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Cryptic’s Michael Lewis Takes GameZone on a Super Guided Tour of City of Heroes
“The heroes are always heroes”
The world of massively multiplayer online games is about to become very crowded. There are so many titles being prepared for release in 2004, so many founded in the world of fantasy that players and newcomers to the MMPOG genre may have a tough time sorting through them all to the titles they want to play.
So how do you distinguish yourself from the crowd? Simple – offer a unique gaming experience. And that is exactly what the folks at Cryptic Studios are planning on doing with the release of City of Heroes. This is a game that will cater to the player who is not caught up in the world of druidic magic, or of sword, steel or bow wielded by avatars stepping from the pages of myth and fantasy.
The characters in this adventure are certainly based on the rich imagination of developers, but are of a different breed. Some may call them mutants, freaks of science or nature, but whatever else you may choose to call them, make certain the word ‘hero’ is part of the description.
Michael Lewis, of Cryptic, took GameZone on a guided tour of the title, revealing hazard zones and some of the upper level mobs, and generally giving an overview of the title. This is a world that is rich in content, and in storyline. It all begins with the origin of the character. There are five origins for each character – magic, natural, mutation, technology and science. These define the core class of the character. The archetype further defines the character and power set each player can open. Again, there are five archetypes – blaster, controller, defender, tanker, and scrapper. Some of the archetypes are ranged, some are heavy on the heals and some – like the tanker – are offensive juggernauts.
But make no mistake about it, no one class is hampered at the outset of the game.
“Any character you make right off the bat should be playable,” Lewis stated. “When you pick an archetype, everything is set for you. We tried to make all the power sets fun to play.”
As with most games, you need to level up and progress through the game in order to unlock new powers and attributes – which are called inspirations and enhancements. With training, and levels, you can learn to fly. That can prove of value because missions mean lead you to villains on rooftops, or you may have to fly over chasms to reach the goal or group of bad guys you need to battle.
The origins guide the storyline that you pursue. If your origin is magic, you will confront villains that are more magical in nature. But don’t think you are locked into the track.
“You can switch tracks as you go,” Lewis said. “About level 8 or 9, you have choices about the path you are going down.”
The power sets of the game are diverse.
“If we could conceive of a power, we tried to work it into the game,” Lewis offered.
In addition to primary powers, each hero has a secondary power, to give a secondary offensive power. Each character starts with a punch, a sprint option, and their primary and secondary power.
Lewis said that there is “something like 60-80 different characters you can have right off the bat.”
Then you get into the look of your hero. This is a rich tableau of costume and body options that practically ensures that no two heroes will look alike. Each hero has a unique name, and can create their own catch phrase.
Once the character is created it is into the world. Paragon City is the place inhabited by the heroes. It is still recovering from an invasion of aliens, crime run rampant on the streets, some of the areas have been devastated by natural disasters and a particularly evil scientist named Dr Vahzilok is creating mutated creatures from human parts. There are robots, demons and an exciting array of villains to battle.
However, there is no player-versus-player game play, and players cannot take on the role of villains.
“We explicitly tried to make everything black and white; there are no gray areas,” Lewis said. “The heroes are always heroes.”
To that end, the game uses a reputation system. If you save a citizen, he or she will likely run up to you and thank you profusely for your aid. This is important is building up the right points in the game. The same goes for your contacts. As you work with them (contacts are the source of missions), you develop a stronger bond and once you get to the level of confidante, you no longer have to personally visit them, you can call them on the phone.
Tired of missions? Then take a group (it is recommended that the group be a minimum of four players) into one of the hazard zones in the game. This is almost non-stop combat against groups of bad guys, varying in strength.
The game also has a sidekick system to allow for friends of varying levels to work together. If one player is a constant in the world and has leveled beyond their more-casual playing friend, CoH has taken into consideration and actuated a system to allow them to still partner in the battle against crime. The lower level player becomes the sidekick of the upper level player. That means the lower level character, while not getting the skills and abilities they would have earned working up, is elevated to within one level of the mentor, and gets the hit points for that level.
Should the mentor die, or the sidekick get too far away from the mentor, the sidekick will revert back to his or her natural level. And, of course, when the playtime is over, everything reverts back to where it was. This is not geared for power-leveling players, but rather to allow friends to journey together and help each other on quests.
The game currently has 16 zones of play, and currently character levels go up to 40. However, Cryptic is not content with merely resting on the game as it currently stands. Plans for an expansion call for adding 10 more levels for characters as well as adding higher-level zones. Lewis said that the expansion will be free. The developers are also exploring the idea of interactive environments.
For example, if a hero has the power of gale winds, and there is a fire, that hero would be able to direct his or her power to blow the fire onto the enemy. This is something that is being carefully considered simple because Paragon City is already in dire straights and having a host of heroes ripping it up to destroy villains would cause serious consternation for city planners.
After all, heroes are the promise of salvation, not the portend of doom.
The bottom line about City of Heroes is the accessibility, the playability and community. “We really want to emphasize community,” said Lewis.
The game, published by NCsoft, is currently in closed beta and is slated for release at the end of April.
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