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So ya wanna be a Hero....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: December 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Hero's Online
With a massive library of colors, clothing and physical body types - you are encouraged to cater your hero's look to it's powers, or to something totally 'unreal.' Heck, I spent an easy hour fiddling in there before ever seeing the game!!

The game is a solid showing in the Online Game market, and a first for the "Hero" specific genre. The types of powers and effects, are various and cool. I also expect that this will be expanded in future updates (It would be a crime not to!!) The mission system is solid; leading the Hero around the town's various areas, giving the player the experiences of "living" the Hero experience of squashing the various menaces that plague the city. The game has a solid following, with players on at all times, although it can be a little lean in the off-hours. Don't be afraid to ask people to group up to finish missions, it's a necessity after 7th lvl! Solo adventuring is easy in the city with gang members tucked in alleys, parks and various roof tops. (When you can fly, roof tops are the way to go.)
For a first in it's genre, this a great game.

CITY of Heros equals City of Creativity

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: February 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is one heck of a game. It offers a unique look at the comic book world of super heros as it makes them out-populate the everyday citizens of the city by lord knows what ratio. It is a three-dimensional world where havok and mayhem ensues and where your hero may be the one strong enough to save the day. This game has a few solid good points to it as well... for instance, when you play in team mode, it promotes team work and cohesion. While there have been a few teams I played on that were cut off from each other, theree have been a handful of teams where the commradre was similar to that in real life and characters actually cared about each other... at least in a digital sense. The other awesome aspect of this game is its creativity feature. You get to design your character right away and you have so many costume combinations to choose from, it is nearly impossible not to have fun doing it. Your character can reflect your personality, whether goth or flamboyant, subdued or gaudy. This game offers some cool action moments as well and as you venture out into different parts of the city, you discover that it is harder and the bad guys become more challenging and sometimes, they seem invincible. I love this game. It has provided hours of endless fun and enjoyment and the fun has only begun.

Release your inner hero

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 13
Date: December 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

When you saw Batman Begins and watched him punch out and terrorize the baddies, did you think, "I could do that"? Ever dreamed of flying over the city streets in search of crime? Ever think about what you'd call yourself if you were a hero?

Here's your chance to live your dreams.

A little over a year ago, NC Soft released City of Heroes. The premise is simple: Paragon City fell to an alien invasion of the Rikti years ago. The city's heroes fought valiantly, with most dying in defense of their beloved home. Now the world needs a new generation of heroes, and that's where you come in. For the first time ever in an MMOPG, you can create the superhero of your dreams and fight crime. The possibilities of how you do this are huge.

NC Soft is to be commended. They weren't afraid to think big, and with this game, everything is big. You start out by choosing a server to host your hero (there are 11 to choose from). Next you choose what type of hero you want to be. Each type has its strengths and weaknesses. You can be a blaster, with the ability to take down foes from long range. Maybe you want to be a scrapper and unleash your inner Wolverine. How about a controller, able to manipulate the minds of your enemies? Or become a Tanker and show the Hulk how it's supposed to be done. Finally, you could be a Defender, keeping your team healed during missions. There are two other choices (Warshade and Peacebringer), but you don't get to choose them until you have a character at level 50. Some hero types are better suited for solo missions, while some are almost helpless without a team. Hey, just create one of each and try everything.

Then you get creative. You can choose practically any type of hero you want. Male or female, human or robot, tall or short, muscular or skinny...the list goes on and on. Design your own costume, and you've got hundreds of ways to do that. Capes don't become available until you reach level 20, and some incredible aura effects are open to you when you hit level 30 (burning eyes, glowing body, etc). You have to complete a mission for each, but they're worth it.

After designing your hero, you're off to Paragon City to fight crime. As you defeat more enemies, you gain more XP points, which helps you reach higher levels. With each even level, you gain a new power. With each odd level, you gain two slots you use to enhance your current powers.

