Ever since you were a kid, reading comics under the covers with a flashlight and “flying” around the backyard in a homemade cape, you knew what you wanted to be. Some of us chose to be the noblest hero imaginable; others decided to give the supervillains a run for their money. But some of us had flimsier allegiances, flipping from a dark hero to a noble villain at a moment’s notice. This tradition lives on in the Going Rogue expansion for NCsoft’s City of Heroes massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Like the original City of Heroes, you’ll create a superhero (or villain), write an origin story for the character, choose one of five origins (Natural, Magic, Science, Mutation, or Technology) select from five archetypes (Blaster, Controller, Defender, Scrapper, or Tanker) and venture out to do some damage.
Despite the swords, it's not Kill Bill. It's "Kill Everyone."
Going Rogue sets itself apart from City of Heroes in that you’ll venture through Paragon City’s alternate reality of Praetoria and take on a larger series of missions that allow you to shift allegiances between heroes and villains. Once you’ve entered Praetoria, you can choose to aid either the Loyalists siding with the Praetorian government or the members of the local Resistance movement. The expansion builds on classic City of Heroes gameplay by adding new power sets and abilities for your characters.
Like the original game, Going Rogue offers good graphics and sound--although neither is bleeding edge--and it’s easy enough to get into. Missions are easy to pick up and locate on the map, inventory management is relatively simple, and it’s fun to customize your character’s powers as you gain levels. Of course any MMO thrives on team play, and Going Rogue also makes it simple enough to join a group, defeat the baddies and move on.
We were able to maintain a good connection rate with the game’s servers, and the application ran solidly under Mac OS 10.6.4, but we did find some shortcomings to be reckoned with. While Going Rogue is easy enough to pick up and play and the tutorial is inclusive, the game’s interface and menu system were frustrating, and we had to struggle to get used to them before they became second nature. Plus, the lack of in-game voice chat is disappointing--you’ll have to create a group in Skype or iChat.
City of Heroes: Going Rogue
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