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City Of Heroes Beta Evaluated As Game Goes Gold
Thanks to GamersWithJobs for its detailed impressions of PC-based superhero MMORPG City Of Heroes, given just after the game reached gold master status, with an "official launch [of] April 28", and a (slightly inflationary?) "monthly subscription fee of US$14.99." The preview, from a "long time tester and fan of the game", notes: "When I entered City of Heroes for the first time, one of the things that quickly grabbed my attention was the scale--the towering statues, the twenty story buildings", before discussing the action-oriented gameplay: "Unlike almost every other MMORPG out there, combat in City of Heroes is designed to be fast paced and fun" The author concludes: "It's not a perfect superhero game, but it's a very good superhero MMORPG."
I am also playing in this beta, and things I have to say about are "wow". The beta is more stable than any of the day 1 releases I've played in, and I've played in pretty much all of them. The devs are making changes based on suggestions people are making (holy crap, devs that listen?).
Its also fun, because you can pop on and play for thirty minutes and quit. If you're friends are hella high level because they play religiously, no sweat... you have the Mentor/Sidekick system. So basically, ANY levels can group together... no more getting left in the dust by your friends who have no lives. ;)
One of great things about the Gamers With Jobs community is that our forums are teeming with gamers who also happen to be excellent writers. Paladin is no exception and today he has been kind enough to send in his impressions of the City of Heroes beta. He's been playing since January and he's been lucky enough to have played right through to the highest level range the game has to offer. This article is not to be missed if you have any interest in the now-gold MMORPG. Get to it!
Introduction
City of Heroes - long touted as the last, best hope of comic book fans everywhere, this MMORPG is finally nearing release. After years in development, a major change in the game's fundamental design, and fears of vaporware, comic book junkies everywhere will finally have a chance to get their gaming fix. Before I begin, a disclaimer: I am not a critic, or a professional reviewer, and this article is in no way intended to be an objective review of City of Heroes. Neither am I in any way associated with or employed by Cryptic Studios or NCSoft. I am, however, a long time tester and fan of the game. I've been waiting for this since I signed up on the City of Heroes forums in October of 2001. It's been a long wait, and to my delight I'm not disappointed.
In the Beginning
When you start up the game for the first time you have to create a character. Character creation is definitely one of the high points of City of Heroes, and most people will spend a lot of time making character after character. I know I did. I managed to fill up all eight slots on each of my two beta accounts (closed and pre-order).
The first decision is to pick an Origin. The Origins are Natural, Technology, Magic, Science, and Mutant. At this point, Origin has little effect on gameplay other than to determine who your first enemies will be, and what enhancements you can use. This may change at a later date but at this point it's more of a role-playing, character concept choice than anything else. I decided to pick Science, as it fit my character concept.
The second decision is to choose an archetype. There are five archetypes in the game, which roughly correspond to the basic classes of other games. Each archetype has a primary and a secondary powerset. The primary powerset is the defining power group for the character, and represents their most powerful abilities. The secondary powerset is used to supplement their primary abilities, and isn't as powerful. The archetypes are as follows:
Tanker:
City of Heroes' immovable object. Tanks are designed to soak damage for their team, and do so far better than any other archetype in the game. The Tanker is also an able bodied meleer, able to dish out decent damage at melee range. Tankers get to choose a Defense powerset as primary, and a Melee powerset as secondary.
Scrapper:
Equivalent to a light tank, the Scrapper specializes in dealing out mass amounts of melee damage as quickly as possible. Scrappers are more fragile than Tankers though, so don't really want to be the focus of enemy attention. Scrappers get to choose a Melee powerset as their primary, and a Defense powerset as their secondary. One quick note here--the powers available to Scrappers and Tankers are different, with only a few sets overlapping. Both have access to the Defense powerset Invulnerability, but all Scrapper melee sets are unique to Scrappers, as are their other defenses.
Defender:
Defenders are the closest thing you'll find to a cleric in this game. Healing, while nice, is not a necessity in City of Heroes, and many Defenders don't even have healing powers. Defenders get to choose a Buff/Heal powerset as primary, and a Ranged attack powerset as secondary. Sadly, the Buff/Heal powersets available to Defenders are exactly the same as the ones available to Controllers, except that the Defender powers are stronger in effect.
Blaster:
The ranged damage king, this is City of Heroes' nuker archetype. As fragile as most mages,