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PC Games (Games) Role Playing (Games) Entertainment Games

City of Heroes MMO Leaps Tall Buildings? 47

Posted by simoniker from the underpants-slightly-skewed dept.
Decaffeinated Jedi writes "This week, GameSpy is serving up a variety of articles regarding Cryptic Studios' upcoming massively multiplayer superhero PC roleplaying game, City of Heroes (following up on its December 2003 preview). The preview offers hands-on impressions of the game, a look at the origin and ongoing adventures of Kingblade (an in-game character created by one of the editors), a roundtable with the developers, several screenshot galleries, and more. City of Heroes is currently in beta and scheduled for released on April 27, 2004. Will it join the ranks of Freedom Force in breaking the legendary superhero game curse? Only time will tell, true believers!" There's more info on this NCSoft-published game at COH Stratics and the official site.
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City of Heroes MMO Leaps Tall Buildings? More

City of Heroes MMO Leaps Tall Buildings?

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  • Anyone care to explain what Freedom Force is to a poor soul stuck behind a filtering proxy server at work?
    • Freedom Force [google.com] on google if that helps.

    • Re:Freedom Force (Score:5, Informative)

      by *weasel ( 174362 ) on Friday February 27, 2004 @10:58AM (#8408424)
      It's a tactical team-based RPG type thing.

      A sort of X-Com: UFO Defense - but with superheroes and supervillains instead of marines and aliens.

      It was pretty well received despite being aimed at the low-system-requirement market (a bit behind the times graphically). It is certainly a quality title and is only obscure because of a near-complete lack of marketing. Gamer and critical reviews are nearly all praise.

      There's a demo (windows-only) you can download when you're free of the fascist-network regime: here [irrationalgames.com].

      • Re:Freedom Force (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Gothic_Walrus ( 692125 )
        It's also worth mentioning that the game will have a sequel coming out later this year. The storyline is still under wraps, but I've heard that the plot's going to involve traveling back in time to World War II. Could be a great game...

    • Re:Freedom Force (Score:5, Informative)

      by Decaffeinated Jedi ( 648571 ) on Friday February 27, 2004 @10:58AM (#8408434) Homepage Journal
      Freedom Force is a real-time tactical superhero game with character-building RPG elements worked into the equation. It was released in 2002, well-received by critics, and is now available in bargain bins at most stores for less than $20.

      The game takes a very tongue-in-cheek approach to the superhero genre. It's set in the 1960s and exhibits the designers' obvious love of Marvel's Stan Lee/Jack Kirby epics of the 1960s.

      Personally, I loved the game. There's a sequel [gamespy.com] on the way in the near future, too.

      • Re:Freedom Force (Score:3, Informative)

        by Txiasaeia ( 581598 )
        The problem with the game was that it was too freaking short. I finished it in 4 hours or so. I suppose it's worth it now, for $20, but back when I bought it I was incredibly ticked off that there wasn't any more content.

        • Re:Freedom Force (Score:3, Informative)

          by Dr. Manhattan ( 29720 )
          The problem with the game was that it was too freaking short.

          Fortunately, there are a lot of mods [freedommods.com] for it, with new levels and situations. Many of them are way harder than the original game...

      • Re:Freedom Force (Score:4, Informative)

        by imitier ( 674794 ) on Friday February 27, 2004 @01:22PM (#8409984)
        Actually I've seen several copies in a local EB for $9.99. I picked it up at that price, and it's definitely worth it, especially with the mods available at various websites. Also, the newest patch of the game (1.2?) adds a "Danger Room" feature, so you can easily play around with your own super heroes on several game levels against some customizable AI superheroes. The campaign itself may be short, but the super hero creation system is extremely robust -- it alone is worth the price of admission.

    • Re:Freedom Force (Score:3, Informative)

      by chrismcdirty ( 677039 )
      It's a real-time strategy RPG based on parties of a maximum of 4 superheroes. You go against petty thugs and sometimes a lesser boss, then a larger boss at the end of the episode. Great game. It's nice and campy [in a good way -- it's set in the 60s comic era].

  • Top 9 Slashdot MMO Superheroes (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 27, 2004 @10:51AM (#8408358)
    9. ModMen
    8. 10,000 Natalie Portmans
    7. In Soviet Russia, the world saves super heroes!
    6. The Legion of "BSD is Dead" Trolls
    5. Cowboy Neal Terra-Man
    4. Cmdr Taco
    3. Adm Burrito
    2. Captain Goatze
    1. Major McBride, always on the lookout for his arch foe The Penguin.

  • If there were ever a title to buck photorealism... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by *weasel ( 174362 ) on Friday February 27, 2004 @11:14AM (#8408596)
    This game truly should have been done with a mor exaggerated or comic-book-ish style of art.

