Amber Night

And now for something non-controversial.

Wu Zetian, the only woman to ever rule China, reigned from 690-705 A.D. She was ruthless, cunning, intelligent, and a Fire/Storm Controller. Actually she only recently became a Fire/Storm Controller. Empress Wu lives on as my first City of Heroes Controller.

For soloing
there’s nothing like turning a group of 4-6 yellow con mobs into
shivering charred corpses. (they actually shiver as they burn. Wu loves that.) I don’t care what the official corporate line is at NCsoft, Wu does not “arrest” anybody. If you are unlucky enough to be caught by Wu planting bombs in caves or office buildings, your fate is a hideous flame-broiled death. If you try to take a lady’s purse, your last thought in this life may very well be “at least it’s a dry heat.” Mug the fat businessman who is inexplicably wandering through a construction zone late at night, and Wu will barbecue your ass no matter how much he had it coming. Beating on cars in a parking lot, scaring citizens into pantomiming marionettes with a case of Kings Row Revenge, or just hanging out with your thug buddies thinking about crime, and you pretty much suffer the same fate as if you’d built a diabolical mind control machine to enslave the world. Death by fire and wind. Empress Wu does not fuck around with the details.

Wu, it should be noted, is a psychopath. But she’s fun at parties. Unless you double-dip. In that case it’s the ‘ol death by fire and wind routine, followed by a very long and awkward silence, followed by the shrieking. God she hates the shrieking.

City of Heroes is such a perfect example of how to make a fun MMO. The interface is snappy and well layed out, and is neither obtrusive or overly-complex. The graphics are perhaps not the latest generation, but a great example of how less is more. Like any MMO, class balance is an on-going work of art. But it’s damn close right now. The zones are large enough to be immersive, yet not too large that you spend half your time traveling. Missions are fast, fights are really fast, and down-time is practically non-existent. It’s as close to perfect as I’ve seen an MMO get.

The best part of City of Heroes is the player base. I spend a lot of time in pick-up groups, and the bad group is really an exception to the rule. (there was one exception: it may sound like it could work, but a group of 2nd level heroes hot out of the tutorial do not belong in the sewers. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.)

I have a single gripe about City of Heroes, and it is this: there is an immersive disconnect that happens when you run by a group of gray-con mobs committing some kind of crime. Now as a superhero, I would normally be obliged to serve a heaping portion of justice. But unfortunately even Empress Wu finds herself running past the poor woman being mugged, yelling “won’t somebody please help me?” Sorry hon, but there’s no xp in it for me. Call me when you’re being mugged by something bigger.

If you play on Victory, say hiya to Wu the next time you see her. She’ll be the one happily barbecuing the bad guys.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 30th, 2006 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Amber's Brain, MMOs - City of Heroes, Main Page. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.