City of Heroes is Having Tons of Babies

Ever play the now deceased City of Heroes? I did, and I loved it until I moved on to Champions Online in 2010. That's right. I'm a traitor. Please don't spear me. It felt a bit dated to me at the end, but I always harbored a secret desire to go back. It had that certain sparkle of originality. I always wanted to immerse myself back in that game, and I full well planned to when I saw a water freaking power set released!! I was amazed. Champions could never get the physics and looks quite right for a water set, but lo-and-behold the mighty Paragon Studies had done it. Well, like with everything else, I procrastinated. Then the news came and it met the mighty cancellation axe of NCSoft. I couldn't help but feel a bit disheartened, or more like shattered, alongside everyone else. The site is still up but with a closure notice. It's just sort of depressing.

http://cityofheroes.com/en/sunset.php

There will be no going back to City of Heroes. No more maybe I'll see if it has gotten better. It's gone. Done. That's the horrible reality of getting attached to MMOs. They feel like they'll always be there, and then, suddenly, they aren't. It isn't like a disc game or a single player game that's always there and just needing to be put in or downloaded. The only way I can truly describe it is to say that it is quite literally like losing someone, because you've gone from something that you once cherished with invested nostalgia to something that you'll never get back. Something that you can never go back to. I used to be so attached to this game. It was my second or third MMO, (the first being Everquest Online Adventures and the competing spot for second/third is Final Fantasy 11). I played it in high school, and I never got very far because I am quite the altoholic. I can't even imagine how people felt after losing all their high leveled and much beloved characters and having their community torn apart.

Here we are in the ashes. It did a lot of things that I enjoyed, and plenty that I hated, but I'll go into a nostalgia post some other time. This is about the present and the future. City of Heroes may be gone, but it did something different. Not only was it the first Superhero MMO, it fostered a fantastic community, and in its ashes, it has given birth to a forest of games who have want to resurrect it. Okay, so it's like three, but that's a lot! All are City of Heroes' spiritual successor. Think about that. Multiple spiritual successors. What sort of game has caused this to happen before? My mind is blown. It's been two years since the death of City of Heroes, and it appears that three projects have arisen to fight off evil, or cause it, once again! There have also been small projects, like Icon that have revived the costume creator. I can't say much about Icon though because I honestly don't know much. I believe there is a current attempt to reverse engineer CoH?

Here are some of the projects I am aware of:

City of Titans
For the longest time, City of Titans were the only ones I paid attention to. I'd drop in every few months and do a tiny bit of browsing that always has me excited. The latest teaser has been this.

Now this might not seem like a big deal. The graphics aren't FANTASTIC or anything, but what we are looking at is the building and understanding of their engine. It has a learning curve, and for a bunch of guys who had minimal experience in game design (from what I understand), it isn't a half bad demonstration of how far they've come. At least that is what I have taken away from this situation. Plus there was some technical jargon that I just couldn't get my head around. They have a looong way to go but I wish them the best of luck.

They ran a kickstarter last Fall, managed to raise around $680,000, and were projected at the time to launch sometime next year. Are they going to be able to? I'd say don't rush it. Give it time to really ripen, but I can understand those who had pumped money into it would like to see results. They have a tech update video coming up. Let's see what sort of goodies it has in store!

Check them out! http://cityoftitans.com/

Valiance Online

I actually stumbled upon this just recently. Ironically because of the above video and somebody mentioning it in the comments. Valiance Online is already at its Alpha stage and their game is available for testing and playing for free! I'd really love to go deeper into this game. The graphics look no short of amazing, and it does appear to have a City of Heroes feel. I'm very surprised by their quality. I have to say, tiny complaint, from some of the videos I saw, I wasn't too keen on the whole 'let me stand here while you hit me' thing because that mechanic seems a tad outdated, but it does feel like an updated City of Heroes with the sexiest graphics I have even seen. I can't put enough emphasis on this. Hope my computer can handle it! I can't wait to see how it evolves and grows. Here's a recent screenshot.

 

Shining Excitement!!

Here ya go: http://valiance.shogn.net/

Heroes and Villains

The one I know least about. I understand that City of Titans and Heroes and Villains began as one project that split apart. I scanned the site and saw some interesting concept art and tech details. Moving elevators! They have weekly updates, and that's good news to any community. I understand what it's like to be in love with a game in a communication dark zone. It. Sucks.

I wanted to post some of its costume concept art but for some reason I was bugging out that I'd get in trouble so I'll let you check them out for yourselves:  http://www.heroes-and-villains.com/phpb/home.php

This post wasn't really meant for anything other than to give a nod to the awesome people who wanted to bring back that special something of City of Heroes that made it so dearly beloved. It's a bunch of doers in a world of waiters! It's all fascinating for me because I'm watching this from the outside. I was never part of that bustling City of Heroes community. I knew people, sure, but my on-and-off play style tends to make me a bit unknown and a bit lonely. I see these three separate communities as part of a huge picture and I wish the best to luck to every part of that picture. It's about rebuilding a home and regaining something that was lost. I hope that they see each other in a similar way and don't view each other as cut-throat competition, even if at the end of the day they all are competing for the same niche audience. 

I just have to say that the first one that has excellent wind/water/gravity powers, colorable powers, and a personal base as interesting as the CoH supergroup bases will probably be the first one I play. Or possibly Valiance Online because it seems really close to finishing. The coolest part for me is that all of these games are dedicated to allowing players be heroes or villains, something that is sorely lacking in my once much loved Champions Online. All long term content is missing in Champs, actually. I never realized how much I missed it. It is very refreshing to see that take. I hope both sides of the morality spectrum flourish and get just as much attention as each other because that was something that City of Heroes did poorly. It's a kind of variety that I can appreciate.

I'll keep a tab on these games, will check them out now and then, and sincerely hope to one day give a breakdown on my impressions on each one of them individually. It seems that in the aftermath of the death of City of Heroes, a new inventive spirit has born.

But that shiny building, though.

Post-note: I apologize if anything is misrepresented. This is just my understandings of what is going on. This blog is primarily about my opinion, and dear jelly pants do I hate researching, so that end may be... how shall we say... a tad lazy and lenient? But I do think these attempts are awesome. Major kudos guys! Thank goodness I don't have any readers to take my word seriously. Ha.