There are so many fun things to do in Paragon. You can just hunt baddies and beat them up all day long, or you can go on missions with a team (or solo), or join a task force if you've got a lot of time on your hands. NC Soft continues to add things to the program, meaning you never know what's waiting for you when you log on. For Halloween, they unleashed giant monsters and smaller ones on the city. Earlier this year, huge, nasty snow creatures menaced the town. And most recently, they've opened the arenas. In an arena, you can pit yourself, your team, or your supergroup (think The Avengers or The JLA) against other players.

The key to this game is finding good teammates and friends. When you join a supergroup, you have an ongoing batch of fellow heroes to call on at a moment's notice. If you join a team, you guys just stay together as long as you'd like and then everyone goes their separate ways. Bad guys are labeled with their level, so you can tell ahead of time if this is going to be a hard battle or a walk in the park.

The question presents itself: Can I be ? Well, possibly-but not for long. NC Soft was careful to avoid anything resembling DC or Marvel superhero logos or insignias, and major costume designs (you can't be a web-covered guy, for instance), but there are some creative folks out there. On any given day you might see a Green Lantern, Flash, or Batman clone (and if you play for more than an hour, you're almost guaranteed to run into someone's idea of a Wolverine. He's got to be the most copied character in Paragon). But for the most part, the fun comes from seeing how different the heroes are. And thanks to legal pressure from Marvel, NC Soft has started policing things a little more. Create an obvious knockoff of a well-known character and you might just log in one day to see it changed and renamed "GenericHero1234". You get the chance to redesign him/her without losing your experience points, but keep your ideas fresh and original just to be safe.

The graphics in this game are intense, and everything looks great. Just be warned, you'll have to have a video card that supports 3D graphics or it won't work properly.

Now with the release of Issue 5 just around the corner, new villains will be released, and they'll be adding two new types of powers: archery and trick arrows (think Green Arrow), and Sonic powers (think Banshee or Black Canary). And later this year they'll be releasing "City of Villains", for those on the flip side of the coin.

The ongoing price of this game is very reasonable compared to "Everquest" and "The Matrix Online". The price also includes a subscription to the "City of Heroes" comic book. Recently, the comic was picked up by Top Cow Publishers, and the story and artwork have become a lot more professional. From the first few issues I've seen, it looks ready to stand on its own with the big boys.

With Marvel and DC both announcing plans to create their own similar MMORPG games, City of Heroes still stands out. Marvel has already said you won't get to play their characters, so I don't know how they plan to draw people away from this game to their own unless they're discounting the price dramatically.

If you're looking to lose yourself in an incredible world of heroes and villains, come to Paragon City.

This game is a blast!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: August 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is so much fun that I've lost sleep playing it. My boyfriend and I have to schedule our use for the computer. (We only have one. Hopefully that will change soon.) The game is really easy to get used to. But that doesn't mean that you'll be an efffective hero. This game is a great challenge, especially if you decide to be a healer or controller. These characters usually can only work in teams and if you can't heal correctly or take control of the situation, you'll be forever avoided by your peers.

Yes, there are people that suck and you can have amateur teams but that's what's fun about this game. You can meet people who you deem skillful and create lasting hero friendships. In the later levels this will be quite useful since some areas are too hard without a group of people no matter how high your level is.

Another great thing about this game is that you get to choose your hero's powers. You can select from a pool of powers (teleport, flying, heal, etc.) besides your two primary hero's powers. This makes for each character being somewhat individual. However, I do recommend making your OWN character and not copying a already existing comic book chracter. It is SO annoying to see Superman or Ironman walking around.

This game is fun! There are over 180,000 users in North America alone (and this is from April to August!). You will have fun! I assure you!

G rated but tons o' fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: May 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

City of Heroes has been the best execution of a MMORPG launch that I've ever seen. Many that I've played in the past have been plagued with bugs and connection problems. For all game developers of MMORPG's, the launch is critical in how fast and well word spreads about the game either making or breaking a game in its first 2 months of release.

The object of the game after creating a hero is to "arrest" villans throught the city to accumulate experience to advance in level as well as influence points that can be spent on upgrades to skills and abilities. The city is broken up in to multiple suburbs catering to each level of hero then each suburb is further broken down to zones that are color coded to reference the highest and lowest difficulty villians wandering each sect.

