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

39 Reviews

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

Average Customer Review

3.6 out of 5 stars (39 customer reviews)

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71 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent., November 1, 2005

By	Pecos Bill (Gaithersburg, MD United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

I'm going to go ahead and rate this one as 5 stars.

City of Heroes has always been, in my opinion, something of an introductory MMORPG. The graphics are great, the animations are smooth, the gameplay is flawless but uncomplicated. It's never been as complex and in-depth as I'd like it to be but I always suggest City of Heroes to people as a good place to try out the MMORPG genre to see if they like it.

City of Villains continues this tradition. It doesn't really bring a lot of complexity with it, the gameplay isn't very dynamic -- you can't, for example, ally yourself with an NPC gang and help it take over the city and no matter how many of them you beat up there's always going to be more -- so pretty standard "video game" in those terms, but what it has, it delivers smoothly. The combat is straight forward and fun, soloing is possible but grouping is rewarded and the interface is clean and easy to understand.

That said, they have spent some time to bring some quality additions to the game:

* PvP. Finally, your hero can fight against player controlled villains and vice versa! And City of Villains doesn't just drop you in a room and say "here's some bad guys, go fight", the developers took some time to give us something to fight over. There are 3 new PvP zones:
-- Bloody Bay. Heroes vs Villains. There are missions to accomplish inside the zone and also, some of the finest outdoor leveling you'll ever see, IF your team is winning! If your team is losing, you'll be too busy fighting off your enemies to take advantage of the rich leveling opportunities.
-- Siren's Call. Heroes vs Villains. Siren's Call consists of a series of "hot spots", visible on your map, where hero and villain NPCs fight for control. Last man standing wins the hot spot and it's your job to make sure your side wins. As you win more hotspots, control of the zone shifts to your side and a special store opens up for your use. You also collect a bounty on your head while doing this and a random enemy will get assigned as your bounty hunter, and he gets nifty prizes if he can find you and kill you. At the same time, you'll have someone else's bounty. So do you want to help fight for hotspots, go hunt for your bounty, or hope your bounty shows up at a hotspot?
-- Warburg. Free for all, anyone can fight anyone. In this zone, your goal is to fight your way through NPCs, capture a scientist and lead him to a base where he will give you a launch code for missiles. These missiles show up as a temporary power and you can launch them against your enemies at any time. You can also ambush other people and take their scientist from them, after they've done the hard part...

So this isn't just "sandbox" PvP, this is PvP with a goal.

* Ragdoll physics. In the old game, "knockback" effects were pretty basic. The target went horizontal, fell down and then got back up. In the new engine, they added ragdoll physics, similar to Half-Life 2. If you knock someone back, they'll react to the terrain in a much more realistic manner.

* New archetypes. Although similar to City of Heroes archetypes, City of Villains puts their own spin on them. Brutes, for example, don't tank like Tankers but they tank better than Scrappers. They also don't hit like Scrappers, but they hit better than Tankers. Corruptors are basically Blaster/Defenders. There's also a new archetype called Masterminds, which can have up to 6 pets with a high degree of control over their actions. (And there's others.)

* Bases. Supergroups can now have their own base, designed from scratch using a base editor, bought with "Prestige", which is earned by guildmembers while fighting NPCs. You can then go out and capture Items of Power to put in your base. The Items grant bonus buffs to everyone in your supergroup but they also open your base up to enemy raids, as they seek to steal back your Item! But wait, there's more! Additionally, once your base is capable of recieving an Item of Power, you can raid other people's bases to steal their Item and stick it in your base.

Now you see why this is basically a seperate game, not simply an expansion.

If you buy City of Villains and do not own City of Heroes, you will be able to play a villain and do everything any other villain can do, you just can't create a hero.

If you have City of Heroes and do NOT buy City of Villains, then nothing changes for you: you can't access the new content and you can't make a villain or own a base.

If you have City of Heroes AND City of Villains, then you can do everything.

Note also that the monthly subscription for the game is the same whether you have COH, COV or both. (That is, if you're already playing COH, you can buy and play COV and not have any change to your current monthly subscription.)

