With a whopping three superhero MMOs on the market, Senior Staff Writer Chris "Pwyff" Tom went back to revisit City of Heroes, the first game that defined the genre.

City of Heroes was the one responsible for establishing the action-based nature of combat that all other superhero MMOs have followed to this day. Unfortunately, CoH is showing its age with combat, as it feels sluggish and unresponsive in comparison to faster, more modern MMOs, like Rift or World of Warcraft. City of Heroes was also among the first to employ a small pool of abilities that players could then customize to their needs. While you do gain access to a fair number of powers, most common fights utilize only a few of those powers, which most players then use in a set rotation for maximum damage per second. As you level up, you can also unlock ability slots, which you can socket with enhancements that customize your abilities in a variety of ways, like increasing the range, the damage, the endurance cost or even the cooldown.

As I leveled up in City of Heroes, I also couldn't help but be impressed with the strong feeling of progression that the game managed to maintain. Perhaps my biggest gripe with superhero MMOs is that they tend to give you too much out the door, as appearance is probably the first thing that low level players want to get when they start leveling up, and superhero MMOs tend to negate this experience by giving you so much character customization up front. City of Heroes does a good job of maintaining that sense of character growth with some great character milestones down the line, like travel powers, ancillary powers, capes and auras being attained at much later levels. Recently, there has also been the addition of the new Incarnate System, which gives players the ability to work toward more endgame character content in the form of new Alpha Slot abilities and, down the line, more unlockable incarnate abilities.

Throughout my time playing City of Heroes, it seems to me that the real strength and weakness of this game lies in its age. I say strength because City of Heroes has done a fantastic job of retaining that older sense of MMO progression that many of the newer superhero MMOs have really failed to maintain. With DC Universe Online players hitting the level cap and having nothing to do after a few weeks of casual play, and Champions Online giving players almost everything before level ten, City of Heroes is more conservative with what it gives players at what time, and in this it succeeds in creating that strong personal bond that can only come from spending the time to grow with your character.

On the other hand, City of Heroes is, unfortunately, not a game that has managed to age well with time. While Paragon Studios did take measures with their implementation of their new "ultra" graphic settings, playing the game on ultra was really anything but. The game does lack the incredible graphical strength possessed by its younger competitors, and even if Champions Online and DC Universe Online don't possess the combat depth of City of Heroes, they are certainly  smoother in their presentation.

In the end, however, in spite of its technological age, City of Heroes still possesses an extremely strong core foundation that Champions Online and DC Universe Online have not even come close to challenging. If they want to stay on that throne, I do feel that City of Heroes needs to tighten up their core focus. Right now, there are a lot of side projects that haven't received much love, like City of Heroes' separated PvP community, or their super group base building community, both of which haven't felt much in the way of developer communication. But really, as long as Paragon continues to intelligently add more depth to their game, I have a good feeling that they'll remain the top dogs to beat for a good while to come.

For more City of Heroes news, check out Senior Staff Writer Chris "Pwyff" Tom's recent interview with Nate "Second Measure" Birkholz, the game's new producer.