I'm sure there are a couple of us who would be happy to send you a 21 day free trial. (Although I suspect you have some RL friends who can)
Lets get a few things straight, CoH is still the gold standard (for me) on how a game should be designed. After playing several other MMOs while CoH was around the only game to come close to CoH was EvE. It still handles things differently and made different design choices. I played some other MMOs recently but I decided that EvE is going to be my home until the CCP devs drop the ball big time or CoH comes back.
From the CoH perspective what is different? Well now that I have two RL friends playing EvE after 8 years of CoH, the first reaction is the UI. Its quite complicated at first and the tutorial is a must. If you skip it and ask questions that could be answered in the tutorial, expect the nice players to suggest you run the tutorial. (meaner players might actually put a bounty on you)
Eve is a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Yep, its not a nice place and this is a game where the worst griefing in CoH is nothing compared to the stuff that goes on in EvE. Non consentual pvp can happen anytime and anyplace (except in stations). There are very helpful people in the community and there are some pretty bad apples too, but in general the community isn't as friendly as CoH. If you carry around loot, people in the game will notice and you will be a target if its profitable. Even just asking a question in Rookie Help can get bounties placed on you, war decs or people there even giving you false information.
Crafting and marketeering is very deep. If you like crafting and being a builder, EvE makes CoH look pretty silly. The reality is that the markets in EvE are very competitive and some of the really serious traders use "market alts" to avoid wardecs and griefers. It also takes money to make money so if you want to be a builder, you have to find ways to make in game money so you can build.
EvE is an international game and the largest group is European. Those of us in North America will be on during the "dead" hours of the game. If you live in the US and login noon local time you might see twice the number of people on. However you will see players from just about everywhere.
If you decide to play, PM me here I would certainly welcome fellow CoHers.