In the world of the massively multiplayer game, few things tend to change between the final beta release and the retail product. City of Heroes is no exception.
A few weeks ago GameShark served up my preview for City of Heroes, the massively multiplayer online role playing game set in a fictional city populated by super heroes and their villainous nemesis. Judging from the feedback and traffic numbers I would like to thank all three of you for reading that article. All kidding aside, this review will cover much of the same information found the preview article but will expand on some of the key areas and we’ll journey through the mean streets of Paragon City by creating our very own super hero.
Like many MMORPGs of our time, City of Heroes allows the player to create a character based on an image of whom they would like to portray to the fictional world. Then any role-playing game would allow the players to build that character into that image based on their actions and experiences. But City of Heroes is not like any other MMORPG, nor does it try to be. It is a singular entity. A truly unique individual amidst a landscape of sameness.
Let’s begin where all MMORPG’s begin, the login screen…err character creation. Our first set of choices is for an Origin and an Archetype. The Origin represents the basic background of how your hero came to be such an extraordinary being. The choices for Origin are pretty simple and self-explanatory: Science, Mutation, Magic, Technology and Natural.
The second part of this phase in character creation is to choose an Archetype. The Archetype sets the stage for the nature of your abilities. If you want to shoot lightning bolts at your enemies from afar, you would choose the Blaster Archetype, if you wanted to pummel them into jelly, a Scrapper might fit the bill. Again, the choices for Archetype or very simple, however, this is the biggest choice you can make in character creation. Moreso than choosing the individual powers you character possesses, the Archetype sets the stage for the entire character. The choices are: Blaster, Controller, Defender, Scrapper, and Tanker.
For our test character, we are going to choose a Magic Scrapper.
The next phase is to choose the Primary and Secondary Power Set for your character. A Power Set is a grouping of related powers such as Martial Arts. The Archetype is what determines which Power Sets are available and in which sequence you may choose them. A Scrapper and Tanker have a lot in common so naturally their Power Sets are similar; however, the Tanker is mainly concerned with personal defense so powers such as Invincibility are part of the Tankers Primary Power Set. A Scrapper can also have Invulnerability but not to the same degree so it is part of the Secondary Power Set for a Scrapper.
Once a Primary Power Set is chosen, a player must choose their first power from that set. In general terms, there is very little difference between the Power Sets of each Archetype. Each Power Set has a power that roughly corresponds to a power from one of the other Power Sets. As in most games, it’s not the tools you have; it’s how you use them that make all the difference.
For our test character we are going to choose the Broadsword Power Set and the Slash Power.
Now on to the Secondary Power Set. While the Secondary Power Set is technically weaker than the Primary Power Set, it is usually this power set that makes or breaks the effectiveness of a character. It is often to the benefit of the player to choose a Secondary Power Set that complements the Primary Power Set, making the character more complete and effective. In some cases however, the choices are not obviously correlated.
In the case of our Scrapper character, we are going to choose the Regeneration Power Set with then Fast Healing power.
Third phase is appearance. In many games the appearance phase is either limited or extremely but lacking in true individuality. After all, it doesn’t matter if there are four hundred colors of robes, everyone will look the same if they are all wearing robes. In City of Heroes, the appearance phase of character creation may be the least impacting facet of the process, but in my opinion it is by far the most fun. First we get to choose a gender and body type. This is nothing more than a silhouette of the character model. The base choices are Female, Male and Huge. Huge characters are, by default Male. From this point there are two additional sliders that can be used to modify the base types into something considerably more custom. For instance if you choose a Huge type model, push its height all the way down and its musculature all the way up, you end up with a model that is nearly as wide as it is tall.
For our character we will choose a Female base model and set her height to be just over 6 feet and her musculature to be of slightly above average size.
Costume creation is where the real player meets the real poser. All too often I see players that are either choose whatever costume the random function spews out for them, or that specifically spend inordinate amounts of time intentionally to create the most obnoxiously uncoordinated monstrosity imaginable. The Queer Eye guys would probably have a coronary if they saw some of these costumes.
Costume design can be a large undertaking, but it is a process that is thankfully simplified in many ways. I will not hope to cover all the facets of costume creation in this article but will only cover the most basic elements of this phase in the process. The costume is broken down into three core elements, the Head, Upper Body and Lower Body. Each of these elements is further broken up into smaller, detail elements such as hands, feet, torso, hair, etc. Color schemes can be selected for each individual detail element by toggling a button the copies the color scheme across all the elements of the costume. Additionally each detail element not only contains a large number of choices, but the color choices and patter choices for each element can make several million possible costume choices. It is a pretty rare occasion indeed when you find two characters who are identical, or even appear similar.
