City of Villains Reviews
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In the long run, City of Villains will appeal to those who still play CoH, but it won't pull you in if you didn't like the first game. The novelty of evil eventually wears off, and what remains is the same gameplay we had before. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but CoH didn't have excellent gameplay. Very good, but not excellent. And CoV, being not much different from CoH, suffers from its flaws as it benefits from the advantages. What keeps CoV from being truly great is what kept CoH from that plateau; the repetitive environments and quick missions will make things feel dull after a while, as will the relatively slow accumulation of combat skills. CoV looks great, with several new features added to give it some extra polish, but there are no new spell effects (or spell sound effects, for that matter). It also suffers from the occasional wonkiness we've come to expect at an MMO launch, but the problems I experienced were pretty rare. It crashed to the desktop a few times, but it never locked my system up. Some of the missions have scripting bugs and geometry holes, but the live team seems to be doing a good job of tracking things down and patching things up. Every few days there was a small patch that tweaked something or other, but CoV is relatively glitch-free, especially at this stage in its lifespan.
The second is at GamePro with an overall score of 4/5:
City of Villains doesn't betray the age of Heroes' engine at all. This game is still a visual feast, with dazzling lighting effects and stunningly diverse characters. Unfortunately, like in Heroes, the indoor environments are dull and repetitive. Thankfully, the outside zones' grand architecture nicely make up for these deficiencies. There are also some minor oversights in the otherwise rich audio package--stepping in a puddle sounds like you cannnonballed into the ocean--and many of Heroes' heroic trumpets haven't been replaced with an appropriately dark motif.
And the third is at GameZone with an overall score of 8.9/10:
City of Villains is an outstanding game in many respects. Its flaws are minor compared to the fun it brings. Players can indulge in the dark side just as easily as they can help another player complete a mission. City of Villains has a detailed world with rich stories, wonderful plot lines, engaging game play, and all the makings of a successful MMO.
