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City of Villains |
| Genre: Action |
HD Support: 0 |
| Developer: Cryptic Studios |
System Link: NO |
| Publisher: NCsoft |
Live Enabled: NO |
| Release Date: 2005-10-31 |
| Description: Want to play the bad guy in Paragon City? You’ll get your chance in Cryptic Studios’ City of Villains, the first major expansion to the comic book hero MMORPG, City of Heroes. |
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City of Villains Staff Review | |
| Overall 8.5 Gameplay: 8.5 Visual: 8.5 Sound: 8.5 | Reviewed By: admin
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This game was inevitable. As soon as City of Heroes hit shelves in 2004 and the glowing reviews started coming in, the question started rising -- "Where are the bad guys?" It's not that there weren't any criminals to beat up or missions to go on, but they were all against computer-controlled NPCs. If you wanted to go toe-to-toe against human agents of the forces of darkness -- or, better, join their Hellish crusade -- you were out of luck. That's all changed with the release of City of Villains, the "standalone expansion" for City of Heroes. Really more than an expansion, but not quite on the scope of an original title, City of Villains builds greatly on City of Heroes gameplay, and is arguably the most fun "new" MMO we've played this year.
City of Villains takes place in the Rogue Isles, a legally independent archipelago somewhere west of Paragon City (the setting for City of Heroes). The Rogue Isles are dominated by Arachnos, a criminal organization run by the mysterious Lord Recluse, archenemy to Paragon City's protector, Statesman. The Isles are a base from which Lord Recluse hatches his nefarious plan to destroy his enemies and take over the world. They're also an incubator of sorts, a Darwinian testing ground where various criminal enterprises and freelance operators compete with one another to climb up the criminal hierarchy, each hoping to accumulate enough power to either join Arachnos at Recluse's right hand or perhaps supplant him altogether. The player plays one of these freelance criminals, a super-powered thug broken out of a Paragon City prison in the game's entertaining opening mission and unleashed on the island to make his or her way in this brand new world.
If this set-up sounds vaguely familiar, it's because it's sort of a dark reflection of the premise of City of Heroes in which young superheroes slowly work their way up in power. In fact, "dark reflection" pretty much describes the basic gameplay in City of Villains. Players start out as newbie criminals and take on a variety of missions from "brokers" or from hints that they find in the newspapers. They then run to an instanced mission zone, beat up everybody inside, and then depart with whatever particular gewgaw they were sent to retrieve. The main differences between this portion of the game and the original are mostly cosmetic. Rather than rescuing somebody, players instead kidnap someone. Instead of defusing a bomb in an office building populated by the villainous Freakshow, they'll be planting a bomb in an office building populated by the heroic Wyvern archers. Most of the game's "villainy" comes in the form of mission text or changes to the skins of the enemies you're fighting. There'll be no Grand Theft Auto-style rampages in City of Villains.
That those changes are mostly cosmetic, however, shouldn't be interpreted as a criticism. The basic gameplay of City of Heroes was excellent and has held a legion of ardent fans in thrall for well over a year since its release. Had the massive amount of new content (dozens of new zones, five new character classes, tons of new costume additions) merely been City of Heroes material, this expansion would still be worth purchasing. It's that "dark reflection" thing that really puts it over the top, though. Sure, you're essentially playing the same types of missions you were in the original game, but there's a world of difference in a player's head between fighting The Family because "it's the right thing to do," and fighting The Family because you want to take over some of their criminal operations. It gives a very different "feel" to playing the game and is easily one of its most enjoyable aspects.
If there is a criticism to level at City of Villains mission design, it's that it often doesn't go far enough in making the player feel properly villainous. Players often find themselves fighting other criminals more often than the heroes. Sure, it's fun to fight turf wars with other bad guys, but my reason for being a criminal in the first place is to take on the "forces of justice." In just one example, kidnapping missions often have the player having to rescue a kidnap victim from another criminal gang's cavernous hideout in order to collect the ransom themselves. Would it really have taken much more work to instead make that mission one in which I raid an office building and fight super-powered security guards or Longbow agents? Such missions do exist, but they're way too rare. Indeed, one of my best "Legion of Doom"-type moments in the game was taking The Brothers Grimm (my SuperGroup) back to Paragon City and planting plague canisters in air conditioning vents while fighting against Longbow soldiers in their garish red and white longjohns. The game needed more of them.
City of Heroes was justly praised for the incredible depth of its avatar customization system. City of Villains does it better. Not only does it include the body-shaping elements added to the system in a recent patch, but the variety of costume pieces that can be mixed and matched simply outdoes its predecessor in every way. Simply put, virtually any type of villainous costume you can think of can be replicated in City of Villains. Leather and chains? You bet. Skulls and spikes? What size and color? Scarred faces, psychotic faces, demonic faces, monstrous faces? City of Villains has got you covered. Even better, while two-thirds of the elements in the costume builder are new, even those ported over from City of Heroes have gotten a makeover to be darker, dirtier, and generally more sinister. The upshot of this is that it's almost impossible to mistake a villain for a hero even when their costumes are fairly similar.
