City of Heroes/CityZones

City Zones in City of Heroes

Atlas Park

Where the Hero's adventure begins. This is where the Hero will spend the first 5 seconds to 5 minutes of their life, for this is how long it usually takes the Hero to notice a rather minute but annoying costume flaw or realise that their build is in fact shit. Heroes are immediately told to ignore their urges to fight and enter City Hall and meet their first contact. On rare occasions, the civilians walking around the contacts will be in fact walking in mid-air, and occasionally leaving the place all together by walking through a wall. After receiving their first mission, the player finds themselves wandering aimlessly due to the fact they (1)accidentally minimized their Nav tab, (2)are broadcasting messages that were meant to be local, and (3)forgetting they are in fact a hero and trying to attack citizens. You get the occasional "fast learner" who can be seen trying to take out their first mob. These mobs typically include a vicious gang known as the Hellions. These enemies are rather slow when it comes to fighting. Once the hero enters their sight, they will fire a single shot, then reload the entire magazine. Those armed with axes will swipe, then spend about 8 seconds considering their next swipe. While they ponder their next move, they usually find themselves killed by a smug little level 3 that has been in Atlas Park half an hour and has managed to lose their chat tab, their nav tab and target tab and are stuck wandering the alleys of "friendly" Atlas Park forever.

Galaxy City

Also known as the forgotten zone. This is one of the nicer zones in the game, complete with an arena and even the HQ of the one and only Freedom Corp(heroes gone commercial), complete with their own line of clothing and comemorative spoons. The zone however, is so barren that the only heroes actually visible are either NPCs or train jockeys that clicked the wrong location. Villains don't even bother to cause Mayhem here. Players can choose to start here, but they can also choose not to, and that is a much more appealing choice. This zone has a few contacts, each offering missions that take players right to the other end of the zone (another very unappealing action) and introduce players to the famous Back Alley Brawler(who?) a powerful hero said to fight alongside the Statesman himself(who?!).

In a late 2011 revamp, Galaxy City was removed from the game because it was lame as hell. That and it was hit by a meteor. Parties in Atlas Park followed. Rocks everywhere idolized the meteor.

Kings Row

Famous for the frequent appearances of Elvis, which is how the zone actually got its name. The zone has several colorful characters that are all out there to kill you. Many a young player is lucky enough to have their first contact at the northmost part of the zone, which is very difficult to get to that early in the game. Recently rivaled by its neighbouring zone, Kings Column, the zone has been trying to increase its tourism industry. For example, the city has several chemical waste dumps which are rather fun to frolic in, and even plays host to one of the four entrances to Pocket D, a rather cheesy night club that is only inhabited by NPCs(unless you're on one of those servers with those weird roleplayers).

Steel Canyon

The technological marvel that is Steel Canyon was the result of one major industrial disaster. Back when 'Spanky' Rabinowitz was mayor, this was a beautiful natural gorge, a wondrous testimony to the miracles of nature. Spanky strolled into office one morning particularly inebriated, and his timing couldn't have been worse because at that very moment, the evil lord of everything Lord Recluse strolled in. After several "Comawwwns", Spanky finally gave in and allowed for the passing of Lord Recluse's idea to fill the gorge with molten metal for no particular reason. A natural wonder was destroyed, and in its place, a full mile of Orphanage Quality metal. To cover all evidence, a city was built on top of this disaster. The city flourishes today however, playing host to one of the 3 clothing stores in the entire city.

Skyway City

One day, Lord Recluse was driving his VW Beetle through what now is Skyway City when he hit a pedestrian. Horrified, he immediately sued the pedestrian and brainwashed him into apologizing and insisting it was his own fault. But that is when Recluse got an idea. If a car on the ground could hit a pedestrian, then a car in the sky could hit a hero. So construction began immediately on miles of highways in the sky that had no visible onramps or offramps that played host to a few of Lord Recluse's personal squad of armored VW Beetles. The results were astounding, and with every heroic eye gleaming in the headlights for a brief moment before they met their bumper-to-head demise, another grin appears on Lord Recluse's face(which is difficult to discern due to his helmet). This zone is however not a great place to live, as you run a high risk of having a hero fall on you. This is one of the reasons many heroes resort to public transport.

Faultline

If a hero makes it through the highways of doom they can come across this city. So deserted and isolated from anything it's no wonder the city council where slow to rebuild it after a massive earthquake destroyed it. But of course, the public complained and wanted it rebuilt, so they did. Although as for heroes, the novelty of patrolling another zone quickly wore off and the villains took over. Now the zone is back to square one, just with a few extra buildings in it.

