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Release Dates Out Now (North America) Out Now (Europe) |
Review
Comics are crap. Sure you have your loyalists who still avidly devour every Spiderman or Batman edition, but these are generally men in later 40's scrabbling for escapism with torn Forbidden Planet T shirts, bellies showing from underneath, goatees and ponytails and milk-bottle glasses. Okay, fair enough, a wide sweeping stereotypical statement, with a smidgen of truth still.
The point is that comic books are pretty much redundant in today's digitally dictated society. In a world saturated in the moving image, picking up a book of images with speech bubbles is altogether pointless, and at best left in the past. The main issue is that it's all so exclusive. We're allowed to read about, say Gotham City, some might even dress up in Batman outfits and attend strange events in conference halls at Olympia, but ultimately you're left on the outside, looking in.
What was great about City of Heroes is that it was you, electronically albeit, that controlled the Hero's actions. You never had to wait on a writer, or next Tuesday's edition of Daredevil to find out what happens next, because only you knew the answer. The polygon hero that you created was your own and it was your story.
Unfortunately it was all very happy-go-lucky-save-the-universe positive. The coolest characters in comic books were always evil in essence, even the good ones: Batman, Wolverine, Magneto anyone. City of Heroes only ever allowed you to be good: to fix the world rather than destroy it, to save life rather than take it. You want to be evil, you shouldn't be coy about it, embrace it.
City of Villains is all about the bad stuff. Forget morality, and the joys of life, think decay and hellfire. If pillaging those who are less fortunate in the superhuman powers department than you sits awkward, then perhaps you should stick with CoH (you can play both for the same monthly fee as long as you have bought both games). Actually despite its billing, like CoH, City of Villains is quite - well - cutesy. It's not particularly violent, nor is it ethically challenging. In fact, Cryptic Studios has created a game that while essentially what you're doing is wrong (robbing a bank for instance), it doesn't really feel bad. There really is no tug on the moral rope. This is mainly due to the world being filled with other super villains, or general street scum as opposed to stand-up citizens. So inflicting heartache and pain on these entities really isn't an ethical struggle. This is actually an area that could have been exploited further. Giving you the option of treating 'good' characters really bad could have defined how evil you actually are. It might have been nice to be one of those 'are they, aren't they evil' type characters, or perhaps Cryptic will hit us with City of Sort of Heroes, type Villains depending on the circumstances in a few months - you'd buy it. Essentially though, your level of evil intensifies hand in hand with your progression through the game.
MMORPGs are unlike other genres in that all games that fall within it aren't that different from each other. They all involve running missions, joining guilds and finding items in order to level up. How much you actually enjoy CoV will depend on your level of affection for this genre. There are mild differences to, say, World of Warcraft in that finances are a reward for completing missions as opposed to crafting objects etc. but generally, it's same old same old.
Character creation is still superbly executed, much like in CoH. Given the nature of the game, watching the sheer variety of characters running about is an entertaining pastime in itself. Once your villain is created you'll be released in the big wide world. From the off it's obvious what needs to be done with waypoints and objectives marked out. An issue with other MMORPGs is that you're often left to wander about, not quite knowing what to do or where to go. CoV plants you right in the middle of the action; your first task being the successful escape from prison with little or no 'superpowers'. From there you take the steady process of making a name for yourself, building trust, and proving your worth to various evil higher powers - all of which help you build your character up and enable you to progress into uncharted realms and so on.
There is no doubt that City of Villains fills a gap in the MMORPG market - sitting just behind the complexities of World of Warcraft. There is no doubt that the cult following of CoH will be pleased with Cryptic's latest efforts. There is no doubt that CoV is a polished, well-finished, addictive video game. Unfortunately, for Cryptic, City of Villains is simply not as vast as WoW, nor is it as good as Guild Wars. And in a hotly contested market of pay-as-you-play games, City of Villains just doesn't cut the meat from the bone.
You can't play City of Villains without thinking that Cryptic could have done much more. Given the relatively free-roaming landscape style of MMORPGs, more effort should have gone into actually making you feel like a villain. Instead you are left feeling like you're playing CoH, just in a different world and in a slightly darker pair of spandex.
Review by Gary Flavell - 21st November 2005
Scoreboard
| Gameplay: | 7 | ||
| Visuals: | 8 | ||
| Audio: | 7 | ||
| Presentation: | 8 | ||
| Lasting Appeal: | 8 | ||
| Overall Score: | 8 |
Awards
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