In a similar vein, praise must be given to the game's art design. While the game's engine is looking a bit aged (and still slows down a bit at higher resolutions), NCSoft's artists certainly haven't lost a step. Every different zone on the Rogue Isles looks amazing in a ravaged sort of way. The Rogue Isles are, again, a dark reflection of Paragon City, which means that, unlike the zenith of urban planning that is Paragon, there isn't a straight road or any sense of order to be found on the Rogue Isles. The newbie area, called Mercy Island, is dominated by an enormous walled city, also called Mercy. Outside the walls is a random shantytown of shacks and hovels built in shadows of burned out and collapsed buildings. The inside of Mercy is much cleaner and nicer on the surface, and appears to be a prosperous city. Despite that, though, Mercy, like all Arachnos towns, is not a happy place. Its skyline is dominated by oppressively gray cyclopean architecture festooned with bright red Arachnos banners. Picture New York City as designed by Albert Speer. Many of the instanced missions, too, take place in amazingly expansive techno-fortresses that could easily be used as blueprints for the Fortress of Solitude.
The first really new gameplay dynamic introduced in City of Villains is the "lair." Lairs are super-villain home bases that contain all the things any merry group of twisted psychopaths needs to take over the world -- hospitals, workshops, trophy rooms, traps, and the opportunity to go on missions for items of power that give the entire group some kind of powerful buff. They're also the targets of rival criminal groups out to steal those artifacts for themselves and hero groups who want to destroy them, which gives rise to "base raids" in which the owners must defend their property against other players. Lairs are purchased by SuperGroups with "prestige," a separate form of currency from the usual "infamy" that players earn. Prestige is picked up by going on missions and defeating enemies while in SuperGroup mode.
It's difficult to overstate the impact this dynamic has had on the game. As I mentioned in my "Out of the Box" first impressions, base building has finally given meaning and purpose to SuperGroup affiliation. For one thing, playing in SuperGroup mode now gives access to "salvage drops" -- items that can be used in a base's workshop to build traps and new tools. It's also necessary to earn the prestige necessary to pay the rent on the base. In fact, since joining my own SuperGroup, I don't believe I've ever left SuperGroup mode, even while teaming up with non-members. Players are still out to jack up their own abilities, but the addition and defense of the lair adds a group dynamic that makes the whole experience and every individual battle feel more cohesive and meaningful. Unfortunately, that also means that the game, which was never very solo-friendly to begin with, has become even less so. Put simply, if you're not in a SuperGroup, you're missing a huge chunk of the game.
City of Villains also sports five new character classes, although four of these are really just mixed and matched versions of their City of Heroes counterparts. Scrappers and Tankers have morphed into Stalkers and Brutes, and the ranged Blasters are now Corrupters. In fact, the only truly new class is the Mastermind, the game's version of a "pet class." The good news is that the Mastermind is a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the bad news is that it and the Brute class currently seem a bit overpowered, while the Corruptors are a bit too fragile. That balances out a bit at higher levels, but for right now, it seems like teams of three or more Masterminds are able to rampage over everything, especially if the players work well together. It's not awful or game-breaking, but it's probably something that NCSoft will take a hard look at in the months ahead.
Finally, there's PvP. The bad news about PvP is that it's only accessible in four designated zones. Players can't just zip over to Paragon City and start ripping up the streets. The worse news is that it's somewhat pointless if you don't have City of Heroes installed; otherwise, the only PvP available is the rather lame villain-vs.-villain challenges in the Arena. The system for putting together challenges is obscure and annoying and the challenges themselves are not particularly compelling, so most players, for good reason, tend to ignore the Arena. It's the one section of the game that really needs to be overhauled.
The great news, however, is that the Hero vs. Villain PvP rocks the world like the Man of Steel and General Zod did in Superman II. Each of the four PvP zones is built around a different style of PvP, two of them mission-based. "Bloody Bay" challenges teams to travel around the city fighting off various NPC monsters and other players in an attempt to gather fragments of a crashed meteor. "Warburg" has players struggling to find the launch codes for a nuclear missile and launch a raid on their opponent's base. "Siren's Call" is mostly a Hero-vs.-Villain free-for-all, and everyone's fair game in the final "secret" zone. There are also a variety of sub-missions that players can try for a variety of cool rewards. The big attraction, though, is obviously the chance to pound on your moral opposites and I simply can't say enough good things about how much fun this is.
Naturally, certain powers have had their effects changed when applied to other players, but by and large, the battles seemed fairly balanced. When I lost, it was usually because I was outnumbered or because my team failed to support each other. When I won, I've never heard anyone on the other side complain. Indeed, it's a testament to how engaging such battles are that even non-RP gamers seem to slip into personas during PvP. Some of my best moments with the game are when I'm trying to do something nefarious and some damned player hero shows up. I knew I wasn't alone when one of my teammates actually typed "Curses! The good guys!" into teamchat during combat! Sure, it was cheesy, and it might have cost us the battle, but it was so worth it. Best of all, once both games are purchased, your $14.95 per month subscription covers both games -- there's no additional monthly fee for City of Villains -- a wonderful move on the part of NCSoft.
I remember reading once about the difference between a mere villain and an "arch-enemy." The arch-enemy is the one foe that is equal and opposite to the hero in every way, the one that gives him his greatest challenge. In an odd way, the hero needs his arch-enemy; his or her existence gives the hero's meaning. That same dynamic is very much in play with City of Villains. Sure, City of Villains can be purchased as a standalone product, and it'll still be fun. Like Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Moriarty or He-Man and Skeletor, though, City of Heroes and City of Villains need each other in order to be complete. Having the whole package makes the City of… games what they were always meant to be -- one of the best massively multiplayer online games available today. |
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