As a new hero you are introduced to the game very quickly with a short tutorial area that involves all the basics of being a hero in Paragon City, contacts, hospitals, targeting and combat, inspirations, combat, enhancements and of course more combat. In fact you will speak to seven contacts and combat at least eleven or twelve opponents (depending on whether on not you choose to beat up a Rikti drone). By the time you hit your first city zone you should be well familiar with the basics of the game as well as awaiting clearance to security level two.

Before I delve into any details on the missions and mission system, I'd like to briefly highlight the geography of Paragon City. The city of is broken up into different zones. Each zone is unique and each has a different security rating. While you may have a morbid desire to visit the Steel Canyon as a second level hero, it simply isn't a good idea. Travel between zones is accomplished one of two ways, traditionally and via the rail. Traversing the zones by traditional means, that is running, jumping and flying, can be tedious and it is much more efficient to catch the train. Purists will certainly feel that jumping on the "L" to go fight crime goes against most comic book tenets, but I feel it is in keeping with some of the more "common man" style heroes, particularly Spider-Man, and adds a dose of humor.

The mission system of City of Heroes isn't earth shattering in its originality. After all, mission systems have been around since the inception of the text based days of MMORPGs. However, City of Heroes puts an excellent spin on the traditional system with some very cool and very authentic features. In keeping with its comic book theme, the missions your hero acquires come from Contacts. Contacts are those with their ears to the ground and who know what is really going down in Prometheus Park. Contacts can be doctors, scientists, policewomen and men or just common business people. Each contact, as you might expect, essentially covers a particular area of information such that a scientist would know about science based crime and a businesswoman would know when a factory had been taken over by a gang.

At least initially, your mission will reflect your origin. If your character has a Technology based Origin, they will get Technology based missions and find themselves going up against the machinations of the Clockwork gang. Perhaps your character is Science based and you will find yourself slogging through the chemical waste of the city's sewers to battle the reanimated corpses of a mad scientist. The themes fit very well but do not stagnate. Your character will also see missions to break up common street crime from the Hellions and at least a dozen other organizations. After all, how often did Superman whoop ass on the Riddler?

The advancement system is also somewhat novel in that while a characters experience points are in one bucket, you are given several tough choices to make as your character advances and you cannot simply apply points to any one power. With every even numbered level your character gains a new power to choose from amongst the three Power Sets. With every odd numbered level gained the character gains two additional enhancement spots to apply to any existing power or powers that you choose.

Enhancements are possibly the most important ingredient in a character's makeup. Every power has a number of slots available where Enhancements can be placed. Initially your character will only have one Enhancement slot for each of their powers and every time a new power is chosen it comes with one free slot. The Enhancements themselves are often considered a type of training your character can apply to a power. For instance, a character can choose to apply an Endurance Reduction Enhancement to their Lightning Bolt power that will reduce the amount of Endurance cost for each use of that power based on the power level of the Enhancement. The power level corresponds roughly with the level of the character. That is to say that a level two character cannot use a level ten enhancement and similarly a level one enhancement is pretty useless to a level seven character. For example, a level four character can apply a level five Endurance Reduction Enhancement to their Force Field power which will slow the drain of endurance while the power is active by a number of points (I have not yet determined the exact ratio) whereas a level one Endurance Reduction Enhancement applied to the Force Field power would not be as effective. Enhancements can also be combined to create a more powerful Enhancement. For instance, if you combine a level 5 Damage Enhancement with a level 1 Damage Enhancement you have a 90% chance of combination success and if successful you will now have a 5+ enhancement in that slot. Each Enhancement can be combined for up to two +'s and while I don't have any empirical evidence to support my findings, I believe that each + on an Enhancement equates to a level of Enhancement. That would mean a 5++ Enhancement would effectively operate as a level 7 Enhancement.

It may seem like I am spending a lot of time talking about Enhancement and I truly am, but it is only because I feel very strongly that Enhancements are the real key to the success and uniqueness of a character in City of Heroes. As I mentioned earlier, your character will receive two additional Enhancement slots at each odd numbered level and it is up to you to place them on the powers. A character can use this to focus on one particular power and make themselves even more unique for their use of this power or the slots can be spread around to make a well rounded set of powers. This application of Enhancement can dramatically alter a power, its use and effectiveness. For instance, the Radiation based Nutrino Bolt is a ranged weapon power that does Minor damage, has a Fast recovery and is available as a level one Defender. By the time your character reaches level five they will have accumulated two additional powers and four additional Enhancement slots. If these slots were all applied to the Nutrino Bolt power, it would now have a total of five Enhancement slots. At level five it is not unreasonable to have collected a number of level five and other, smaller level, Enhancements. By applying a 5++ Damage Enhancement you have effectively moved the damage of your Nutrino Bolt from Minor to Moderate. Now add a 5++ Recharge reduction and the Nutrino Bolt essentially has a Very Fast recovery time and you still have three more slots left! Now add in a 5++ Endurance Reduction, another 5++ Damage and 5++ Recharge Reduction and you have a Nutrino Bolt that recovers in almost one second, does close to Major Damage and costs almost no Endurance to use. You have now made one massively supercharged power, but at the cost of keeping your other powers average.

What self respecting Hero values cash? In Paragon City, heroes trade in Influence. Every thug you whoop, every mission you complete, and every citizen you save will gain you some experience and some influence. With influence you can purchase Enhancements or Inspirations. You can also sell Enhancements an Inspirations and gain influence which can then be used to buy other Enhancements and Inspirations.

What is an Inspiration you may ask? An Inspiration is a "Power Up" that your character can use to alter a situation in their favor. Inspirations come in a limited variety such as Endurance, Hit Points and Accuracy. Each inspiration can boost an area of the character such as adding additional Defense, healing Hit Points or temporarily boosting the Accuracy of a character.

A solo career can be quite rewarding but even the Batman works with a team when the stakes are high enough and City of Heroes puts a premium on teamwork. As with most MMORPGs, your character can temporarily group with other heroes to tackle bigger, tougher missions. And likewise, the effectiveness of these groups vary greatly. The Archetypes of the characters are designed to build complementary team members in much the same way as a Fantasy based group would. You need fighters, healers, skills and artillery. City of Heroes provides great functionality for each type by crossing over some of the capabilities of each type and letting more hybrid team members be effective as well. For instance, it is not truly possible to create a character without an offensive component. Even seemingly benign powers often have a residual damage component. So while Defender will never surpass a Blaster for ranged damage capabilities, with the right team they could fill in nicely. When you have a team of complementary characters who can work as a team, the grouping system in City of Heroes is simply awesome. Tankers and Scrappers up front taking the damage and blocking for the Blaster who sizzles the enemy from afar while Controllers stymie the enemy advance and Defenders alternately dish damage, heal comrades and generally make life miserable for the other side. Or you can be like most haphazard teams and just have everyone run into a room at once and do whatever they can do and hope no one winds up in the hospital