Customer Reviews

City of Heroes and City of Vilians: Good vs. Evil Edition

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The submitter below me is wrong, you only need to pay a single subscription fee to play both City of Heroes and City of Villains, all you need to do is set up your account and add the code for the second game to the current game once you've set up the first. Two awesome games, one 15 dollar subscription fee. NCSoft support is awesome for helping customers sort this out.

I'm not really a fan of MMOs but I have to say I've been continually impressed with the City of franchise providing innovative and fun play, interesting character archetypes, and probably the best character builder in any game. I'm also impressed with their continued dedication to free game updates instead of paid box updates for new content.

With the addition of Inventions in April, 2007 you really begin to feel like a super hero or a devious villain, able to craft new enhancements to make your powers more robust and awesome. Veterans awards also make me feel appreciated as a customer for my continued play of the game by rewarding me a new costume piece, or item for every 3 months of play. (I'm at 18 now ^_^).

If you're looking for a fun game, low on gore violence (I consider it to be PG-13), that teaches good lessons for kids (especially in city of heroes), and lets you play out a childhood dream of being a good guy or a bad guy, this is definitely it.

CoH/CoV are two games in one. It's a 3rd person "over the shoulder" view 3D game (1st person view is possible, but clumsy).

The two gaming worlds, the "heroes" and the "villains", are mostly separate, but intersect in a handful of "PvP" (player vs. player) and cooperative zone, where heroes and villains can battle it out or cooperate fighting a greater common threat.

First, the negative aspects of the game:
- story lines are shallow,
- graphics and visuals are getting old: the game was published in 2004 and while it has been gradually updated and improved, the engine's age is showing
- insufficient high level content. this is compensate by the appeal of creating and playing new characters of radically different builds

The positive aspects of the game:
- a large number of "archetypes" ("professions" for the lack of better description) to play, different ones on the heroes and villains sides
- each archetype has a choice of a large number of power sets (abilities).
- every power set combination creates a different game experience.
- every power/ability can be "tuned" (through purchased or constructed or found enhancements) to emphasize different aspects of the power/ability.
- depending on the choice of initial and subsequent "contacts", who assign "missions" to be completed in various story arcs and unrelated random missions, different story lines can be explored.

All this makes for a good variety and good replayability.

Another very positive aspect of the game is the visual and audio effects accompanying the use of different powers. Every power's animation sequence looks different. The audio effects are well timed. And the target reaction animation adds realism to the game. When an opponent gets knocked down, the body motion physics and animation are calculated on the spot. So the combat doesn't look like the same motion over and over and the opponent's reaction to the attack is more viscerally satisfying than only seeing a string of numbers whiff up into the air.

Yet another aspect of the game that sets it far apart from other MMORGPs is the highly customizable look players can get from very beginning. Multiple costumes become available for every character, allowing interesting role-playing for those who are into it. In other popular MMORPGs players in the same class tend to look alike. All level 35 night elf hunters in World of Warcraft look more or less the same. The slight tweaks to their armor or color of their pants or hair braiding are insignificant. In CoH/CoV costumes range from human to animal to robotic android to demonic to angelic to an average office worker to a medieval knight and so on, mixed which ever way the player wants to mix them, with highly customizable faces, sizes, masks, color patterns, wing designs (for those who want wings), capes, horns, beards, glasses, chains, auras, etc.

The over-all look and feel of the game is realistic and gritty. NPC "chatter", both by enemy factions and by "innocent civilians", creates an interesting ambiance.

CoH/CoV (or CoX as it's sometimes referred to) occupies a previously empty niche in the MMO games: the super-powered heroes and villains of the American-style comic books. And it's highly enjoyable.

I originally purchased this game and started playing this game during beta, in 2004. through the first year in 2005. Due to Financial budget, plus school and work, I had to stop. At first i didn't really miss it. Only the past few months or so. After the Great Character customization in Obivion. Playing on XBL, I really missed the world of Paragon. So with my situation improved. i repurchased the dualpack. The only difference now instead of playing on a desktop, i am playing on a laptop. With the finger pad in the middle. its a complete change to my trackball. Still the game is fun. the grouping is great. and I am pleasantly surprised at the additions, bases. Recipes, Salvages, the Entire COV is great. I wish both COV and COH were combined. Maybe they are? But still great game.
I did try to use my 360 controller. but found a) the right analog stick inoperable, and after downloading a program to remap. I prefered keyboard and mouse, so now i picked up a trackball, as my old pc and trackball are packed away. Still i would prefer it on a pc. But traveling to COH/COV on my laptop is enjoyable. and definatly do not regret rebuying the game. I even recreated my same hero, with additions to and origin story to the 2 yr hiatus. from 2005 to 2007...
See you all in Paragon

