After I joined Facebook, I decided to try a game I saw being promoted called Superhero City. Clearly (it seemed to me) trying to capitalize on name identification with City of Heroes, I wondered if the experience would be at all the same.
There was one slight similarity. You could design the look of your avatar. Other than that, there was no real comparison. Superhero City is a Flash-based browser game closer to Farmville and Mafia Wars than City of Heroes. Its two big innovations: it featured animated battles between your avatar and your enemy (either another player or mission-based enemy), and you could design the look of your avatar (although it was not nearly as customizable as City of Heroes).
Yeah, that’s my guy on the left, recycling the Metalord name yet again.
The good: it’s free, advancement is fast, and some of the powers have cool animations attached to them.
The bad: in order to excel in the ranks of players, you have to either pay big bucks for special extras, or else pump up the ranks of your allies by “befriending” lots of strangers who only count as “game friends.” Or both.
Also, some of the missions are really stupid. For instance, in one mission, you’re supposed to break through a security door with your powers. Good concept. Problem is, instead of simply saying you got through the door, it makes you fight the door, in a battle like the one above, with you and the door facing off in front of a background location. Even worse, the door has a pretty high Agility, so it often dodges your attacks. It’s a door… that dodges.
I’m not really a fan of this genre of game, but it’s free, and I play several. But Superhero City was never more than the barest cracker slightly taking the edge off my gaming hunger. What I really wanted was to get back into something like City of Heroes, only I couldn’t afford the monthly subscription.
And then, I found the answer.
Next week…
