City Of Villains Play CoV & CoH for 1 mthly fee Updated visuals Billions of costume choices It's good to be bad Supergroup Lairs Some frustrating missions Quite repetitive at first

It's like City Of Heroes but with a Bizarro World sensitivity. by Daemia

November 29, 2005 - Sometimes it's good to be bad. City of Villains offers you no other choice than to don the persona of some of the most brilliantly evil characters to ever walk the very planet they have sworn to destroy.

City of Villains could be construed as the sequel to City of Heroes but both are stand-alone games can be played independently of each other. You can play both games online for one monthly fee of $15 but you must have both copies of the game - if you want to play them both. Otherwise all you need is the one copy of the game that you want to play and the monthly fee is still the same.

Got that?

Overall the gameplay in Villains is very similar to Heroes. You don't really do things in an opposite manner since the missions still require you to fetch something and get the hell out of the level while shooting at enemies and navigating booby traps. For instance, kidnapping a victim (which is evil) is virtually identical to escorting a NPC out of enemy territory (which isn't evil). Other evil activities that you can participate in include bank robberies, taking out security guards, knocking over a casino and generally running amok creating as much of a disturbance as possible. The line between good and evil is an arbitrary one. The missions are always fast and furious, but until you reach the higher levels you'll probably find them repetitive both in execution and in surroundings. You'll be given the odd exciting mission, but just to give you an example - I played CoV for 3 nights straight, doing these annoying little missions until I got to do something that I found to be more exciting. That's a lot of repetition for little reward at first, but the fun factor (my apologies to Gamepro) increases exponentially the further you go and the more powerful you become. Just expect to spend many hours on the bottom rungs of this virtual society at first.

The story begins with a prison break. During this time you will learn all the finer points of becoming a super villain. This level acts as a tutorial where you will react with various interfaces to gain the necessary knowledge to begin your transformation as you acquire your powers. There are countless costume variations if you want to go for the human anti-superhero look. Here you'll find the requisite tights and capes along with accessories such as spikes, chains, leathers, straps and masks - all with an evil flair. Expect a lot of blacks and reds as well as some outrageous color combinations. If you prefer you can take the form of a zombie, demon or other kinds of monsters. Don't forget the mad scientist, a staple in comic-book folklore. You can literally tailor your look as you level-up by using a tailor to make adjustments to your outfit. This, along with many other ventures will require money although if I remember correctly, the first costume alteration is free. Expect to pay after that.

Experience points are required to level-up your character but you'll also need some currency (called Infamy) to purchase furnishings and equipment for your evil lair. Events take place on the Rogue Isles, a large grouping of islands that is ripe for expansion. There are of course numerous quests you can perform solo in both the offline and online modes but you're going to have to join a group if you really want to get ahead.