11/01/05 - City of Villains (PC)

[schild]

A review from Llava will be going up tomorrow night and linked from this thread.

Getting sent a revised one from Llava. May be a few days.

[Sky]

Cryptic took away my hero's identity. They won't be seeing my subscription again. I used to play CoH a couple months a year.

[Hoax]

I thought they were only doing that to inactive accounts and very low level characters?  Seemed like the best way to handle a name shortage to me.

[Signe]

Llava has turned into a raving lunati fanboi.  You'll need to slap him around a bit to keep him honest. 

[HaemishM]

I was very underwhelmed by the little amount of beta I got to play.

[Fargull]

If your looking for play beyond the standard City of Heroes canon, the apple did not fall far from the tree with City of Villians.  The only thing that stands out as a glaring truth is that City of Villians adds a level of polish to the City of Heroes framework.

I like it, but then I am still a fan of City of Heroes.  I will probably end up purchasing the update as I enjoyed a couple of the new classes and currently the rest of the online fare does not really fit my needs.

My biggest complaint of them all is that City of Villians allows one the ability to be about as evil as a hardy boy cutting class.

[eldaec]

As many people have said, it's very much an expansion, not an all new game.

But it's worth comparing what you get in this expansion with what you might get elsewhere.

5 new classes, of which we have 3 rehashes, 2 new things (new to CoH that is).
One metric asstonne of new zones.
Reworked content *at all levels* - and a better newbie game for it.
Greater production values. It's easy to sniff at cut scenes added at the start of missions and location appropriate music, but they *do* make it more fun, especially when playing other people's missions (so you don't have access to the back story).

Also, as with recent CoH patches, the new content continues to learn from the errors of the past...

No horrible, dark, low ceiling cavern maps.
Generally reduced travel times between actual action.
The classes can pretty much all operate solo, plus are designed such that no one really has a (legitimate) reason for excluding classes from groups (not even the pet class), and similarly there doesn't seem to be any class that is essential to a functional group (at least not at low to mid levels).

If you stopped playing CoH because you ran out of new things to look at and do, and simply got tired of doing the same maps over again; it's worth buying, because there is easily enough new stuff to justify a month or two back.

If you stopped playing because you don't like the actual mechanics or the combat style or whatever, this is no different. So don't bother.


Oh, the pvp is mildly diverting but if you want to play a game based around it, this isn't it. Advancement will be pve based, the relics you can battle for are a nice bauble, and they do reward organisation, but for anyone playing even remotely casually it's going to feel like you are losing solely based on your lack of uber group templating (I'm not sure that's a fair thing for you to feel, but it is how you will feel). Go play Daoc or PS.

[stray]

If you stopped playing CoH because you ran out of new things to look at and do, and simply got tired of doing the same maps over again; it's worth buying, because there is easily enough new stuff to justify a month or two back.

If you stopped playing because you don't like the actual mechanics or the combat style or whatever, this is no different. So don't bother.

Don't forget the grind! 

[edit] Or in other words, I have no problems with the other things you mentioned.

[Trippy]

I was very underwhelmed by the little amount of beta I got to play.

I had the same impression.

[HaemishM]

I like the CoV/CoH style of gameplay. What I don't like is the feeling that even the mastermind, which was the most different class they added with CoV, just didn't feel that different to me. There were some decent improvements to the game, but not enough to justify 1) the $50 price tag (though I understand it since you can play it as its own game), 2) the time it would take to get PVP enabled.

If I'd never played CoH, I'd probably be beaming. As it is, I think I lost most interest in CoH a few months ago when the grind really started to hit me. I just must not have much tolerance for leveling anymore.

[Fargull]

Haem,

What level did you hit?  The gameplay seemed to change a bit from the COH around level 8 or so.  That was the biggest difference I noticed over COH.  Not that the power play and stuff was signifigant, but the missions and general zone mobbing seemed a bit more interesting.  Or, I could just be going crazy, which would answer a few additional questions.

[Hoax]

Fucking PvP enabled time, I'm at least 50/50 on buying this (never touched CoH) but I know I'll hate it within 60 days..

[Shockeye]

Fucking PvP enabled time, I'm at least 50/50 on buying this (never touched CoH) but I know I'll hate it within 60 days..

Is $50+$15 ($65 for those bad at math) too much to pay for 60 days worth of enjoyment?

[HaemishM]

It is when there are other things to play as well.  :-D

Also, I only hit level 6, so yes, it could change. But I no longer give things time like that. If it doesn't make me go WOW in at least 2 hours of play, I go on to something else.

[Shockeye]

It is when there are other things to play as well.  :-D

Also, I only hit level 6, so yes, it could change. But I no longer give things time like that. If it doesn't make me go WOW in at least 2 hours of play, I go on to something else.

Yes, there are too many choices out there. Is CoV perfect for some people? Hell yes. Is it wrong for others? Hell yes. Play what you enjoy. Pay for what you play.

I would personally prefer that MMOGs had no box sales and that the box cost as it is now was rolled into the subscription rate. I'd think a lot more people would be willing to try a game if the cost to entry was lower. Whether that is true or not is something for the nice people in business suits to figure out.

