Welcome to Chapter 7 of Villain 101, the ongoing exploits of my villain, Twilight Dusk, in City of Villains. As usual, the column will be written from two viewpoints, the first from Twilight Dusk’s perspective, and the second will be my thoughts on the game so far. Time for some villainy!
Twilight Dusk: After spending some quality time with Crimson Raine doing target practice using hobos, I decided that I needed to get back into the thick of things. After checking the paper, I noticed an article about a Snake named Slythe holding up a bank. The good news for Slythe was that he scored a lot of dough; the bad news for Slythe was that I knew where he was holed up. I told my boys to gear up as that we were going Snake-hunting.
On the way to the Slythe’s hole in the ground, Trask told me about another thug that wanted to join the Twilight Dusk bandwagon. “He’s a real badass by the name of Kincaid”, said Trask. “He’s been itching to join up with somebody in the big time.” Well, there’s nobody that’s going to be more big time than me! I told Trask that I’d take him on if he was the real deal. Trask told me that all I had to do was whistle and Kincaid would appear, so I whistled. Looking around, I didn’t see anybody popping out of the shadows, then I noticed a manhole cover beginning to move a few feet away from me. The manhole cover was violently thrown aside and a big, muscular thug crawled out and stood up.
“You Kincaid, I assume?” I said.
“Yep”, he said.
“You got any special skills I should know about?”
“Only one”, he replied as he pulled out an uzi. I got the feeling that this guy was going to work out.
When we got to the Snake’s lair, we all loaded up. Trask and Bouncer pulled out their twin pistols as I pulled out my twin .45s. Looking over at Kincaid, he pulled on a leather vest and then pulled out two uzis! After that, we got to work. Those damn Snakes never had a chance. We threw bullet after bullet into them and Kincaid practically threw a wall of lead every time he emptied his uzis! In the last chamber of the Snake hole, we came across Slythe. He hissed something at us, but I didn’t quite catch it. It’s hard to understand those freakish bastards with all that ssssssssss crap. Besides, it’s not like they have anything intelligent to say, right? Besides, Snakes are only good for one thing; being a target for my twin .45s!
After we cleaned out Slythe’s Snake-hole, we spent the next few days relaxing and spending our ill-gotten loot. I bought some experimental high-explosive ammunition for Crimson Raine from which she got a big kick out of. Then I was contacted by a wizard by the name of The Void. He wanted to hire yours truly to get back a shipment of reagents from the Circle of Thorns, who had hijacked the shipment. Trask asked me what a reagent was, to which I replied, “The hell if I know. The only thing that matters is the color of his money!” Plus, I figured having a wizard owing me a favor couldn’t be a bad thing, just in case I came up against something that I just couldn’t shoot to death to beat it. I accepted the job and off we went to go wipe out the weird-ass, black magic freaks and get the shipment back.
As usual, the trail led us to the sewers. What is it with some of these bastards that always hole up in the sewers? Do they have no sense of smell left in them? Just once, I’d like to track somebody down to a nice, posh resort or something. Grumbling, I decided that those Thorn bastards were all going to get put down the hard way. After we entered the sewers, it was pretty quiet for a bit. All we could hear was the foul water slowly gurgling through the pipes as the foul, fetid air filled out nostrils. All of a sudden, Kincaid went tense. A hideous shape exploded out of nowhere and began to attack us. It was some monstrous, no-armed creature that ran at us and tried to bite us in two with its freakishly-huge maw! All four of us opened fire on it and, finally, we were able to put it down. Then, the sounds of chanting began to fill the air and the Circle of Thorns were upon us. Their eldritch cries contrasted to the deafening roars of our guns. Thorn Wielders, Guardians, Energy Mages, and more of those hideous no-armed things, which we later found out were called Hordelings, fell before our combined firepower. The hardest to kill were those damn Energy Mages. They shot balls of lightning at us and, when they died, they would explode in a violent manner. Poor Bouncer almost got killed by one when he shot one at point blank range. After the smoke cleared, we were able to find the reagents and then return them to The Void. Man, it’ll take a few washings to get that sewer-stink out of my clothes!
Jeffprime: I finally got my enforcer! He looks damn cool when he appears. As is usual with my thugs, I summon him by whistling. Then, a manhole appears, opens, and then he climbs out. It’s kind of amusing when the manhole appears on a place that it shouldn’t be (like a rock or catwalk). I know, I know. I’m easily entertained. I also get a kick out of that he looks tough to begin with and that he’s armed with an uzi. If I use Equip Thug, he gets another uzi and puts on a leather coat. The result of the change is cool, but I’m still not thrilled with the animation. Throwing a cell phone at a guy just doesn’t strike me as thuggish. Oh well.
I’ve been picking most of my missions from the paper which has led me to bypassing some of the contacts in the game. I would be introduced to a new contact (such as the Radio), but when I went to see them, they would have nothing for me as that my level had gotten too high. While missions from the paper are quick to get, it sometimes is worth it to make sure that you get a few missions from your contacts. If you get a chain of missions, you tend to get a nice experience reward at the end for completing the chain.
I’m still enjoying myself a lot in the game. The only quibble I’m really having is that I wish some of the mission settings could be more varied. One sewer tends to look like every other sewer after awhile. It’d be nice if certain sewers (or caves or office buildings) had some unique features to distinguish them from one another and make the mission feel more unique.
As usual, I’m usually open to grouping in the game. I play on the Freedom server (although I don’t have set playing times). Just please don’t send me a blind invite. Send me a tell first telling me that you’ve read my columns on WarCry and you’d like to invite me to a group. If I’m able, I’ll gladly join up with you for some villainy!
Published: Jul 13, 2007 12:42 am