Ok I was writing my Review on STO and realised that I probably come across as a bit of a CoX Fanboy, and to be honest to a small degree I am.
First let me justify myself as to why. CoX was and still is, one of the best MMO's about because of several reasons.
The user Interface is uncluttered, customizable, and user friendly.
The game is designed around team play, but isnt cripplingly difficult to play solo.
The mechanics and interface make playing as part of a team, very simple and much more enjoyable.
Build your own "Supergroup Base". You dont just get to start a "Guild" and build up resources, you actually get something to do with those resources which the whole guild can enjoy.
Player customization. You have much more choice in both visual, and ability for your character. I.e you can make a Tank, that isnt just cookie cutter build like in certain other MMO's, you can have fire, ice, invulnerability, dark armour, shield, or willpower, just as your primary armour set.
There is A PvP aspect but the game is much more focused on Co-operating rather then beating each other up.
OK even with my slight bias in mind i will try to keep my review subjective and informative.
You log into the game and a basic account lets you have 10 character slots. When you start a new character you first have to choose if you wish to roll a Hero or a Villain.
Hero archetypes at first are, Defender, Blaster, Controller, Scrapper or Tanker. There are two more Hero AT's but they are not available until you have a level 50 character on that account. Those AT's are Peacebringer and Warshade.
Apart from Defender, the archetypes basically do exactly what they say on the tin. Controller is all about crowd control by holds, immob's, and misdirecting the enemy. Blaster is a ranged fighter that is primarily high dps, but has low HP and is weak in melee. Scrapper is the melee dps class, Medium hp and medium dps. And then there are tankers who are High hp, low dps. Those are of course only typical roles and statistics as you can build your character to fit most roles, with differing degrees of dificulty.
Defenders are your healers, buffers, and Debuffers. Although you can use them in a dps role, but they will never be as high dps as a Blaster.
Once you have chosen your archetype, and power sets. You then get to the character builder, where you choose the physical dimensions of your character, and the gender. Once thats done its on to the costume. Here you can choose from a huge amount of costume pieces, and the collection with which you choose is always growing, as with every new update, seems to come new things to pick. One of the more recent updates, also included a Power set customization which allows you to customize the colour of the visuals from you powers.
You now get to decide whether or not to enter the tutorial. Its a short tutorial, that gives you the basics, and when you finish, you are automatically advanced to level 2.
Having completed the tutorial (or not) you get to choose from two starting contacts, One in Atlas Park, and one in Galaxy City. The level range of these starting zones is 1-6, and the way that the enemy mobs are spread means that the further from the center of the zone you get, the higher the level of the mobs. Meaning to find lvl 6 mobs, you need to go right to the edges of the zones.
The zones are sized so that you dont have to run for an hour to get to your objective, and there is a compass, which clearly indicates the position of that objective. as you level up, you return to the "Hero/Villain Trainer" in the zone you are in. Until level 30, you get a new power at each even level, and two "power slots" which allow you to improve those powers, at each odd level.
The powers in your primary and secondary power sets become available at certain levels, and several "Auxilliary" pools become available too, wich it is advisable to take as the travel powers, i.e flight, super speed, super jumping, teleporting, are all part of auxilliary pools and become available at level 14.
The powers are customizable in that you can add Slots to them, up to 6 slots per power. And depending on the nature of the power you can improve, damage, accuracy, endurance discount, and so on.
After level 30, you get a new power every third level, and you get 3 power slots for the levels in between.
If you want a game that is graphically amazing, then perhaps you wont like CoX because there are much prettier games out there, but as far as gameplay is concerned, CoX is still superior to other MMO choices.
The character level is capped at lvl 50, which is much lower then some other MMO's, It seems that NCSoft appreciate that not everyone wants to grind for weeks, and instead want to explore new content.
Customer service is friendly, and you rarely have to wait more then 30 minutes to get the assistance of a GM, should you need help.
At this point I could spend hours writing about content that has be introduced and the complicated systems that have improved certain aspects of the game, but as a review, you just want to know what you will be able to do and anything bad that might change your mind.