[Signe]

Yes, there are a lot of choices and they are mostly all crap.  Well... maybe not crap, but not games I want to play.  I pretty much try everything though... just in case.

Anyway, I have more CoH and Lineage2 free 14-day trials. 

Anyone?

Hmm?

[Llava]

1) the $50 price tag (though I understand it since you can play it as its own game)

Eh.

Most expansions don't come with a free month.  I take that into account when looking at the $50 price tag.  That's $15 I would've spent that I didn't, so I really only spent $35 on the expansion.

Review is forthcoming.  I am extremely busy.  But I will have it done... sometime.  Seriously.  Like, before the weekend.  (Oh god, I hope it's before the weekend.)  The first version has too much fact, too little editorial.  And I need visual aids.  And it needs to be funnier.

I am trying to keep the fanboi-ism to a minimum, and I believe I'm succeeding.  I'm sure I'll hear otherwise soon enough.

[stray]

Y'know, this is like....A turning point for me?

Pathetic as it sounds, this is first time that I've refused to purchase (or barely even play the beta) of a major mmo release. I just don't care anymore. I've done it all. Game after game after game.

It's not that I just figured out that I didn't like them either. The stage before this was one of justifying purchases for "experiment's sake".....But I can't even bring myself to do that anymore.

Cryptic has a part in it too, I think.

CoH, when I first played it, was the game that gave me hope for the genre. But somewhere along the line, they became the ones that made me become more cynical than ever.

I already expect the worst from, say, SOE. But Cryptic? No. Not at release. They seemed different. The game they brought to release told me that they were a company thinking outside the box (diku-ish as it may be).

After release, it was like there were different minds at work. All that promise and innovation, and FUN, suddenly transformed into the lowest common denominator. If it didn't sound utterly ridiculous, I'd say that it was heartbreaking!  

The point?

Meh.

I can't say much else anymore.

[edit]

Revision:

The point?

Holy shit, I'm finally free.

[Signe]

1) the $50 price tag (though I understand it since you can play it as its own game)

Eh.

Most expansions don't come with a free month.  I take that into account when looking at the $50 price tag.  That's $15 I would've spent that I didn't, so I really only spent $35 on the expansion.

Review is forthcoming.  I am extremely busy.  But I will have it done... sometime.  Seriously.  Like, before the weekend.  (Oh god, I hope it's before the weekend.)  The first version has too much fact, too little editorial.  And I need visual aids.  And it needs to be funnier.

I am trying to keep the fanboi-ism to a minimum, and I believe I'm succeeding.  I'm sure I'll hear otherwise soon enough.

You're doing a terrible job hiding your rabid fanboism!  You just quoted a party line.  See?  Up there?  I made it yellow for you.  Even if it is true, I have decided that you must become jaded and cynical like the rest of us.  Well, not me so much... but THEM.  You know... the OTHERS.

[stray]

You're not jaded?

I thought I was in good company. 

[Signe]

I'm not jaded or cynical.  I'm perfectly innocent.

Really.

[HaemishM]

You have vaults humping each other. How innocent can you really be?

The free month? /meh. It's a nice thing to add for the price, but I just couldn't justify purchasing it based on the play I had. If I hadn't have played CoH, sure. But I have and can't undo the grind burnout.

[Signe]

You have vaults humping each other. How innocent can you really be?

I thought they were just being happy.   

[Llava]

You have vaults humping each other. How innocent can you really be?

The free month? /meh. It's a nice thing to add for the price, but I just couldn't justify purchasing it based on the play I had. If I hadn't have played CoH, sure. But I have and can't undo the grind burnout.

Entirely legitimate.  I still feel the grind is too long in both games.

But I just wanted to mention the price point- it's about the same as any other expansion, if that's how you buy it.  And if you buy it as a new game, it works out to be equal there too.

I've got problems with CoV, but the price wasn't one of them.

[Sauced]

The CoH grind killed the fun for me the first time through, and I only made it to 20.  This was compounded by friends who levelled hell of fast, and I wound up going through all the content twice, as a sidekick and then solo when I was trying to level up.

I've played for 15 hours since Saturday afternoon, and I'm allllmost level 12.  The biggest difference for me so far is that I haven't had to run around the streets killing things, with one mission exception.  With the addition of /newspaper missions and RADIO! missions, I have had no lulls and an insane amount of content to explore.  The only time I've really looked at the XP bar is to "cheat" a Boss mission, where I planned a ding just inside the door to insure that I could solo the boss, which as a ninja stalker at this early level is a silly thing to be worried about anyways (200 point assassination strike ftw).

As a soloer, the thing that I really like is the ability to not only start an SG solo, but to be given a base and 20K of prestige to spend on it.  All of the little decorations and crap like that only cost 100, so they really let you enjoy that aspect of the game.  Sure, I'll never own a 20M command center, but that's irrelevant - I just want a place to hang all of the Salvage items and Trophies, and give then 1500 or so an hour Prestige I've been pulling in, should net me that Trophy Room by the weekend.

Edit:  Oh yeah, Salvage Items.  It's just a little bit of Loot, but this game needed Loot.  Yay.