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