City of Heroes Issue 20 brings raids
And the most powerful abilities yet.
Through Issue 20 - out now and free - original superhero MMO City of Heroes has finally welcomed raids to its spandex mix of action.
These Incarnate Trials are scalable, and so can be tackled by groups of eight all the way up to 24. With these encounters come new Incarnate Powers - four tiers of them - to modify existing powers as well as add completely new ones. Apparently these can make you stronger than the legendary City of Heroes characters themselves.
Issue 20 also allows, for the first time, groups of 48 heroes via a League system (a fancy name for a raid).
The story pinning these new toys together revolves around Emperor Cole, the naughty dictator of a place called Praetoria. You'll deal a blow to his operation by smashing his Behavioural Adjustment Facility to bits.
Incidentally, you will need City of Heroes' Going Rogue expansion to play the Incarnate Trials and unlock the Incarnate Powers.
In video game years, City of Heroes is older than Esther Rantzen, having launched in Europe a week before World of Warcraft - 4th February 2005.
Created by Cryptic Studios but now developed by NCsoft off-shoot studio Paragon Studios, City of Heroes has managed not only to survive but also to flourish, shrugging off strong and direct competition from Champions Online and DC Universe Online.
A trademark for City of Heroes 2 was spotted a year ago to this day. NCsoft responded a day later, not ruling out the possibility of a sequel.