Talos Island

The ethnic town of Paragon City. Each of the neighborhoods has a name of a Greek city. The majority of villains in the area are of Asian origin and some of which, another dimension. The zone boasts the fact that it has the largest fried rice ingestion rate in all of Paragon City. This town is one of the dingier, despite the ocean views. Citizens often find themselves being massacred by broadswords, eviscerated by freakish metallic claws, shot by semi-automatic weapons, having their soul stolen and bodies possessed by a mysterious cult, becoming transformed by Devouring Earth mutagens, and even converted into a member of the undead. We don't recommend you live here. Not only for the aforementioned reasons, but also because the zone's signature hero, the android Citadel, has begun to rust due to prolonged exposure to sea air, and it can get really disturbing to see.

Independence Port

Home to some of the most confusing bridges in the world, many of which are broken and are just wasting space. The town has actually had a few visits from the infamous Ghost Ship, that is known for creating spooky sounds and hopelessly lost ghosts. The ship can drop off dozens of ghosts, which might explain why the ship sunk if it had thousands upon thousands of people on-board. But some say it was sunk by a giant octopus mutated by chemicals from Crey Industries, a company with legions of lawyers that render it immune to the legal system. Lusca, as the beast is affectionately called, has come to be the trademark of Independence Port. This is also one of the most inconvienent zones. It is about 3 miles long and hasn't even a highway. As usual, the contacts have a habit of requesting that you go to the other side of the zone, and Lusca has a habit of violently knocking you out of the sky with corrosive ink.

Brickstown

A charming town that plays host to a museum, kindergarten, several daycare centers and the single largest and most secure prison in the city. The Ziggursky Prison, or the "Zig", or the "Ziggurat" has several watchposts, a moat, one entrance and a sewer system (which has since been named the official entrance and exit due to the huge escapee traffic). The "Ziggy" is broken into at least twice every 30 seconds, usually by Arachnos in their attempts to free "Destined" prisoners. It really speaks for the security, which is anything but impeccable, as the company behind the security will hand over override codes and security passes to the highest bidder. As for the rest of Brickstown, not much can be said. Residents complain about the constant sound of welding equipment being used by Freaks and strange beings sometimes pass through the entrance to "Crey's Folly" but apart from that, nothing out of the ordinary happens here.

Founder's Falls

All visitors to this zone will usually arrive via Pocket D, but some will go through Talos Island or via Green Line. Here they will see some "borrowed" Vatican City architecture. The beauty of the buildings here is just a front for exactly how corrupt this town is. Let's put it this way. The south belongs to the Rikti, the north to the Council, the east and west fought over by Crey and Nemesis, the Red River is claimed by the Circle of Thorns and the outer hilly area belongs to the Devouring Earth. Just avoid this zone if you enjoy your humanity, for if you wander here you just might be transformed into a Devouring Earth mutant, a demon, a werewolf, a vampire or a alien hybrid. Another note is that The Gaspee section of Founder's Falls(a seemingly quaint and beautiful area of Venician Canals) is home to a record number of snipers. Just steer clear of this zone, it's not hard to do so. The only place worth going to that requires passing through Founder's Falls is Paragon City's beautiful Woodvale National Park.

Peregrine Island

Where heroes start their home stretch to level 50. Needless to say, there aren't many heroes here. The zone boasts a nice straight road, and following it will usually keep you out of trouble right up to the parking lot of Portal Corp. Don't stray too far off the black tarmac road or you shall meet a 10 foot tall tinman. He is a Hercules Class Titan battle robot who could probably cut down the largest of trees(not to mention the strongest of heroes). Walk away quickly, because he wants a heart. Yours, to be precise. If you visit some of the small islands in the surrounding sea, you will meet a scarecrow. He is a 15 foot tall Devouring Earth plant monster and I'm sure any crow would be scared of him. If you are now expecting to meet a lion, you will be disappointed, but there are monkeys[sic]! Ferocious alien monkeys that can rend mind and flesh equally! If you make it to the Portal Corp(as was your intention before you got sidetracked by all these ridiculous distractions), you will not be granted a wish, you will be told to stand in a Portal and be warped to another universe that humanity has begun to leave its mark on. Once you have completed all that Peregrine has to offer, chances are you have now reached level 50. How was that? Worth the blood, sweat and tears?