I’ve played City of Heroes/Villains (CoX) since beta and saw the entire evolution of buffs, nerfs, tweaks, and addons. For the record, I have over 8 level 50 characters, but I haven’t had a chance to spend any quality time in the game over the last six months (work can be a pain in the ass). However, with the recent announcement of NCSoft taking over CoX (heh, I’m sure they realize their acronym spells “cocks”) and the upcoming release of Issue 11 I decided to revisit the game.

To be clear, this isn’t a review and more of a trip down memory lane and a glimpse at the future of CoX. I sat down last night, popped open a beer, and loaded up the Test Server to see what Issue 11 has in store. While I was patching-away I started to review the test-notes and I instantly realized the size of Issue 11. The highlights of Issue 11 included two new power sets (Willpower and Dual Blades), weapon customization (Axes, Maces, Swords, Guns, etc.), new content (Ouroboros), cool features (Flashback to old missions), new IO recipes (Very Rare and Respec), enhancements (increases SG/VG size to 150), and fluff (new hair styles- lol). What more could an online gamer ask for?

Personally, one of my biggest problems with CoX was that the old Dev Team literally ignored balance issues. Anyone who’s played CoX for any length of time realizes there’s a big difference between Archery and Ice, or Ice Melee and Energy Melee. There were glaring problems and the old Dev Team was either limited by resources or completely ignorant of the game. Patches and Issues continued for 3+ years, so it appeared as if the Dev Team was obstinate to a fault. However, with CoX moving into the NCSoft corporate umbrella, someone finally realized the “standardization rules” for powers needed to be revisited. As I reviewed the patch notes I noticed many substandard power-sets receiving attention (War Mace, Assault Rifle, Archery, etc.) and a noticeable boost in power. I was actually excited to stomp around on the test server and see if the changes were noticeable.

My goal was to spend a few hours and call it a night, but 8 hours, 6 slices of pizza, 4 beers, 2 ding-dongs, and 1 Red Bull later I was still exploring Issue 11. I started with the new content, worked back to some old characters that benefited from the upgraded power changes, and then played around with the new power-sets. The expanded content and beneficial changes were welcome additions, but I guess the comic-book geek in me wished there were more new power-sets. I enjoyed Willpower, but Dual Blades, even with the nifty combos, felt redundant (considering the game already has Katana, Broad Sword, War Mace, and Axe…).

In the end, I became optimistic regarding the future of CoX, especially since Marvel’s online game will probably take years to release. I can already see the positive changes NCSoft is making and now I just need to squeeze more hours in the day to play with my CoX.