For our Scrapper, we’ll go with an armored costume and use some blending to give it a nice effect.
In the last phase of character creation is the Hero Identity Card. Functionally this is the same a character sheet. In it we are able to choose a name for our hero and additionally add any background story we would like to convey to others. This Identity card also contains all of the basic information about your character, but not your powers. Look closely at this identity card and you will notice one thing. There are no statistics. No arbitrary number to represent how smart your character is supposed to be. No integer that says your character can only be so good at any one thing. Each hero is City of Heroes is based off of the predicate that all heroes are basically the same and it is only their powers that make them different from the normal citizenry.
I have chosen the name Valr for our character. Valr is descended from Old Norse and means “the slain”. But mainly because Valkyrie and Valkyrja, which means “chooser of the slain” in Old Norse, were both taken.
Now that the character is complete we are ready to enter the tutorial, but before we do, let’s take a moment to look at character advancement in City of Heroes. Like every other MMORPG, City of Heroes relies on an experience system. Pound a bad guy into the concrete, get experience points. After a time you will attain a new level. On odd numbered levels the character gains more Enhancement slots which they can choose to place on any of their powers. These additional slots are just as they appear and simply hold more Enhancements. On even numbered levels the character is able to choose another power from their power sets. This functions exactly like it did in character creation, only more powers are available. After the 6th level a series of new Power Sets becomes available. These are much more generalized and include things such as Flight, Speed, and Teleportation.
Since the powers Valr possesses have a fair amount of recovery time, I selected the Speed Power Set and the Flurry power. This is a nice attack that recovers quickly, does good damage and can disorient an opponent. At level 14 we can choose the Super Speed power which will let up streak through the streets of Paragon City at incredible speeds, just like The Flash.
From here on out things are infinitely simplified…and more complicated. The tutorial is a mandatory leveling period for all new characters that serves two functions. First to educate the uneducated into the ways of Paragon City and secondly to help the character achieve their first level advancement, which is also part of the education process. It is in this tutorial that we learn of all the core elements of City of Heroes and how they interact with your character. We learn to talk to NPCs and how to accept missions. We learn to use our powers on targets, how to select targets, and how to properly evaluate (or Con) a target. We put some of this education to the test against real foes. Then we proceed to the more advanced material of Inspirations, Enhancements and training.
Inspirations are temporary power boosts that randomly occur while gaining experience. They are meant to represent the moments of insight your character achieves as they gain experience and can manifest in a number of varieties. There are inspirations which will heal or restore endurance. Others will enhance your accuracy or defenses. These are really handy little “power ups” that can make or break a mission or combat.
Enhancements are a really powerful form of power customization. While I will admit that I am not absolutely certain of the engine mechanics behind Power Enhancements, I am very confident in my knowledge to state that Enhancements are what make a good character great. At their core an Enhancement represents a time of training, or technology acquisition or slight mutation to an individual power that could make it more powerful, flexible or useful.
Each Enhancement has its own level. The level of the Enhancement corresponds to the character level such that it represents its usefulness to that character. For instance, a level five Damage Enhancement is very useful to a level three character but is practically useless to a level thirteen character. As you might expect, a Damage Enhancement increases the damage of the power being enhanced. But the alteration is not always straightforward. An Endurance Reduction Enhancement that matches the character level will reduce the amount of endurance drained from each use of that power but a certain margin. The greater the disparity between the two levels, the less effective the enhancement becomes.
Enhancements themselves can be enhanced through combining similar enhancements. That is, a Damage Enhancement can be combined with another Damage Enhancement to create a more useful Damage Enhancement. Following the rules of Enhancements, the greater the disparity in level between Enhancements, the greater the chance of failing the combining process. As an example, a level five Accuracy Enhancement can be combined with a level four Accuracy Enhancement with a ninety percent chance of success. However, that same level five Accuracy Enhancement combined with a level one Accuracy Enhancement only has an eighty percent chance of success. If the combining process is successful, that enhancement becomes more powerful and useful. An Enhancement can only be combined a total of two times.
Game play is incredibly simple and in this simplicity lies its beauty. Unlike deep, skill based role-playing games, City of Heroes does not require you to craft anything. Nor collect anything. Nor complete a single mandated mission. You don’t have to upgrade your weapons or seek or complete some Byzantine quest in order to become a better character. All you need to do is whoop some ass.
