Next stop on my current series of Operation Cheapseats, is Paragon City; the City of Heroes. Now unlike most of the games I end up trying on this project, CoH is a confident, self-sufficient and popular game, and as such, clearly doesn't feel the need to just hand out passes to anyone passing their website, and so has no direct 'Try CoH for Free!' link on their own websites, and actually finding a free trial was quite tricky. They seem to be the preserve of the 'added value giveaway', typically granted in finite quantities, to PC Gaming Magazine Coverdisks, or other third-party websites all trying to sell their own thing too.
Found one in the end though:
Sci Fi Channel UK: City of Heroes
Yes, this fortnight's freeloading is brought to you in unofficial association with The Sci Fi Channel, who seem to still have a large number of CoH/V freebies left over from their recent pimping of their show 'Heroes', which I know nothing about. This trial only seems to be good for the EU servers, but does allow access to both CoH and CoV, seemingly interchangeably. For the purposes of this trial, I shall be sticking solely to City of Heroes, the older game, which was the one I particularly want to see. I'm sure there will be other free trials in the future for diabolical scheming.
See, the reason I'd taken so long to finally get around to this title, is that I never really went through a Comic Book phase, and even as a child, never quite 'got' superheroes, in the classic sense. I was ever the precocious child, and this only got worse as time went on, and nowadays, I tend to regard classical superheroes as not that special. "Well of course he has super powers - he's from another planet/been bitten by an unlikely science experiment/mutated/etc!" For me, the interesting heroes are the Everyman figures - the people just like us, who have to cope with the unexpected, unusual, or unacceptable, using only the resources we all get. It's possible I take spandex far more seriously than it's intended.
Which all leads me quite neatly into CoH and my first problem with the thing. I'd heard what a comprehensive character creation system it has, but nothing quite prepared me for the thousands of costume permutations available, and I spent the first two hours just trying to get dressed! The functional, gameplay choices are a bit overwhelming too, but with any luck, most of these are simply cosmetic variations on the same kinds of powers and abilities, only shooting balls of ice instead of fire, etc.
At the base of it all, are the ubiquitous Classes, in this case Tanker, Scrapper, Blaster, Defender and Controller. Quick looks at the descriptions soon show these to be our old friends the Warrior, Rogue, Wizard, Cleric and Enchanter, but all dressed in lurid bodysuits, with masks on. These then determine the choice of Power Pools you can draw from, which in turn define which special attacks become available. So far so good. More interesting is the Origin, which I suppose is a bit like the choice of Race in other games. This seems to have little effect on nuts and bolts gameplay, but does have some bearing on the missions, contacts and plot as you start working through and righting wrongs later on.
Who to be!? I sat there, clicking through the various options for a bit, gradually evolving my little superhero, but it was hard work - not necessarily because of the UI, although it is a bit fiddley to apply colours well. No...mostly, it's just that there so many choices in there - sci-fi, contemporary, high fantasy, robots, ninjas, pirates - it's quite possible that the available costume components cover every conceivable fictional setting, and then some, and the game doesn't really seem to care where your powers come from, just that you have some, and are willing to put them to good use.
Remarkable, and in the end, it took me four goes to actually settle on something I could be content with actually getting on and playing with.
Hero #1, a Natural Blaster, was a kind of punk gothic heroine, somewhat reminiscent of The Bowler from Mystery Men, (a film I intend to use as a guidebook for the ensuing two weeks), wearing dark denim, chains, headphones, a bandit's mask, and who had the power to kill people just by screaming at them. There was probably a horrific operatic accident or something. My initial satisfaction with the job soon faded because a) she looked more like a Villain than a Hero, and b) looked much like any angsty teenager you might find in the nearest park to a sixth-form college, drinking value-brand cider of a lunchtime. I suspect the screaming isn't so very far fetched in that regard either. Next!
