City of Heroes: City of Villains Interview

Koltrane

Jack Emmert, Lead Designer of City of Heroes, stopped in at IGN to discuss the upcoming City of Villains.  The interview has a couple of interesting tidbits about the game, a couple of which are excerpted below.  You can read the entire interview here.

IGNPC: We've been told that City of Villains is going to be a stand-alone game. But it's hard to think that it can be completely disassociated with City of Heroes. Frankly that just doesn't make sense to us. How can City of Villains be both a stand-alone product and still work with City of Heroes? Jack Emmert: If a customer doesn't own City of Heroes, yet buys City of Villains, he'll be able to be a bad guy and play all the villain content, but he won't be able to go to Paragon City (or at least parts of it). If a player owns City of Heroes and doesn't buy City of Villains, he'll still be able to enjoy City of Heroes, but he won't be able to fight against villains or travel to the City of Villains. If a player owns both - he can do everything! IGNPC: In City of Heroes, there were bunches of bad guys standing around in the city just waiting for a fight. Will the same be the case in City of Villains? Will there be groups of heroes around? Or cops? Will players have missions that will have them running away from heroes to escape capture? Jack Emmert: There are still criminals on the street in the Rogue Isles -- in fact, that's all there are! Villains, of course, can fight all they like amongst each other, but villains will also be facing Paragon City's police dept., the Freedom Corps and even the Freedom Phalanx.

City of Villains is scheduled for release this year, as per the interview.  For more information, visit the official City of Villains website.