| Developer(s) | Cryptic Studios Paragon Studios |
| Publisher(s) | NCsoft Level Up! Games Interactive Brazil |
| Version | 1600.20090902.4T2 (September 15, 2009) |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X |
| Release date(s) | April 28, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Superhero MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen PEGI: 16+ |
| Media | 2 CDs, or 1 DVD, Or available for download. |
| System requirements | Windows 2000/XP, Intel Pentium III 800 MHz or AMD Athlon 800MHz, 512 MB RAM, 2 GB Available HDD Space, nVidia 2 series or ATI Radeon 8500 Video Card, 16X CD-ROM Drive, 16-bit Sound Card, 56K Modem connection, Keyboard and mouse. Mac OS X 10.5.5 Leopard or higher, Intel Core Duo Processor, 1024 MB RAM, 2.9 GB Available HDD Space, ATI X1600, NVidia 7300 GT, or X3100 Intel integrated graphics chip (Intel GMA950 not supported) |
In the game, players create super-powered player characters that can team up with others to complete missions and fight criminals belonging to various gangs and organizations in the fictional Paragon City.
On October 31, 2005, the game's first sequel, City of Villains (CoV), was launched, allowing players to play as supervillains. Initially dubbed as an "Expanshalone" by the developers (a portmanteau of expansion pack and stand-alone), the game did not require CoH to run, but if the user had both games, content was added to the CoH side of game play. On July 16, 2008, NCSoft merged the two games' content together, thus a player who only owned City of Heroes could now play City of Villains, and vice versa. Prior to this, a purchase was required to access either game's content, but they were linked by one account and subscription fee.
On November 6, 2007, NCsoft announced their purchase of the CoH/CoV intellectual property and transitioned the staff from Cryptic Studios to a new location in Mountain View, CA to continue development of the game. The new studio on April 14, 2009, became Paragon Studios, which shares credit with Cryptic Studios for the development work. This then led to City of Heroes becoming available for download on the Steam software, along with other NCSoft titles, on April 22, 2009.
On October 30, 2008, NCSoft announced a partnership with Transgaming Technologies in order to bring both City of Heroes and City of Villains and all 13 expansions to Mac OS X.
City of Heroes: Going Rogue was announced on May 11, 2009. Labeled as an expansion, the game centers around the alternate reality of Praetoria and features a new alignment system allowing player characters to shift allegiances between Heroes and Villains, giving characters access to both the Paragon City of CoH and the Rogue Isles of CoV. Paragon Studios describes this as "[exploring] the shades of gray that lie between Heroes and Villains".
Overview
Players begin by using the game's extensive character creation system to first select an archetype, then primary and secondary power sets, then design a unique costume. In the final character creation screen, players can optionally write a backstory or description and battle cry for their hero as well as choose a name. The name may be changed at a later time for a one time charge, and the description and battle cry may be changed at any time. There is an automatic check to make certain the name has not been used by any other player on that server.
Characters may begin in an isolated tutorial zone, or skip the tutorial and begin in an open low level zone.
A character's level increases by earning experience points from defeating foes, completing missions, and exploring zones, then returning to a trainer. Benefits for rising in level include more health, more powers, more slots to allocate enhancements to powers, and larger inventories.
The game's hero side primary setting, Paragon City, is divided into different zones by giant energy "war walls." Especially dangerous zones called hazard or trial zones, which teem with large groups of enemies, are restricted to heroes with a minimum security level. The game's villain side setting, the Rogue Isles, consists of islands connected by a network of ferries. A few zones are accessible to both heroes and villains; some are cooperative zones, while others are player versus player zones.
Players initially move around the zones by slowly jogging or using a minor speed increasing power such as Sprint. As heroes grow in level and accumulate more powers, they may choose among four higher speed traveling powers: Teleportation, Super Speed, Super Leaping, and Flight.
As characters level, players may choose new powers from the character's primary and secondary power sets, as set during creation, or from shared power pools. The power pools contain the four travel powers, as well as other generic, usually utilitarian powers falling under categories such as Fitness, Concealment, and Leadership. In addition, as characters level up, they gain access to new costume features, including the ability to change between up to five costumes and unlockable costume parts such as capes and auras.
Missions are obtained through various channels. Missions are typically staged on private instances accessible only to the mission holder's team by entering a door in a zone, and may require defeating a boss, escorting NPCs, or finding a particular clue or item. The level of enemies, and number of enemies per spawn, are set according to the team size, level of the mission holder, and difficulty setting of the mission holder. Amid the missions, some story arcs will emerge. These are mission sequences which form a larger story. Once outside of a mission, a player reappears at a door or location in a zone which is accessible to any player on the server.
