Human Shield
Augur
I beta tested COH for the last month.
Intro - I am a comic and superhero fan, so I had been following COH casually for a long time. I wanted the game to be good.
Creating a character - You start by selecting an origin (science, mutant, magic, tech, natural), it gives a bit of info about the background but the only effect it has is what store you go to and your first couple of missions.
Next is archtype selection. It order to balance the game they set up 5 character archtypes to pick, replacing their old free-for-all system (more on that at bottom). They were deadly afraid of someone being a "tank-mage", which to them seemed to mean great at ranged attacks and defence, never having much risk. So they set up melee fighters with defence and low defence characters with ranged, buff/de-buff, and control (holding, stunning groups of enemies) powers.
You select a primary power for your arch and then a secondary. There is some cross over between archtypes but selections for powers is somewhat limited and uncustomizable, only ranged based weak characters can get firearms and gadgets.
Then you create an outfit. This area has the most options. You can really make something cool and unique. And you better make it right because you will only be able to switch colors around after that.
Game world - This is the best part of the game IMO. You are in a modern day city, a bright 3D city with citizens and cars moving around, highways, lakes, trees, and statues. Each of the city zones can act the same but they are different enough to keep things looking nice, an industial sector, a seedy port area, a sunny beach area. And there are post-apoc looking hazard areas (loads of villian spawns) that are lovely with leaning buildings and burning cars.
And being 3D, movement powers are really great to use. With Flight you can move anywhere, super jumping can have you hopping buildings (my favorite), teleport is the fastest with range limited blinking, super speed is fast but you are land-locked and villians can shot you as you pass by.
The villian groups are also great for the game. You start out facing thugs, they will pull guns on you and hit you with sleghammers. They are around city areas threatening people, stealing purses, breaking into stores and cars; it is static animation before you get there but it is nice.The thug groups branch off into different gangs, the leaders in a group have super-powers.
There are evil cloaked mages, strange robotic wind-up bots, chemically reanimated corpses and their blood-soaked flesh doctors, mobsters, mystic ninjas, sewer-dwelling mutated homeless, cybernetic enhanced super punkers "Freakshow", techo elite mercs with jetpacks, evil super company with powerarmor and cyborg agents, interdimential aliens with advanced tech, gaint living plants that want to destroy humanity, retro-style tech henchmen (didn't see enough of them), and everyone's favorite... an underground Nazi group with martial arts assassins, genetic super soliders in power armor, mini-gun carrying infantry, science-created vampires and werewolves.
They are great enemies but you don't see classically customed villians with straight up super powers.
Gameplay - What can I say besides level treadmill. Like all MMORPGs that have been released the point is to level up. You must level up to get more powers (have to play for a week or two to get flying), and fight new enemies and see new things. There is a sidekick system that you can play with any high level friends you have. The enemies get higher in level but within a villian group just their damage numbers raise up, enemies with same gun do different damage.
There are no items in the game or crafting. While fighting you get one-time use potion like items but you have limited space and can't sell them, it works out nicely that you use them through out playing. You spend money on enhancements, items that you fit into powers to make them better. You can't use an enhancement 4 levels above or below you, so you have to maintain them. The thing is that leveling gets very slow in the mid-teens and the 20's and you have to lvl up to put new things to use. So you get long periods where you can't get any lasting reward except slowly filling up your XP gauge, if haven't met up with enough people to team-up with you are facing some boring times.
They designed the game to have 30 minute long missions that you go on, enter building into private zone and complete objectives (they are varied pretty nicely actually), so casual players could have bits of a fun at a time. The problem is that at higher levels, a single mission provides a small fraction of the needed XP, you don't walk away with anything.
The combat involves using powers and waiting for them to recharge, you are free to move. Powers use endurence and managing that is important. Overall it is fast and sweet, large groups provide fun in throwing around big powers and knocking minions around.
Player effect - In the end your actions don't matter. There are timed missions but if you fail one they give you something else. Nothing is in any real danger and there are unlimited spawning villians. Other heros get mad if you fight villians they attracted because you are taking their kills. Powerful heroes are expected to walk by muggings by lvl 1 villians because someone will get it.
COH's original rule set involved freely picking powers and combining them how ever you wanted, plus having stats like strength, intelligence (no stats anymore). But they found that dumb people made weak characters and smart people all made jack-of-trades characters that could solo. Instead of a creating a dynamic city with player villains, no levels, and base success on actions done for the city they made a static monster killing game with static story lines written in, and limited power sets.
