this is a fair breakdown, considering it comes from someone previously unfamiliar with CoH. Nostaligia does play a large part in its current popularity. nice to hear you're going to continue with it. just a couple corrections NCSoft did not create it, they were the publisher. Cryptic Studios and Paragon Studios were the developers. Cryptic Studios also developed Champions Online, which is why it has so many similar assets to CoH. Tailoring does not remain Free. as you level, Tailoring becomes gradually more expensive - an aspect i do not much care for, as i am prone to making stupid little tweaks that really rack up the Influence cost at lv30+. (a certain 'Day Job' is a way to mitigate that, though). if you manage to create a look you are quite happy with, very early on, you will potentially save an fortune in Influence.
*Nostalgia *a fortune i failed to effectively proofread and YT is not allowing an Edit, as it seems not to recognize NCSoft or CoH as legitimate entries. pet peeve denied! arg
Although you might have to pay in-game currency for costume changes every 10 lvls you get a tailor token so you can use that instead of cash for your costumes.
@@TheLadyLuck523 you can also earn a percentage discount from a Day Job (in this case, building up numerous Logged Out hours inside a Tailor location) that you may opt to use. for the benefit of Spectrum Z - there'll be a button at the bottom right of the Tailoring window that you can click to cycle through any payment options you have available. do make sure to check the button every time, i have wasted a Free Tailoring token on a trivial alteration - what a waste. so, if someone else can learn from my mistake, that'd be great.
Yes and no. The game came out before WoW and you touched on a few improvements. CoV came out next and Going Rogue was the third major release. Unfortunately the game shut down not too long after that so development stopped. The best thing about the game is the community. I went from CoH to WoW and was less than impressed with all the griefers. I didn't find a comparable community until I picked up LOTRO. The story, too, is top-notch. As you complete story arcs, you collect mementos that you can view and get a synopsis of your previous adventures. The server owners are creating content and gaining experience in creating assets for the game. So it may be possible to modernize the game, much like WoW has done over the years.
While it's a fair assessment, from a modern viewpoint... part of the issue you seemed be having was feeling the missions needed to be different in mechanical ways. The story text you probably clicked-past and didn't really read is what made them fun, and back in 2004 people were still wiling to read the stories, because the competitive mindset of world firsts and reaching the endgame hadn't yet taken over the entire genre. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but should you play on the villain side, I highly recommend doing the mission arc from Dr. Graves. I found it to be pretty hilarious. Also, if you find it too dull when soloing, because it's too easy... if you click the little chat icon in the lower right corner of your chat window, there's a "set notoriety" menu option there, which you can use to bump the difficulty up (or down), and also set enemy spawning as if you were on a larger team. Mission difficulty is usually based on the level you take the mission and it 's easy to outlevel content, since once you're more that a few higher than the contact's range, they won't talk to you anymore.
I've played the game, when possible, ever since it went live. I'm neither a power gamer nor a role-player, I just like playing the game. Addressing some of your points: None of us are impressed with the missions, which are mostly simplistic in presentation, but they they do improve later, especially in the later content that became hero missions 41-50 and City of Villains. Also, if you find that 2 yellow minions per group not challenging, you can very easily increase the difficulty of your missions. Also, also, if you don't like what is offered, there is an in-game mission editor that allows you to make your own content for the game and share it with others in the AE building. (That's also ground zero for XP farmers for obvious reasons.) I avoid the boring tutorial all-together and almost exclusively play on the hero side. There simply aren't enough players to make the Villain and Vigilante options viable unless you want to solo or only play at peak hours. (This may have changed for the villain side, at least in the short term, with the influx of new players in recent days.) Now some friendly advice. :) Firstly, team up with others and see how everyone's characters function together. There are no "must have" archetypes on a team, and the teams are as large as 8 (more if part of a special event league), so things can get crazy with all the powers flying around. One of the strengths that a lot of us old-timers talk about is how any combination of characters will work, provided the team is open to adapting their tactics and playing smart. I'm not sure about MMORPGs these days, but at the time that CoX was live, such a concept was unprecedented. You don't need a tank. You don't need a healer. Last night I played on a team with 3 tanks. Everything works and combos interestingly with everything else. And I have realized that no matter what role I play on a team, I feel vital and important. Secondly, the early levels are simple and boring, and you will experience very little of what it feels like to be a superhero (or supervillain or vigilante) at those levels. When my level 50+ runs down the street at 50mph or leaps over buildings, it feels... super. The powers are also at their most foundational and bland at the low levels. It takes about 20 levels to start feeling powerful, and that's not a bad thing. There is a progression. Your level 50 *feels* different than your level 10--faster, more "inspired" (more inspiration slots), and a well-rounded suite of powers. And eventually your character's archetype and power sets won't feel like other character's archetypes and power sets. And, because your character is uniquely yours in appearance and enhancement slotting, your character getting stronger feels amazing. Thirdly, the power enhancement slotting runs deep--as deep as anyone would care to go. The game does a good job of showing you the raw numbers so that players that are into crunching data and testing builds can run rampant. The highest optimization is now ridiculously expensive (in Influence or the Villain/Vigilante equivalents, the game's currency), but if you're just curious, there's an option at the end of making a character that lets you make it an insta-50 that starts in (and may never leave) a PVP zone. From what I hear, you can trick it out to your heart's content for free. Lastly, one of the things that I loved about CoH, especially in the first year of play, was the kind, helpful, friendly community. A lot of those people have returned and some of the nostalgia we feel is not only for the game itself, but the camaraderie found in CoH. That isn't a trifling thing. People actually help you in the game and want you to succeed. That's priceless, even if the game is now free.
Yes, I can completely agree that the community is what helped make the game so great. I am one of the old-timers who played it when it was brand new, and after playing CoH, every other game I played after that always made me miss having that community. I remember the LFG channel was always active and made it so easy to find people to play missions with, which helped you level faster. I remember being able to jump into the game, finding a team really quickly, and then just spending hours playing missions together, saying bye to some people as they signed off, quickly finding new people to fill the spots, and continuing to play as a team for as long as you wanted basically. This game's community really was one of the biggest positive factors about it......... besides the fun with travel powers and all the customization. 😃
I played it back in 2004 from the start till the finish, I also played on homecoming since its start, remember this was brought back by FANS, for NO pay and a lot of work. The stories open up the more powerful you become . As you mentioned itwas back in 2004, and for the record some of the features we take for granted now it opened up. like the sliders for body shapes and sizes The game engine was in pretty bad shape when they got it and they spent years cleaning it up before the servers got opened to the public. Also the servers were NOT legal and they could have been shutdown at any time. NOW that they have gotten a license. The can add more content to the game, in the past they have added storylines and NEW powersets to the game. Again while NOT getting payed. The BIGGEST thing for the game i the PLAYERS. I know of and have personally met players who got MARRIED in real life thru the game. I would say abut 95% of the players I would like in real life. And they are the MOST helpful I have ever met. I am almost 67 years old and I have loved this game for decades. While some of the missions are reputative. remember some powers are best used in different ways, and can get interesting. for example there is one mind control power that you can use to turn the mobs on each other and they get to beat themselves up.as for the graphics, in the original game they added thins like reflective . surfaces. when this started they also supported Windows 98 and such and the machines back then were much less powerful.. They also have events every so often. like a great Halloween and Christmas event with special monsters that only show up then, and you can earn special rewards. over all i give your review 4 stars out of 5.
The differences between going hero, villain or making the choice after character creation is due to the times those aspects were created. CoH was the original game, with CoV being a later expansion. Back in that time, having voice acting was uncommon because it took up so much space on the CDs/DVDs, which is why many games of that time (and earlier) were more heavily invested in text. There are some interesting stories in the game and the writers did a good job with many of them, but you have to be willing to take the time to read to get it.
Another feature you may not know about is something in the game called Architect Entertainment. This facility allows you to create your own missions! you can write the narrative yourself as well as determine the mob types, the map, how everything looks. A really robust system. And yes I often say that CoH was way ahead of its time back then. I now wonder what it would be like if it had today's technology :)
As someone who played City of Heroes/City of Villains back in the late 00's - "City of Villains" was the first expansion pack released in 2005 that let you play as the titular villains, whilst "Going Rogue" was released in 2010 as the second expansion pack that let you play Fallen Heroes and Vigilantes, before the game was closed at the end of August 2012. So you were right on "Going Rogue" being something made for the original version of the game.
So yes, you left out the most important part of the game imho..... Pocket D!!!! It is a super only dance club for both heroes and villains to chill in, it's a sanctuary so no fighting... and as it's name suggests it is set in a pocket dimension, with entrances spread throughout the city, some times in a man hole cover you lift to enter, sometimes its the back of a van. During the live game there was even a door you could go thru in Pocket D during Christmas only that I think is always open in the fan servers, you can see the snow covered mountain it takes you to out the windows. with a snow boarding track and during Christmas, a Christmas themed mission. Also in the live game, I don't know if it's in the fan game yet, there was a place to make your own missions which is quite fun.
