What was CoH's style?

[Tenzhi]

The City of Heroes universe felt more believable--and this was no accident. It wasn't just coincidentally easier for many of us to remain immersed in that universe for years on end, it wasn't just some quirk. From the tiny details on buildings or litter in back alleys, to extreme care and attention in motion capture which I have only seen in big budget single player games, Paragon Studios weren't making a video game, they were making a virtual multiverse. They wanted to make it feel alive. All of that was by design.

They were that good.

"Believable" isn't a word I'd apply to it, though it's slightly better than "realistic".  The mitten hands...  making a character that's taller than average and looking up at many of the mundane contacts...  all the tiny waist-high cars...  the relatively small buildings...  said buildings' irrationally arranged TARDIS interiors...  the game managed to be immersive despite the fact that it wasn't particularly believable or realistic.

As far as the style goes, when I first started playing (around I4 I believe) I would've said that it had a very basic 70s-80s comic book style going (whatever *that* means - I can only say it put me in the mind of comics from that era, but I'm sure the general image in my head could be traced to a handful of guys who were largely responsible for that image).  As it progressed, they integrated more and more elements of other styles into it, but it always maintained its bland-but-not-in-a-bad-way foundation.

[General Idiot]

Something I always use as an example - In CoH, when you died you respawn in a hospital and it's explicitly stated how you got there and why. In a lot of other games, you just pop up at some arbitrary point for no apparent reason. WoW and Secret World are the only ones that come to mind that have any explanation at all.

That's what made the CoH world seem so real. It wasn't a game set in a city, it was a city in which you played a game. There was all kinds of minor details that weren't strictly relevent to the game itself but they were there anyway. Very few other games have that level of detail, and even fewer of those have it without being built on a pre-existing world ala WoW. But CoH did. It had that level of detail in almost everything in the game, and with little to no premade lore to build on.

Consider the personal story arcs in Dark Astoria. What other game do you know of that goes into that level of detail about NPC contacts? The only one off the top of my head that I could maybe make an argument for is WoW, which coincidentally is almost as old as CoH. Maybe it's just something that's become unpopular in newer games.

Ultimate graphics and a terrible game do not a fun product make.

So very true, despite most of the games industry seeming to think otherwise for the last decade or so.

[Memorandum]

Consider the personal story arcs in Dark Astoria. What other game do you know of that goes into that level of detail about NPC contacts? The only one off the top of my head that I could maybe make an argument for is WoW, which coincidentally is almost as old as CoH. Maybe it's just something that's become unpopular in newer games.

Aaah... Dark Astoria... that reminds me...  another char...



Ah man actually I think... that screens shows pretty well the COH style. The freedom to design your hero like you wish, giving him his own story (!try that  in DCUO or Champions - not possible to enter a text there), creating own coloring of effects and so on and let's say, man this looks awsome. The game captured you with emotions. Simply as that. Just watch the dark atmosphere here. I think there is nothing more to say.

[General Idiot]

(!try that  in DCUO or Champions - not possible to enter a text there)

Assuming you mean bios, you can definitely do those in Champions.

[JaguarX]

"Believable" isn't a word I'd apply to it, though it's slightly better than "realistic".  The mitten hands...  making a character that's taller than average and looking up at many of the mundane contacts...  all the tiny waist-high cars...  the relatively small buildings...  said buildings' irrationally arranged TARDIS interiors...  the game managed to be immersive despite the fact that it wasn't particularly believable or realistic.

As far as the style goes, when I first started playing (around I4 I believe) I would've said that it had a very basic 70s-80s comic book style going (whatever *that* means - I can only say it put me in the mind of comics from that era, but I'm sure the general image in my head could be traced to a handful of guys who were largely responsible for that image).  As it progressed, they integrated more and more elements of other styles into it, but it always maintained its bland-but-not-in-a-bad-way foundation.

basically.

[emperorsteele]

I've been playing around a bit with DCUO, and... I really don't like the art style.

Most of the colors have the same level of saturation, which means sometimes it's hard to see what's going on.  Also, half the characters look like globs of plastic rather than people (Try making a female character and put her in the "flirty" pose like half the players in the game... impossible, back-breaking poses ftw!), and the in-game faces are kinda ugly. And the apparent lack of face editing options means everyone looks damn near the same (though since most comic book artists are guilty of "Only Six Faces" syndrome, perhaps it's appropriate)

By contrast, I think the character design in Star Trek Online is much better, and that's basically what CoH's style was, just less detailed.