For players who can devote a block of several hours to the game, other types of activities are available—task forces for heroes, strike forces for villains, and trials. These activities disallow adding new members to the team once started, and so consist of a series of linked missions that must be run to completion by the same team. Certain trials reward players with an opportunity to respecify their characters by choosing a different complement of superpowers within their selected power sets, and reallocating enhancement slots. Two types of Raids are available to Heroes and Villains: Rikti Mothership (in a shared zone for both Hero and Villain participants), and Hamidon (separate Hero and Villain locations), which encourage teamwork across multiple teams of players.
Teamwork is a large part of City of Heroes. Players can form supergroups reminiscent of classic comic book groups such as the X-Men or Justice League of America. Additionally, City of Heroes has a system known as sidekicking or lackeying whereby a character can temporarily increase his level while playing with a higher level character. Similarly, the system known as exemplaring or malefactoring allows a character to temporarily reduce his level while playing with a lower level character. Characters may also make leveling pacts under which the characters receive experience points equally whether online or offline, which keeps the characters at the same level.Other game features include auction houses, crafting inventions. The Architect release gives players the ability to construct custom mission arcs, with customized villains and layouts that can then be played by other players on that server.
Character creation
In character creation, the player first selects a character's origin and archetype, then primary and secondary power sets. Next, the actual avatar with its costume is created. Lastly, the player chooses a name and can optionally write a background story to add some flavor to the character as well as creating an individual battle cry.
There are five origins a player can choose for his/her character that dictate what type of enhancements the character may use, affect which single short-ranged power they begin with (in addition to powers obtained from their primary and secondary power sets), and can influence the various villain groups that the character goes up against; these origins are Natural, Magic, Science, Mutation, and Technology.
There are five basic hero archetypes, which affect a character's power choices and team role throughout the game. Blasters are versatile damage dealers, capable of fighting at short or long range against one or many opponents. Controllers are adept at preventing enemies from moving or acting. Defenders turn the tide of battle with weakening attacks (debuffs) and ally strengthening powers (buffs). Scrappers are melee fighters with a greater chance of critical hits against tough opponents such as bosses. Tankers possess great defenses and the ability to take hits for the team.
There are also five basic villain archetypes. Brutes deal increasing damage as they attack or are themselves attacked. Corruptors deal damage at range, with critical hit chances against wounded targets. Dominators assail enemies with status effects and direct damage. Masterminds summon, upgrade, and control combat pets. Stalkers are stealthy fighters, dealing critical hits when hidden or when accompanied by a team.
There are two shapeshifting hero archetypes which are unlocked after attaining level 50 with a hero on a server. Peacebringers are peaceful symbiotic aliens that have light based powers. Warshades are warlike symbiotes that are normally enemies to the Peacebringers but have reformed their evil ways. Both archetypes are capable of shapeshifting into a more offensive or more defensive form.
There are also two branching villain archetypes which are unlocked after attaining level 50 with a villain on a server. Arachnos Soldiers can branch into either a Bane Spider or Crab Spider. Arachnos Widows can branch into either a Night Widow or Fortunata.
Items
Like other MMORPGs, City of Heroes/Villains has various items that are rewarded within the game. However, many of these items are described as intangible or other-worldly; such as "inspirations" (temporary powerups) or "influence" (used instead of money), which are abstract ideas in the real world. "Enhancements"—slottable attribute boosts—also cover a range of ideas and items from magic enchantments to technological gadgets to training techniques. With the release of Issue 6, while in supergroup mode, a setting that can be toggled on and off, players accumulate prestige points which are used to improve the supergroup base.
In addition to these, there are also collectible badges for players to obtain. Gained for performing various actions in game such as moving over specific places in each zone, defeating certain numbers of enemies, healing allies, and taking damage, most serve no functional purpose for players, except to provide characters with tag lines under their character names. However, some few, called "Accolades" give players access to temporary powers and permanent bonuses to health and endurance (the game's equivalent to mana or magic points) and are gained by collecting other badges.
Players also have the option of purchasing (outside of the game) additional items known as Booster Packs, which currently include a permanent Wedding-themed expansion for costumes and emotes (actions), a 30 day Jet Pack temporary power, valkyrie themed costume items, and regular Booster Pack releases based on Player Origins available in-game (See "Updates and history" below).
Enemies
n City of Heroes there are multiple NPC groups that players fight as part of random encounters. Many enemies are found on the streets of Paragon City, whereas others are found in specific instances or areas. There are also Giant Monsters and similar events that take place in parts of the city that are even rarer, such as Lusca the Giant Octopus in the waters of the Independence Port zone or the Ghost Ship that spawns ghostly enemies in the Talos Island and Independence Port zones.
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