    I see the screenshots, and it just looks to me like an x-men movie would have looked if they kept the blue and yellow spandex. Visually, it seems disjointed. The models are too close to photorealism, the effects too snazzy for the costumes and subject matter to work.

    At the very least, I'd de-emphasize the comic-booky style costumes - but i'd prefer the art more stylized: more exaggerated characterization, exaggerated heroic posing, a less sharp image, kinda ham it up a bit.

    maybe it's a minor quibble - but I think it's fairly important to establish mood and genre. Spandex-style superheroes are not mainstream culture the way black leather is (xmen, matrix). And spandex just doesn't look right in a more photorealistic setting.

    I'm not saying the graphics are -bad-, they just don't fit the game. Either the visuals are presented too 'realistic' for a more casual gameplay, or the gameplay and visuals are too realistic for the costumes.

    Consider World of Warcraft -- the thing oozes consistent style with their professed gameplay. It all seems to fit together. Then look at the screenshots for City of Heroes: undoubtedly well crafted, a beautiful engine - but the heroes, their poses, and half their powers just look out of place.

    Maybe it'll be a fun game, but you gotta wonder if the conflicted focus carries through to the gameplay.
    • maybe it's a minor quibble - but I think it's fairly important to establish mood and genre. Spandex-style superheroes are not mainstream culture the way black leather is (xmen, matrix). And spandex just doesn't look right in a more photorealistic setting.
      Let's see... Superhero's have been 'spandex' clad for over sixty years. A quick check shows that the vast majority of the comics today have their hero's... Spandex clad. No spandex may be part of the 'Gen-Y/slacker' (or whatever they call the generation of kids today), culture, but the claim they are not part of popular culture is wilfull myopia. The same goes for 'mood and genre'. The dark and brooding looking is a minor *and recent* surface trend, not a feature of superhero culture.

      Popular culture is far more than youth culture friend. The 'leather clad' look my attract the teens and tweens, but there are an awful lot of thirtysomethings and fortysomething playing MMOGs, and we remember the superhero's of our youths.
      • I can't tell if you're arguing with me, or not.

        On a personal asthetic level I agree with you - I'd prefer they make the game more like the comic books of yore - with the outrageous costumes, the goofy cliches, stylized architecture, etc. I would not fault them however, for going for a more 'realistic', dark-and-trendy, approach.

        I just wish they would be consistant with one approach or the other. Their game is somewhere in between and it just doesn't look right.

        They are keeping the spandex-style outfits

    • Cell Shading (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I agree with your analysis of the graphics style. I am quite surprised that this game did not take advantage of the Cell Shading techniques used in some recent games. It is clear that cell shading techniques give the graphics a more "comic book" style look. So many people have complained about cell shading in games where they want photo-realism, and now we have a game that could not be more perfectly suited for cell shading, and they go the way of photo-realism...

  • No bad guys? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by (trb001) ( 224998 ) on Friday February 27, 2004 @11:26AM (#8408718) Homepage
    So lemme get this straight...there are no bad guy players? Everyone's good? That sucks! The idea of being a Dr. Octopus or Riddler or Lex Luther or something and trying to orchestrate crimes without getting caught, not to mention trying to kill the do-gooders, would have been a blast! I think they're seriously missing out on a demogrphic here.

    --trb
    • I totally agree...i would definately play as a bad guy...it would be cool if there was some kind of engine where you get a certian number of henchman per week or whatever and could use them as cannon fodder to attack the good guys. you could deploy som e thugs for a carjacking, and then while super-dork is taking care of them, steal the HOPE DIAMOND!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...sorry i got a little carried away...

    • Re:No bad guys? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SandSpider ( 60727 ) on Friday February 27, 2004 @11:53AM (#8408979) Homepage Journal
      I wouldn't say they're missing out, per se, because I'm positive that the considered it. it's just a difficult thing to design in. The tricky thing is having servers that aren't simply overrun by villains, with not enough heroes to stop them. If you think regular PvP combat is bad, imagine if you were trying to build your rep as the next Joker.

      =Brian
      • It wouldn't be difficult at all. Heck they could even use different ratios on different servers. Such as 1 bad guy for every good guy, 1:1. Then on different servers have it 2 bad guys for every 1 good guy, 2:1 etc.
        • How do you control the ratios? Do you prevent good players from being able to do damage to anyone who isn't an evil character? And do you prevent good characters from harming buildings and non-evil NPCs? What's the method for getting to be evil? Some sort of lottery system? This would encourage people to keep recycling characters until they can get an evil character. Or perhaps 2 out of 5 of your characters can be evil, but that doesn't mean you'll ever play the good characters.

          Are there paths you can choo
    • I have been following this game for a bit and the design team for the game, Cryptic, has considered a villain aspect. However, they are going to wait until they have a solid way to implement it. It's really not as easy as you would think to have both heroes and villains and have it fun to play for both.

