Pros and Cons of CoH: A Video Review

Hello. I have a web show called The RPG Fanatic where I review computer rpg games. I decided to make CoH my first MMORPG review and while I had played the game before (in Dec 2004), I recently re-visited it, playing from level 1 to 50. After doing this I concluded that CoH has some innovative game design elements I wish other MMORPG developers would incorporate into their designs, but CoH also lacks a lot of content I expect an MMORPG to have today. I dissect the game in the review.

I will be reviewing the Mission Architect system in an upcoming review, and thought some of you might like to see my review for the game overall and add your comments. I might include and/or respond to some of those comments in my next review for the MA system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waClZLJdIvk

Overall, I didn't think it was a very good review. You got a lot of stuff wrong.

However, you were right about AV fights being lame. And PvP is broken in this game. Though PvP does offer IO drops that you can only get from other players.

I started typing some point by point remarks but ultimately I guess my answer is that this was a very shallow review that missed a lot of stuff and made some pretty questionable criticisms. You make some valid points as well but, to be honest, the review itself felt pretty dated and felt as though it was made by someone who rushed through the game and failed to get into some pretty basic aspects of it.

ok, first thing to jump out at me, you could tighten up the tiem a lot by rehearsing a bit more, the um's and ah's around the 3 minute mark were really distracting, i know that can be tough, but tightening it up can really make it easier to listen to. the start was kind of weak too, you really have to make the viewer want to watch, and if you werent part of the community, i wouldnt have lasted past the intro, it kind of was indifferent, why should the viewer care?

other stuff is generally just disagreements, you complain about the travel tiem in the game, but just about every mmo i have played has had travel time as a component, most have not had the cell phone system. furthermore, in newer zones and almost all of cov, contacts send you to other zones far less. it seems like you really didnt research much for the review

next enhances. again, you overlook that most enhances are sold within level appropriate zones, if you need a 25 enhancer, you are likely at or around the level of that zone, so really it only takes basic preparation to keep up with enhances, plus you complain about enhances graying out, but io's do now grey out, basically they answered your concern and you didnt acknowledge it. firthermore, after level 35 if one insistes on using so's on both sides, they can use the store at the rwz for all origins, so there really is not that much problem. I really have no idea how it took you 30 mins to simply upgrade your enhances, but that really is less an issue with the game. ok i see you got back to it at the 12 min mark, but that pretty much contradicts what you said, at the beginning. makes the review seem inconsistent.


your tanking thing only dealt with defense based tanks, resist based tanks are more akin to standard mmo tanks, but its important to acknowledge that most tankers use other power, like damage auras and unique powers like ice slick or shiver.

the build criticism thing really was just silly and uninformed about, really, go to the specific subforums if you want to see, but scrappers really arent sacrificing much dps for survivability to the degree that it is hampering teams, so your comment seems odd to the point of a non-sequiteur.

on av's, have you faced nocturne or ghost widow yet? or reichsman? a lot are bags of hit points, but there are some who change the game.

for the love of god, enunciate! by the goku example, the slurring is getting distracting

ok, the swearing..you know how yahtzee swears a lot and its funny? thats because he makes it fit the reviews for emphasis or humor, in this review it just feels whiny. swear if it works, but in here it feels silly and gratuitous.

about the market, i i'll let nethergoat handle that one, but you are intensely wrong, and minimal research would have shown you how to compete on the market and get what you need.

as per endgame, research again, rikti mothership raids, hamidon raids, rsf, stf, lady grey, cathedral of pain.

interesting you mention casual gamer retention. you do know that the game has been cited by previous and now antagonistic devs for having a devoted longterm fanbase. also, up to date info is centralized on the paragonwiki, easily accessed information, many posters discuss it freely, and the guides are also centralized on the forum, head to the section right now, we have a fairly active guide writing community.

ok, at 17 mins, we basically are complaining coh doesn't copy wow?

ok, at 19 minutes, now you are abandoning a review at all and have turned it into a preachy rant with flawed reasoning. really, this may sound nasty, but GET OVER YOURSELF. I cant see anyone enjoying this review.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Here's some quick points:

- First 'cause it's the biggest: Your review sounds very dated. It ignores the Going Rogue expansion which came out weeks ago and made significant changes to the game. Also, since then the servers have been pretty crowded although I'll admit that it'll take a few more weeks to see how that holds up as people's free months give out. Also, in the next major patch we're getting the Fitness pool as inherent powers but that was just announced so you wouldn't know. Still, there's no excuse for missing Going Rogue which was announced a year ago and released weeks ago. It's like reviewing any other MMORPG and ignoring its most recent content additions.

- Complaining about 3 starting inventory slots is ridiculous since you don't even begin getting salvage drops until level 5 or recipe drops until level 10. The initial slots exist pretty much entirely so you can create "inventable" costume items such as rocket boots or tech wings. But you slap across the screen "Only 3 slots!" as though its a liability and neglect to mention that you gain more slots on a regular basis as you level.

- You don't mention the invention system except to mention that they don't go obsolete. Did you even mention set bonuses? I missed it if you did. It's also easy to get invention origin enhancements just in the course of playing the game and using the stuff that drops. Spending tens of thousands of influence on a lvl 25 Damage IO is just crazy and the only reason to do it is because you're already rich or because you're lazy.

Others hit some of the other points and I'm not getting paid enough to be your editor.

Missions, not quests, and mission maps, not dungeons - unless it's CoT maps, which are sort of dungeon looking places

Two immediate criticisms:

1. 20 minutes. Who are you again? Very little is going to get me to sit through a 20 minute review. Have the video hit your highlights - 5 minutes, perhaps, 10 at MOST - and write up the in depth stuff.

2. Immediate bias. "... then it started to suck really really hard." As soon as I hear that, my reaction is "and thus the review is going to reinforce that viewpoint, no matter how it is now." The general look on your face while "discussing" doing this, before the review itself even starts, just reinforces the notion. You don't present this in the least bit professionally such as - "I played it, but there were some things (how long ago?) I didn't like, such as XYZ."

3. Swearing. You can't log in. OK, and this is the game's fault how? And the website is maintained by NCSoft. While, yes, it can reflect on the game itself, you didn't note (a) the game launcher has links to the site, which is different from the account site, and (b) said game site can give you notice that servers are down or whatnot.

It comes off as immediately biased and disinterested, like it might as well be a review of having to clean your room and take out a particlarly nasty smelling bag of rubbish from the kitchen instead of a *review* - and this is at *a minute and a half in.* Why, exactly, am I going to sit through another 19:05 of this?


Edit: Also, wikia - see my sig. The wikia site (not paragonwiki.com) is not maintained for various reasons. It currently tends to (a) be out of date and (b) be a haven for spammers.

See my Guides and Tutorials

...Aren't reviews suppose to highlight the pros and cons of a game?

Unless you're Yahtzee, of course. But then again, no one watches Zero Punctuation because it's an unbiased source of game information.

So you come here on the boards where it is pretty clear there is a near fanatical player base, and ask they to review you obviously bias review of the game they love. What did you expect? The post, and the request for this player base to look at it makes you look like a troll. If that was not you're plan, you may want to make it more clear in the OP, you may also want to let the review stand for what it says, rather than constantly trying to defend you're PoV with people you know disagree.

Also, you seem to have missed the sarcasm of my first post.

This game has been around for near a decade, when so many others have crashed and burned.

Hmm.

Well, I suppose they could change the design of the game to get all of these "typical MMO players".

CoX:NGE.

I'm sure that will get green lighted.