The recently released issue 9 update has brought with it a fundamental change to the COH/V experience, the salvage system. Now you can find bits of salvage lying around post battle that, when combined using a recipe, can be used to create anything from extra powerful enhancements and inspirations to suitably fancy costume add-ons. It's not exactly revolutionary when compared to other MMO's but it goes someway towards keeping COH/V competitive even if it was a long time coming. Auction houses also make their first appearance under the guise of Consignment Markets or the Black Market depending which game you're playing, another addition that bring COH/V belatedly into line with newer MMOs.

You'll have noticed that for the most part I've been talking about COH rather than COV, and while they are separate games to a degree they're very much two sides of the same coin. While being evil rather than heroic is a fundamental ideology shift the core game plays out very similarly. Rescue missions and drug busts are swapped for kidnappings and bank robberies but there's really only a cosmetic difference between fighting you're way through thugs to rescue the victim and battling you're way through heroes protecting the target. A lot of the improvements released in COV at launch have found their way into COH over time including an instant access mission system (police radio for the heroes and newspapers for villains) and the ability for super groups to now own their own lairs/bases from which to launch their missions, these bases can also be attacked by rival super groups albeit via rather too polite pre-arranged raids.

For all the overwhelming positivity to be found up to now I'd be remiss in my duties if I didn't now point out the most obvious of weak points, although even that's not entirely the game's fault. It's hard to be too critical of the graphics in a three year old game, especially an MMO, but even stood next to the now aging WoW, COH/V falls someway behind in the running. It's not that its ugly, its just that it's basic, every building and environment seems to have been rendered with the least possible number of polygons so while a city is never going to match the majesty of a huge fantasy environment there's still something very uninspiring about the drab boxy city you spend your hours running through. However, the characters you lovingly create are rendered in impressive detail for a game of its age and the enemies, while clearly less detailed, still hold up to closer scrutiny for the most part. It's not just in the looks department where things are showing signs of age either. The more practical elements of engines have moved on a lot in the past three years too and its at times jarring to return to the days where things like getting caught on scenery still happen from time to time. The game's interface is well designed but it's still not without its strange quirks, you're unable to see your enhancements and your inspirations at the same time for instance and the otherwise helpful compass sometimes forgets your current objective when you travel between areas on the train. Some missions can also be a little vague in their location details too, more than once I had to refer to the printed map enclosed in the box to work out which area of the city contained the sub-area I was looking for. Of course it's possible to write off all of these things (especially the graphical ones) by saying it's a three year old game, but it's also a game that gone through 9 large updates not to mention however many small ones which you'd have hoped meant such problems really should have been ironed out by now.

Perhaps the one real stumbling block in the whole thing is the price, while the idea of paying a monthly subscription to play a game is now established we've yet to see the games that started it all offer any real price cuts to reflect their elder statesmen status. Weighing in at a penny less than nine pounds a month COH/V hasn't exactly become the budget it perhaps should have. However, when you're having this much fun it's hard to be churlish about what amounts to still considerably less than a new game a month. And that's really the key to and City of Villains, despite looking a little dated and lacking some of the more complex features to be found in more modern MMOs what it does offer is a massive sense of fun and the feeling that everything is geared towards letting the player simply enjoy the feeling of being a super hero/villain rather than worrying about all the other things that can bog down more serious MMOs. This may put off as many people as it encourages but if you've ever dreamt of being in your own comic book then City of Heroes and City of Villains offer exactly the kind of wish fulfilment none of the officially licensed superhero games have been able to match.

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By Paul Newcombe