I don't think your take is unfair, exactly, but only playing solo and to level 7 doesn't really get to the point where the game shines. For one thing, as far as I can tell you didn't even try Fly or one of the travel powers, which can be an astonishing amount of fun if you've been playing other MMOs that severely limit in-world travel. Takes to the skies, my friend!
P2W Shop was a joke. When the game was live those were all items that you could buy with real money and some of them do ondeed provide advantages. So, yeah, when they rolled the old cash shop into the vendor, they named it P2W as a joke. 😂 Also, the walls o' text are kind of annoying but can be pretty interesting if you take the time to sort through them. Meaning, some of the writing in there is actually pretty good if you ever get the time or have the patience for it.
It’s called City of Heroes, not City of Hero. While you can play single-player, it really blossoms when you join a team for missions and task forces. Also, it bears mentioning that the CoH community is the best in gaming history.
I agree. Played it from original launch to shutdown and now in it’s Homecoming rebirth for the last 3 years. By far the best community I’ve ever been a part of. The game was truly ahead of its time and manages to catch a spirit that the other SH games have not. I would love to see it overhauled to improve the graphics,but even if never gets that I’ll still be playing it for many years to come.
100% this game is so boring solo, it's all about finding a team and running mission after mission... I played the original back in the day.... so glad to see this back.... cheers
You got halfway through the tutorial and decided to make an alt. CLASSIC City of Heroes behavior, that. Alt-ism is rampant. FYI, there's a Pay 2 Win vendor in the tutorial map, right next to the first contact you talk to, a few feet away from you when you spawn there, that can give you three bonus attack powers. These were Veteran Rewards when the game was live and they were implemented, originally, to fill the low level void. At level 1, you get like 1 attack from your power sets, plus you can use the generic melee attack, Brawl, which everyone gets. You also get a free attack power that is different based on your Origin, but they're all low damage ranged attacks. If you get the 3 additional free attacks from the P2W vendor, you generally have enough attacks at the lower levels. By level 20 you should be able to ween yourself off of the Veteran Reward attacks and just use your power sets. There are actually four different bonus attack powers to choose from but you can only actually have three of them. They are, The Nemesis Staff (which looks like a large mechanical lollipop and shoots energy blasts that do damage and knock targets back), The Black Wand (which shoots a ray of dark energy), The Ghost-Slaying Axe (melee attack that does bonus damage versus ghosts, not that they're really that common or dangerous), and the Sands of Mu melee attack power, which doesn't have a prop, but is a multi-punch melee attack.
i bough city of villains back then without knowing that the family pc wont be able to run it and didnt know how to install the game,always wanted to play it i rememberthinking how im going to make and customize my villain on the way to home but never got the chance to, still have the box and the cd might download this one as a favour to 12 years old me lol
This game has tremendous depth. Especially character customization. Its completely free and no pay to win. Worth telling others to give it a try. ❤ I personally hope the game blows up. Not many good mmos out there.
@@SpectrumZ_90 What server, I'm on Indomitable and it's pretty well populated even off peak hours, and getting more popular with them just getting the License after years of trying.
@@SpectrumZ_90 wow, that sucks! I play on Everlasting, and everyone is super chill there, and always willing to lend a newbie a hand. Of course, it is the unofficial RP (roleplay) server, so you have to be okay with people doing a scene in various locations, but I think it’s very friendly.
At level 7, you've only just started mate. Just like BTO sung about - you ain't seen nothin' yet! When you tire of 'regular' missions, try story arcs, task forces, raids and (of course) the ever infamous Architect Entertainment where players make and share their own player-made missions (and, yes, some of them are insanely difficult). Top it all off with making a Supergroup at Paragon City Hall and you can gain access to the base builder...and if you thought character creation was impressive, like I said...you ain't seen nothin' yet.
The servers are NOT "still up." NCSoft shut down the game in 2012, after 8 years. Then a secret group was able to get the game software "somehow," and set up a private server where only a few of the best known players, and their friends, were invited. After a few years of the "secret server," word got out, and the folks made the game software available to others. That's the point, about 5 years ago, that several private servers were set up. The most populated is Homecoming, especially the Excelsior server. The new hosts have been making small changes and improvements, like expanding the available powersets. Homecoming takes donations to pay for the server, but is otherwise free. Homecoming is the only one of the private servers to get a license from NCSoft (so far). The others are still around, and have some differences in the game on those servers.
I'm as far as one can get from being a 'power gamer', and I love CoH. Not to try and break it by building overpowered characters, but simply to experience a vast number of combinations of different power sets, and learn how to play them. And how they play in combination with different teammates' powers. So... yeah, I think you're missing something in your review. But if you keep playing, maybe you'll find out ;-)
Yes, the buff pet has 2hp and dies instantly and constantly. This game is much better with a group, certain times of day have plenty of folks online and the community is quite lovely. Its quite easy to find regulars to play alongside. Once you get your bearings and see how the travel/maps/enchants work ( game provides little to no info tbh) the game isnt bad at all. Find ppl to play with is the key. Have fun! ✌
@@SpectrumZ_90 Jeez, sry to hear that. There are more populated shard servers than others "Excelsior" is the most populous I've seen. I'm on "Torchbearer" myself, but it gets fairly active during the evening here (Eastern Canada timezone), you can move a character 10 times from server to server if I remember correctly. Also there is a LFG tab at the top of your chat window where you can call out for a quick group to do some leveling or a raid style event together (Death from below-DFB) or the Sewers is a good group activity. I dont think there's separate Euro vs North America servers if I recall...🤔 Give it a shot, and the best of luck. I have about 3 diff toons to lv 11 and I'm figuring out the game a little better before I hit up groups, but it picks up and gets better.....and is strangely addicting. Thanks for the work you've put into the video.✌ Cheers🍻
Having a fun group to play with is something that kept me in the game until shutdown. The automatic sidekick system lets you play with people even if you aren't close to each other in level, something that pushed me out of WoW and TSW.
@@SpectrumZ_90 The community is super nice (no pun intended) and simply putting a call out (or answering someone else's LFT/LFM call) will get you in a pick-up team very quickly. Put the team lead as your Way Point and follow them through the missions. Even if you aren't well acquainted with the game, you can team and help out. If you let them know you're new, most will be even more welcoming and helpful. The CoX community is fantastic.
@@SpectrumZ_90 How exactly did you try? Did you bother to listen to the 'looking for group' channel and join in with any of the people who were organizing missions, task forces or even the ubiquitous 'Death from Below' for extremely low level characters? It really doesn't sound like you did much of anything.
I qued for dungeons and I would post in the normal and looking for group chats asking for help. I oftne got no answer or was asked what level i am before being rejected.@@Nocturnal_Rites
I have been playing it for a month now, love it! I played CoH when it first came out in 04. Hard to believe that this game has been around for 20 years!
If I was going to advise someone who is playing for the 1st time and wanted to solo, I would recommend the Brute. You end up running from battle to battle to keep your anger up, and makes the game a bit more high paced.
Fan powered remake when? Because honestly if this came out today with this level of customization but updated mission design, UI, etc I think it would be a powerhouse
First released was City of Heroes, then City of Villains (which added villains content plus heroes/ villains based/lairs), then Going Rogue (adding the alignment system). 24 free game updates. 😊 I would not refer to them as dungeons as that is more of a fantasy MMO. While the missions and mission instances in CoH can be in an office building, a cave system, a cemetery, a large cargo ship, a spaceship, a lab, etc.
Played CoH from beta, and continue to enjoy it. It's a very chill game, where anyone can group with anyone else (would recommend playing on the most populous server for your time zone if you want folks to group with), and there's no barrier to leveling -- that being, any level character can group with any other level character/s and it still works. Hero side is always more populated, and always has been, though CoV did have a heyday when the expansion first dropped. The nice thing about that is on the Homecoming servers, you don't need to do the morality missions if you don't want to (though going through them at least once can be fun!) -- there is an NPC in Pocket D (the neutral enforced dance club where everyone gets down and boogies with everyone else, hero, villain and everything in-between) that will change your alignment to anything you please. So, if someone says -- hey! doing group content and looking for others Villain side! -- if you want to join them on their rampage, just talk to the NPC and BOOM, you're a villain, so you can group up. And afterwards, if you don't want to continue in the villain zones, or follow those arcs, just pop back into Pocket D, talk to the NPC and WHAM, you're a Hero once more. The sheer level of flexibility to grouping (in Homecoming's iteration of the servers) is boundless. Group content gets much more engaging at higher levels. For instance Task Forces, or their evil counterparts, Strike Forces, can be so much fun! Don't feel like following story arcs (though the stories themselves can be very engrossing the first time through, if you follow the story)? Try progressing through radio missions (stand alone missions without any "real" story that leads to a really fun timed mega map where you get to test your mettle against a signature hero or villain), or through any of the thousands of missions (or entire story arcs) created by fellow players in Architect Entertainment (shorthanded to AE). This can also be a lot of fun, because there's so much variety of mission (and mission arc) styles. And yes, even though the developers have hit AE missions with the nerf bat more than once, AE is the place to be if you want to zoom to level 50 (max level). Another fun aspect to chase are Invention enhancements -- crafted enhancements that retain their viability, and aren't "out leveled" like every other type of enhancement -- especially the Invention sets that have set bonuses. The more of the set you either buy or craft yourself in the same unique set, the more set bonuses that particular power, or all your powers, get. Want to play the market instead? You can totally do that: watch market trends, see what's selling well, and either do content to earn the currency that item costs, or outright buy low and sell high. Want to be a crafting fiend? You can do that too. Feeling socially deprived? Join a Super Group -- a great way to get around CoX zones quickly, and (potentially) fill the void with chatter. Want to do even harder content than cranking up the difficulty (either by raising the level of the opponents, or their spawn sizes, or both)? There are scripted events to join that have a steeper learning curve. Or chase more completionism goals like exploring all the points of interest in every zone, or reading all the lore, and earn accolade powers, titles, pets, the list goes on. Endgame content can be as grindy or lax as you want it to be. There are all sorts of rewards for following story arcs all the way to the end, much more challenging group content, raids, "popcorn" PvP matches. Also, holiday events. And, when you get bored with all that, make a new toon and try it all again. Chase the meta, or choose a power set combination guaranteed to make you weep. Follow different story paths, make a billion outfits. Take part in or organize costume contests, and hand out or receive cash prizes. If the game grabs your interest, there's just so much to do. And, hopefully, much more to do as the Homecoming developers expand the game. For a good starter guide: forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/18989-the-complete-newcomers-guide-to-city-of-heroes-starting-out-with-your-first-character/ There are even better, more comprehensive guides out there to be found. Best advice? Go nuts; have fun. IMHO, whether a returning nostalgist, or a curious passer-by, City of Heroes is worth checking out. Cheers!
