Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Special thanks to David Zeb Cook for giving us a tour of City of Villains.

City of Heroes took gamers by surprise. A new game idea had been implemented and was actually fun to play. Could it be true? Indeed it was, but there was something missing. Players wanted to unleash their dark side and roaming around cleaning the streets of Paragon City wasn't filling the void.

Enter City of Villains, the standalone sequel that promises to let players vent their inner super-villain and have a lot of fun in the process.

The character creation in City of Heroes took the genre to a new level and City of Villains looks to follow directly in those footsteps. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. Capes, scars and mutated monster heads are yours for the wearing.

The setting for the game is the Rogue Isles located off the coast of Bermuda.  The aptly named Rogue Isles were once a French colony, but pirates sent the French packing making the location the perfect spot for super villains to call home.   You would think the heroes from Paragon City would show up and clean out this nest of nastiness, but unfortunately for them the Rogue Isles are recognized by the U.N. as a sovereign nation. Hands off heroes!

Cryptic told us that they had three main areas of focus when creating City of Villains. They wanted PvP to be an important part of the game. They wanted players to "feel" like they were playing a villain and they wanted players to be able to build fortresses.

PvP will be handled in four zones. It is here that you will take on other players becoming famous or infamous as the mood suits you. There will also be seven zones that ship with player versus environment only content. How many of you have wanted to take on the NPC super heroes from Paragon City? Go on, raise your hands. In City of Villains you can do just that with the famous Paragon City heroes showing up in some missions. You will even be able to take on Statesman.

No arch-criminal is complete without a fortress to keep pesky heroes and other bothersome criminals out. City of Villains delivers with a cool and intuitive drag and drop fortress building mode. The demonstration of this feature reminded me a bit of Dungeon Keeper where you drag a room and drop it into place. Your fortress can be equipped with weaponry and ambiance items like fire pits and wall torches. The floors, walls and pretty much anything you can see will be customizable. Think Bob "Freddy Krueger" Villa meets This Old Lair.

City of Villains will also deliver some nifty new graphical effects. Light bloom, armour reflections and a new water effect are all part of this sequel.

The game looks flat out fun and appears to add some of the missing gameplay pieces to the City of Heroes puzzle.