Of course City of Heroes provides several methods for assisting the enterprising young hero in their quest to lay a smackdown on the Paragon city underworld. Primary among those methods is the quest system. Like many of the features of this game, the quest system is very simple, yet fun and interesting. Missions are bestowed by Contacts. A Contact is a citizen of Paragon City who is “in the know” about the coming and goings of various criminal elements. If you are a Magic based hero then chances are you will have more Contacts who specialize in keeping tabs on those who use magic and magical artifacts than you will Contact who track technology. Therefore, you will likely take more missions that have magic based enemies. Which makes a great deal of sense and adds better story elements to the game. After all, you don’t see Spider-Man tracking down Magneto very often now do you?

Once you’ve spoken to a contact and received a mission a waypoint appears on you compass. Once you’ve completed the mission, you return to your Contact for another mission. A mission, once accepted, is uniquely yours. No other character can take, or hijack, your mission. Even if a mission is too difficult to complete solo and a hero teams with other heroes to complete the quest, the original hero still owns that quest and receives the credit for completing the quest. There is literally no way for some rube to jump in on your mission and complete it for you or steal your thunder in any way.



And speaking of teams, City of Heroes provides two distinct and separate teaming mechanisms. The first is the Team. Simply put, a Team is a loose confederation of heroes who temporarily join together to accomplish a particular goal. A team can be formed by anyone, joined by anyone and left by anyone. No restrictions or penalties. Join a team, throw someone a beating, leave the team. It can really be that simple.



The second team mechanism is the Super Group. A Super Group acts much the same as a Team, but it is persistent. Simply gather some heroes and register your group with the appropriate authority. Super Groups not only get to choose a cool name that will show up when the hero is examined, each hero in the group gets to have an alternate costume, the Super Group costume.

Both short term Teams and long term Super Groups can be immensely beneficial to any hero not to mention a whole lot of fun. It is the pleasure and pain of online games, you get to play with other people and these teaming mechanisms leverage that fact by making it easier and more fun to play together. A good team is worth more than all the Supernadyne in King’s Row.

Let’s wrap this long winded dissertation with a brief examination of what I consider to be the “killer feature” of City of Heroes, the Sidekick System. Sidekicking is a method that the game uses to try and allow low level players to play with higher level players without being a total exploit or a complete buzzkill. When a higher level hero designates a lower level hero as a Sidekick, the lower level character has all of their abilities amplified to a point just lower than higher level hero. This does not make the hero equal to the higher level hero, just closer. Think of it in terms of Batman and Robin. Robin is an accomplished crime fighter with serious skills. But Batman is still far superior. When they are together, Robin steps up his game and becomes a benefit to the duo, not an impediment.



The reason I like the Sidekick feature is that you can never be ‘left behind’ by your friends and teammates. If you go on vacation for two weeks your team will likely be well advanced of you when you get back. In many games a lower level character becomes a serious liability, but in City of Heroes you can simply use the Sidekick feature to bring that teammate back up to speed.



City of Heroes is a lot of fun to play. Whether you want to go it Lone Wolf or re-create the Teen Titans, there is something in it for everyone. And unlike many MMORPG’s it is very simple and can be played by even a role-playing neophyte. There is only one drawback to this game and that is its infancy. City of Heroes is still new to the market and we have yet to see what Cryptic and NCSoft have in store for us. It would be a criminal act to let a gem like this languish into mediocrity from neglect. Content updates serve a far higher purpose than to simply add features to the game, a simple invasion of Kings Row by the 5th Column not only makes the city feel more alive, but makes the players feel more a part of that living city.



Valr can be found on the Guardian server. Check out these screenshots of Valr's Creation just for fun!