You can turn up your instance mission difficulty if you find it too easy. Early game starts very slow. It's also a different game playing with a bunch of people. The P2W vendor is the items you would get from the prestige system and special editions of the past boxed games. MAKE SURE TO GRAB THE 100% XP BOOST from that P2W vendor.
If you play on the right servers you already get a huge xp boost. If you are rolling a new character for the first time I don't recommend the 100% boost as you will not be saving any money up that you will need to upgrade enhancements at higher levels.
I can only hope Wildstar gets the same treatment one day... In terms of superhero mmos, I liked Champions Online better BEFORE it went full stupid with the "free" 2 play monetization.
It's sad because Champions WAS an improved CoH, without the content and mainly because of the lazy devs, but if people had played it maybe it might still be a real game.
people might have already pointed this out.... but.... with the tutorials, outbreak was the original and breakout came later when the City of Villains expansion came out. much later they introduce the alignment missions to switch from one side to the next and then they game out with the "neutral" starting area. with the new start to the game where you choose your alignment, the two older starting areas were no longer selectable. when Homecoming came out, they brought back the other two starting areas for nostalgia's sake. it wasn't a big deal to remove the two older starting areas because with the Ouroboros system you could go back and play all content that you might have missed and even visit those lost staring zones for a similar quest. that was kind of a requirement because there's a badge in each of those starting areas that you can earn
So my greatest claim to fame in CoH was being part of the fantastic, heroic, amazing..... Steel 70. See there was this expansion set to come out that would introduce an out door world event on a cycle, the aliens you brought up that made people go mad, the Rikti, would have drop ships fly thru zones on a set schedule bombing and dropping baddies. They were testing this on the beta server and the devs had said the ships themselves were unbeatable, you just were supposed to fight the baddies on the ground to minimize the damage till they left. BUT the devs gave the ships HP tho very very high, and they were ABLE to be hit... so of course us players had to give it a try. So the word went out to show up on the test server on a set day at a set time. And being the test server you could copy your character from the live server to the test one.... 50 originally said they would go, at least 70 people ended up showing up, this the devs did not plan for. Not only did we defeat one ship... we DESTROYED them all, stopping them in their tracks and killed one as the next got to us, like a ship destroying assembly line. We did it in the zone Steel Canyon, which is why we dubbed ourselves the Steel 70. CoH also had a way for you to "record" the game, basically just record all the info about what went on, that you would then "play" thru the game client, another amazing idea you don't see anymore. The cool thing is since it was all local and not thru the server, if you had a good machine... no lag. So someone made 2 videos of the fight you can see here: His Original: ruclips.net/video/FHPk6oGXXcw/видео.html His Remix and Re-Edit: ruclips.net/video/eHBL5THgh8Y/видео.html But at the time in game... the lag oooooh the lag, I had to turn my particle effects all the way down just to make it somewhat playable, so with the video it is awesome to get to watch it with all the particle effects going full blast You can see me good about 23 seconds in the first one, on the far right of the screen, I am in an all black costume surrounded by light blue ice. I was an Ice/Ice tank named Supercold, basically a tank that uses cc mechanics to tank, very unique concept which i loved. when the private server went up I still had most of my costumes saved so I was able to import them in to the private server client
I loved seeing that vid! I remember a portion of the league of supes attacking the Rikti mother ship in the WZ attacked one of them, but I honestly can't remember if we were successful. I know it's still theoretically possible. Do you know if the devs beefed up the dropships after your counter-attack?
For me this game is all about character building and getting the pieces of the puzzle you need to become a SUPER hero. There is a program (Mids Reborn) that allows you to plot a build before you start. There is also an auction house that allows you to buy and sell just about everything in the game. I started playing this game in 2004 and still play some now.
It's probably the only Free 2 play MMORPG that is worth it for a continued playthrough, although running different heroes through the same stories can get tedious after awhile, you start to learn which builds fit your play style pretty early. I really like it.
Stopping at only level 7 really impacted your view of the game, as you are still basically doing tutorial mission til you get past 10th. And grouping up always makes everything better. Hell, if you have form an actual supergroup you can build your own secret base!
I wonder how the algorithm would enjoy a "Return To" series for these types of reviews. Like a follow up to games you did decide to continue jamming on.
@@donniem7979 I am planning to return to this as I wasn't in a good head space at the time. But the algorithm is a fickle bitch no matter what content you make
this is one of the most played mmo i have when the game was release. this is my thoughts on it. How i see it, City of heroes is a game to play casually. while wow is great for dungeons and boss fights, and final fantasy xiv is great for stories, this game is best in turning off your brain and just recklessly fight stuff with you unique powers with friends. there is so many fighting styles that you can just have many characters to play. how i see it, i love to play it simply because i won't have to think so much, i just play, have fun, and leave when i get boried. it's great to play with friends, the group play extends to 8 people, and you can play any kind of groups you want. healers and tanks are optional. also, you don't really have to judge this game too much, in the end, it's still a dead game that is being held together by a fan base. so any improvements could only be done by the different servers that runs it. if one server is not to one's satisfaction, it doesn't hurt to try another. though i think homecoming simply just have the most people since it's the first. my only recommendation about this game, is to just play with friends. make a character and create a power set that can work well with your partners. and when you do that, you can also change the difficulty to your dungeon ;) you can make it so the enemies are harder or increase their numbers ;) finding a right balance for your ability :) and in case you don't know, there is also a sidekick system. level 5 players can fight alongside 40 players in dungeons, and vise versa so no content is out of reach :) one more thing to point out. if you don't feel like reading, all text can be highlighted and copy :) there are some text to speech that can read on clipboard copy :)
The devs kept adding new "tech" to the missions so content that was made later has more going on (like choices). For a new player, there isn't really a way to know what's old and what isn't - since they added content to all levels (so it's not just "higher level = better"). Signature Story Arcs, Mayhem Missions, and so on add to the variety. In the end, your still running around a city beating up dudes - if that doesn't do it for you, then it's not going to be a good fit.
The "furry" comment sold me. From a veteran City of Heroes player from 2005 (my PC was barely able to play it), I loved this analysis and I hope it gets the attention it deserves. I've played dozens of MMOs and I can't find a single one like this one.
@@SpectrumZ_90 The game has changed drastically to the point of me finding out new things every time I'm hopping back in. Would love to play sometime, maybe we can get you to a level of beating missions above base difficulty 🤗
For anyone new to CoH and must simply play a minion build I do not recommend a mastermind, they have been nerfed to hell and back and have been relegated to a support/DPS. If you must have a minion build I would reccomend illusions/FF controller. It is an absolute beast once it is online but getting there will be like pulling teeth. That being said, it will be a blast once you have it set up as your perma minions will be invincible and your character will be invisible making you more invincible, unless you choose anything but flying then you can get smacked down on occasion.
You power level to 50 THEN start playing the game by exploring builds and storylines through time travel. Everyone will say how you can play any way you want... but that's like saying you can win WoW raiding by only fishing.
I work with my sg old friends that were leet on this. they are all very much older I was the youngest ever to join and Im 35 now. I wish you would have had some support of older exp players to do a review to really show you what the game fully has to offer you missed alot and right fully so. You really have to read and become apart of the community to learn whats around. like Pocket d or the other party places you have not been to. I play with 8 plus players on a group every week we have more then 30 players just playing around and have advanced experience in over all game play
Also on the topic of metrics and time spent making videos I'll just say most creators these days have 3-5 weeks of banked content to pull from as they make new content. If you only make the video you're about to release then you'll always find yourself "falling behind"
While this might be true for some, others are able to get good metrics while having several weeks apart in videos because of the traffic their content brings in. Currently I am working on a back log as I had to take some time away to recover but there is nothing to say it will improve things for my channel but I will continue to make one anyway
So, I've watched about 17 minutes of this, out of interest for some potential friends who I want to get into this. A few notes: It's much more fun playing in teams. (As noted by others) You complain about the "book" part, but that's part of the fun and part of what sets it aside from others like WoW. Unless you need to for some reason, it's better to not engage the mobs on the world map, this becomes easier one you unlock your travel power. Sincerely, someone who paid to play with as far back as 2004.