Characters can be created a choice of "origin" assigns the hero to a sort of guild that affects the types of missions the hero can choose from and which stores they purchase equipment from after the inital levels. You then choose an archetype, which is a class of character being Tank (fighter), Blaster (ranged offensive fighter) etc. After choosing skill sets comes the fun part, creating the gender, look and costume. Capes are currently not available, but the patch that is supposed to arrive soon (June 04) will allow for more variety of costumes as well as additional areas to explore.

An expansion pack has already been announced for 2005 called "City of Villans" that will allow a PvP aspect (which currently doesnt exist).

The great part about this game is that once you get in to the teen levels, you almost have to go after villans in groups balanced with a good variety of characters (healing, fighting, defense) to succeed. The creaters of CoH have done an excellent job of creating an atmosphere where people can easily group together (unlike many other MMORPG's where its hard to find other people to group with), all you have to do is click the "seek team" button to put yourself on a list to be invited by another group or even check the list and create your own.

I've tried to be as brief as possible in describing this game, there is much more to check out if it sounds interesting so far (more info on the game is available from their web site coh dot com).

Why you shouldn't play

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 22 / 55
Date: October 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Why I had to quit playing City of Heroes.

Everyone, I think its time that the people are reminded as to the one and single thing PlayNC really wants with its online game, City of Heroes. Your regular monthly fee.

They care nothing about the players, the quality of their game, fixing bugs, or customer service. Things started to go wrong with their poorly planned an executed service pack 2. It was rushed into production with many bugs and stability problems. The servers would crash without any warning in the middle of timed missions, some entrances were unworkable, hasten was seriously bugged to the point where you couldn't even tell if a power was recharged or not. All of this seemed more or less trivial until I ran into a showstopper.

I started on a long door mission where you have to rescue 30 hostages. The problem is that once you get to the end of the 60-90 minute mission and attack some of the Circle of Thorn guys at the end, they "teleport" right into the middle of a rock. The problem with this is of course is you can no longer target them and kill the bad guys. What is worse, they can target and damage and even kill you. Hah! Well, so much for completing the mission and so much for actually finishing the story arc.

I promptly logged a tech support issue using the menu options and then starting shouting via Broadcast that I needed a GM every 10-15 minutes. After waiting over 90 minutes there in the dungeon with NO response of any kind from anyone, I relogged into the game. This of course moves you OUT of the door mission but I thought, hey it might fix the problem. I work my way back into the Circle of Thorns lair, only to be killed by a boss creature that was lurking inside of the rocks. Again I waited some time while shouting for a GM. No response.

The next day, I started in on the mission again thinking maybe it was just a fluke. Nope, same exact problem. I waited again for over one hour shouting for a GM to come and see what the problem is so it could be fixed. I didn't want this to happen to other people and I was highly annoyed that I could not complete my mission, my story arc and that I had accrued debt as the result of the boss creature killing me from INSIDE OF A ROCK with no way to fire back. A sad state of affairs.

You might ask what happened to the trouble ticket I logged by this point. The answer is nothing. Not a single response in game or through the support system. I added the following update to my ticket. Admittedly this was a heated update, but I was really annoyed by the prospect of paying for a monthly service only to be screwed over by game bugs:

[color:"green"]
Customer (S. Howard) 09/19/2004 10:26 PM
After waiting more than an hour for someone to respond and not being able to get the Fire Thorn Caster to move out of the ROCK, I disconnected and reconnected.
It placed me back outside and reset the entire mission. Then I ended up getting killed trying to get back to where the Fire Thorn Caster got stuck to see if it was worth trying to do the mission again.

Now I have debt.

I want a refund on this month's bill, OR to have my character compensated with enough XP to eliminate the debt accrued.

If you can not do either, I will cancel my account and be sure to let everyone know how poor the support is for CoH.

