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City of Heroes

	Author: Chris Massey Article Type: PC Game Review Publication Date: 10/14/2004 Developer: Cryptic Studios Publisher: NCSoft Related Categories: Online or Multi-Player, Comedy or Spoof, Role-Playing

The Wargamer is pleased to present Cryptic Studios and NCSoft with an Award for Excellence for its City of Heroes.  The developers have done outstanding work in creating a fun, easily accessible MMORPG.

Introduction

Massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) tend to fall into one of two categories: science fiction or fantasy. Science fiction has a few representatives, mainly Anarchy Online, Star Wars Galaxies, and Eve Online. There’s a glut of fantasy games, including EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, Asheron’s Call and many others. And there’s no relief in sight, with dozens of similarly themed MMORPGs on the horizon. However, Cryptic Studios has thrown this trend out the window with their online role-playing game City of Heroes. Instead of avatars like dwarves and elves, players can play as testosterone-rich male and female humans; instead of just swords and sorcery, players are given superpowers, and, well, sometimes swords; and instead of rolling countryside rife with ancient ruins and dungeons, players get a massive city bristling with automobiles and skyscrapers; and, instead of bashing gnolls and kobolds, players get to bash huge mobs of people and mutants. There is even a bit of a plot, but mainly the plot comes through in the free monthly comics sent to subscribers and the various missions against different gangs and villains.

A very kind hero.

Installation

Installing City of Heroes was very easy. Of course, I had to download the expected updates that are common to MMORPGs, but this was painless, and my connection with the update server was very fast. Cryptic Studios frequently releases large, content-rich patches which they call Issues. Issue Two was a big download, but the files were offered for download a couple of days in advance of the patch going live, so I had it downloaded and ready to patch well beforehand, which was very convenient. Following the trend of most MMORPGs, City of Heroes is also playable without either of the two discs in the drive.

On the technical front, the only issue I’ve had with City of Heroes has been the Mapserver Disconnect error, which basically leaves me link dead and I have to disconnect and relog to continue playing. I haven’t had this problem with other MMORPGs I’ve played in the past, but for some reason it seems my hardware router/firewall gives me problems with City of Heroes. It also seems the error occurs less during lower server population times like early morning, but can be very frustrating during the peak hours of late evening.

Justice is on the way.