@@aaronnester5132 at the time my uncle passed away and I wasn't able to focus on it properly. I plan on replaying this with some friends to get a better video out
If you wanted more going on around you in the beginning, you should have chose the Galaxcy City tutorial......The ones you chose is one of the quiter tutorials(there are 3).
As you probably figured out, you Pratoria is the least player populated location in the game....If you want to see other players, choose Hero side(blue side).......Villain side is better than Pratoria, but still not as populated as hero side.
I recreated about 30 of my favorite Marvel heroes and villain down to their look, (as close as possible) powers, and even name. Iron Man, Spider-Man, Magneto, Omega Red, Punisher, Colossus, Wolverine, Deadpool, Quicksilver, etc. It was a blast. Sorry, but I picked the best characters and their names, so you'll have to pick a different, generic name for your characters as I've already registered mine. Come and join me!
@@SpectrumZ_90 I built a Hulk and a Juggernaut. Both clean house. Omega Red is good as is Wolverine. You really want something that is hard to kill and kills easy. Daredevil is hard to hit, but magneto nullifies the enemy as does Mister Sinister. Cable is versatile and deadly (Temporal Shifting). I mention these characters only to get you to think about their abilities. It's easy but you need a clear picture of what they do and go from there. Hope this helps you?
You only felt like the game was empty or without people cause you did the tutorial hehe, I think its important to remember with a lot of "problems" one may have this was somewhat the Classic MMO way and the game is 20 years old, a ton of the fun of this game is teaming up with others and id also say you may greatly enjoy PVP or you may not but i think its more of what is fun about there being Heroes and Villain players
To be fair, you didnt scratch the surface. It does get better at higher level. But, the game is dated and there is only so much the devs can do with the code. Its still a good game for the genre.
@@brendyllyon at the time I was going through a loss in that family. Normally I go deeper in but it was hard to stay motivated and focused so when I play again I can get deeper into the content. Can you recommend a good solo build?
Sorry for your loss. I hope you find the time to play more, as you are able. Solo builds are a matter of opinion and taste. I would stay away from choosing support sets at first, you can get more power sets as you play. Have a decent combat option as either Primary or secondary. Then you can add power sets as you level.
Lmao it doesnt hold your hand dude your not used to old school mmos and let me tell you this game did it right and is considered more casual try not to take the game at face value its far deeper then you think bro, people respect you more when your more objective clearly if your not a real mmorpg fan you wont like it at first as much. I still gave it a like your still a good reviewer.
I don't think you assessment if accurate. you observations and lack of game knowledge shows. To be fair all games you review should be more than level 7. Like this is my first time watching this video and I think it is horrible. For CoH if your into superheroes this really the best game regardless of its age. I think SWG is the best star wars game made. Btw I like the look of your toon and may take it 😊.
Im an OG CoH player and i understand the point of view this guy is having. But once you get into this game. The Merits. The Trials/raids, farming etc. Man... The builds you can make... Theres a reason they gave you 1000 character slots... You get addicted to "just creating a new character" 🤭
@@SpectrumZ_90 im from the old old days. So the first thing i did when Homecoming servers were up. Was making a fire/kin controller (back in the days they could out dps anything, and with the right enhancement sets you'd be tanky af!) Long story short. Fire/kin went outdated. Im personally playing on a fire/spines brute. (Im a farmer) Really really strong build, i think i threw 1billion into my build (10x 100mil) I havent played for over a year now, currently playing other games. But ill strongly advise you to make a farm character, so you can run AE farm missions (every farm map i did got me around 35-50mil each run) If youre familiar with the AE missions, go there and search for "Terminator" a map will come up something called withb"save Sarah o Connor from the t-2000,'s" or something like that ... This map. Is a old school farm map. Not alot of people know this map, but this is literally the only map im farming (farming is also powerlevelling) so if you take people into your farm runs, they will lvl up suuuuper fast! (This was how you lvled up fast back in the day) Just take in mind, having people in your farm group, diminishes the outcome you get in "influence" since influence/loot is spread randomly to group members, where if youre alone, you get all the loot/influence.. (Alot of these farm runs will get you a fair amount of purple recipes, wich sell for 10/20mil each) Sorry for the TLDR, comment... But if you want my advice, get the Hero Creator program, it lets you build your character, plus you can get other peoples builds shared into the program for you to "copy" so to speak. (Cant remember the name of program as we speak) But i think a quick google search will find it. Then i would make a fire/spines brute for your farming needs and influence growth. After that, and this is where im at. After you have a farm character, influence/money wont be a problem anymore, so now you can build/buy whatever build you want to try out ? A perfect solo build ... Back when i was playing (if were talking soloing content of the game) .. dont hate me if i cant remember it exactly. Some time ago i played. But its a controller with the decoys .. my brain just totally flatlined.. i cant remember the names 😤 its the controller archetype, and is it mind? Where the last "ability " in that set is spawning "decoys" of yourself to help you in battle. If its mind (i cant remember) Then do a mind/time controller, i was able to solo "Av's" on him .. Av's is archevillains.. wich usually you need a group to take down...
@@SpectrumZ_90 ughr, i wish i hadnt disassembled my computer, then i would hop on and begift you 100mill, plus i could see which builds im running 😤 think i have 3 accounts with different characters/builds 😤 I dont know if you can add me as a character name or if you DO need my "account name". But try add my farmers name "Hell Bovine" Quite famous character around some people. If ever im going to be online at some point, its on that guy 😇✌️ If you see me online, feel free to write me. Ill help as much as possible
@@SpectrumZ_90 sorry to hear that! As far as i remember, the OG people playing COH is actually quite helpfull people! BUT!! yes, this is somewhat a thing in getting used to hear in alot of games... Games are cool, but its the community of players that typically ruins the experience.. Sad to hear that! Game was great back in its prime! So nostalgic to watch you play it ❤️
this is a fair breakdown, considering it comes from someone previously unfamiliar with CoH. Nostaligia does play a large part in its current popularity. nice to hear you're going to continue with it.
just a couple corrections
NCSoft did not create it, they were the publisher. Cryptic Studios and Paragon Studios were the developers. Cryptic Studios also developed Champions Online, which is why it has so many similar assets to CoH.
Tailoring does not remain Free. as you level, Tailoring becomes gradually more expensive - an aspect i do not much care for, as i am prone to making stupid little tweaks that really rack up the Influence cost at lv30+. (a certain 'Day Job' is a way to mitigate that, though). if you manage to create a look you are quite happy with, very early on, you will potentially save an fortune in Influence.
Thank you for the corrections
*Nostalgia
*a fortune
i failed to effectively proofread and YT is not allowing an Edit, as it seems not to recognize NCSoft or CoH as legitimate entries. pet peeve denied! arg
Although you might have to pay in-game currency for costume changes every 10 lvls you get a tailor token so you can use that instead of cash for your costumes.
@@TheLadyLuck523 you can also earn a percentage discount from a Day Job (in this case, building up numerous Logged Out hours inside a Tailor location) that you may opt to use. for the benefit of Spectrum Z - there'll be a button at the bottom right of the Tailoring window that you can click to cycle through any payment options you have available.
do make sure to check the button every time, i have wasted a Free Tailoring token on a trivial alteration - what a waste. so, if someone else can learn from my mistake, that'd be great.
Yes and no. The game came out before WoW and you touched on a few improvements. CoV came out next and Going Rogue was the third major release. Unfortunately the game shut down not too long after that so development stopped.
The best thing about the game is the community. I went from CoH to WoW and was less than impressed with all the griefers. I didn't find a comparable community until I picked up LOTRO.
The story, too, is top-notch. As you complete story arcs, you collect mementos that you can view and get a synopsis of your previous adventures.
The server owners are creating content and gaining experience in creating assets for the game. So it may be possible to modernize the game, much like WoW has done over the years.
While it's a fair assessment, from a modern viewpoint... part of the issue you seemed be having was feeling the missions needed to be different in mechanical ways. The story text you probably clicked-past and didn't really read is what made them fun, and back in 2004 people were still wiling to read the stories, because the competitive mindset of world firsts and reaching the endgame hadn't yet taken over the entire genre.
I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but should you play on the villain side, I highly recommend doing the mission arc from Dr. Graves. I found it to be pretty hilarious.
Also, if you find it too dull when soloing, because it's too easy... if you click the little chat icon in the lower right corner of your chat window, there's a "set notoriety" menu option there, which you can use to bump the difficulty up (or down), and also set enemy spawning as if you were on a larger team. Mission difficulty is usually based on the level you take the mission and it 's easy to outlevel content, since once you're more that a few higher than the contact's range, they won't talk to you anymore.
