I could sit at level 50 and grind Incarnate content, CoH's relatively recent endgame, but. After all these years of play, I've got two 50s. The game's leveling and powerset curve is pitched such that I have access to all of my primary skills by level 32, which is a very achievable level even without hardcore play, high-end enhancements, or power-grinding shenanigans. 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.

Where to play city of heroes