Hero #2, with largely the same set of powers and skills, also had the bandit mask, which on reflection might not be a useful thing for a Sonic Blaster - i.e. someone who uses their voice as their power, to have. What...going to mumble them to death? Despite that similarity, the rest was decidedly more upmarket. She went more with Top Hat, Dress Jacket, and a much more refined Edwardian/Moulin Rouge look, let down quite drastically by a lack of decently respectable floor-length skirts - a continual bane of my life! Despite this, she didn't look too bad, but then I realised that she was basically a female version of a cartoon hero I remember seeing in my youth, who was basically just a cabaret magician, whose power was magic tricks, mostly with cards. I can't even remember what he was called now. My knowledge of actual real comicbook heroes is limited at best, but clearly many of the costume options have been inspired by existing intellectual properties, so much so that Cryptic ended up in trouble some years back, for having the ability to create a Spiderman-a-like. I think it got thrown out of court in the end, but I'd hate to think I was just copycatting. Maybe I dreamt the whole thing, and this is just The Captain Zep Incident all over again. Regardless, the look didn't fit the whole screaming people to death thing, so not happy, moving on!
Hero #3 was better, making it as far as level 2! This was a more physical kind of girl, whose powers largely consisted of Being Quite Good At Kung Fu - a Technology Scrapper. This power came from the extremely elaborate 'Steampunk' settings bodysuit she had invented for herself, although I suspect having to pause mid-fight to stoke the boiler from the small trolley of anthracite she'd need to drag around, would have caused troubles in the longer term. We'll never know, because almost as soon as I got out into the city, I discovered that one of the large NPC enemy factions had already stolen my idea, and was composed almost entirely of steampunk clockwork robot things. Grrr! Shakes fist! Being mistaken for a mob for the fortnight didn't really appeal, so on to #4.
Hero #4 was a more Back to Basics thing really. Also, I only have a fortnight, and it would be nice to actually play some of the game at some point! A Magic Tanker, she's something of a homage to 1970's Superheroism, complete with Ice Powers, Winged Valkyrie Helmet, Large Shoulder Pads, Extremely Impractical Heeled Thigh High Boots, and, for a woman who spends most of her time manipulating various amounts of freezing air to cause Justice, a somewhat shorter skirt than would be comfortable. Not something you'd expect to see in a 2007 Big Budget Superhero Franchise 'Reimagining' type of film, she's more the cheesy 70's TV Serial grade really, and indeed, in her spare time she enjoys Roller Discos, Listening to the Boomtown Rats and Playing on her brand new Atari 2600. But it was getting late, and the first couple of goes really didn't seem like I was getting into the spirit of the thing.
The first couple of fights and missions in the 'Warrior' class did feel right somehow though, unlike the previous three, and I'm quite pleased with her now. Tankers are the, err...well, Tanks of the piece, designed to get up front, taunt, and keep the enemies off the more fragile Heroes, and despite it being only my first go at the thing ever, I ended up in several Pick Up Groups, all of which went quite well, hinting at a remarkable level of sociability to the game, which sits in almost direct contrast to Auto Assault, previous. More on that, the fantastic 'people-watching' potential of the game, and of course, how it actually plays, later.
I'd received quite a lot of interest in this particular title for the Operation Cheapseats run, in comments and email, including a large number of offers to meet up, and show me around. Normally I tend to MMO in isolation, or at the very least, keep my identity secret and known only to a few long-time close friends, but after only a few hours, the curiously positive social nature of this particular game seems to have left an impression, so in a break with tradition, here's the details.
I'm on the 'Union (ENG)' EU server, and the hero I finally settled on is called 'The Tundra Templar'. (Good eh? Cos she, like, has ice powers, and like, a helmet on!) I think I may be in a place called Atlas Park. I have no idea how chat channels, chat handles, tells, or mail works yet, so the first thing you'll want to tell me, if you want to say hello at all, is how /reply works! I've also no idea how I get to the US servers, and possibly don't - the login screen only seems to list UK English, French and German server choices. Am I missing a button somewhere? Anyway, do stop by to help me work out how basic game functions work, or just to tell me how fabulous I look in The Boots!