Amazon.com: City of Heroes: PC: Video Games

209 Reviews

5 star:		(84)
4 star:		(46)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(43)

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3.5 out of 5 stars (209 customer reviews)

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91 of 100 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A massively multiplayer game that's actually fun! (updated!), May 5, 2004

By	Gavin Scott (Sunnyvale, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Update: I've now been playing for almost a month. I have one character (Empathy/Radiation Defender) now up to level 20, and a Fire/Fire Blaster at Level 14. The game continues to be at least as much fun as it was in the beginning. Went on my first Task Force mission over the weekend, got to level 20, took Group Fly as the new power at that level which is a lot of fun, etc. I don't quite get what all these no-star reviews are trying to say; this is the best computer game I've ever played. Beyond the first 7 levels or so, the real fun comes in grouping with other players to take on higher level missions and all of the social interaction that happens within a good group. Grouping is very easy and there's no problem finding people to group with even when you don't know anyone. Pretty soon your /friends list will be full.

I pretty much ignored this title until recently. I mean, a game where you get to play a "superhero". How childish. How stupid.

How wrong.

After seeing the incredible buzz that this game has gotten in the week or two since release, I actually looked into it and decided to give it a try based on all the positive comments and reviews.

My previous MMOG experience has been limited to a couple failed attempts to get interested in EverQuest (a humorless torture mechanism that will suck the very living soul from your body as it crushes your will to live and tries to push you over the edge toward becoming a homacidal maniac) which I couldn't really get into for some reason.

But City of Heroes sounded like it might be good as a diversion for a while and, sure enough, even after a relatively short period of play I find I'm having as much fun with this as with any computer game I've played.

There are a lot of good things to say about this game, but for me the thing that ultimately matters is that it's actually *fun* to play rather than just being an experience grind to gain ever more levels. Right from the beginning when you find out you can jump high enough to soar over fences, trucks, walls, etc. (though not buildings with a single bound, at least not until later in the game) it's fun running around beating up bad guys, doing simple missions, etc.

The character customization capability is one of the standouts in this game. I don't think I've yet seen two players that were similar enough to each other that you could confuse them.

The urban terrain works very well (and is a nice change from dungeons and hobbits). The skills and character development options are many and varied, making replay or multiple-character play rewarding. And then there's flying.

I haven't gotten to a high enough level yet to get the ability to fly, but you have only to read the descriptions of other players to see that they've managed to capture one of man's oldest desires in a convincing way.

Even if you're not a superhero fan (and I certainly wouldn't have described myself that way) you may find that all that changes once *you* get to be the superhero.

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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still playing it, June 30, 2004

By A Customer

City of Heroes: If you didnt exactly like Everquest, or SWG, and are tired of L33T kids/adults broadcasting junk all game then City of Heroes is for you.

My History: I played Everquest for 2 year, was an early Beta tester for Planetside and played that for 3 months, was an early Beta tester for SWG and played that for 3 months. My typical playing style is 1-2 hrs 4-5 nights a week. 80% soloing, 20% grouping in game.

Character setup: I thought that SWG had a great character setup, but COH matched and exceeded it in many areas. There are at least 20 different aspects of your character to set up, with each aspect having many many options. In fact one of my few complaints about this game is having to scroll through the 80+ chest embelems when designing a character. This is also when you choose your characters power family. For those that say this game is just for soloing, I say you've never played some of the more defense or support based power sets, and if you are doing ok soloing, then with the support/defense type characters in your group you can defeat more baddies with less downtime.

People who dont like this game seem to be expecting Everquest: the Superhero version. You want loot? What sort of loot should your super hero be collecting? Did you see batman picking up armor from his latest defeat? No. What you get instead of drops, are more powers. So instead of the +18 sword that you hoped would drop you get XP that helps you to your next power say "Flame thrower" or if you were hoping for that +20 defense chainmail armor, may be you choose your next power to be defense based. Same difference, you just cant sell the powers on e-bay.

There is no commerece, or I should say none has come up of yet. The only drops are enhancements (which can be permanantly attached to your powers to boost them in some way) and inspirations which are consumable temporary heals and buffs. Let me say crafting, to me, holds no interest, commerce, to me, is actually annoying. I earn enough money in the game to buy the enhancements I need to strenghten my powers to keep playing and move into new areas, where there are new baddies to fight.

People who do not immerse themselves into the character they have created will not have fun, the game can come across as repetitive, but only if you dont enjoy the environment and the variety of bad guys that you fight (which is ever expanding)...

There is a monthly subscription cost (like every other MMO game)and NCSoft has already released the first big enhancement patch which includeded
1) allowing for multiple costumes on a single character
2) 2 new higher end zones
3) 5 new story archs (so more missions)
4) fixed many bugs including mission bugs

That is what your $14.95/month gets you (along with hours of gaming)

Also just for the record Ive experienced no server down time (and I only play weekends and evenings so peak times) and no major lag.

This game has occupied my time since April. I usually buy a new game every other month (so thats about $50 every 2 month, so instead I spend $30 for 2 months of City of Heroes... I think thats a reasonable price for the quality of this game.

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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Let me tell you this, June 3, 2004

By	Tony Zerhusen (Dallas Tx) - See all my reviews

Ive read many of these bad reviews and I couldn't agree less. This game is fun and the idea is great. I do not play other online MMRPG's because they take too much time and involve to much stuff. This is sleek easy and the combat is excellent. Teaming is great fun and required to progress far in the game. I have already made a lot of friends and formed a Super Group. All Archtypes are needed and serve their purpose. Ive found healers to be the most important yet the rarest of them which is a shame.

You can say it gets repetetive and levels are too similar but the promised June update starts to fix that where we are promised more baddies, more mission levels, private outdoor missions, missions where you can get cpatured and need rescued etc. Plus with City of Villains on the horizan PvP combat is on the way. The game is a great start much better than what I have read about Star Wars Galaxies, and I look for it to continue to evolve and grow into a great piece of entertainment for a long time.

If you want to be a superhero this is the game for you.