City of Heroes

[raptorck]

So, the game's hella addictive. It's even pretty simple. You get five archetypes (classes) to pick from, no respec, no multi-classing.

1) Defenders: Healers, blockers, anyone designed to reduce the amount of damage their allies actually suffer.
2) Controllers: Capable of boosting ally abilities and reducing those of the enemy, as well as some pretty nifty attack methods (gravity control, storm summoning, telekinesis...)
3) Blasters: They shoot bad guys. That's about it.
4) Scrappers: They hit bad guys, but are fairly fragile.
5) Tankers: They get hit. Then they hit back.

So far, I've played a defender, a controller, and a blaster. Truth be told, Controllers can be fun, but only when they gain a few levels and can really start holding mobs back. Or if you play a Storm Summoner, because there's nothing quite like defending yourself with a BLIZZARD.

Blasters are simplistic fun. Stand back, since you have crap HP and defense, and then just blow the bad guys away. It's probably closest to a wizard-type in most fantasy games. I've learned to be fairly proficient with this class, and there's not much like sniping off a gang leader from halfway down the block. There's a bit of thought required, of course, since abilities and endurance need to recharge, and you never want to be a blaster getting rushed by a mob of 10, but in the end, it's all point-click-zap.

Defenders, however... HOLY SHIT. I specifically designed an Empath character, optimized for healing and not much else. Crap attacks, etc., so I'm forced to find teams if I want quick XP. Suffice it to say, when you can restore your fallen allies, people want you to help out, so I end up teamed up and taking maybe one or two potshots at the bad guys, but in reality, I'm the one hiding around the corner, watching the HP meters of my entire team, running around with a healing aura, or even transferring the damage directly to myself when really necessary. The neat part isn't that I'm not fighting, but still getting XP. The neat part is how quickly a defensive role teaches you just how smart the other players are. Tactics suddenly just flow, and I've determined that with this character, I'm pretty much destined to *lead* groups into battle. Pick out the right bad guys, order a quick strike on an individual, cluster up for a heal, draw fire away from the wounded, etc. It just flows at a certain point, especially when you're the sole person responsible for beating a mission designed for a party twice your level. The depth of the support roles are astonishing, to say the least.


in short, buy the game, hop onto Freedom or Justice, and bring in the ruckus.

Comments

[twotone]

I've long been tempted by MMORPGs (I even tried some Korean online RPG thing for a while before getting tired of being PK'd 2 minutes into the game), and City of Heroes sounds like a neat game...

But my fear is that once I start playing, I will stop eating, bathing, and working. :( For similar reasons, I'm not allowed to buy The Sims for PS2 or PC.

Oh, that's not a concern at all...

[raptorck.livejournal.com]

::thud::

ZZZZzzzzzz

So far, I've remembered to eat, bathe, and work. Sleep, on the other hand... eep!

The worst part? That monthly fee gets you 88 slots to make up characters. If you're anything like me, you'll waste hours making up costumes which you may never ever even use.

[hooper-x.livejournal.com]

I would TOTALLY be into CoH if I had the following:
1: A sufficiently fast connection
2: the money to play it for a couple months.'

-HX, a year of COH, counting buying the base game, is like, $220. Fuck that.

[raptorck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's kinda pricey. I think a year gets you a price drop to $12 a month, so that's $144, plus $50, plus whatever it'll cost you extra for DSL or Cable Modem...

I've already got the DSL, so that's a non-issue, but I totally see your point.

On the other hand, at least they're supposed to be working on a sequel to Freedom Force, a game which lets you LIFT A FUCKING CAR. Can't do *that* in CoH.

[hooper-x.livejournal.com]

Dude, you do not KNOW how much I love Freedom Force. Thanks to an AWESOME online community, I've got my own custom character (Me, in a black suit and pork-pie hat, carrying two revolvers and a shotgun) and I can team up with Ash from Army of Darkness, the Ghostbusters, Death's Head, Elvis, Optimus Prime, or just about any comic superhero EVER to fight anything from Galactus to Giger Aliens to zombies.

-HX, Freedom Force is fucking wonderful. And FF Vs. The Third Reich promises to be great.

[raptorck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, i've seen your FF posts before. I figured you'd be fine without CoH.

And yes, FF is fucking wonderful. It's a completely different game, so to each his own. I *do* miss the ability to use a telephone pole as a bat, though. Sure, CoH is fun, but it's a different era of comic books than the Kirby-esque feel I get from the little bit of FF that I've played.

[finback.livejournal.com]

I'm being tempted by World of Warcraft and I don't know why.. same as CoH.

I don't have a powerful enough machine, nor a decent net connection..

But the primitive nerve cluster at the top of my spine says I must have..