small army of ninjas, mercenaries, robots, or zombies; a Dominator, which involves playing with an enemies mind; or a Corrupter, who uses energy blasts to wipe out enemies), his/her powers, name, you can even write a bio for those who like to role-play. When you enter the game itself, you'll be a newbie villain, who's JUST been broken out of prison. You'll have to make your way out of the tutorial, learning all there is to know about the game (currently this process cannot be skipped, but you might get the option to skip it in the future). Once the tutorial is completed, you're set lose on the Rogue Islands, which is where all the bad guys like to hang out.
Now, to level up, you have 2 choices: Kill random enemies that like to wander around/mug people, or do missions for various contacts. Your contacts will give you missions such as, go kill everyone in this building, go rob this bank, go place bombs and blow up a building, or sometimes even a combination of all those missions. Besides contacts, you even get a handy newspaper that you can look over for random jobs (normally they consist of kidnapping someone, killing a target and their guards, or stealing something).
As you rise in levels, you will gain access to more and more powers to use from your main 2 archetypes (your basic powers). You will also be able to pick from a new set of powers, including Flight and Super Speed, so you can get around the areas quicker. Currently (as of November 2005), the max level is capped at 40. You cannot get every single power available to you, so make sure you choose wisely.
Unlike most RPGs though, in City of Villains, there is no equipment at all. No armor, no weapons, nothing like that. Instead they have a system of "slotting" for your powers. You can place slots on your different powers, and place "Enhancements" in the slots. Think of them as power-ups, such as an Attack booster enhancement, which will make the slotted power do more damage. A power can have a grand total of 6 slots, but there is a point where the enhancement total is capped, so you can't do a full 100% extra damage. Enhancements are either found off defeated enemies or bought at a store. There are 3 different kinds, each one more effective than the others. You have the normal kind, which can be used by everyone, and there are the Single and Dual Origin enhancements. You can only equip them if you meet the Origin requirement (Like if you're a Technology based villain, you can use Technology enhancements). As you level up, you will constantly need to replace them, as they will lose effectiveness with each level up.
Should you chose to do them, several missions have story arcs, where you'll play out a certain storyline that could involve anything from clashing with a NPC Hero from Paragon City, to finding out about a plot to destroy one of the main villains in the game. There are even super story arcs called Strike Forces, in which you'll need to meet a level requirement and gather multiple people to finish the missions, all which will lead up to a powerful boss monster called an Arch-villain.
The graphics in the game are quite amazing, very sharp, and there are many options to boost the graphics even more. When it comes to the music and sound effects, they're quite good as well. Most of the tracks in the city zones are heavy metal/techno, and I sometimes wished that they would continue into the mission when you went in a building. Sadly, the missions are often music-less, which can make the mission seem quite boring. I would really suggest running a music player in the background.
There is also some PvP if you're interested in that. At lvl 15 you can enter Bloody Bay and fight against the player Heroes of Paragon City, or run missions. Once you set foot in the zone, you'll be automatically boosted to lvl 25, but if you're lower than 25, you will not gain new powers. If you're higher than lvl 25, you'll be set back to 25, and your higher level powers can't be used. At level 20 you can head over to Siren's Call and do the same thing, but with different mission, and your level will be set to 30. At level 30, you can head over to Warburg, which I believe is a free-for-all zone, Heroes can fight Heroes, Villains can fight Villains. The only problem with this as of this review is all the Heroes are at lvl 50, and have access to greater Enhancements for their powers. This creates quite an imbalance, and it might not be as fun for the Villains.
There is also ways to play with someone who is higher/lower than you, as there is in City of Heroes. A higher level villain can invite a low level villain to be his/her lackey. The lackey will be boosted to around the higher villains lvl, but not gain skills/powers. Both villains will still gain experience. Lower level characters can also invite a higher level player to be their malefactor. The higher level player will be lowered to the lower villains level, and lose access to the higher level powers. The higher level character won't gain experience, but will gain more Infamy (which is the currency in CoV).
So, should you buy it? I personally did not enjoy the game. There is nothing to do except for run missions or PvP. The missions get extremely tedious after 30 levels, even if you increase their difficulty. The experience just did not scale right. You gain a small boost when you level up (say you get 3000 instead of 2800 for finishing a mission when you level up), but the amount you need to level up will dramatically increase (say you used to need 30500, now you'll need 36000). I just can't stand doing missions after missions. They are the only way to gain experience, there is no other way. Grouping with other people would take just as long.
In closing, I suggest this game if you like to play as a villain, and can get a good role-playing group going, or a guild. Take time to socialize. Me, I prefer to just level up, and I just can't do it with the poor experience scaling and repetitive missions. However, like most MMORPGs, this is an evolving process and I hope City of Villains improves quickly.
------------------------------------------------------------
Game Score: 8.3
Reviewed By: Fou Lu
