Despite the many people playing online at once, I was very surprised at how well organized the game is.  When you first start out, you are brought to the Tutorial map.  The tutorial really gives you a feel of the spacious environments and teaches you the basics of the game such as learning to navigate, talk to people, as well as fighting.  The tutorial is online so you will see other newcomers to the game walking around.

Super Powers
Your powers are the main attacks or abilities that your character will use.  For example, since my character is equipped with a gun, his main attack uses a shotgun style attack or a rapid fire attack.  There are more passive attack powers such as being able to run fast or being able to float in the air slowly.

Enhancements
Enhancements are very important in the game.  All of your superhero powers come with at least one enhancement slot.  An enhancement slot as the name implies, allows you enhance the abilities of a superpower.  Enhancements may be obtained either by fighting villains or buying them from your contacts.  Every enhancement has a little number right below which tells you the level of the enhancement.  At lower levels, you will only be able to use enhancements at a maximum of 5.  When your character reaches level 12, you’ll be able to use enhancements at a maximum of 15.  For example, for my shotgun attack, I put several damage enhancements which increase the damage of the attack.  I also put a ‘recharge reduction’ enhancement which decreases the time it takes to recharge the power to be able to use it again.

Missions
You begin your journey at Atlas City.  Atlas City is generally the main hub for all players.  At the beginning, I was told to talk to some people and that was how I began my first missions.  A mission is one of the primary ways in getting experience for your character.  Having played the game for many days now, missions consist of similar objectives.  These may involve going into a building and killing all the people in there. 

There are also missions involving killing 10 of some specific enemy type.  Sometimes this mission may take longer than others.  That’s because sometimes it is hard to find a specific enemy on the map.  You have to spend a lot of time looking for them unless you are already familiar where to find them.

In general, doing missions generally involves killing the villains (computer-controlled).   They may come in different forms such as killing a bunch of villains to rescue hostages or just killing everyone with a single head boss at the end (usually).

Leveling Up
When leveling up your first few times of the game, the game will start to unfold by teaching you more about the available functions of the game.  For example, you will eventually learn about being able to create your own superhero group as well as being able to combine enhancements.  Leveling up generally followed a pattern.  After leveling up, you may be able to add two enhancements slots to a power.  The next level, you might be able to choose another superpower.  Keep in mind that once you level up, you need to visit a super character such as Ms. Liberty in Atlas Park whom will enable you to level up.  I always see lots of people hanging around there when I visit her.

Exploring the City of Heroes World
As you level up, there will always be an opportunity to face new challenges.  New cities and areas will be unlocked and available once you reach a certain level.  Exploring is the key in succeeding in this game.  By exploring, you will learn where specific villains are at as well as the difficulty of certain areas.  Don’t forget to check everywhere, you may even find villains in places you least expect such as the roofs of buildings.

Traveling from one place to another is not too cumbersome.  Each place has a train station which allows you to travel in between key places.  In addition, there are usually exits on the edges of the map which allow you to also travel to other areas.

It’s All About the Teams
Teams are a very important aspect in the game.  By teaming up with other individuals, you will be able to work together to tackle even greater challenges than by working by yourself.  I found it very easy to team up easily with other individuals with the simple system.  You just click the ‘Seek Team’ button on the left hand side and this will allow other groups to invite you to their team.  If you see a group nearby, you can just ask and they are fairly happy about inviting another member.

When fighting together in teams, you will gain experience for each villain that is killed by any member of the team.  The experience you receive depends on your level relative to the villain’s level.  When you are in a team, there is a leader in the group indicated by a star on the left of the team list.  The leader has the ability to set the team mission.  The leader can choose one of his existing missions or be able to choose one of the missions for team from one of the members.

Show Some Expression
Chatting with just text is just fine, but the problem is that text never really shows your true emotion.  City of Heroes allows your character to express a variety of emotions that help enhance the communication in the game.  If you’re playing the game and need to go grab a bite, just show yourself reading a newspaper.  If you’re patiently waiting for other teammates, you can help bring up the team spirit by dancing with a boom box.  The available actions/emotions really make it easier to communicate with other individuals.

The Interface
The interface is very clean and well organized.  In fact, some of the interface is windows.  You can drag and move them to any place of the screen you want.  Windows can be hidden, collapsed, expanded, to make the interface suited to your needs.  The interface is very easy to get used to after a while playing City of Heroes.  I really found no problems with the interface.

Graphics/Sound
The graphics are not Doom 3, but I found the graphics to look good for an online game.  The maps are very spacious.  When seeing people fight, the powers are well animated and are consistent with their actions.  The sound effects are also consistent with the powers being used by others.  You may see and hear a superhero zoom by you really fast.  The sounds are not as important in this game as in other games.  You only hear background music usually when you enter a different part of the city.  I’ll let the screenshots speak for themselves.  You can pass the judgment.