Alts are a way of life for many CoH players, and a number of game mechanics combine to make alt-heavy play a real option. Better yet, I can play all of those characters and then some. I can even roll a character who's not really a superhero. The clever winners of the recent costume contest prove how malleable the system can be: Theater Popcorn Man.

If I want to play a character who looks like a number two pencil, rides around on a hoverboard, and smacks people in the face with a baseball bat, I can do that.

If I want to play a drowned pirate-zombie who floats around in a cloud of sparkling smoke and has a hula-hoop made out of wind and rain, I can do that. If I want to make a werewolf-cyborg-vampire-cheerleader who shoots hot-pink laser beams out of her eyes and can jump tall buildings in a single bound, I can do that. I've never tallied up the number of costume parts in CoH, but I think it's safe to say that we'll never run out of unique power set combos, concepts, and costumes for our characters. The fact that CoH sports a superheroic theme neither attracted nor repelled me except inasmuch as the genre (usually) comes with the best part of MMOs baked right in: customization. For starters, he's a fan of superheroes, and I'll shock you and admit that I'm merely indifferent to spandex-clad superpowered folk. We cover City of Heroes on a weekly basis in A Mild-Mannered Reporter, and I'm loath to tread the same ground Eliot does, but I think we attack the game from two different angles.

It took several years (and all the improved content those years enabled), but the game eventually became something I wanted to play. was not good.įast-forward a few years to the Paragon Studios takeover and the implementation of the Mission Architect. What I found after a month was that I had a lot more fun planning my next character using the little booklet that came with the box than I actually did grinding my way up through the levels. When I first sampled City of Heroes, I was just recovering from a nasty break-up with Star Wars Galaxies and looking for a new roleplaying paradise.

Play city of heroes free