City of Villains Reviews
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Once you create your character, you're off to begin your career in the tutorial. This one's a prison break, natch, and unfortunately, you can't skip it (like in CoH). After that, you're off to the Rogue Isles, a chain of decrepit islands - ala Escape from New York - run by Arachnos, the kingpin of the CoH universe. You begin running low-level errands for Arachnos and his subordinates as you slowly work your way up his evil corporate ladder. The early missions seem to be the same for any character you create, unlike in CoH, where your origin makes more of a difference as to what story arch you start with. After you hit level 10, you can start your own Super Group, create your own lair, raid others, and outfit your base with trinkets you've collected from your exploits, some giving members special boosts and powers. And yes, you can do battle with CoH players in special PvP zones that can be quite satisfying. Take that, Mr. Woolvereen.
The second is at Strategy Informer with an overall score of 7.8/10:
The initial differences between City of Heroes and City of Villains is not that great, in fact, the fundamentals are basically the exact same. City of Villains will undoubtedly appeal to any player who is a fan of City of Heroes. The idea of being an evil personal might wear off, and the quickly completed missions and repetitive environments could have players losing interest in the game after awhile. Whatever the game encompasses, I was just excited to play the bad guy for once!
The third is at GamerGod with an overall score of 7/10:
I think that the ultimate issue with City of Heroes has always been the long-term appeal of the game. In the past, the missions given by contacts provided adequate reason to put the hurt on various foes in the short term, but eventually the novelty wore off and players were left wondering what kind of long-term goal the game really offers. Some MMORPGs are able to overcome lack of long-term goals with forced socialization mechanics that have players to build up friendships, but the superhero genre puts Cryptic under considerable pressure to allow the players' super-powered beings to stand on their own against overwhelming odds (with the exception of mostly optional activities). Consequently, the social bonds in City of Heroes have always been fairly weak (though not entirely nonexistent), and so socialization is not a real motivator here.
The fourth is at Smashgames with an overall score of 51/55:
This game is amazing, and it is a worthy successor to City of Heroes. Like its predecessor, it has made leaps in the world of MMOs, and I have no doubt that the developers will continue on this path. Expect even more great games coming in the future!
And the fifth is at Cheat Code Central with an overall score of 4.2/5:
NCSoft has definitely created a niche market for themselves with the City Of series, except where to do they go from here? City of Mutants? City of Monsters? City of Accountants? In any event, don't hedge your bets on CoV playing completely different from what you've experience in CoH, since it was originally set to be an expansion. It's a fun game that will sometimes have you rollercoastering between "this is awesome!" and "this sucks!" but generally if you love all things comic booky, you're going to love spending time with these bad boys of science fiction.
