City of Heroes

Players begin by using the game's extensive character creation system to select an archetype and Power Sets, design a unique costume, and write a back story for their hero.

They may start their adventure in a tutorial zone known as "Outbreak" that teaches them how to play the game. It is here they learn about the level system and how to determine which enemies to attack. Players may choose to skip this tutorial if they like and head straight to one of two starting areas (Atlas Park and Galaxy City).

As a hero's security level increases by earning experience points from missions and by defeating foes, they gain benefits such as more health, more powers, more slots for holding temporary power-ups called Inspirations, and more enhancement slots for powers. Enhancements are power-ups which players can socket onto powers to improve them on more permanent terms.

Paragon City, the city in which the game takes place, is divided into different zones by giant energy walls known as "war walls." In story terms, the walls are used to prevent large scale attacks upon the city and to prevent high level enemies from entering low level areas. Zones are usually connected by road tunnels, but transportation such as the monorail, ferries and helicopters is also provided. Especially dangerous zones called hazard or trial zones, which teem with large groups of enemies, are connected by passages in the war walls guarded by the police and access is restricted to heroes with a minimum security level.

Players initially move around the zones by slowly jogging, sprinting, or by using the Prestige Power:Slide (available to owners of the special edition of the game). As heroes grow in level and accumulate more powers, they gain the ability to choose among four higher speed traveling powers: teleportation, superspeed, superjump, and fly, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. While each archetype has its own unique set of powers and abilities, all players have access to the powers from the ten Power Pools at level six. The Power Pools contain the aforementioned travel powers, as well as other generic, non-class specific powers such as Grant Invisibility, Provoke, Recall Friend, and Boxing.

There are a variety of different villain organizations and gangs in City of Heroes, each with unique attributes. Groups of villains, all from the same gang and usually all with similar security levels, roam around areas of Paragon City. Certain gangs are more likely to appear in different zones. For instance, Circle of Thorns (a magic using villain group) members can always be found in the hazard zone of Perez Park.

Missions — the City of Heroes equivalent of the quests typically found in other MMORPGs — are given by non-player character (NPC) contacts and consist of either a "hunt" mission, where heroes are given the task of arresting a certain number of villains from one of the villain groups, or a private "instanced" mission map created solely for the player's team which is inhabited by a particular gang. When heroes reach approximately level 20, they begin to receive outdoor instanced missions set in fenced-off areas as well. As heroes venture further into the mission zone, they usually have to confront a Boss villain, rescue hostages, or find a particular clue. Upon completion, heroes will be rewarded with an XP bonus, influence and occasionally a badge. Some missions may be completed at the hero's leisure, but others will have a set time limit which begins counting down as soon as the mission has been accepted from the contact. It is usually possible to tell, by reading its description, whether a mission is timed before accepting it.

Heroes can venture into mission maps together if they form a team and choose a particular member's mission as the team's objective. The difficulty level and number of the villains is adjusted according to the strength and number of the heroes grouped together. Since the release of the Issue 3 content update "A Council of War," the player is now able to set the difficulty of the missions by visiting a special NPC, the Hero Corps Field Analyst.

Amid the missions, story arcs will emerge. These are a series of missions which form a larger story, often giving the player new insights into the history and mythos of Paragon City. Sometimes, these story arcs affect the player hero directly as well. Once a story arc is completed, the hero is rewarded with experience points, enhancements and a souvenir, serving as a reminder of the character's actions.

For players who can devote a block of several hours to the game, two other types of missions with deeper storylines are available—the Task Force and the Trial. Task Forces always require a team, and consist of a series of linked missions that must be run to completion by that same team before its members may take on any additional missions. Once a Task Force has been started, additional players will not be able to join the team. In addition, Leadership of the Task Force can not be reassigned. If a Task Force member voluntarily leaves the team while the Task Force is in progress, he is unable to rejoin it. In the case somebody is involuntarily disconnected, then he will return to the Task Force when reconnected. Trials are similar to Task Forces but are usually shorter and more challenging; some share the team restrictions of a Task Force but others are taken as individual missions, though teams are still practically required. Upon completion, both Task Forces and Trials usually (but not always) provide all participants with a badge as well as a reward—either a Single Origin or a special enhancement. Several specially-designated Trials reward players with an opportunity to "respecify" their characters by choosing a different complement of superpowers or reassigning enhancements.

Teamwork is a large part of City of Heroes. Players can form supergroups (similar to other MMORPGs' guilds) reminiscent of classic comic book groups such as the X-Men or Justice League of America. Supergroups pick a name, a motto, an emblem, and two colors. Heroes can then enter "Supergroup Mode" and change the colors and emblem of their normal avatar to those of their Supergroup. Players can also form teams with other players to go on missions and fight villains together. Unlike many MMORPGs, City of Heroes has a system where players of vastly different power levels can team together; a lower-leveled player may play as the sidekick of a higher-leveled one and participate in missions which the player would normally be too weak for, or a higher-level player may act as an exemplar to a lower-leveled player, temporarily reducing the exemplar's combat level to match the lower-level player's.