      How do you make villain players fun to play against instead of the villain just being controlled by some jerks? How do you keep the balance between the two sides? Do villains get rewarded just by the amount

    • Re:No bad guys? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Jaeph ( 710098 ) on Friday February 27, 2004 @12:20PM (#8409311)
      There's no PvP period, not even dueling. Imagine: no Spidey vs Thor, Silver Surfer, Torch, Daredevil, etc. Heck, no wolverine vs anybody! :-)

      I could understand holding off on a Villain engine because it was just too hard to design, but no dueling? C'mon, read a comic book!

      -Jeff

    • Re:No bad guys? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by JasdonLe ( 680479 )
      Wow... Sorry, true believers, this sounds like the setup to a major failure... No villians in a superhero game? I'm sorry, I wouldn't even consider playing it for that very reason; and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
    • Ever read the DC Comic Kingdom Come [barnesandnoble.com]? Essentially, all the good Superheroes have left the scene or gone a little nutty and the world is overrun with Superheroes without self-restraint or the black and white morals of the Golden Years. They've killed off most, if not all, of those you could easily identify as villains and become what they're supposed to be fighting.

      In the book, Superman rounds up a bunch of the old gang and builds a superhero prison to hold the most questionable ones. It's a really good read
    • Cryptic has been developing this game for a while and have not rushed it to market. Their designers seem to know whats the correct way implement this game, so give them a chance before you say they blew it. They have said they needed to focus in on the hero aspect first before they could implement player controlled villians. Beside what great business it would make for an expansion called City of Villans.
    • Heh. Everyone has complained about this and the company says that the ability to play villains will be added into the first expansion due probably late fall of 2005.

    • So lemme get this straight...there are no bad guy players? Everyone's good? That sucks!

      That is generally the problem with MMORPGs: false economies. They put roles in the game that humans don't get to play. That is, clearly the game will support bad guys and probably super-villains, but (jokes on you!) *you* don't get to play them. That does indeed suck.

      Another big false economy is the spawn, and related spawn camp, aka an unbalanced environment. It sounds like this game will essentially be the

  • Sidekicks... I LOVE it... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Pengo ( 28814 ) on Friday February 27, 2004 @11:31AM (#8408767) Journal

    "
    One social feature of the game that deserves special mention is the "sidekick" feature. In a typical massively multiplayer game, high-level characters can't really effectively adventure with low-level characters -- if your friends develop their characters past you, you might as well kiss them goodbye.

    City of Heroes combats that problem in a way that fits in with the title's "all action, no hassle" gameplay. If you want to team up with a high-level character, you become that character's "sidekick." All of your existing powers are souped up, almost to the level of your mentor's, so you can participate in all of the high-level missions. The experience a sidekick gets will only be proportional to his/her level, but at least nobody gets left out of the action. It's a fun way to make sure that everyone can enjoy the game, and it fits in perfectly with superhero fiction."

    Anyone that has played MMO's will appreciate this feature. I like to play with my wife on Dark Age of Camelot, but I find that it takes her about 10x as long to XP her toons up as me, unless I spend all my time PL'n her. This is a way for me to play at my pace, and include my non-junkie friends in the adventures without having to feel like I need to slow down or them get discouraged they are left behind.

    This game looks great, I will definately give it a try.

    • I agree, it's a great feature. Although after reading through the 'features' of the game and their stat system and the 'archetypes' I have to come to the conclusion that it's the same as any other genre of game. In fact, there's really nothing innovative about it at all with regards to other MMORPGs. In fact, it looks lacking.

      Archetypes is nothing more than a fancy word for 'class.' Now I've played DAOC before (nothing else) but from what I remember from that game, here's the breakdown for their 'archetype
    • Unfortunately this will probably just turn into a for-profit system for powerlevellers who take on new players as sidekicks for a fee. =/
  • ..or is this going to play like a very low rent illiterate version of Astro City?

  • Looks good but I haven't upgraded my video card. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by b0r0din ( 304712 ) on Friday February 27, 2004 @12:21PM (#8409316)
    I'm still waiting for a good console MMORPG. A video card to support this probably wouldn't be too bad, but I've yet to see a breakout MMORPG for console. Unfortunately, I think that'll have to wait until the next gen of console games, I've a feeling that console MMORPGs are holding back for things like PS3s.

  • Three years in development for THIS? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by JasdonLe ( 680479 ) on Friday February 27, 2004 @12:54PM (#8409698) Homepage
    I'm sorry to say that the more I read about this game, the worse and worse it sounds. It looks like the only thing "massive" on Cryptic's hands is a massive failure. There's this little problem of no PC villians. 'Nuff said. I'm brushing off the "it would be too hard to do" or "they looked at it" excuse--that is no excuse. It wouldn't have been the first game to have a sucessful system with evil PCs.
    • Ok look. The devs have stated that they want to do Villans right and still release the game in a timely manner. It is an investment/income ratio based decision. It is expected that they will develop a villian expansion for the game.
      • I agree with Grim. Its better buisness to bring it out as expansion and focus first on the Hero aspect. Better design always wins, if the devs and designers had to work on the pvp balance it probably would add another year to dev time.
    • There's this little problem of no PC villians.

