The followers of Arachnos are amassing day by day, with more and more reviews telling the world that City of Villains is a must-buy. Read on for more details, and prepare your passport; your one-way ticket to the Rogue Isles is waiting....

Click on any site’s name to read the full review.

Boomtown: An overall score of 9/10 from Boomtown, summing up CoV like so:

City of Villains is a brilliant game – not only because of its amazing gameplay but also because the game combined with City of Heroes creates a complete comic book universe with heroes and villains.

Ten Ton Hammer: Four out of five - erm - hammers from Ten Ton Hammer, with this paragraph neatly summing up just about all you need to know:

This is a great game, and, if nothing else, a superior introduction to the MMO genre. With any good stats / level driven game, you spend your free real-life moments dreaming of what the game will be like when you have this or that ability, when you’ll be able to visit this cool place you’ve heard people talk about, etc. That’s all there and more in City of Villains, with its incredible variety of superpowers and the casual yet compelling take on PvP with secret bases.

Netjak: An overall score of 7/10 from Netjak, although judging by this quote they’re still impressed by City of Villains - if perhaps not so impressed with some of the fashion sense exhibited by Paragon City’s heroes:

[City of Villains] definitely takes its place in the halls of infamy as one of the single most thrilling MMO experiences out there now. The raw catharsis of robbing banks, kidnapping innocents, and basically acting naughty in a virtual world while dressed up as the result of getting Jack Kirby and Stan Lee stoned - there’s little out there that beats it. Only the rush of adrenaline as you see the day-glo fuschia spandex and bright purple polka dots round the corner and identify your arch-nemesis, Fancy Man, as the fool they’ve sent to stop you - only that can compare. Yeah, Cryptic still hasn’t put a fashion advisor in the costume designer section.

Mygamer.com: ‘Distinguished’ is the word used to describe CoV by Mygamer, awarding 8.8/10 overall. Over to them:

The ‘easy to learn yet challenging to master’ game mechanics that made City of Heroes so engaging returns with a vengeance in City of Villains. Players of all skill levels will enjoy mastering every facet of their superpowers, all while facing increasingly challenging foes and learning new more powerful abilities.

Slashdot: The geek paradise that is Slashdot reviewed City of Villains, and while they didn’t award a score to the game, this paragraph sums things up nicely:

… if you enjoy City of Heroes you’re just going to love City of Villains. The people are bad, the story is good, and there’s just as much to see and do in the Isles as in Paragon City. What’s more, if you are already subscribed to City of Heroes you can double your content without increasing your monthly fee. One subscription fee allows you access to both CoH and CoV. If you’ve always wanted to leap tall buildings or find the idea of a world-spanning empire of evil appealing, you can do a lot worse than the world NCSoft is hosting online right now.

GameDaily: A maximum 5 out of 5 score awarded here, with a very enthusiastic reviewer. Or addict, depends on your point of view:

Buy this game. Really, it’s that simple. It’s better than City of Heroeswhen it first released, and we gave that a 5 out of 5 rating. This is perhaps the most perfect companion to any game that’s ever been developed. No, we’re not homers, and we’re not paid off to give these raves. But any game that can keep us coming back to play day in and day out for this long, then adds an “evil” companion game to suck MORE time out of us (as if we needed that!)… do we really need to say more?

1Up.com: A score of 8.5/10 from 1Up, which equates to being called ‘superlative’. Special attention is paid in the review to Supergroup bases:

Super/Villain Group bases are everything they’ve been promised to be. Bases are purchased and maintained with a secondary form of currency called prestige, which players earn while fighting in SG/VG mode. Bases are customizable to an extreme that would make The Sims 2 blush, but the interface is actually simpler to grasp. A would-be architect can spend hours building a base loaded with ornaments and details, or slap together a purely functional fortress in just a few minutes.

InsidePulse: Gives CoV a final score of 7.5/10, but is bowled over by character creation:

Anyway, once you’ve picked your characters starting powers, you can now create an appearance and give them a name. I mentioned above how many options you have for your character’s appearance, and you could literally spend hours tweaking every aspect from your hairstyle to your shoes. This is hands down the most robust character creation system that I have ever encountered, and is almost a game in and of itself!

Games Xtreme: Also has plenty of good things to say about character creation, with the final score a respectable 8.4/10:

Like CoH the character creation in CoV is amazing. The effort that has gone in to developing such a massive number of combinations is an achievement that dwarfs all efforts by other developers. This isn’t just a bunch of skins with a couple of different hair styles, it is a library of details and opportunity. Every concept that you can think of will be in there somewhere, this system really encourages the imagination and gets you wanting to create more and more characters.

Gamers Europe: Hands out an overall score of 8/10, with some amusing observations on our friendly Brutes:

Brutes are the other mêlée AT – they are the closest things to battlefield lawnmowers I have ever seen. Your typical Brute will chew through a group of enemies faster than a hungry hungry hippo, and then move on just as quick, because the rage needs to be kept up.

ActionTrip: And finally, ActionTrip call CoV ‘very good’ with the overall score being 87/100, and a quote that neatly sums up most of these reviews:

So if you’ve ever wondered what its like to be on the wrong side of the law, with super powers bristling from your fingertips and an appetite for destruction, give City of Villains a try. You may just find your inner demons like to play games, too.

Further review updates as they come in.