Thursday 8 April 2004

Pic of the day: Today's screenshot from City of Heroes features Mini Mistress, the four and a half feet tall heroine with illusion powers and force fields. (Yes, it's a homage to Al Schroeder's comic MindMistress.)

CoH Review 3

After you have created your character, you are forced to go through a tutorial. This is actually a very good idea the first time, though it can be tiresome if you create a lot of characters like I did during beta test. Anyway, it doesn't take long once you have been through it a couple times, and it does raise you to level 2 when finished.

The very first thing that happens as you enter the tutorial zone "Outbreak" is that you are shown the movement keys. Ironically, this is the only glaring problem with the tutorial. It correctly shows that you can move forward with W and backward with S key, but it only mentions A and D as sideways movement keys. These are good for scuttling like a crab, but who wants to do that? With Q and E, you can turn your character without using the mouse. In my case, with RSI, this is the difference between not being able to play the game and being able to play it for hours with no pain. Pretty important, I'd say. Of course, most people don't suffer from RSI (yet). But that could change with this game. So take your hand off that mouse and back away slowly.

The tutorial is simple, but then again the game is simple, at least the controls. Another good advise at this point: When asked to defeat a certain number of contaminated thugs, there is nothing to gain by going after more. You will anyway be elevated to level 2 after passing the tutorial, neither more nor less. And since the tutorial is a city zone shared by all new players, you should save some for them as well.

(Incidentally, the zones are not just a programming convenience. They are administrative units and there are checkpoints and force fields to keep traffic between them under control. This is because some of the zones were more destroyed by the invasion and are still in a state of chaos. You need a certain clearance level for each zone, except Atlas Park and Galaxy City. OK, so it may just be a programming convenience, but it looks very plausible ...)

***

After the tutorial you can choose between two starting zones: Atlas and Galaxy. The two are different in details but functionally equal. In the center is a public building, and in front of it is the trainer where you get your increased security clearance. Your fighting ability will go up even if you don't visit the trainer, but there are benefits such as new powers or enhancement slots (that augment existing powers).

The area around the trainer is a safe area, patrolled by the advanced but rare police drones, reprogrammed Rikti drones (from the alien invasion). Outside this area you can see aspiring thugs pushing drugs or mugging the citizens. Experienced villains have the wits to stay further away from an area that is teeming with heroes. The further out from the center you come, the tougher the gangsters. Most of these newbie criminals belong to the Hellions, a gang of rather ordinary thugs who dabble a little in black magic and miracle steroids. They make excellent punching bags, as long as you remember the advice from the tutorial on how to consider your enemies. You are just a hero in training, really. Nobody is going to write a comic about you for quite some time. So eat your street punks and grow stronger.

Before you spend too much time patrolling the streets, however, you may want to see your first "contact". These guys are the backbone of the city's hero corps. They are mostly civilians, but they know things. And they need your cooperation. They give missions, which is a non- medieval word for quests. These are definitely quests. Like, "defeat 10 Hellions" or "recover the amulet from the warehouse".

***

There are two different types of missions, outdoors and indoors. Outdoors missions consists of defeating x number of some criminal, or occasionally just delivering a message or some such. The rationale varies. The police may need to interrogate a number of them, the techies may need parts from the robotic menace known as clockworks, or health personnel may need blood samples of people mutated by drugs. The net effect is much the same in all cases: You have to locate the right type of villain and clobber them. You never kill or get killed in this game, you just defeat or are defeated. Don't let this keep you from wielding a katana if that's your thing; medical technology (and magic) is pretty advanced here. But if the villains are rare and the heroes are numerous, filling the quota may take some time. Help is at hand though: If you team up with other heroes on the same mission, each defeated enemy counts toward the quota for each member of the team! That's a pretty powerful incentive.

Indoors missions, often called "door missions" by the local heroes, are another matter. They are local to you or your team. Even if two teams enter the same door, they come into different locales. In effect, pocket universes. And the larger the team, the more resistance. The enemy will on average have the same level as the hero that got the mission. If he levels up in the meantime, the villains do not, so don't despair if the mission seems tough. You may also get some help from your friends, but beware. The villains have their own spy network and will call in help. A large group will find lots of better trained villains waiting for them.

There are three layers of villains for each level: Minions, lieutenants and bosses. The minions are easy to defeat at your own level, unless they swarm you. Lieutenants are more your style. You will be able to defeat them one on one without fail, but not without getting wounded. Luckily we are all heroes here, and recover quickly. "It was only a flesh wound." Bosses, now ... as most of us know from real life, bosses can be a serious problem. It is not at all certain that you can defeat a boss your own level, even if you find him alone. (And you rarely ever will.) Depending on your strengths and weaknesses, you may have to go gain a level (or two) or get some help from your friends.

But before you can start your indoors mission, you have to get there. You can't fly – the slowest form of flying starts at security level 6 – and the most popular hideouts are along the fringes of the zone. You are level 2, the gangsters are level 5 and 6. This is not an ideal situation. I suspect it is too late for it to be fixed before release, as it is not exactly a bug. It is still, in my opinion, a bad idea. But at least it hammers into place the fact that you are NOT Superman at this point. A bunch of purse nappers on steroids will beat the tar out of you in short order, hero or no hero. Luckily there will be other young heroes patrolling these streets, guys and girls who are up to the challenge. Stick with them, or even ask them for help and they are likely to be all too happy to clear the way for you. And a few hours from now, it may be your turn.

The levels come thick and fast up to level 6. That's the first break point, in my experience. There are others. After level 10 it slows down even more, and over the next couple levels you start to realize the good times will never come back. But by then you will have a nice selection of superpowers and have begun to choose the way you specialize them. You will be starting to explore more dangerous zones, perhaps join a supergroup (the in-game equivalent of JLA, X-Men or LSH). The real game is about to begin. People recognize you as a hero, and Paragon City has become your new home.