      You're completely right here. When I look at a game I shouldn't be constantly thinking, Oh Gee, this would be cool if this game did this more often than I am impressed by what the game is doing. More so for a game that hasn't even been released. There's no doubt in my mind that City of Heroes should have absolutely had the choice between good and evil, especially in a post-GTA gaming world.

      The lack of stylized graphics will also hurt Heroes. The charact

  • Just missed the axe. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by superultra ( 670002 ) on Friday February 27, 2004 @01:08PM (#8409842) Homepage
    I think it's fairly obvious by now that the major publishers suddenly woke up sometime in late January and said, "Hey, there is no market for MMOs!" Microsoft canceling Mythica and Ubisoft dropping Uru and Matrix Online are demonstrative of the sudden realization that MMOs are not the goldmine they were once perceived as.

    Personally, I hope City of Heros does well, if only to further the cause of good superhero games, that is (assuming that it is good). The post by weasel to this story makes a good case for a wasted opportunity by the makers of City of Heroes on not creating a highly stylized and "mood-inducing" game, though. Also, the this-game-is-simple angle might work, but I wonder how many people will justify paying $49.99 + $X/month for game that seems to lack depth. Simplicity as an extension of a way to capture that ever-elusive mainstream market surely didn't help either Uru or the Sims Online. Moreover, my guess is that in terms of polish and accesible design, any game that's out now probably won't stand much of a chance against Blizzard's World of Warcraft.

    My guess is that City of Heroes barely missed the cut. I can't help but wonder that if City of Heroes were anything but almost finished, NCSoft, or any smart publisher, would have pulled the plug on it.
    • There is a market for MMO games. Everquest has made Sony millions and millions of dollars.

      The problem is, there is not a market for dozens of subscription-based MMO games. Once somebody has already bought the game, and is already paying a subscription fee on top of their monthly Internet expenses (and in the case of Phantasy Star Online, on top of their X-Box Live account, as well), they simply don't want to shell out another $15-$20 for yet another game. If you are only playing one of these games and

  • City of Zeros (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    City of Heroes is a huge disappointment. Not sure how many of you have actually followed its development, other than looking at the occasionaly screenshot, but it's been a constant story of 'that's too hard.'

    The developers have had MMORPG experience. Instead of using that experience to improve themselves and innovate, they are using that as an excuse NOT to innovate, "Our experience shows that it's not a good idea to even try that."

    Every major decision that a MMORPG could make has been answered that sam
    • Hmmm its easier to bitch that to try lol! How can you say its a huge disappoinment when you haven't even played it. Thats like saying sex sucks before you hit puberty.
  • Or rather, the interface sucked when you had to control more than one character. Play Superhero League of Hoboken; that's a good superhero game.

    Rob

  • Too bad it's MMO (Score:4, Interesting)

    by slaker ( 53818 ) on Friday February 27, 2004 @04:43PM (#8412007)
    I'd *love* to have a super-hero game universe under my control, but I won't play online with other people.

    I was really excited and interested in this game until I found out it was a monthly-fee-scam kind of thing. It'll turn into yet another low-positive-feedback-by-levelling thing, I'm sure, and it'll be set in a fairly generic universe. No licenses (would it really be that hard to snag, say, the Malibu or New Universe license from marvel, or Wildstorm's world?)

    What I was hoping for was something along the line of NWN - anyone can run a server, build his world and offer no-fee play. Heck, I would've even taken a single-player game like Freedom Force, if I could make my own game.

    So we'll have this generic world, where it probably won't be possible to be "Deena" from Powers or, based on the archetypes they list, someone with non-obvious powers like Longshot. Would Batman - world's greatest detective - even be any fun to play in an MMO world where muggers are probably the equivalent of rats and spiders?

    One of the knocks I had against Freedom Force was that it was relentlessly upbeat and really forced one into a Lee/Kirby-style semi-whacky flawed-but-noble hero mode. It captured the comics of 1963 very well, but there wasn't room for anything else; no "normal guys" or detectives or anti-heroes or cosmic bad-asses. No shades of grey, either. I want to play in a world where I can be a regular bank robber or Green Arrow or Captain Marvel (any of 'em) or Silver Surfer and have all of them be fun and challenging.

    Anyway, I think there's a million and one ideas for something besides Stupendous Man and his sidekick Super Lad, contending with a million and one clones of Wolverine, which is what it looks like I'll get with City of Heroes.

    I think I'll wait another decade for the day I can finally build Jokertown and play with the people I choose to play with.

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