City of Heroes Mission Architect Review

Trembling Hand examines the newly added mission architect for City of Heroes.

City of Heroes is not a difficult game. First off, it’s instanced. So as soon as you step in the mission door, it’s scaled to your level. No getting missions to beat a boss several levels above you that you have to sit on until you can handle it. In addition, not only can you adjust the difficulty for any mission, and drop it low enough that it’s trivial to solo, but even on the highest level difficulty with a full 8-person team – which causes the greatest number of mobs to spawn – most teams simply steamroller through missions. It’s satisfying, to a point. The game is about being a superhero/villain after all. But there’s not much challenge to it.

Well, there is now. Just about every custom mission I’ve played (and made) includes at least one elite boss – super-tough enemies that only appear irregularly in most CoH content. Plus, there’s trick up the critter creator’s sleeve that makes even custom minions a renewed challenge.