Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Biowraith]

As someone who very much misses City of Heroes I wish I could give more suggestions than have already been given, but alas Freedom Force is pretty much it as far as I've been able to find (with Champions and DCUO tagged on for the online side of things, but neither of those quite measured up for me).

I actually did get moments of feeling a similar vibe during combat and using travel powers in Saints Row IV, but that was more in terms of the potential for someone to put a whole bunch of work into converting that into a customizable superhero game, rather than something that really fit the bill as it is - as it stands it doesn't have nearly enough in the way of superhero costumes, or a big enough power selection, and there's no real choice per se as you just unlock everything.  Plus obviously the whole over the top tongue in cheek gangster theme.  But if someone could use it as a foundation for an actual customizable superhero game, that would be, well, super.

[sambojin]

There was Infamous 1+2 on the PS3. There was a certain amount of character customization, as long as you liked lightning or firey powers for the respective games, but it was more a case of collecting powers and using them then actual customization. What you do and don't need, rather than what you do want to do with any particular character. Still, not bad superhero games, you can even be a villain if you want. Don't think they ever got a PC release though

Damn, I'm going to have to play the FF games again. They were great.

[Farce]

Champions Online was powers-mix-and-matchable, IIRC, but when they went Free to Play that feature was relegated to premium-membership-status or something.  It was really, really annoying, because I couldn't play my robot cowboy anymore, despite having bought it on launch, apparently.

There's a Super Hero game on choiceofgames.com, which is basically a CYOA-game site (we had a topic on it ages ago, but it's grown a bunch since then).  There's a free trial in that the first three chapters are free, however to get the rest will require you to fork over three bux.  I've not played it, so I can't attest to it's quality, nor to how customizeable you can get with your hero, unfortunately.  I'm pretty sure there's another one in the unofficial games list - games written by non-staff - but I didn't spring for that one either.
https://www.choiceofgames.com/heroes-rise-2-hero-project/#utm_source=cog&utm_medium=web&utm_content=ourgames

[Mech#4]

Along with Infamous is Prototype (I'd recommend the first, not the sequel) and possibly looking into the precursor to Prototype which was an Incredible Hulk game.

Saint's Row IV has superpower like abilities. It's rather similar to Prototype in that regard, plus you can call up companions to join you in destruction.

"Superheroes League of Hoboken" is a turn based RPG with... uh... superheroes... kind of. It's very silly, though all the characters are premade as it's also a cross with an adventure game.

[Flying Carcass]

I too miss City of Heroes. As others have said, there's Champions Online and DC Universe Online (personally I rather enjoyed DCUO for a few weeks) if you're willing to go the MMO route. I haven't played either, but there's a DC comics MOBA (I think the name is something like Infinite Crisis) and a Marvel multiplayer top-down action RPG (I forget the name of it), both on the PC.

Saints Row 4's superpowers are fun but the game's tone is more like a silly homage to the Matrix than a  straight-up superhero game.

On consoles, Crackdown is rather fun as was Ultimate Spider-Man and Batman Arkham City.

But if someone could use it as a foundation for an actual customizable superhero game, that would be, well, super.

I predict that may happen as Volition releases modding tools, though most mods I've seen so far for SR4 have been NPC clothing unlocks, enemy spawn mods, and a rather nifty first person mod.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Champions Online was powers-mix-and-matchable, IIRC, but when they went Free to Play that feature was relegated to premium-membership-status or something.  It was really, really annoying, because I couldn't play my robot cowboy anymore, despite having bought it on launch, apparently.

There's a Super Hero game on choiceofgames.com, which is basically a CYOA-game site (we had a topic on it ages ago, but it's grown a bunch since then).  There's a free trial in that the first three chapters are free, however to get the rest will require you to fork over three bux.  I've not played it, so I can't attest to it's quality, nor to how customizeable you can get with your hero, unfortunately.  I'm pretty sure there's another one in the unofficial games list - games written by non-staff - but I didn't spring for that one either.
https://www.choiceofgames.com/heroes-rise-2-hero-project/#utm_source=cog&utm_medium=web&utm_content=ourgames

Wait, that website which used to have those rad CYOA's like the vampire one and that 'Choice of Broadsides' now whores out CYOA 'trials'? Do people actually pay money for this? They're awesome and all, but they shouldn't be forcing people to pay money for them. That's... ridiculous ;_;

[Azurestrike]

I tried Comic Book Hero's demo for a while and thought it was pretty fun for what I played. http://www.greydogsoftware.com/cbh/

You can play a pre-gen character for the entire game in a demo but if you buy, you can make your own character.

Careful, the art style is a bit off putting, but since this is Bay12, I'm sure it'll be okay.

Stats and attribute upgrades are all bought with experience and stuff and you can customize them a lot, though beyond the basics of power levels, stuns, heals, smashes/piercing/elemental/magical/energy attacks, most of it is flavor. The game seems very geared towards someone who wants to roleplay a character as it gets a bit dull after a while mechanically if you just aim for complete optimization, that is, you can become 'Superman in Gotham' if you just go in an area where the villains are more 'realistic'.

I recommend giving the demo a try at least, see if it's interesting enough.

[BurnedToast]

Another champions online suggestion.

When I tried it out, you were pretty limited in powers/costume as a F2P player, you don't get all the costume parts and you can only do preset powers instead of mix and match. However, they give you a decent amount of parts, and the presets they give you aren't amazing but they aren't completely terrible (as long as you don't try to PvP).

I only stopped playing because my buddy I played with got bored and I didn't want to play without him and out-level him, but he never regained interest so we just moved on to something else

Anyway, it's free, so you really have nothing to lose.

[Sirus]

But I can't really play online games much; my laptop isn't great and often the local network is slow or simply doesn't exist.

I tried CO and DCUO a while ago. They were pretty good, but at the moment they're somewhat impractical.

[Hugehead]

Do people actually pay money for this? They're awesome and all, but they shouldn't be forcing people to pay money for them. That's... ridiculous ;_;

The ones that you mention appear to still be free, are you really complaining that this group of authors has started charging a measly $3 for some of their new games after letting you play a lengthy free trial?