Yep. This is a game that tells you very little about how to play it, but once you figure it out, it becomes very satisfying.
I've played the game, when possible, ever since it went live. I'm neither a power gamer nor a role-player, I just like playing the game. Addressing some of your points: None of us are impressed with the missions, which are mostly simplistic in presentation, but they they do improve later, especially in the later content that became hero missions 41-50 and City of Villains. Also, if you find that 2 yellow minions per group not challenging, you can very easily increase the difficulty of your missions. Also, also, if you don't like what is offered, there is an in-game mission editor that allows you to make your own content for the game and share it with others in the AE building. (That's also ground zero for XP farmers for obvious reasons.) I avoid the boring tutorial all-together and almost exclusively play on the hero side. There simply aren't enough players to make the Villain and Vigilante options viable unless you want to solo or only play at peak hours. (This may have changed for the villain side, at least in the short term, with the influx of new players in recent days.)
Now some friendly advice. :)
Firstly, team up with others and see how everyone's characters function together. There are no "must have" archetypes on a team, and the teams are as large as 8 (more if part of a special event league), so things can get crazy with all the powers flying around. One of the strengths that a lot of us old-timers talk about is how any combination of characters will work, provided the team is open to adapting their tactics and playing smart. I'm not sure about MMORPGs these days, but at the time that CoX was live, such a concept was unprecedented. You don't need a tank. You don't need a healer. Last night I played on a team with 3 tanks. Everything works and combos interestingly with everything else. And I have realized that no matter what role I play on a team, I feel vital and important.
Secondly, the early levels are simple and boring, and you will experience very little of what it feels like to be a superhero (or supervillain or vigilante) at those levels. When my level 50+ runs down the street at 50mph or leaps over buildings, it feels... super. The powers are also at their most foundational and bland at the low levels. It takes about 20 levels to start feeling powerful, and that's not a bad thing. There is a progression. Your level 50 *feels* different than your level 10--faster, more "inspired" (more inspiration slots), and a well-rounded suite of powers. And eventually your character's archetype and power sets won't feel like other character's archetypes and power sets. And, because your character is uniquely yours in appearance and enhancement slotting, your character getting stronger feels amazing.
Thirdly, the power enhancement slotting runs deep--as deep as anyone would care to go. The game does a good job of showing you the raw numbers so that players that are into crunching data and testing builds can run rampant. The highest optimization is now ridiculously expensive (in Influence or the Villain/Vigilante equivalents, the game's currency), but if you're just curious, there's an option at the end of making a character that lets you make it an insta-50 that starts in (and may never leave) a PVP zone. From what I hear, you can trick it out to your heart's content for free.
Lastly, one of the things that I loved about CoH, especially in the first year of play, was the kind, helpful, friendly community. A lot of those people have returned and some of the nostalgia we feel is not only for the game itself, but the camaraderie found in CoH. That isn't a trifling thing. People actually help you in the game and want you to succeed. That's priceless, even if the game is now free.
There has been an influx of players since NCSoft gave Homecoming the official game license.
This. So much this.
Yes, I can completely agree that the community is what helped make the game so great. I am one of the old-timers who played it when it was brand new, and after playing CoH, every other game I played after that always made me miss having that community. I remember the LFG channel was always active and made it so easy to find people to play missions with, which helped you level faster. I remember being able to jump into the game, finding a team really quickly, and then just spending hours playing missions together, saying bye to some people as they signed off, quickly finding new people to fill the spots, and continuing to play as a team for as long as you wanted basically.
This game's community really was one of the biggest positive factors about it......... besides the fun with travel powers and all the customization. 😃
Its great to see City Of Heroes content on RUclips.
Was good to try
Despite I've never played this game I'm glad it came back and didn't get forgotten like most of the MMO games
seems to be a more common thing now. a welcome one too
I play Homecoming nearly everyday the past 3 years. Joined the Beta for original the last week of Jan 2004... 20 year anniversary. Woot
I played it back in 2004 from the start till the finish, I also played on homecoming since its start, remember this was brought back by FANS, for NO pay and a lot of work. The stories open up the more powerful you become . As you mentioned itwas back in 2004, and for the record some of the features we take for granted now it opened up. like the sliders for body shapes and sizes
The game engine was in pretty bad shape when they got it and they spent years cleaning it up before the servers got opened to the public. Also the servers were NOT legal and they could have been shutdown at any time. NOW that they have gotten a license. The can add more content to the game, in the past they have added storylines and NEW powersets to the game.
Again while NOT getting payed. The BIGGEST thing for the game i the PLAYERS. I know of and have personally met players who got MARRIED in real life thru the game. I would say abut 95% of the players I would like in real life. And they are the MOST helpful I have ever met. I am almost 67 years old and I have loved this game for decades. While some of the missions are reputative. remember some powers are best used in different ways, and can get interesting. for example there is one mind control power that you can use to turn the mobs on each other and
they get to beat themselves up.as for the graphics, in the original game they added thins like
reflective . surfaces. when this started they also supported Windows 98 and such and the machines back then were much less powerful.. They also have events every so often. like a great Halloween and Christmas event with special monsters that only show up then, and you can earn special rewards. over all i give your review 4 stars out of 5.
The differences between going hero, villain or making the choice after character creation is due to the times those aspects were created. CoH was the original game, with CoV being a later expansion. Back in that time, having voice acting was uncommon because it took up so much space on the CDs/DVDs, which is why many games of that time (and earlier) were more heavily invested in text. There are some interesting stories in the game and the writers did a good job with many of them, but you have to be willing to take the time to read to get it.
Another feature you may not know about is something in the game called Architect Entertainment. This facility allows you to create your own missions! you can write the narrative yourself as well as determine the mob types, the map, how everything looks. A really robust system. And yes I often say that CoH was way ahead of its time back then. I now wonder what it would be like if it had today's technology :)
I mentioned it at the end when I was talking about things I couldn't cover. I might redo this s review someday when I'm in a better head soace
It's also amazing how ahead of its time it is for how fuckin terrible the UI is 😂
As someone who played City of Heroes/City of Villains back in the late 00's - "City of Villains" was the first expansion pack released in 2005 that let you play as the titular villains, whilst "Going Rogue" was released in 2010 as the second expansion pack that let you play Fallen Heroes and Vigilantes, before the game was closed at the end of August 2012.
So you were right on "Going Rogue" being something made for the original version of the game.
The million little costume changes really add to the game. Back when COH 1st came out I would restart a character to change one small detail
So yes, you left out the most important part of the game imho..... Pocket D!!!! It is a super only dance club for both heroes and villains to chill in, it's a sanctuary so no fighting... and as it's name suggests it is set in a pocket dimension, with entrances spread throughout the city, some times in a man hole cover you lift to enter, sometimes its the back of a van. During the live game there was even a door you could go thru in Pocket D during Christmas only that I think is always open in the fan servers, you can see the snow covered mountain it takes you to out the windows. with a snow boarding track and during Christmas, a Christmas themed mission.
Also in the live game, I don't know if it's in the fan game yet, there was a place to make your own missions which is quite fun.
Level 37 and loving it even more now than 2007ish.
I don't think your take is unfair, exactly, but only playing solo and to level 7 doesn't really get to the point where the game shines. For one thing, as far as I can tell you didn't even try Fly or one of the travel powers, which can be an astonishing amount of fun if you've been playing other MMOs that severely limit in-world travel. Takes to the skies, my friend!
Yeah. I was in a real bad place at the time so I wasn't thinking straight. Now I'm better I plan to go further in my next MMO review
P2W Shop was a joke. When the game was live those were all items that you could buy with real money and some of them do ondeed provide advantages.
So, yeah, when they rolled the old cash shop into the vendor, they named it P2W as a joke. 😂
Also, the walls o' text are kind of annoying but can be pretty interesting if you take the time to sort through them. Meaning, some of the writing in there is actually pretty good if you ever get the time or have the patience for it.
Very good take on the game. I think I was in the character creation for about an hour. There are so many options.
I think I was too XD
It’s called City of Heroes, not City of Hero. While you can play single-player, it really blossoms when you join a team for missions and task forces. Also, it bears mentioning that the CoH community is the best in gaming history.
I agree. Played it from original launch to shutdown and now in it’s Homecoming rebirth for the last 3 years. By far the best community I’ve ever been a part of. The game was truly ahead of its time and manages to catch a spirit that the other SH games have not. I would love to see it overhauled to improve the graphics,but even if never gets that I’ll still be playing it for many years to come.
Exactly it's one of the best gaming communities of all times.
