enemy-groups
Latest
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Underused enemies in City of Heroes
Last week I discussed why I'm not fond of Nemesis as a group, and this week I promised to discuss villainous groups that I think that City of Heroes could use a bit more actively. So I am certain that longtime readers expected me to spend most of this week talking about the Fifth Column because of course I would. I love the Fifth Column, I think they're a fantastic group of villains, and I've talked about how great they are as a group over and over. Surprise! Not this time. For all that I love the Column (and their continual curbstomping of their pale imitation in the Council), that wasn't my goal this week. No, this time around I want to highlight other groups that I think Paragon City could use a bit more often, enemies that either fall off the radar or just don't get as much attention as they're due. Even in a game that's been around as long as City of Heroes, there are certain enemy groups that just never get the love they deserve. Maybe the future can fix that for some of these guys.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: It's all a Nemesis plot
City of Heroes has a lot going for it, but it doesn't offer an easy nemesis for your character. Which is kind of a problem in a superhero game, but also a problem in the sense that you always want a nemesis in a game. You want someone that's just plain bad, a villain whose motives you don't need to understand in great depth. Every so often, it's nice to just have an adversary. I think that was, at one point, the goal behind Nemesis. But the group has wound up in a very different and much less entertaining place. At a glance, Nemesis isn't really all that overused in City of Heroes. Sure, there's the vague implication that he's behind a lot of different schemes, but for the most part that's just window-dressing. Despite the fact that I should adore a group of steampunk criminals in modern-day Paragon City, I feel my hackles raise every time Nemesis shows up, because the group and the leader are both massively overdone.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Spotlight on the Lost
Paragon City has the same problems as any large city. Drug addiction, financial ruin, and any number of other horrible circumstances have conspired to give the city a large population of the homeless and hopeless, left wandering the streets and trying desperately to survive. But something emerged within the homeless population of the city, something that smells of a familiar evil and a problem that was never appropriately dealt with the first time. If your goal is to defend the system, your enemies will find the people whom the system has failed... The Lost are among the saddest of all of the villainous groups in City of Heroes because at their core the group is made up of people who in many ways simply had no options. It's not even that they turned to crime out of desperation. These are people who, for better or worse, were blameless of anything more than minor crimes and poor decisions. And then they found themselves knee-deep in a war, moving from one sort of victim to another.
The Daily Grind: Are there lore elements you feel don't get used enough?
Most MMOs have a pretty expansive list of lore characters and groups. It's not surprising, really -- the games cover entire continents and worlds, so there have to be a lot of different stories going at any given time. But sometimes an interesting group of villains or interesting story promises don't quite get the attention they deserve. You enjoy what's there, but it feels like a really interesting group or plot thread got dropped in favor of something else. Maybe you felt like the Scarlet Onslaught deserved more attention in World of Warcraft. Maybe you want more stories in Final Fantasy XIV centering around the individual nation conflicts. Perhaps you just wanted to see another series of missions in City of Heroes to wrap up some loose ends from Praetoria. Whatever the case, are there lore elements you feel don't get used as often as they deserve? Or do you think that most of the stories in your game of choice feel just the right length? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Spotlight on the Circle of Thorns
Most of the lower-level enemies you face in City of Heroes are temporary threats at best. They're there, definitely, and you have to deal with them, but they aren't going to stick with you for the long term. You move on from the starter zones and they drift out of your memory. The only real exception are the cultists you occasionally run across, robed and whispering about destiny as they abduct citizens for very visual rituals. The Circle of Thorns never quite goes away. It's one of the most insidious groups within the game's setting, made all the worse because of its dogged persistence. And the funny part is that the group's not even particularly concerned with the heroes or villains of the setting. It's busy trying to finish a war that happened centuries ago, a war of gods and great sorcery, and everyone who gets killed is just collateral damage.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Spotlight on the Outcasts
One of the elements that doesn't get explored often enough in MMOs is the concept of the people who didn't quite make it. It's generally accepted on some level that adventurers or superheroes or whatever you play are a cut above normal people, but there's still a point at which you stop being a Assault Rifle/Devices Blaster and start being just a guy with a gun and some toys. And the people just below that mark, just shy of reaching the big time, have a story to tell, just like the player characters. So today's look at City of Heroes' villainous groups highlights one of the game's suggestions about what happens to those people. It's a group composed of those not quite strong enough to make a name beyond thuggery but just strong enough to be more dangerous than the low-level mooks you don't even notice. I'm talking, of course, about the Outcasts, the elemental-themed gang of mutants that terrorizes Steel Canyon, goes to war with the Trolls, and makes a cottage industry out of being almost good enough to hit the big time.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Spotlight on Hellions & Skulls
In every hierarchy, there has to be someone on the bottom, and that's where the Skulls and the Hellions sit. Sure, these gangs are terrifying to the civilian populace of Paragon City, but to heroes they're little more than a mild irritant. (They're probably less terrifying to the civilian populace of the Rogue Isles just by virtue of terror overload.) The one thing they're perfect for, however, is starting at the bottom of the many enemy groups within City of Heroes, because these two gangs are likely to be among your first enemies and the ones you level past the fastest. Normally, villain groups deserve their own writeups, but in the case of these two gangs they can't help but be lumped together. Not just because they're similar in play, but because they're similar in structure. They're both the new kids on the block, metaphorically speaking, and they;'ve both made aggressive gains in various parts of Paragon City. The good fortune of one necessitates the fall of the other, even if one of the gangs is clearly destined for disintegration sooner or later. So let's look at the facemask-wearing enemies of the early-level game.
The Rikti return to City of Heroes
If you've played City of Heroes, you know who the Rikti are -- the dangerous race from beyond our dimension who invaded and nearly destroyed Paragon City. Over time they've slowly become less of a threat, but they've never truly left, and amidst all the talk of Praetorian invasion they've decided to remind heroes and villains alike who they're dealing with. That's right, it's time to get ready for another brawl for the fate of humanity as the full-scale Rikti Invasion returns to the live servers. Paragon Studios has announced that the invasion will commence at 9:00 a.m. PDT on November 4th and last until midnight PDT on November 7th, giving players ample time to take part in the battle against the invaders. While lesser invasions have happened from time to time, the full-scale invasion has been on hiatus for a while, but it remains one of the more popular server events. And if you're a new player to City of Heroes, it's your chance to see one of the biggest enemy groups in the game face-to-face. Fair warning, however -- despite what the header might suggest, most of the Rikti do not simply wish to dance at the tailor.
