City of Villains [PC]

Villains! Mustache-twirling, lair-building, henchperson-hiring villains, without whom no heroic endeavor would be complete. What was the first hue and cry that arose when NCSoft's online massively multiplayer City of Heroes came out? Uh, actually that would be "Where are the capes?" The second one, though, was, "Why can't I be a bad guy?"

Don't get your Lex Luthor Underoos in a bunch one minute longer, Skippy, your chance is here with City of Villains. The dark twin to its upstanding MMOG brother, Villains introduces a few new twists and gives advanced players cool things to strive for. The core experience, however, treads the familiar if well-executed path of Heroes.

Like City of Heroes, the game excels at letting you build your little lawbreaker to spec, with even more character appearance options. A host of nasty looks has been added, from skull adornments, to stitched-up zombie skin, to really bad hair.

What kind of hell you raise depends on your power set, and City of Villains gives players something new to sample apart from the pure, standard MMOG archetypes of Heroes like tanker and defender. Villains' character classes flirt with fringe power sets and even hybridize gameplay roles. Brutes fight up close and personal, with a rage meter to lend extra oomph to attacks. The stalker archetype, a rogue-like damage dealer, relies on stealth. The corruptor is the main ranged class, and the closest thing to a healer in these outlaw lands. The dominator handles crowd control, and the mastermind is a pet class, with the ability to summon zombies, mercenaries, cute lethal robots, or ninjas.

Players familiar with City of Heroes will race right through the tutorial (entitled "Breakout"), a high-energy prison escape, but new players may get bogged down in the wordy text boxes between activities. Once busted free, take in the impressive graphics of the Rogue Isles, an archipelago of ruined towers, factories belching smoke, shantytowns, and a glittering casino.