100% this game is so boring solo, it's all about finding a team and running mission after mission... I played the original back in the day.... so glad to see this back.... cheers
You got halfway through the tutorial and decided to make an alt. CLASSIC City of Heroes behavior, that. Alt-ism is rampant. FYI, there's a Pay 2 Win vendor in the tutorial map, right next to the first contact you talk to, a few feet away from you when you spawn there, that can give you three bonus attack powers. These were Veteran Rewards when the game was live and they were implemented, originally, to fill the low level void. At level 1, you get like 1 attack from your power sets, plus you can use the generic melee attack, Brawl, which everyone gets. You also get a free attack power that is different based on your Origin, but they're all low damage ranged attacks. If you get the 3 additional free attacks from the P2W vendor, you generally have enough attacks at the lower levels. By level 20 you should be able to ween yourself off of the Veteran Reward attacks and just use your power sets. There are actually four different bonus attack powers to choose from but you can only actually have three of them. They are, The Nemesis Staff (which looks like a large mechanical lollipop and shoots energy blasts that do damage and knock targets back), The Black Wand (which shoots a ray of dark energy), The Ghost-Slaying Axe (melee attack that does bonus damage versus ghosts, not that they're really that common or dangerous), and the Sands of Mu melee attack power, which doesn't have a prop, but is a multi-punch melee attack.
i bough city of villains back then without knowing that the family pc wont be able to run it and didnt know how to install the game,always wanted to play it i rememberthinking how im going to make and customize my villain on the way to home but never got the chance to, still have the box and the cd
might download this one as a favour to 12 years old me lol
wow, vintage. I'd advise doing so and hope you have fun.
This game has tremendous depth. Especially character customization. Its completely free and no pay to win. Worth telling others to give it a try. ❤ I personally hope the game blows up. Not many good mmos out there.
Play it with other people it becomes amazing...
I would if there was people for me to play with
@SpectrumZ_90 Maybe your channel viewers would be willing to join you. It's worth a shot. You could even stream it.
@@SpectrumZ_90 What server, I'm on Indomitable and it's pretty well populated even off peak hours, and getting more popular with them just getting the License after years of trying.
indominitable but i often got turned down for being green as grass new
@@Santoroz
@@SpectrumZ_90 wow, that sucks! I play on Everlasting, and everyone is super chill there, and always willing to lend a newbie a hand. Of course, it is the unofficial RP (roleplay) server, so you have to be okay with people doing a scene in various locations, but I think it’s very friendly.
At level 7, you've only just started mate. Just like BTO sung about - you ain't seen nothin' yet! When you tire of 'regular' missions, try story arcs, task forces, raids and (of course) the ever infamous Architect Entertainment where players make and share their own player-made missions (and, yes, some of them are insanely difficult). Top it all off with making a Supergroup at Paragon City Hall and you can gain access to the base builder...and if you thought character creation was impressive, like I said...you ain't seen nothin' yet.
Been playing for a couple of weeks now and it is even better than I remember it
Wait... the servers are still up? Oh no the return of my villian is nigh.
Still up and ready to go
Homecoming has the NCSoft license now too.
The servers are NOT "still up." NCSoft shut down the game in 2012, after 8 years. Then a secret group was able to get the game software "somehow," and set up a private server where only a few of the best known players, and their friends, were invited. After a few years of the "secret server," word got out, and the folks made the game software available to others. That's the point, about 5 years ago, that several private servers were set up.
The most populated is Homecoming, especially the Excelsior server. The new hosts have been making small changes and improvements, like expanding the available powersets. Homecoming takes donations to pay for the server, but is otherwise free.
Homecoming is the only one of the private servers to get a license from NCSoft (so far). The others are still around, and have some differences in the game on those servers.
I'm as far as one can get from being a 'power gamer', and I love CoH. Not to try and break it by building overpowered characters, but simply to experience a vast number of combinations of different power sets, and learn how to play them. And how they play in combination with different teammates' powers. So... yeah, I think you're missing something in your review. But if you keep playing, maybe you'll find out ;-)
Yes, the buff pet has 2hp and dies instantly and constantly.
This game is much better with a group, certain times of day have plenty of folks online and the community is quite lovely.
Its quite easy to find regulars to play alongside.
Once you get your bearings and see how the travel/maps/enchants work ( game provides little to no info tbh) the game isnt bad at all.
Find ppl to play with is the key.
Have fun! ✌
If I had ppl to play with I would certainly do that. Sadly wasn't something I have or could get
@@SpectrumZ_90 Jeez, sry to hear that. There are more populated shard servers than others "Excelsior" is the most populous I've seen. I'm on "Torchbearer" myself, but it gets fairly active during the evening here (Eastern Canada timezone), you can move a character 10 times from server to server if I remember correctly. Also there is a LFG tab at the top of your chat window where you can call out for a quick group to do some leveling or a raid style event together (Death from below-DFB) or the Sewers is a good group activity. I dont think there's separate Euro vs North America servers if I recall...🤔
Give it a shot, and the best of luck.
I have about 3 diff toons to lv 11 and I'm figuring out the game a little better before I hit up groups, but it picks up and gets better.....and is strangely addicting.
Thanks for the work you've put into the video.✌ Cheers🍻
Having a fun group to play with is something that kept me in the game until shutdown. The automatic sidekick system lets you play with people even if you aren't close to each other in level, something that pushed me out of WoW and TSW.
@@SpectrumZ_90 The community is super nice (no pun intended) and simply putting a call out (or answering someone else's LFT/LFM call) will get you in a pick-up team very quickly. Put the team lead as your Way Point and follow them through the missions. Even if you aren't well acquainted with the game, you can team and help out. If you let them know you're new, most will be even more welcoming and helpful. The CoX community is fantastic.
That's why I have so much more fun playing as a team in this game. And other players usually love to collaborate.
Not when I tried
@@SpectrumZ_90 How exactly did you try? Did you bother to listen to the 'looking for group' channel and join in with any of the people who were organizing missions, task forces or even the ubiquitous 'Death from Below' for extremely low level characters? It really doesn't sound like you did much of anything.
I qued for dungeons and I would post in the normal and looking for group chats asking for help. I oftne got no answer or was asked what level i am before being rejected.@@Nocturnal_Rites
I have been playing it for a month now, love it! I played CoH when it first came out in 04. Hard to believe that this game has been around for 20 years!
If I was going to advise someone who is playing for the 1st time and wanted to solo, I would recommend the Brute. You end up running from battle to battle to keep your anger up, and makes the game a bit more high paced.
Fan powered remake when? Because honestly if this came out today with this level of customization but updated mission design, UI, etc I think it would be a powerhouse
First released was City of Heroes, then City of Villains (which added villains content plus heroes/ villains based/lairs), then Going Rogue (adding the alignment system). 24 free game updates. 😊
I would not refer to them as dungeons as that is more of a fantasy MMO. While the missions and mission instances in CoH can be in an office building, a cave system, a cemetery, a large cargo ship, a spaceship, a lab, etc.
Played CoH from beta, and continue to enjoy it. It's a very chill game, where anyone can group with anyone else (would recommend playing on the most populous server for your time zone if you want folks to group with), and there's no barrier to leveling -- that being, any level character can group with any other level character/s and it still works. Hero side is always more populated, and always has been, though CoV did have a heyday when the expansion first dropped. The nice thing about that is on the Homecoming servers, you don't need to do the morality missions if you don't want to (though going through them at least once can be fun!) -- there is an NPC in Pocket D (the neutral enforced dance club where everyone gets down and boogies with everyone else, hero, villain and everything in-between) that will change your alignment to anything you please. So, if someone says -- hey! doing group content and looking for others Villain side! -- if you want to join them on their rampage, just talk to the NPC and BOOM, you're a villain, so you can group up. And afterwards, if you don't want to continue in the villain zones, or follow those arcs, just pop back into Pocket D, talk to the NPC and WHAM, you're a Hero once more. The sheer level of flexibility to grouping (in Homecoming's iteration of the servers) is boundless.
Group content gets much more engaging at higher levels. For instance Task Forces, or their evil counterparts, Strike Forces, can be so much fun! Don't feel like following story arcs (though the stories themselves can be very engrossing the first time through, if you follow the story)? Try progressing through radio missions (stand alone missions without any "real" story that leads to a really fun timed mega map where you get to test your mettle against a signature hero or villain), or through any of the thousands of missions (or entire story arcs) created by fellow players in Architect Entertainment (shorthanded to AE). This can also be a lot of fun, because there's so much variety of mission (and mission arc) styles. And yes, even though the developers have hit AE missions with the nerf bat more than once, AE is the place to be if you want to zoom to level 50 (max level).
Another fun aspect to chase are Invention enhancements -- crafted enhancements that retain their viability, and aren't "out leveled" like every other type of enhancement -- especially the Invention sets that have set bonuses. The more of the set you either buy or craft yourself in the same unique set, the more set bonuses that particular power, or all your powers, get. Want to play the market instead? You can totally do that: watch market trends, see what's selling well, and either do content to earn the currency that item costs, or outright buy low and sell high. Want to be a crafting fiend? You can do that too.
Feeling socially deprived? Join a Super Group -- a great way to get around CoX zones quickly, and (potentially) fill the void with chatter. Want to do even harder content than cranking up the difficulty (either by raising the level of the opponents, or their spawn sizes, or both)? There are scripted events to join that have a steeper learning curve. Or chase more completionism goals like exploring all the points of interest in every zone, or reading all the lore, and earn accolade powers, titles, pets, the list goes on.
