What with it being two games sort of, instead of just the one, I've got two characters I'd consider my Mains in City of Heroes and City of Villains. I've often had troubles with Altitis in the past, and perhaps now recognise it as a symptom of a greater fatigue and indeed, boredom with many of the MMOs I've played. The logic is simple; I'm bored of grinding out levels - lets see if it's anymore interesting as a different class? The answer is usually "briefly."

If I ever hope to get anywhere at all in these games (especially four of them at once during the typical week), I have to pick one and stick with it. The temptation to Alt Up is particularly strong in CoX, which offers over 30 character slots, more than 300 combinations of Archetype, Primary and Secondary powers, and a dressing up box still unparalleled in any other MMO to date. Focus is the key here, but even so, I couldn't resist one Hero and one Villain...

City of Heroes Van Hemlock

Who?

My two mains here are a Magic-based Ice Armour/Ice Melee Tanker, and a Science-based Mind Control/Psionic Assault Dominator, and frankly, the two couldn't be more different.

The Tanker is tremendous fun, especially in big groups. Big groups mean even bigger groups of enemies in missions, and this all adds to the often ridiculous amount of incoming damage I routinely put up with. CoX's 'Tank' is an extremely exaggerated thing; I have six toggled defensive abilities which overlap to make me virtually indestructible, a super-power which sucks energy and defence from everyone around me and adds to my own, and an AoE Aura which taunts constantly everything within 10ft or so. I've played 'Warrior' in a lot of MMOs, and this right here has to be the most foolproof tanking I've ever played. It does make it easy-mode a bit, yes, but that does leave the mind and reflexes somewhat freed up for chatting and such like. Mind you, as befits a hardcore tank type, my own damage output is painfully slow, making soloing hard work here. I've gone with all the Fitness stuff here; improved health and stamina regen, as my main weakness is running out of power to keep my toggles going, and Jumping is a lot of fun for travel. Currently L35.

The diabolical foil to the happy-go-lucky meatshield is much more of a hands-on affair. With Mind/Psi, I seem to have gone for the most pure form of crowd-controller the game offers. Again, low on solo damage output, but with more stuns, sleeps, holds, confuses and knockbacks than you can shake a stick at. With careful use and husbanding of my powers, I can effectively keep most, if not all, of the enemies from being able to fight back; either hugely debuffing them, stopping them fighting at all, and extreme cases, turning them on to our side for a short span. I'm not so familiar with 'CC' in other MMOs, but again, CoX seem to take the basic concepts and massively exaggerate them. My main weakness here is my own fragility, and lack of damage output, so this character works best in teams, and to ensure I'm a wanted addition, I've gone crazy with the four Leadership pool powers; team-wide buffs to most stats in a kind of 'Paladin-Aura' style. Flying helps me here, both for travel, and for lurking up in the ceiling during fights, giving me a much clearer line of sight and better control of adds and such. Currently L26.

When?

Generally a once a week game for me, in a large boisterous Teamspeak-enabled team; very much a social event and kind of 'night out' with the folks from Limited Edition, than a quiet reflective gaming session. Like Guild Wars, the game very much revolves around the people, and the game itself becomes a venue, like a sports field or pub; not that interesting intrinsically, but a good place to be with friends.

It isn't just about a clique though; throughout my time in the game, I've been constantly surprised by the regularity and frequency of the random pick-up group tells. I'll be minding my own business, getting on with Auction House or Crafting, and out of the blue, team invite. This seems to happen to both characters and most nights. Don't even have to have the LFG flag set sometimes. This isn't always welcome, of course, but in all my travels, I'd be hard pressed to pick another MMO with quite the open and carefree community. Those PUGs I do join are rarely completely hopeless, and even if technically poor, are full of people who don't seem to mind wiping that much.

Saying all that, it is a good idea to hop on that PUG trail, as one complaint the title does attract, is the grind and repetition of the solo game, which is frankly best avoided.

Recently, I've started to take a bit of a renewed interest in the city around me too; partly because I've just looked up from a sustained bout of weekly missions and Task Forces, to find I'd missed huge chunks of overland zones through the sheer speed of my levelling, so lots of exploring on those rare downtime moments. The badges have always been appealing too.

Where?

I tend to bounce all over Paragon City really. Brickstown, Talos Isle and Independence Port seem to be popular favourites though, despite me outlevelling most of it. The excellent sliding difficulty system means that wherever you find yourself, the missions will be the right level anyway, making the outdoors places more about exploration and tourism. I spend a lot of time in Steel Canyon when not actively fighting injustice, mostly because the Wentworths and University are right next to each other, and I'm lazy!

A recent wiki-fuelled badge frenzy has sent me further afield though, to zones I'd have otherwise missed entirely; Croatoa, Dark Astoria, Boomtown and such.

On the Rouge Isles, with their more linear progression, exploration isn't quite so available. I'm generally around the Sharkhead Isle and Nerva Archipelago level there, but again, tend to lurk about in Cap Au Diable, for the easy jog between Black Market and University!

All of this takes place on the Union Server, on the EU side of the game.

Why?

I've never been a Comic Book Person, to be honest, which is the logical target audience for the game. Nothing bitter, just a phase that passed me by entirely. However, City Of interests me greatly from a technical perspective, as for a very long time indeed, it was about the only MMO out there that dared to be different. Its remarkable system of sliding statistics, which in turn enable its utterly brilliant Mentoring and Sidekick system; sometimes imitated, but rarely with the complete flexibility offered to friends who want to play together. The vast number of power combinations, making a huge mix and match superhero simulator, and of course the excellent dressing-up box character creator. The immense badgelist. For any number of reasons like these, I just find it an absolutely fascinating example of how else you can design an MMO, and still have it work and be fun.

On a somewhat less academic level, it is just that, a lot of fun. I may not be a comic Book Person, but the sight of 20+ armoured stormtrooper goons falling on their arses as they try to pummel their way through my shells of ice, or the sight of 15 or so Mafia-a-likes all staggering about clutching their heads, hallucinating, and beating each other up at my whim, well... it all does make me feel quite super!

Difficult times are ahead for this aging but quirky and different MMO, what with two other Superhero Games with better graphics, (and who knows what else), on the horizon, but for now, it really is in a class of its own, and very hard for me to put down.