I'm seriously ticked off right now. I have better support on my FREE NeverWinter Night server then what you guys CHARGE monthly for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[/color]

Now see this update got their attention at last. Here is their official response:

[color:"green"]
Response (Andre) 09/20/2004 01:50 PM
Hello S.Howard,

We apologize, but we are unable to remove debt for any reason. We can certainly understand and empathize with your situation, but in fairness to all as all situations can not be verified, we are not removing debt at this time.

Thank you for contacting the COH Support Team. Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Regards,
GM Andre
[/color]

There you have it in black and white err or green. Even if their mistakes screw you over, they refuse to fix it. Too bad, so sad, better luck next time? I don't think so. The reason they could not verify anything is because THERE WAS NO GM ON THE GAME FOR THE HOURS AND HOURS THAT I SHOUTED ASKING FOR ASSISTANCE.

When a vendor sells you defective goods or services you only have two remedies open to you. Ask them to fix the damaged goods or poor services rendered, or you ask for a refund.

So, I asked for a refund:

[color:"green"]
Customer (S. Howard) 09/20/2004 05:00 PM
Fine. I want a refund on this month's bill. See my other pending issue as well.
If you can not refund this month or provide a credit for next month, I WILL cancel my account for good and I promise to post on every single board I can find how PlayNC treats its paying customers.
[/color]

Ah now it gets interesting. Here is their official response:

[color:"green"]
Response (PJ) 09/24/2004 10:11 AM
Mr Howard,

I am the Senior Billing Representative for NCsoft. Your issue was escalated to me due to the refund request.

Please note that in order to access the City of Heroes game servers you must agree to the City of Heroes User Agreement. Paragraph 5 (Service Fee) does state, "Your membership fees are payable in advance and are not refundable in whole or in part for any reason whatsoever..."

We apologize the frustration you experienced with this issue, however we will not be able to provide you with a refund for the issue you experienced in game.
[/color]

So, when you click on "Accept" for their license agreement every time you want to play you in effect agree to the fact they get your money, no matter WHAT. I guess even if the servers were down for days/weeks/months, that they get to keep your cash until you cancel your account. Tough break I guess.

Oh I should mention at this point a GM actually DID find me in game and offered to "Fix" my problem. Their final resolution? Simply toggle my mission so that it showed as completed successfully. They NEVER bothered to investigate the teleporting into rocks problem. So, as far as I know the problem still exists and other players will run into the same issue. Not much of a fix is it.

I argued with "PJ" the "Senior Billing Representative for NCsoft" A few more times but never got anywhere with him. His final official response was:

[color:"green"]
Response (PJ) 09/25/2004 08:36 AM
My Howard,

I apologize for the frustration you experienced, however there will be no credit to your game account for this issue.
[/color]

This left me with no choice really. So here I am telling you the reader the facts. Don't let it happen to you. Stay AWAY from City of Heroes, NCsoft, "PJ", and the rest of their gang. It's a racket. Trust me, you don't matter one hill of beans to any of them because there are lots of other players lining up to give them money for an inferior product, non existent quality assurance programs regarding their software, and shoddy customer service. They just want your cash.

I'm sad to see it end this way. I WAS having fun right up until service pack 2 and all of these issues. Oh well. Live and learn.

Good luck out there.

--Howard

A wonderful diversion from the "standard" MMORPG

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

As a long-time veteran of MMORPG games (also known as "persistant world" games), I have found City of Heroes to be a breath of VERY fresh air.

Instead of the "cookie cutter" forumla of dragons, swords, wizards, and clerics, CoH casts you as a superhero.

The character creation portion of the game allows for enough possibility to be nearly infinite, I've personally created a robot, a small demon, a knight, a catgirl, and your standard hero in tights. I've also see my fair share of ninja, business people, and other stunning possibilities.

Forget days of waiting for the one monster you need to appear and then hope you can kill him before the other players. There's no "loot" as one is accustomed to thinking of it, nor do you have to contest "spawns" with other players. Missions (quests) are played in a custom area that is created only for you and the people in your group.

Yes, there is a monthly fee to play, but this is clearly marked on the package, as well as in online reviews I've read. Yes, it does require a higher end graphics card, however, this too is noted in the recommended hardware.