Endgame content can be as grindy or lax as you want it to be. There are all sorts of rewards for following story arcs all the way to the end, much more challenging group content, raids, "popcorn" PvP matches. Also, holiday events. And, when you get bored with all that, make a new toon and try it all again. Chase the meta, or choose a power set combination guaranteed to make you weep. Follow different story paths, make a billion outfits. Take part in or organize costume contests, and hand out or receive cash prizes. If the game grabs your interest, there's just so much to do. And, hopefully, much more to do as the Homecoming developers expand the game.
For a good starter guide: forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/18989-the-complete-newcomers-guide-to-city-of-heroes-starting-out-with-your-first-character/
There are even better, more comprehensive guides out there to be found. Best advice? Go nuts; have fun. IMHO, whether a returning nostalgist, or a curious passer-by, City of Heroes is worth checking out.
Cheers!
You can turn up your instance mission difficulty if you find it too easy.
Early game starts very slow. It's also a different game playing with a bunch of people.
The P2W vendor is the items you would get from the prestige system and special editions of the past boxed games.
MAKE SURE TO GRAB THE 100% XP BOOST from that P2W vendor.
If you play on the right servers you already get a huge xp boost. If you are rolling a new character for the first time I don't recommend the 100% boost as you will not be saving any money up that you will need to upgrade enhancements at higher levels.
I can only hope Wildstar gets the same treatment one day...
In terms of superhero mmos, I liked Champions Online better BEFORE it went full stupid with the "free" 2 play monetization.
Wildstar does have a fan server ATM, but it's progress is slow
It's sad because Champions WAS an improved CoH, without the content and mainly because of the lazy devs, but if people had played it maybe it might still be a real game.
I loved the character creator. Had 2 lv 50 in the day
people might have already pointed this out.... but.... with the tutorials, outbreak was the original and breakout came later when the City of Villains expansion came out. much later they introduce the alignment missions to switch from one side to the next and then they game out with the "neutral" starting area. with the new start to the game where you choose your alignment, the two older starting areas were no longer selectable. when Homecoming came out, they brought back the other two starting areas for nostalgia's sake. it wasn't a big deal to remove the two older starting areas because with the Ouroboros system you could go back and play all content that you might have missed and even visit those lost staring zones for a similar quest. that was kind of a requirement because there's a badge in each of those starting areas that you can earn
So my greatest claim to fame in CoH was being part of the fantastic, heroic, amazing..... Steel 70. See there was this expansion set to come out that would introduce an out door world event on a cycle, the aliens you brought up that made people go mad, the Rikti, would have drop ships fly thru zones on a set schedule bombing and dropping baddies. They were testing this on the beta server and the devs had said the ships themselves were unbeatable, you just were supposed to fight the baddies on the ground to minimize the damage till they left. BUT the devs gave the ships HP tho very very high, and they were ABLE to be hit... so of course us players had to give it a try. So the word went out to show up on the test server on a set day at a set time. And being the test server you could copy your character from the live server to the test one.... 50 originally said they would go, at least 70 people ended up showing up, this the devs did not plan for. Not only did we defeat one ship... we DESTROYED them all, stopping them in their tracks and killed one as the next got to us, like a ship destroying assembly line. We did it in the zone Steel Canyon, which is why we dubbed ourselves the Steel 70. CoH also had a way for you to "record" the game, basically just record all the info about what went on, that you would then "play" thru the game client, another amazing idea you don't see anymore. The cool thing is since it was all local and not thru the server, if you had a good machine... no lag. So someone made 2 videos of the fight you can see here:
His Original: ruclips.net/video/FHPk6oGXXcw/видео.html
His Remix and Re-Edit: ruclips.net/video/eHBL5THgh8Y/видео.html
But at the time in game... the lag oooooh the lag, I had to turn my particle effects all the way down just to make it somewhat playable, so with the video it is awesome to get to watch it with all the particle effects going full blast
You can see me good about 23 seconds in the first one, on the far right of the screen, I am in an all black costume surrounded by light blue ice. I was an Ice/Ice tank named Supercold, basically a tank that uses cc mechanics to tank, very unique concept which i loved. when the private server went up I still had most of my costumes saved so I was able to import them in to the private server client
I loved seeing that vid! I remember a portion of the league of supes attacking the Rikti mother ship in the WZ attacked one of them, but I honestly can't remember if we were successful. I know it's still theoretically possible. Do you know if the devs beefed up the dropships after your counter-attack?
For me this game is all about character building and getting the pieces of the puzzle you need to become a SUPER hero. There is a program (Mids Reborn) that allows you to plot a build before you start. There is also an auction house that allows you to buy and sell just about everything in the game. I started playing this game in 2004 and still play some now.
It's probably the only Free 2 play MMORPG that is worth it for a continued playthrough, although running different heroes through the same stories can get tedious after awhile, you start to learn which builds fit your play style pretty early.
I really like it.
The end game is my favorite, I don’t do the early level stuff in coh
Stopping at only level 7 really impacted your view of the game, as you are still basically doing tutorial mission til you get past 10th. And grouping up always makes everything better. Hell, if you have form an actual supergroup you can build your own secret base!
@@AaronLitz I plan to re visit this with friends. My uncles untimely death messed with my ability to makenthis
I wonder how the algorithm would enjoy a "Return To" series for these types of reviews.
Like a follow up to games you did decide to continue jamming on.
@@donniem7979 I am planning to return to this as I wasn't in a good head space at the time. But the algorithm is a fickle bitch no matter what content you make
this is one of the most played mmo i have when the game was release. this is my thoughts on it.
How i see it, City of heroes is a game to play casually. while wow is great for dungeons and boss fights, and final fantasy xiv is great for stories, this game is best in turning off your brain and just recklessly fight stuff with you unique powers with friends. there is so many fighting styles that you can just have many characters to play. how i see it, i love to play it simply because i won't have to think so much, i just play, have fun, and leave when i get boried. it's great to play with friends, the group play extends to 8 people, and you can play any kind of groups you want. healers and tanks are optional.
also, you don't really have to judge this game too much, in the end, it's still a dead game that is being held together by a fan base. so any improvements could only be done by the different servers that runs it. if one server is not to one's satisfaction, it doesn't hurt to try another. though i think homecoming simply just have the most people since it's the first.
my only recommendation about this game, is to just play with friends. make a character and create a power set that can work well with your partners. and when you do that, you can also change the difficulty to your dungeon ;) you can make it so the enemies are harder or increase their numbers ;) finding a right balance for your ability :) and in case you don't know, there is also a sidekick system. level 5 players can fight alongside 40 players in dungeons, and vise versa so no content is out of reach :)
one more thing to point out. if you don't feel like reading, all text can be highlighted and copy :) there are some text to speech that can read on clipboard copy :)
When I tell you guys I screamed out loud when I found out this game was back online my girlfriend thought I died.
Got this for a Christmas present back in 04 05 then learned you needed a subscription never got to play it
Feels bad man
The devs kept adding new "tech" to the missions so content that was made later has more going on (like choices). For a new player, there isn't really a way to know what's old and what isn't - since they added content to all levels (so it's not just "higher level = better"). Signature Story Arcs, Mayhem Missions, and so on add to the variety. In the end, your still running around a city beating up dudes - if that doesn't do it for you, then it's not going to be a good fit.
I just started playing again and I love this game as much as I did before.
I'm hoping to be able to get more into it as time goes on
One of the best games ive ever played. So fun. Pvp was awesome in sirens call ❤
The P2W vendor has XP buffs, and you can stack it up to 8 hours of game play that helps level a little quicker.
The "furry" comment sold me.
From a veteran City of Heroes player from 2005 (my PC was barely able to play it), I loved this analysis and I hope it gets the attention it deserves. I've played dozens of MMOs and I can't find a single one like this one.
@@Daedalys31 it seems like I missed out on it, I had the same issue as you
@@SpectrumZ_90 The game has changed drastically to the point of me finding out new things every time I'm hopping back in. Would love to play sometime, maybe we can get you to a level of beating missions above base difficulty 🤗
For anyone new to CoH and must simply play a minion build I do not recommend a mastermind, they have been nerfed to hell and back and have been relegated to a support/DPS. If you must have a minion build I would reccomend illusions/FF controller. It is an absolute beast once it is online but getting there will be like pulling teeth. That being said, it will be a blast once you have it set up as your perma minions will be invincible and your character will be invisible making you more invincible, unless you choose anything but flying then you can get smacked down on occasion.
My first mmo
is it how you remember it?
@@SpectrumZ_90 idk didnt play it now, but back then i just wanted to fly
You power level to 50 THEN start playing the game by exploring builds and storylines through time travel. Everyone will say how you can play any way you want... but that's like saying you can win WoW raiding by only fishing.
Very new player here. How exactly do you power level?
I once settled for mediocrity in 2007 but now... Now I have something to prove.... I'll be back.