Any questions?
Intro - I am a comic and superhero fan, so I had been following COH casually for a long time. I wanted the game to be good.
Creating a character - You start by selecting an origin (science, mutant, magic, tech, natural), it gives a bit of info about the background but the only effect it has is what store you go to and your first couple of missions.
Next is archtype selection. It order to balance the game they set up 5 character archtypes to pick, replacing their old free-for-all system (more on that at bottom). They were deadly afraid of someone being a "tank-mage", which to them seemed to mean great at ranged attacks and defence, never having much risk. So they set up melee fighters with defence and low defence characters with ranged, buff/de-buff, and control (holding, stunning groups of enemies) powers.
You select a primary power for your arch and then a secondary. There is some cross over between archtypes but selections for powers is somewhat limited and uncustomizable, only ranged based weak characters can get firearms and gadgets.
Then you create an outfit. This area has the most options. You can really make something cool and unique. And you better make it right because you will only be able to switch colors around after that.
Game world - This is the best part of the game IMO. You are in a modern day city, a bright 3D city with citizens and cars moving around, highways, lakes, trees, and statues. Each of the city zones can act the same but they are different enough to keep things looking nice, an industial sector, a seedy port area, a sunny beach area. And there are post-apoc looking hazard areas (loads of villian spawns) that are lovely with leaning buildings and burning cars.
And being 3D, movement powers are really great to use. With Flight you can move anywhere, super jumping can have you hopping buildings (my favorite), teleport is the fastest with range limited blinking, super speed is fast but you are land-locked and villians can shot you as you pass by.
The villian groups are also great for the game. You start out facing thugs, they will pull guns on you and hit you with sleghammers. They are around city areas threatening people, stealing purses, breaking into stores and cars; it is static animation before you get there but it is nice.The thug groups branch off into different gangs, the leaders in a group have super-powers.
There are evil cloaked mages, strange robotic wind-up bots, chemically reanimated corpses and their blood-soaked flesh doctors, mobsters, mystic ninjas, sewer-dwelling mutated homeless, cybernetic enhanced super punkers "Freakshow", techo elite mercs with jetpacks, evil super company with powerarmor and cyborg agents, interdimential aliens with advanced tech, gaint living plants that want to destroy humanity, retro-style tech henchmen (didn't see enough of them), and everyone's favorite... an underground Nazi group with martial arts assassins, genetic super soliders in power armor, mini-gun carrying infantry, science-created vampires and werewolves.
They are great enemies but you don't see classically customed villians with straight up super powers.
Gameplay - What can I say besides level treadmill. Like all MMORPGs that have been released the point is to level up. You must level up to get more powers (have to play for a week or two to get flying), and fight new enemies and see new things. There is a sidekick system that you can play with any high level friends you have. The enemies get higher in level but within a villian group just their damage numbers raise up, enemies with same gun do different damage.
There are no items in the game or crafting. While fighting you get one-time use potion like items but you have limited space and can't sell them, it works out nicely that you use them through out playing. You spend money on enhancements, items that you fit into powers to make them better. You can't use an enhancement 4 levels above or below you, so you have to maintain them. The thing is that leveling gets very slow in the mid-teens and the 20's and you have to lvl up to put new things to use. So you get long periods where you can't get any lasting reward except slowly filling up your XP gauge, if haven't met up with enough people to team-up with you are facing some boring times.
They designed the game to have 30 minute long missions that you go on, enter building into private zone and complete objectives (they are varied pretty nicely actually), so casual players could have bits of a fun at a time. The problem is that at higher levels, a single mission provides a small fraction of the needed XP, you don't walk away with anything.
The combat involves using powers and waiting for them to recharge, you are free to move. Powers use endurence and managing that is important. Overall it is fast and sweet, large groups provide fun in throwing around big powers and knocking minions around.
Player effect - In the end your actions don't matter. There are timed missions but if you fail one they give you something else. Nothing is in any real danger and there are unlimited spawning villians. Other heros get mad if you fight villians they attracted because you are taking their kills. Powerful heroes are expected to walk by muggings by lvl 1 villians because someone will get it.
COH's original rule set involved freely picking powers and combining them how ever you wanted, plus having stats like strength, intelligence (no stats anymore). But they found that dumb people made weak characters and smart people all made jack-of-trades characters that could solo. Instead of a creating a dynamic city with player villains, no levels, and base success on actions done for the city they made a static monster killing game with static story lines written in, and limited power sets.
Any questions?
, this is it.