My biggest complaint is that the game seems a bit "easy" so far. However, as NCSoft has more time to develop new surprises, and craft new expansions, I would expect this to change.

All in all, a GREAT game for the money.

Super-hero wannabe dream come true

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: July 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is perhaps one of the most 'FUN' game out there. I have been playing it non-stop for 2 months now every night for 2-3 hours and I still dont want to stop. Its a very addictive game. If you love comic book super-heroes and ever wanted to be one this is the game for you. Its as real as it gets. The graphics are excellent, the character creation is super and the mission are very entertaining. Its not a deep-rooted MORPG that people play like its their virtual life. Its a game to have fun with..just go out, be a one man army provide justice to the volience ridden city like only a super hero can and than logout and lead your actual life. I dont want to be spending hours running around shooting bunnies or crafting things for weeks to do anything meaningful(which is the forte of most MORPG out there). I just want a simple game that keeps my character progression and let me have pure fun. The game monthly fees is justified with the ever-changing new content NYC is delivering like 'Through the looking glass update' they just did. Nothing is for free, you watch a movie with your girlfriend you will end up spending twice of what you will pay for this game in a month. So its ok...I am willing to shell out $14 bucks if i can some good fun and relaxation after a hectic day at work.
Highly recomended coming from a real person. Totally worth the money and time

A "must play" for all MMORPG players

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: July 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

City of Heroes is a new twist on MMORPG's. The character creation process is so incredibly near finite that there are no two characters alike in this game. That's especially nice for those who have always dreamed of what they would look like or be like if they were a superhero. Customizing your own hero is what makes this game stand apart from the others. The unique powers given to each character class is a great touch and the pure genius behind the graphics of each power lends to the 5 star rating I give this game. The monthly user fee is minimal compared to other games. I bought a 6 month subscription and ended up with a price of $12.99/mo. HIGHLY recommended, HIGHLY rated.

COH/COV trite, boring and nerfed into a paste of useless muck.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 14
Date: January 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I was one of the original Beta testers for this game while it was still a blast. It was casual, you could solo play or if you liked go with friends. It used to be that the target for this game was the casual player, who could have a job, or be a student and just have fun unwinding and leveling. However The Devs now engage in a constant bate and switch to provide a smokescreen to hide the lack of content. Missions have and always will be variations on the kill x number mobs or go to the same 2 interiors in which you kill x number of Mobs and gather objective objects.

This has, and continues to be the main framework, now to slow advancement they have systematically depleted options in character building because smart number crunchers found ways to level to fast for the devs, thus customization beyond cosmetic are next to impossible as usefulness of powers not considered prime are depleted of usefulness until its unmanageable.

Enter the new game (or glorified expansion at full game cost called "City of Villains" What this is it a direct and blatant way to get you to pony for al those "free expansions"- (Read a few zones, some recycled power sets juggled around and of course the Nerfs) What other MMO in the industry makes you pay for the privilege of faction combat? Base raids are humorous to say the least, it feels like this game views other MMo's and tries in their own inept way to implement whatever is the flavor of the update (this go it's WOW with special power bars that are next to useless.) COV plays identically to COH down to lame repeatable mission styles just with an update to skins and juggled character types.

It's been said the Dev's don't listen to the players and that is so right, in the beginning we had to fight for capes as the lead Dev Statesman (Jack Emmeret for those in the know) and his staff seem to border on gross arrogance in enforcing their vision (which by the way never helps you build your character or supply build guides those were all fan made third party or Guide built.) No, I played as a fan of super heroes and comics from beta on, only lately I only stayed for my friends but no more. I am panning this honestly as a fan of MMo's and the genre, if you buy this it will be fun.. for a moment, but hold onto that moment because its fleeting as you get higher and see less and less content and the remaining players care more and more about leveling because of the increasing grind over immersion, heck most don't even read what little content is there.

Finally as someone whose made 50 (the max) and done all the new character types unlocked the game has NO replay value, that's it, game over. If you must play an MMO don't make this your first, heck your fifth choice.. Its trite, lame and showing signs of age and player base exploitation. All the signs of a game in decline.

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