There are many of you out there who rememeber one of the most impactful days in our gaming lives… April 27th 2004. The day City of Heroes was released. This game has a very large cult following even after its death on November 30th 2012. I’m sure many of you have a very close connection with this game whether it was endless nights of grinding, new friendships, and maybe even relationships that sparked over this game… City of Heroes was so special to me because it created a very close bond between my dad and I. We would stay up late on school nights (maybe even be “sick” for a double exp weekend that started on a Friday)… After playing this game for years with my dad, and then dragging friends into it, it was absolutely heartbreaking when we found out the game would close at the end of the year in 2012. Maybe the Mayans were right about the world ending in 2012 because all of our favorite game was put to rest…
– City of Heroes (Digital Trends)
Many of us have tried to fill the void that was City of Heroes with other games such as Champions Online, DC Universe, or other similar game styles, but truly nothing has fulfilled this hole. Luckily there is a light at the end of the tunnel, a very faint light at the moment, but nonetheless a light. For the past five years or so there has been talks about spiritual successors of City of Heroes that have been in the works even since the announcement of NCSoft pulling the plug on City of Heroes. Since about 2014 there have been two heavy hitters in the spiritual successor creation, Valiance Online and City of Titans. An additional two successors that may be a little less known are Ship of Heroes and Heroes and Villains.
Out of all super hero based MMOs the one that seems to be the furthest along is Valliance Online. They are already at the stage of an investor alpha test (which I have gotten my hands on). I have only played it for a few hours, and I will say it felt great to put the spandex on, but it definitely felt like an alpha, No Duh. Obviously the basis of the game is there, but some combat mechanics are a little wonky. A few issues I was running into were: My Commander character’s pets will stop attacking a target after X amount of time, my brawler was having issues hitting targets when I entered combat even though the enemies could attack me. All in all it felt amazing to get back on the streets running some missions and fight some perps. Valiance Online has been taking strides to improve the alpha with constant updates through hearing back from the community feedback. The community is just like us, people who love City of Heroes. Therefore Valiance Online is trying to give us the game we deserve. The game will eventually get to the point of a full release we of course hope sooner then later!
-Valiance Online Steam Community
Out of the spiritual successors, City of Titans is the first one that I heard of and grasped onto very tightly at its announcement. That being said sadly City of Titans has been the one with the most setbacks (it seems). It may have been all speculation, it may have been things said from the company, or a mix of both, but the community has been expecting the game to be further along then it currently is. As of right now we are getting some very beautiful in game videos of combat techniques, movement, character design, and a view of the city we will get to play in. Out of all the projects City of Titans seems to be the most beautiful of the upcoming games, but at the same time this is the one people are starting to fear may end up in development hell forever. They have been making some progress after switching their engine over, which may have been the most brilliant move on the company. (Switching to a new engine gives them the possibility of making the game look like an upgrade from City of Heroes graphics to potentially being the most beautiful MMO to ever release). Which is very exciting, but fans speculate that this may have set them back further then we hoped. There is supposedly going to be some sort of content for us super hero fans to get our hands on by the end of 2018. We will just have to wait, wait, wait, and see if this will be worth it in the end.
-Missing Worlds Media Youtube
Of the four that I previously mentioned Heroes and Villains may be the one that has the least amount of exposure. Their first teaser was released over FIVE years ago which looked very pretty, but in the last year there hasn’t been a whole lot shown of the game other then some absolutely stunning concept art. They do keep up with a weekly update every Friday which does show some promise that the studio is still posting information towards their project while remaining very consistent. This game could have some serious potential with dedicated Plan Z developing the game, but as of right now they might be at the bottom of the totem pole with the spiritual successors .
-Heroes and Villains concept
Now it’s time for the true dark horse of the competition, Ship of Heroes. The unique aspect on this game is it’s going in a slightly different direction then all of the other super hero based MMOs. It’s going to be more of a cosmic based super hero game. By that I mean very heavily space oriented. You will get to have your own ship and travel the galaxy. This game is taking more of a Guardians of the Galaxy approach rather than an Avengers approach which could work out in their favor if City of Titans, Valiance Online, and Heroes and Villains come out around the same time Ship of Heroes will be the one outlier that will be different giving you a reason to play even if you fall in love with one of the other successors. This game only dropped its first video on YouTube ONE YEAR AGO. This game may be further along than a lot of these games that have been open for a few years now. Ship of Heroes has been keeping up with a pretty solid amount of video content on Youtube.
-Ship of Heroes Developer Stream
It will be a very exciting journey till the successors release. Which one are you most excited for? City of Titans? Valiance Online? Ship of Heroes? Or Heroes and Villains? Let us know in the comments! Thank you for your support and hopefully this pulled your hearts strings a little reminiscing about City of Heroes with us!
-Brandon Maj
Here are the links to check out these upcoming projects! Make sure to check them out and like their facebook pages!
https://valiance.shogn.net/home
http://www.heroes-and-villains.com/phpb/home.php
The Nerd Chambers 