As you may know, City of Heroes is shutting down. I have played the game for four years. It was my first and, other then a few months playing SWTOR, only MMO I have played. I joined it because I wanted to play a game that let me be a superhero (or villain). It wasn’t a perfect game (I sometimes would get bored with it and walk away for a few months and then come back refreshed) but the character creator was amazing and the game and setting were fun.
Well, now that it is ending I was interested in trying the two remaining Superhero games. Any advice or suggestions? Some info on what I am looking for:
I mostly solo (although I found almost without exception my experience with teaming in CoH was pleasant) so soloable content is paramount to me.
I would rather a minimum of “twitchiness” in the game mechanics. Less action and more Single player RPG (a la Mass Effect and Fallout) feeling to the combat if possible.
I know both are free to play but if I like it, I would be willing to buy a subscription. CoH was extremely generous with its subscription when it went free to play. I suspect that is an anomaly. Does either game give a decent value?
I have not tried DC, but I do hold a lifetime subscription for CO and it’s my “go to” MMO, when I’m not playing TOR.
The free account doesn’t afford you nearly what a Gold or Life will, and I honestly don’t have any experience with it, since I went Lifer as soon as it was made available. I know a lot of the freedom in customization and powers are limited, but I see plenty of Silver (free) subscribers running around having fun. You can also buy options a la carte in the cash shop.
The action is definitely MMO-style, but flexible and intense. I don’t think they make a Superhero MMO in the vein of ME or FO. There are different styles of attack. Some require you hold down a key, some require repeated key presses, and so on.
Customization is beautiful. I love it. CoH always bothered me in the sense that I didn’t want to be a typical-looking heroine. You can create everything from said typical to the monstrous.
You can definitely solo. Most of the people I see are solo players.
If you’re looking for story like TOR, forget it. There is some story, but it’s very silly and minimal. I don’t mind it, but some people might think it’s cartoony.
I would try it first and then sub if you enjoy it.
If you’re a roleplayer, you’ll LOVE it. One caveat: if you go in the nightclub, be prepared for the spectacle. The game tends to attract those with fringe sexual interests, and if you’re uninterested or unprepared, it might be a shock.
I like Cryptic, so I try to promote them as much as possible.
As a long-time fan of City, I’ve looked over both, and I can’t sincerely recommend either.
I find the both gameplay and story–such as it is–in DC insufferable, and that’s really all I can say about it.
Unlike Nerdessence, I dislike Cryptic, and I don’t think they’ve actually learned much from the mistakes they made with City before they got bought out. In particular, toward the end, Paragon finally got the hang of putting the player character in the spotlight, something I frankly don’t expect Cryptic to ever master. It does offer the closest thing out there to City-level customization, though.
Personally, I’m jumping genres. I don’t expect to find any other superhero MMO satisfying. I’ll be in The Secret World instead, where I can play magically-empowered conspirators battling Lovecraftian horrors in a modern setting.
I suppose that’s another “plus” for me. I’m not into “dark” and that’s so prevalent in today’s gaming atmosphere. Champs is never dark, or if it is, it’s pretty tame and doesn’t leave me feeling ill. I love the bright colors and humor.
That was sort of my point–I’m jumping to something very different specifically because I don’t think any game in the same genre will seem like anything but a poor substitute for City to me. If City were dark and grim, I’d probably be jumping for something flashy and silly.
I can understand that. I played Everquest for years and the other fantasy MMORPGs I tried after that all felt EQ-Clone-ish to me and never really held up to what I enjoyed most about EQ. I think that’s why I took to City of Heroes; it was a completely fresh start for me. I’m a little interested in hearing about how Secret World does. I guess I’m not really optimistic just based on how well most new MMORPGs do but it would definitely be a new start.
For what it’s worth, I jumped to The Secret World and I’ve found it pretty good. It won’t ever be what City is, but it’s the second MMO after City where I feel like I belong there, and it’s just MY MMO. Every other MMO I’ve tried, WoW, Rift, EVE, etc., I just feel like I’m visiting and toying around in it, despite the several max-level characters I wound up with in WoW.
I guess to put it another way, I never dropped my subscription to City even in the stretches where I wasn’t playing, and I don’t intend to drop TSW either, even when I go without playing.
Funcom has said it’s in for the long haul with TSW, but given that Paragon said the same about City I confess to being a little nervous. At least Funcom doesn’t have a parent company watching over it, and FWIW it’s one of the top-rated MMOs on MMORPG.com and on Metacritic (albeit only by user score: players like it a lot more than reviewers do).
Bah, I skipped on it a week ago when it was $25 at Amazon. I guess I’ll wait for another sale… $50 is a bit steeper than I’m willing to take a MMORPG risk on.
An update: I downloaded Champions Online and made a character. Game was just not for me. I am sure it is because I am not used to it but I found there was a lack of direction to the point where I was running around the tutorial and did not know what I was actually supposed to be doing. Also the free options were extremely limited. I still have it installed and may give it another shot but I don’t think it was for me.
I’d like to add a very enthusiastic thumbs-up for The Secret World! Tried it for a three-day trial (still available, I believe) and never looked back. It’s steep - $50 +$15/month. But lots of people are predicting it’ll go FTP soon.
Like Nerdessence, I bought a lifetime membership for CO as soon as it became available. It’s the game I always go back to when I’m between games.
For customization, there’s simply nothing better. I can make (almost) any costume, and build (almost) any concept. In this regard, it’s far superior to CoH.
CO’s combat is a lot more “twitch-based”, especially if you use an XBox controller. You’re expected to block large incoming attacks, and position means a lot in combat. Personally, I think CO’s combat is its strongest point.
Content… well, content is CO’s weakness. Cryptic has, almost from the beginning, pulled designers off of CO to have them work on other, more lucrative projects. There are also bugs which have been in-game since beta, about three years ago. I’m hoping that the influx of new customers will mean more money and resources.
CO is extremely easy to solo- I can run any mission in the game, except for group instances.
I don’t know if they improved it any but I found CO’s graphics to be ugly as heck. Once upon a time, I tried making a rather simple character in the three costume creators. City of Heroes DC Universe Online Champions Online
The components are there, but CO’s models look distorted and plasticine to me. But I haven’t touched it in years.
Further update: Downloaded DCOnline. It took a long long time but finally had a chance to try it. I have to say I like it. I think I would have to get a controller if I were going to play as much as I play CoH since the Mouse/keyboard controls are kind of clunky but I enjoyed the game play and the graphics were pretty amazing. Going to play it some more and see how it goes.
One aspect of both CO and DCO that I find will take getting used to is the whole idea of blocking attacks. I think I would rather my powers be my defense and save the clicking for offense.
From an immersion and PvE stand point I would really go with The Secret World. I’m not a big PvE guy but even with the release GW2 I am still spending an equal amount of time TSW.
The char graphics are a bit dated but the environment is well done and the story/quests are intriguing.