this box contains both of Cryptic Studios award winning titles, City of Heroes and City of Villians. allthough they are essentially counterparts of each other, you needed to buy each game seperatly, as well as pay a seperate subscription fee for them. now with this Good VS Evil pack both games are installed and one subscription fee of 15 dollars a month is payed for both games

i had my doubts but once i got the game going i was shocked by how good it was, and how dull and boring it made my previous time in World of Warcraft seem

1: I am Myself and Noones gonna tell me otherwise!
the character creation tools in this game is a toy/game in on itself. not only is it the best i've ever seen in an MMO, the only games that i can think of that does better is the Elder Scrolls series. you start off by choosing Heroes or Villians, and than 5 class options. each class offers different powers and roles, and there are unique ones that the other faction doesnt have, like a Mastermind for villians who can summon ninjas, mercenaries, or robots. from there you pick one of 5 options from where your character gets their powers from : Magic, Science, Technology, Mutation, or Natural. this adds for a little bit of extra Role-playing but it also gives an extra Super-Power. you than pick a Major and Minor Superpowers pool, which adds more uniqueness in that two players of the same class will likely have very different superpowers. after that you can pick Male/Female/Huge body forms, and than shift the shape and proportions of the character. after that is done, you give the character thier "tights" though there are more options than i care to count. wanna make a superhero-businessman? go for it. how about a purple-alien black belt-military commando? no sweat. as you increase in level other options open up, such as capes at level 20.

2.Welcome to Paragon.
the areas in Pargon City (Heroes) and the ROgue Isles (Villians) are seperated into clearly zoned areas, and when you change from zone to zone there is a minor loading moment. this is both a plus and a minus in that one the lag is allmost nill (thats the good thing), but if you have to go back and forth from area to area, it can get really irritating. Missions are done in small instanced areas, and scales depending on the ammount of people in your group. i aprecciate this alot becausee it takes you out of the overall enviornment and other players cannot disturb you.

3.have i been here before?
one thing that i did notice, and the only thing that i can say that bad about this game, is that the environments within the game can get very repitive, especially when on the mission maps, but considering that this is supposed to be a close-knit urban city (or a prison-island if your a villian), that bears some realism that much of the areas look like one another

4. look at me!!
one of the things about the game that i really enjoyed was the Badge system. when you make certain achievements, like you reach a certian level or kill a certain ammount of enemies of a certain allegiance, it gives you a badge, which can also be used as a Title under your characters title. it adds some personalization to be sure, but for the elitists among us it also adds bragging rights.

there is much more to go over the game, but all in all the game is a very good buy. the first month is free, so what do you have to lose? also, if you enjoy it and you want some friends to join in, there are two free 14 day trials to give out.

I received the City of Heroes/City of Villains as a gift from some friends so that I could play with them. Unlike most peoples reviews I want to let you know what the game offers you, so you can then decide if you want to play it. I have never played any type of role playing/mmo over the computer before, but I LOVE this game. I have been playing now for 3 months and yes it is different from any other game out there, so it does take a few days/weeks to get used to all the commands and different styles of playing. The best part of this game is that it is PG-13, yes there is violence, but no gore or meanness, it is just good versus bad, so all my friends now play, and so do our kids (over 13 that is). The bad guys are very fictional, (computer animated for CoH), some include: zombies, nazi's, aliens, robots, and drug-dealing gang-members. The City of Heroes is fun, entertaining, and interactive. It gives you and your friends/family the ability to play together through teams and "super groups", it teaches the value of a team play and good strategies, but you can also play completely on your own or in PUGs.
The downside to the game is you pay every month, but it is simply [...], and you don't have to pay for updates! The good side of a month to month game is that when you don't have time to play, you just don't pay that month, there is no contracts or pressure to continuing play. Another possible downside, depending on your personal schedule, is the amount of time needed to get anywhere in the game. You need to gain experience and influence (money in the game) and you do this by spending hours playing: doing missions, task-forces, coalitions, raids, gathering badges, selling and buying enhancements, salvage, recipes, etc. But, this game will never bore you. There is lots of different zones, radio missions, contact missions, special zone missions, and tons of "temporary powers". There is two hero vs. villain zones and a free-for-all PvP zone. There are alien invasions and "story arcs" in which have special bad guys, like elite bosses and arch-villains. Super Groups have a Super Base's that you collectively create and use. The best of all, is you can create and play so many different types of heroes or villains! There are 5 basic types, but there is a near endless possibilities for primary/secondary/pool power combinations and you get new choices for powers, called epic powers, once your character reaches a high enough level. You can have 12 different characters on the same server and you get to make a whole new type of character, warshade/peacebringer, once you get one of your characters to level 50.
The veteran rewards, temporary powers, free respect's, free costume changes, and the rewards for completing stories are wonderful bonuses. NCSoft has great customer relations and there is tutorials through out the game to help you learn. There are also sites that help great deal as well, paragonwiki.com and youtube.com both have good information and videos. With the amount of information out there about the game, you should know whether or not you will like this game, however, I personally think the good vs. evil package can not be beat. Two games for the price of one, with a free month and only [...] a month to play both games. I hope you enjoy!