Go get em
I work with my sg old friends that were leet on this. they are all very much older I was the youngest ever to join and Im 35 now. I wish you would have had some support of older exp players to do a review to really show you what the game fully has to offer you missed alot and right fully so. You really have to read and become apart of the community to learn whats around. like Pocket d or the other party places you have not been to. I play with 8 plus players on a group every week we have more then 30 players just playing around and have advanced experience in over all game play
Also on the topic of metrics and time spent making videos I'll just say most creators these days have 3-5 weeks of banked content to pull from as they make new content. If you only make the video you're about to release then you'll always find yourself "falling behind"
While this might be true for some, others are able to get good metrics while having several weeks apart in videos because of the traffic their content brings in. Currently I am working on a back log as I had to take some time away to recover but there is nothing to say it will improve things for my channel but I will continue to make one anyway
The best thing about this game is the community. It is the antithesis of the toxic environment of games like LoL.
So, I've watched about 17 minutes of this, out of interest for some potential friends who I want to get into this. A few notes: It's much more fun playing in teams. (As noted by others)
You complain about the "book" part, but that's part of the fun and part of what sets it aside from others like WoW.
Unless you need to for some reason, it's better to not engage the mobs on the world map, this becomes easier one you unlock your travel power.
Sincerely, someone who paid to play with as far back as 2004.
@@aaronnester5132 at the time my uncle passed away and I wasn't able to focus on it properly. I plan on replaying this with some friends to get a better video out
If you wanted more going on around you in the beginning, you should have chose the Galaxcy City tutorial......The ones you chose is one of the quiter tutorials(there are 3).
As you probably figured out, you Pratoria is the least player populated location in the game....If you want to see other players, choose Hero side(blue side).......Villain side is better than Pratoria, but still not as populated as hero side.
Does anyone know a server of city of heroes homecoming where being overleveld doesn't lock you out of missions? Would appreciate it.
CoH missions are still better than strings of fetch quests.
I recreated about 30 of my favorite Marvel heroes and villain down to their look, (as close as possible) powers, and even name. Iron Man, Spider-Man, Magneto, Omega Red, Punisher, Colossus, Wolverine, Deadpool, Quicksilver, etc. It was a blast. Sorry, but I picked the best characters and their names, so you'll have to pick a different, generic name for your characters as I've already registered mine. Come and join me!
The character creator is one of the best ones ever made, did you make any DC characters?
@@SpectrumZ_90 No, but I could if I wanted, just never wanted to.
I plan to remake this video now that I'm in a better mental state. Any advice for a solo build?
@@SpectrumZ_90 I built a Hulk and a Juggernaut. Both clean house. Omega Red is good as is Wolverine. You really want something that is hard to kill and kills easy. Daredevil is hard to hit, but magneto nullifies the enemy as does Mister Sinister. Cable is versatile and deadly (Temporal Shifting). I mention these characters only to get you to think about their abilities. It's easy but you need a clear picture of what they do and go from there. Hope this helps you?
@@kiillabytez it does thank you
You only felt like the game was empty or without people cause you did the tutorial hehe, I think its important to remember with a lot of "problems" one may have this was somewhat the Classic MMO way and the game is 20 years old, a ton of the fun of this game is teaming up with others and id also say you may greatly enjoy PVP or you may not but i think its more of what is fun about there being Heroes and Villain players
I normally do better than this, i wasnt on my game that day due to events at the time.
@@SpectrumZ_90 I understand losing my dad was the hardest thing for me makes it hard to be chery
used to play back in the day
@@Neuro-Nate think you'll pick it up again?
Thanks :)
To be fair, you didnt scratch the surface. It does get better at higher level. But, the game is dated and there is only so much the devs can do with the code. Its still a good game for the genre.
This video is being re done in the future
@@SpectrumZ_90 The video was thorough and well done, with more time in the game I am hoping you see the depth of the game.
@@brendyllyon at the time I was going through a loss in that family. Normally I go deeper in but it was hard to stay motivated and focused so when I play again I can get deeper into the content.
Can you recommend a good solo build?
Sorry for your loss. I hope you find the time to play more, as you are able.
Solo builds are a matter of opinion and taste. I would stay away from choosing support sets at first, you can get more power sets as you play. Have a decent combat option as either Primary or secondary. Then you can add power sets as you level.
I wish the old original one would come back these new ones are getting to be just too much going on and really miss the original 😞
@@chrismurphy5629 gaming was much more enjoyable before the abuse of micro transactions
Did u increase difficulty?
No
@@SpectrumZ_90 oh k. Do u know how?
Lmao it doesnt hold your hand dude your not used to old school mmos and let me tell you this game did it right and is considered more casual try not to take the game at face value its far deeper then you think bro, people respect you more when your more objective clearly if your not a real mmorpg fan you wont like it at first as much. I still gave it a like your still a good reviewer.
I lost my uncle during this time so I wasn't in the best headspace to work on videos. I aim to do better next time
@@SpectrumZ_90 Damn bro I feel so bad for criticizing I'm so sorry this happened to you man! You'll see him again I'm so sorry!
@@frequencyoftruth2303 don't be sorry. Your criticism is welcome and I will apply it to the next video so thank you
@@SpectrumZ_90Your truly humble sir.
Early game is trash. Farm sewers til lvl 10 at least. Avoid the hollows and go to kings row get temp travel power and get to 14 asap
Haha you are judging the game on its tutorial lol😂
As stated before to many, this is going to be remade because situations at the time meant I was not in a good head space at the time
Ya I stopped watching around 7:40, not sitting through a 20 minute video about how a tutorial is boring. It's a tutorial.
your choice.
Game is dogshit.
Ui dogshit.
Combat beyond dogshit.
Starting zone will cause 90% to quit within 10 minutes.
Game for zero standards people.
How was kindergarden today?
I don't think you assessment if accurate. you observations and lack of game knowledge shows. To be fair all games you review should be more than level 7. Like this is my first time watching this video and I think it is horrible. For CoH if your into superheroes this really the best game regardless of its age. I think SWG is the best star wars game made. Btw I like the look of your toon and may take it 😊.
As I say in my description, I lost my uncle while making this so I wasn't on point for this one. I hope to do better when I cover more mmos
No way people play this hot trash in 2024 💀
Im an OG CoH player and i understand the point of view this guy is having.
But once you get into this game. The Merits. The Trials/raids, farming etc. Man... The builds you can make... Theres a reason they gave you 1000 character slots... You get addicted to "just creating a new character" 🤭
Certainly get addicted to the creator. I plan to re do this video as now I'm in a better head space. Any advice for a solo class and build?
@@SpectrumZ_90 im from the old old days. So the first thing i did when Homecoming servers were up. Was making a fire/kin controller (back in the days they could out dps anything, and with the right enhancement sets you'd be tanky af!)
Long story short. Fire/kin went outdated.
Im personally playing on a fire/spines brute. (Im a farmer) Really really strong build, i think i threw 1billion into my build (10x 100mil)
I havent played for over a year now, currently playing other games. But ill strongly advise you to make a farm character, so you can run AE farm missions (every farm map i did got me around 35-50mil each run)
If youre familiar with the AE missions, go there and search for "Terminator" a map will come up something called withb"save Sarah o Connor from the t-2000,'s" or something like that ... This map. Is a old school farm map. Not alot of people know this map, but this is literally the only map im farming (farming is also powerlevelling) so if you take people into your farm runs, they will lvl up suuuuper fast! (This was how you lvled up fast back in the day) Just take in mind, having people in your farm group, diminishes the outcome you get in "influence" since influence/loot is spread randomly to group members, where if youre alone, you get all the loot/influence..
(Alot of these farm runs will get you a fair amount of purple recipes, wich sell for 10/20mil each)
Sorry for the TLDR, comment... But if you want my advice, get the Hero Creator program, it lets you build your character, plus you can get other peoples builds shared into the program for you to "copy" so to speak. (Cant remember the name of program as we speak) But i think a quick google search will find it.
Then i would make a fire/spines brute for your farming needs and influence growth.
After that, and this is where im at. After you have a farm character, influence/money wont be a problem anymore, so now you can build/buy whatever build you want to try out ?
A perfect solo build ... Back when i was playing (if were talking soloing content of the game) .. dont hate me if i cant remember it exactly. Some time ago i played.
But its a controller with the decoys .. my brain just totally flatlined.. i cant remember the names 😤 its the controller archetype, and is it mind? Where the last "ability " in that set is spawning "decoys" of yourself to help you in battle. If its mind (i cant remember)
Then do a mind/time controller, i was able to solo "Av's" on him .. Av's is archevillains.. wich usually you need a group to take down...
@@SpectrumZ_90 ughr, i wish i hadnt disassembled my computer, then i would hop on and begift you 100mill, plus i could see which builds im running 😤 think i have 3 accounts with different characters/builds 😤
I dont know if you can add me as a character name or if you DO need my "account name".
But try add my farmers name "Hell Bovine"
Quite famous character around some people.
If ever im going to be online at some point, its on that guy 😇✌️
If you see me online, feel free to write me. Ill help as much as possible
@@markbenjamin2152 appriciate it. When i asked for help in the initial footage i was met with a fair bit of toxic attitudes
@@SpectrumZ_90 sorry to hear that! As far as i remember, the OG people playing COH is actually quite helpfull people! BUT!! yes, this is somewhat a thing in getting used to hear in alot of games... Games are cool, but its the community of players that typically ruins the experience..
Sad to hear that! Game was great back in its prime!
So nostalgic to watch you play it ❤️