I need something. I've tried a few other games and none of them are even close to CoV. I don't really need the lore and genre is becoming less and less relevant for me. Until we get our game back (in whatever form we get it back) I need something to pass the time. An MMO with even marginally similar playstyles as CoX. I just need something similar. I know nothing will ever be like CoV was for me, but at this point I'm really chomping at the bit for anything.
Any recommendations?
Can you tell us what you did try? That'd help narrow it down some.
Not knowing that - I'll cover some bases that I know.
I know you said genre doesn't matter, but let's start close to home, as it were.
Champions Online and DC Universe Online.
If you can look past the fact that neither game is COH/COV and accept them for what they are, you might find something to love in either of them.
As far as "look and feel" and gameplay style, neither one is going to be quite the same. They were
both intended to appeal more to the "twitch" gamer than COH ever was. DCUO especially so.
If you're interested in playing villains, then DCUO is the one you'll have to try. CO has no villain option (except at a remove - you get to create a nemesis for each character at lvl 25.)
There's a lot more info on Champions in the "Other games" section of the forums here. But I want to make note of the fact that of the two - CO plays more like COH. And can be MADE to play even MORE like COH if you know how to tweak the UI and settings. (I can point you to those threads if you like. Or I can explain in more detail if you want to PM me.)
DCUO is like NO other MMO I've ever played. Put aside ALL preconceptions about how an MMO should play. Treat it like a 3rd person SHOOTER game like Mass Effect. Again - there's threads pointing out the differences and how they work in the other games forums. Same as above.
If you feel like another genre to get AWAY from superheroes - and some people do, because they're
hurting when they think about it - there's a LOT of options for fantasy games naturally. Not so much Sci-Fi. But there are some notables.
SWTOR has been mentioned. I have no clue about that one, but if you liked Bioware's Knights of the Old Republic games, it's based in that section of Star Wars historical timeline (give or take a few decades). It's on my list to try out and it's F2P.
Star Trek Online is also F2P and - aside from Perfect World's annoying tendency to keep banging you over the head with lock-boxes trying to entice you to gamble for stuff (which is also afflicting Champions and even SOE is doing some of that with DCUO) - it's actually a VERY nice game and there's hardly any barrier to playing as a Free player. Champions is pretty locked down in that regard with a LOT of things behind pay walls. But almost none of the basic stuff in STO is, particularly in regard to PVE. The universe started out big and has gotten HUGE. And they have "The Foundry" which is the equivelant to COH's AE. And a lot of people have written some AWESOME stuff there. And the Devs highlight a new "devs choice" from the foundry every so often. (Seems like once a week.)
I'm about to try The Secret World myself actually, but I know nothing yet, but it LOOKS very nice.
There's always World of Warcraft, of course. I used to play that a lot. But I haven't touched it in over a year. But Mists of Panderia is actually winning a lot of new people and bringing older players back in some cases, or so I hear.
Dungeons and Dragons Online is an older game. F2P of course. VERY pretty. They've upgraded the graphics several times since it was released. It's not real friendly as a solo game though.
RIFT has an interesting premise for a Fantasy World. I played it for a while. Enjoyed it. But it didn't really grab me to make me stay. But it's very VERY pretty.
Anyway. That's some thoughts off the the top of my head.