Chances are, if you're reading this site, there's a certain amount of dork blood flowing in your veins. (We all have it.) And if you've seen the movies like Spider-Man, The Hulk, and X-Men, chances are you've thought to yourself, "Man, if I had those powers, it would be so cool." Luckily, other people have the programming skills to make that dream a reality, and City of Heroes may be that realization. While you can't play as any of the licensed, well-known superheroes, this MMORPG will offer literally billions of options as to who you are and how you portray yourself.

City of Heroes has a character creation system that should become a model for other games of this ilk. There are tons of colors, heads, masks, chests, arms, boots, legs, etc. It's practically a game in and of itself; in fact, it would be great to separate this aspect out of the game just to let people play around with making their own superhero. Perhaps that will happen, but even if it doesn't, be prepared to spend a good hour or two just making your character. And, once you're done, you'll most likely have an extremely unique, very comic-bookish superhero ready to take down evildoers of all types.

Wanna fight?
While making your character, you can choose various powers that will be inherent to your character, such as levitation, command over certain elements, and much, much more. You'll need all of these too, because Paragon City (the game's playground, if you will) has been overrun by the Rikti. It seems that Paragon City was once the bastion of heroes, and in fact their breeding place. However, the alien Rikti have shown up to ruin all the fun, and in doing so they've infected the place with "bad guys" and converted some of the once good people of the town into miscreants. It will take thousands of people online to try to maintain the peace in this otherwise ruined town.

The game is separated into neighborhoods, and each one is huge. These work like zones found in other MMORPGs, and as such, there are "newbie" neighborhoods and more advanced places for more experienced players. In my time with the game I was able to approach policemen for jobs or missions. Much like many other MMORPGs, City of Heroes allows you to wander freely, attacking anything you see wrong, or you can take missions that will advance the story arc.

There are specific groups trying to bring Paragon City to its knees, and it's through the missions that you'll get most of the advancement in stopping them. There's The Fifth Column trying for world domination through whatever nefarious means necessary. There's the Circle of Thorns (which sounds strangely religious) that is close to unlocking some secret power hidden underneath the city. And, for a refreshing change, there's the appropriate named Freakshow, which does nothing more than petty crimes. They are the "newbie-friendly" enemies that I came across, and you could actively see them stealing purses and committing other minor crimes. Using your chosen superpowers they're easy enough to take down, and yet it's extremely cool to throw them 30 feet in the air, just because.

The green glow is a really cool attack... or somebody just farted.
Graphically, City of Heroes screams "comic book." Although it's not cel-shaded, it certainly has the look and feel of its pen-and-paper counterpart. The neighborhoods are also very well-detailed, and while they convey a certain sense of familiarity (buildings, sidewalks, etc.), there's none of that pesky realism. In other words, where masterpieces like Call of Duty convey a true sense of realism and intensity, City of Heroes instead draws its appeal from a truly imaginary place. And, since you're a superhero, you can do all sorts of otherworldly things, and the particle effects for that are well-implemented, even in the beta state.

Set to launch in just a few months, I have to guess that developer Cryptic is just polishing certain things and tweaking the balance, which is oh-so-important to these types of games. The beta I played was extremely clean and free of bugs (at least in the areas I played), and so long as the server infrastructure is in place, it seems as though those with aspirations of superhero-ness will have a place to congregate.