Serious PvP'ers will want to steer clear of CoX. The game was never designed to be for PvP, and although there are several zones for it, the mechanics of the game make it too easy for one small group of people to dominate a zone and make it unfair and unplayable for others. In Fact on the EU servers, there was one Supergroup, that was solely dedicated to dominating pvp zones, and would just pick off other players. And then ironically complain that there were no new people coming into PvP
There is an Invention system, which allows a player to create enhancements for their powers, that are more effective then the usual enhancements, and also provide bonuses to HP or other attributes when you have a certain number of enhancements from the same set.
Mission Architect, is a relatively new innovation that allows you to build your own missions or story arcs, and save them for everyone else to play. At first, this became a huge problem as the gold sellers and Pro Power levellers swooped in and abused this system, but NCS managed to rectify this problem with the introduction of a new "Sidekicking" system.
Sidekicking, used to be a way, in which a player could "Mentor" a lower level player, allowing them to raise the level of their character for the duration of them being sidkicked. Simply put, a player of level 30, could sidekick a level 10 player, allowing the level 10 players character to fight at level 29. You cannot get XP points for any enemy that is killed by a player that is over 5 levels higher then you, so people would farm with a level 50, have a level 46 in the mission, to sidekick a lower level up to level 45.
The new system means that every player on a team, fights at 1 level below the highest member of the team, meaning that farming became much less productive and more or less got rid of the Pro Power levellers.
At every factor of 5 level range after level 10, there is a task force that you can take a team to. Which offers you a chance to fight different enemies, and maybe get a little more immersed in the storyline.
High end content may not be as in depth as Other MMO's, but CoX has always been about the journey to getting to the level cap as it has been what you do once you get there. Even when you get to 50 there are plenty of things to do. Tweaking your build, fighting Giant Monsters, Task forces, Raids. Ill link some home made videos at the bottom of this post.
Player base is generally more friendly then some other MMO's and the atmosphere is more pleasant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Ny4Xu5ANI
http://www.thundorn.com/epic.wmv
http://www.thundorn.com/greats.wmv
http://www.thundorn.com/movie.wmv
http://www.thundorn.com/JackinIrons.wmv
First let me justify myself as to why. CoX was and still is, one of the best MMO's about because of several reasons.
The user Interface is uncluttered, customizable, and user friendly.
The game is designed around team play, but isnt cripplingly difficult to play solo.
The mechanics and interface make playing as part of a team, very simple and much more enjoyable.
Build your own "Supergroup Base". You dont just get to start a "Guild" and build up resources, you actually get something to do with those resources which the whole guild can enjoy.
Player customization. You have much more choice in both visual, and ability for your character. I.e you can make a Tank, that isnt just cookie cutter build like in certain other MMO's, you can have fire, ice, invulnerability, dark armour, shield, or willpower, just as your primary armour set.
There is A PvP aspect but the game is much more focused on Co-operating rather then beating each other up.
OK even with my slight bias in mind i will try to keep my review subjective and informative.
You log into the game and a basic account lets you have 10 character slots. When you start a new character you first have to choose if you wish to roll a Hero or a Villain.
Hero archetypes at first are, Defender, Blaster, Controller, Scrapper or Tanker. There are two more Hero AT's but they are not available until you have a level 50 character on that account. Those AT's are Peacebringer and Warshade.
Apart from Defender, the archetypes basically do exactly what they say on the tin. Controller is all about crowd control by holds, immob's, and misdirecting the enemy. Blaster is a ranged fighter that is primarily high dps, but has low HP and is weak in melee. Scrapper is the melee dps class, Medium hp and medium dps. And then there are tankers who are High hp, low dps. Those are of course only typical roles and statistics as you can build your character to fit most roles, with differing degrees of dificulty.
Defenders are your healers, buffers, and Debuffers. Although you can use them in a dps role, but they will never be as high dps as a Blaster.
Once you have chosen your archetype, and power sets. You then get to the character builder, where you choose the physical dimensions of your character, and the gender. Once thats done its on to the costume. Here you can choose from a huge amount of costume pieces, and the collection with which you choose is always growing, as with every new update, seems to come new things to pick. One of the more recent updates, also included a Power set customization which allows you to customize the colour of the visuals from you powers.