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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yes it has flaws, but this is a very FUN game., February 15, 2006

By	Robert (Washington D.C.) - See all my reviews

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars

After reading all the other reviews I'm sure you know what to expect. I'll start by listing the flaws of the game, or what most people complain about:

-same type of missions over and over and over
-no items, weapons, or armor to collect (I personally love this)
-there are still a few bugs here and there
-CoV classes need to be balanced against the Heroes

What is fun about this game you ask?
1. There are no items to collect! Why do I love this so much? You don't have to gather 40 people, then raid some dungeon 10-20 times, spending 3-4 hours each time, to get an item you want. But there is no economy? Correct and it's great. You don't have to spend a month collecting gold to buy that 1000 gold purple sword that is soooo uberific.

2. Combat is fantastic. You really need to pay attention to what is going on or you are toast. You actually feel like you have super powers and you have to know how and when to use them.

3. Successful PvP combat is based off skill not items. You don't have to worry about that 5 year old playing a decked out rogue in all purples killing you over and over because he has good items. If you want to be good in PvP then practice, it's as simple as that.

4. All characters are different. There are dozens of different character combinations and tons of ways to specialize your super powers. Not to mention the 1000's of ways you can design your costume.

This is a fun game. Yes the missions are repetitive, but you don't play this game for diverse missions and long drawn out story lines. You play this game to be a super hero\villain and bust some heads with really cool powers.

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22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wanna Be a Baddie?, November 4, 2005

By	destiny morna "destiny21" (louisiana) - See all my reviews

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

Have you ever wanted to play a villain? Than this game is for you!! City of Villains (CoV) is essentially an expansion of NC Soft's previous hit game, City of Heroes (CoH). But the it can stand alone and be played without purchasing the first game.

CoV continues the tradition but with an evil twist. In this game, you create a villain and choose its archtype and power sets. Then you enter the character creation section--which is a fun game in itself. The options for customizing your own villain seems endless and there are new and more monstrous options available.

The archtypes for CoV will seem new, but they do resemble CoH archtypes. Brutes for example are like tankers but with more ability to do damage. Corruptors are like blasters, etc. They do have a new class, masterminds--where you can summon and control various minions (unlike controller pets that were unable to be controlled.)

After creating your villain, you are put into Rogue Isles--first you have to break out of prison and then you get to go on various schemes--rob a bank, kidnapping, etc. Gameplay for this is very similiar to CoH but New to CoV is the PVP zones--these zones allow you to fight other villains and heroes from City of Heroes. These PVP zones also have missions and goals which make it more fun than just a free for all--though they have that option too.

Also new to CoV are supergroup bases that allow your SG or guild to create and customize their own base and protect it from raiders. But to build and outfit a base you need prestige points which need to be earned from doing missions...in SG mode, so it gives you an extra reason to do missions!!

CoH was the first MMRPG that i have played and the only one that i continue to play. I was happy to add city of villains to my account, especially since the monthly fee for both games is the same ($15).

The one issue to this series that I will mention is that it is updated usually every 2-3 months with new issues. These issues bring new content, new zones and new missions to keep the game ever evolving and updated. But it also brings character tweaking (some would say nerfs) that can negatively affect the way you are used to playing your toon. These changes usually affect the powers you want, the slots you use to enhance those powers etc..and my toons were able to adapt to these changes well...but i play a defender/controller and they were not as adversely affected as some archtypes.

All in all, this is a great game..you would want both CoV and CoH to get the full experience of the games...especially since the monthly fee covers both. CoV adds some much needed depth and the PVP zones give a new feel to the game. It also adds SG bases and raids to both games.

PROS::
1. one monthly fee covers both games
2. PVP zones --there are 3 zones and each zone has new zones/missions and goals in addition to the pvp element. the pvp zones are optional so you can choose not to go there, but you would be missing out on a key feature of the game.
3. easy to learn to play--great for those starting to play MMRPG

CONS:
1. Require an internet connection and monthly fee
2. Missions become repetitive over time and are very similiar to CoH missions/gameplay
3. Character "tweaking" with new issues can affect the way you are used to playing

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Mysteria Morna--level 22 corruptor
FREEDOM SERVER---we have PIE!!