COH/COV is just a simple fun MMO. It is not complicated, there isnt a ton of things you need to learn to play effectively.
Many players that were around for the start of City of Heroes will say how City of Villains is horrible and how it ruined this and that. Remember, that is their opinion. I too played CoH before CoV but for me, it just added more to do. It added PvP but you are not forced to PvP...you can avoid it all together. You arent forced to team, but you will have more fun and level faster. It has one of the best character look customization of any games out there. There are plenty of classes to satisfy people that love alts. There is no "Ninja looting" all loot is random and appears on your character instantly, all money is split up. Most missions you do are instanced. They have added a bit of Raid type events so that large groups can do things together.

Overall - it is a great casual game...one that you can pick up and have fun with a few months between other games you may play. It probably won't suck you in and hold you for years at a time...but you will probably come back to it a few times. Great to play with your children too if you have a gaming family. One monthly subscription lets you play on either side or both!

First, just let me say that I'm playing this game just fine with my Dial-Up ISP, and I'm having tons of fun with it. But if you are contemplating buying this game and you have Dial-Up, you should be prepared for a few things: First, you are in for a MASSIVE MOTHER of a Download!! It took me 4 DAYS to download all of this stuff (and I'm not including the Manuel here, that was seperate). One reviewer suggested starting before leaving for work, and let it download while you're there. Well, I did that for a day and a half and I still wasn't done. I stopped the download, but found that I could pick up where I left off, so I spent the next few days downloading the game while I was home and did other things on the computer while it did its thing in the background (my computer seemed OK with this, but it did seem a bit,...um,...'dizzy' for awhile after that first day and a half). The download speed varied considerably from start to finish.

Secondly, there are a few smaller downloads after that first HUGE one, but they go considerably quicker.

Thirdly, I find that I frequently lose connection to the 'Mapserver' when playing the game, which pauses all the action. Sometimes it reconnects itself, but after a few times per session, it'll throw you out of the game entirely. When this happens, you'll need to reconnect with your ISP, then reconnect to the game. I'm guessing that this is because of the slow Dial-Up. If you play in 'safe mode' you'll be fine and never have this problem, but you'll take a decent sized hit to the graphics in this mode.

If you are thinking of buying this game (I have the Coh/CoV 'all in one'), I suggest downloading the Manuel now (it's free from the CoH Website), then buy the game. This way you can learn how to play so you're ready to go when it (finally) all gets there.

Quite simply the best MMO available. I know, WoW players will scream at me for saying that, but it's true. I played WoW for about 6 months. I stumbled across CoH in a Best Buy and picked it up (Love Super Heroes). I've been addicted ever since. I'm coming up on four years of playing, and it's still just as exciting and fun as it was then. When my wife got her laptop, we got an account for her and we play together all the time. My sons play as well... With WoW, I was bored after a couple of months and completley burned out after six. I'll be playing CoH/CoV for as long as I can imagine. I don't think I'll ever stop. Great game, buy it and see.

After many years and many game updates, this is still one of the best MMOs out there. For anyone who has never played it, I highly recommend it.

I've owned this game for almost 4 years... I think. I took about a year off and just came back to it after my roomate started playing on my account and soon my girlfriend got hooked too. This is a great MMO and has the best online community I've been a part of. The challenge level really picks up in the mid-20's, but this has been relieved a bit lately with the XP smoothing they've applied to the game. You really should try this one if you're getting bored with your current MMO or just starting out in the MMO world.