You now get to decide whether or not to enter the tutorial. Its a short tutorial, that gives you the basics, and when you finish, you are automatically advanced to level 2.
Having completed the tutorial (or not) you get to choose from two starting contacts, One in Atlas Park, and one in Galaxy City. The level range of these starting zones is 1-6, and the way that the enemy mobs are spread means that the further from the center of the zone you get, the higher the level of the mobs. Meaning to find lvl 6 mobs, you need to go right to the edges of the zones.
The zones are sized so that you dont have to run for an hour to get to your objective, and there is a compass, which clearly indicates the position of that objective. as you level up, you return to the "Hero/Villain Trainer" in the zone you are in. Until level 30, you get a new power at each even level, and two "power slots" which allow you to improve those powers, at each odd level.
The powers in your primary and secondary power sets become available at certain levels, and several "Auxilliary" pools become available too, wich it is advisable to take as the travel powers, i.e flight, super speed, super jumping, teleporting, are all part of auxilliary pools and become available at level 14.
The powers are customizable in that you can add Slots to them, up to 6 slots per power. And depending on the nature of the power you can improve, damage, accuracy, endurance discount, and so on.
After level 30, you get a new power every third level, and you get 3 power slots for the levels in between.
If you want a game that is graphically amazing, then perhaps you wont like CoX because there are much prettier games out there, but as far as gameplay is concerned, CoX is still superior to other MMO choices.
The character level is capped at lvl 50, which is much lower then some other MMO's, It seems that NCSoft appreciate that not everyone wants to grind for weeks, and instead want to explore new content.
Customer service is friendly, and you rarely have to wait more then 30 minutes to get the assistance of a GM, should you need help.
At this point I could spend hours writing about content that has be introduced and the complicated systems that have improved certain aspects of the game, but as a review, you just want to know what you will be able to do and anything bad that might change your mind.
Serious PvP'ers will want to steer clear of CoX. The game was never designed to be for PvP, and although there are several zones for it, the mechanics of the game make it too easy for one small group of people to dominate a zone and make it unfair and unplayable for others. In Fact on the EU servers, there was one Supergroup, that was solely dedicated to dominating pvp zones, and would just pick off other players. And then ironically complain that there were no new people coming into PvP
There is an Invention system, which allows a player to create enhancements for their powers, that are more effective then the usual enhancements, and also provide bonuses to HP or other attributes when you have a certain number of enhancements from the same set.
Mission Architect, is a relatively new innovation that allows you to build your own missions or story arcs, and save them for everyone else to play. At first, this became a huge problem as the gold sellers and Pro Power levellers swooped in and abused this system, but NCS managed to rectify this problem with the introduction of a new "Sidekicking" system.
Sidekicking, used to be a way, in which a player could "Mentor" a lower level player, allowing them to raise the level of their character for the duration of them being sidkicked. Simply put, a player of level 30, could sidekick a level 10 player, allowing the level 10 players character to fight at level 29. You cannot get XP points for any enemy that is killed by a player that is over 5 levels higher then you, so people would farm with a level 50, have a level 46 in the mission, to sidekick a lower level up to level 45.
The new system means that every player on a team, fights at 1 level below the highest member of the team, meaning that farming became much less productive and more or less got rid of the Pro Power levellers.
At every factor of 5 level range after level 10, there is a task force that you can take a team to. Which offers you a chance to fight different enemies, and maybe get a little more immersed in the storyline.
High end content may not be as in depth as Other MMO's, but CoX has always been about the journey to getting to the level cap as it has been what you do once you get there. Even when you get to 50 there are plenty of things to do. Tweaking your build, fighting Giant Monsters, Task forces, Raids. Ill link some home made videos at the bottom of this post.
Player base is generally more friendly then some other MMO's and the atmosphere is more pleasant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Ny4Xu5ANI
http://www.thundorn.com/epic.wmv
http://www.thundorn.com/greats.wmv
http://www.thundorn.com/movie.wmv
http://www.thundorn.com/JackinIrons.wmv