Ok I got in the open beta, and after playing to level 14 on my first character these are my impressions (and responses to my own questions):
Is it? These are my doubts about the game:
- Too action oriented. I liked how use of powers in CoH felt strategic, while CO according to descriptions seems to be more click-festy.
Yes, the combat is faster paced than in CoH, but it's still not "action", i.e., what you do or don't do still depends largely on your character and not on your twitch reactions (except active blocking which I never use anyway).
- Customization. No, I'm not talking about color of powers or # of beads on your mask. I'm talking powersets/powers. I played CoH for years just trying different archetype primary/secondary powersets. CO seems open skill, so no real reason to try alternatives.
This is mostly false. There are plenty of customization options, you can mix & match powers from all powersets, but for all but the basic ones you need to have X # of powers from the same powersets or X++ # of powers in general (so, you could get fire storm if you have 3 other fire powers or 5 other powers in general). You also can increase the strength/effects of your powers every several levels (I preferred CoH, every 2 levels or so). So there are plenty of customization options. But you also can respec at will with some cost associated, so my point is not a real issue. There is one small problem though. In CoH I could see all the powers I could get and salivate over what I was going to get next. In CO you only see the powers you can get at any given time, so you'll have to search online to see all the options and plan ahead.
- Consolization. I haven't played one PC game that's also on consoles, whose controls haven't suffered because of it. Be it for being 'non-standard' or for being reduced so you can do everything with the 6 buttons in the controller.
Not an issue, not sure how the 360 will work, but I can access 10 different spells/powers just in one shortcut bar controlled with #keys, with 10 more in another bar (ctrl-#), etc.
- Target population. Related to above, in CoH I played with mostly 20+ year old people, I feel CO will be a 13 year old fest.
This has me worried, but not for the same reason. I'll explain in the 'grouping' concern.
- PvP. I actually liked that CoH was clearly PvE, as PvP came much later (and PvE suffered because of it). CO has PvP from start, which tells me that many powers are 'balanced' for PvP, which sucks. In a non PvP game you can have powers that are not balanced, like a 30 second hold, for example, wouldn't be possible in a PvP game because "it's not fun to be held".
Too early to tell, so far my powers are rather basic, no holds except some random roots. I don't like the randomness of my special effect powers, there is no 'root' and no 'hold' powers in my ice selection. My powers randomly root/slow/hold/stun as a possible side effect of their damage.
- Groups: I'm a grouper, almost never solo. In CoH it was clear the role of everyone in a group. In CO it doesn't seem that way, as everybody can have a random # of skills.
This is still a major concern. There is no grouping at all. Everybody is out there soloing, which I'll explain at the end.
- Loot: One of the things, if not THE thing I liked the most about CoH was that it didn't have 'phat lewt'. You were as good as your character was, you weren't gimped if you didn't grind quest X for a +10 sword of uberness. CO has lewt, and that sucks.
And this is majorly true. This is a loot centric game. In fact, my initial feeling about this game is that this is World of Warcraft: Heroes in tights. Basically, you go to a quest giver, which will present the quest with the WoWish 3 or 4 rewards you'll choose from. Go to a marked area for the quest, kill/click the X of Y, go back for your reward. Rinse and repeat. You'll have a primary attack/primary defense/primary utility items each with 2 secondary items. Also, you'll have different 'builds' for your character that you can change at will (i.e. your "offensive" build, your "defensive" build and your "balanced" build), so you'll have plenty of phat lewt to look for and craft for... So what, Superman didn't use items? his loss! he could have used a +10 DEX, +5 END, +8 EGO gloves of whatchamacallits! ... MAJOR BLEH!!!!
I mentioned crafting. Yes, there is crafting, very simple style like WoW (collect components, learn recipe, click). Same stuff as in WoW, consumable items, wearable items, backpacks, etc.
The problem I mentioned with grouping is that... there is none. Almost all quests so far involve killing/clicking on stuff in the outdoors. The beauty of CoH was the instanced missions. Gather your group, fire an instanced mission and have fun! in CO it's not quite like that. It's more like soloing in a shared chat channel. So far I've only seen a couple of 'dungeons' (basically, 2 or 3 connected rooms with mobs and one bigger mob at the end). So my concern about 13 year old kids is not an issue... because there is no grouping lol, 13 year or 40 year olds. Nobody groups (at least up til now, maybe at higher level stages who knows).
I just came from playing the beta of DDO (free). I'm surprised that no other MMOs have implemented a grouping interface like DDO (where you can look for open groups to join), in games that are supposed to be better enjoyed in groups, the most you'll find out there is a LFG flag, and CO doesn't even have that that I could easily find.
There are also shared quest areas (like in Warhammer Online), I only participated in one in the tutorial area, it was cool but short (kill 30 mobs, click 10 items, protect item for 2 minutes).
I also tried PvP because a quest asked me to go there. I even won lol (well my team did), but I won't comment on PvP since I couldn't care less about it. Same with costumes. I'll let those two topics for others more interested in them.
I heard someone in chat saying that they could level from 1 to 40 (max level in beta I believe) in one day if some 'monster island' was open. I'll chalk this up to beta and something to be tweaked, but since I stop playing a character when he reaches max level, this has me worried.
It's only my first day so this could change. But in summary, is the game good and fun? Sure it is. Will I play it for 2 years like I did CoH? Not a chance specially if I can max a character in a week or two.