City of Heroes Goes Rogue In New Expansion

Things are getting morally ambiguous in City of Heroes with the announcement of Going Rogue, a new expansion pack which will let heroes become villains and vice versa as players explore the gray area between good and evil.

Just like the comic books that it's based upon eventually did, City of Heroes is going through its "moral ambiguity" phase. Maybe heroes aren't just good, and maybe villains aren't that bad. Those are the questions at the heart of Going Rogue, the new expansion pack in development for NCSoft and Paragon Studios' MMOG.

In Going Rogue, characters will have a new alignment system that will help "players explore the shades of grey that lie between good and evil." Hero characters can become villains, and villains can become heroes. Special missions and "behaviors and decisions by the player" are factored into where a player lies on a moral compass, which, if it's pushed far enough, can change a character's alignment from good to evil or the other way around.

Moral compasses not being frozen, there's always the possibility of swinging back to the other moral side if you so choose. NCSoft also notes that this means that if your current archetype choice has ever barred you from seeing hero capital Paragon City or bad guy base the Rogue Isles, well here's your chance.

"For years, players could choose between playing as a hero or a villain," Brian Clayton, executive producer at Paragon Studios, said. "Now we will present a third, malleable path where players can be affected by the results of their actions, enabling them to further develop, unveil new perspectives, and overcome new challenges."

Going Rogue won't be a free update but a full-fledged expansion pack, so expect there to be more content announced for it in the future. Paragon Studios says it'll be released "when it's ready."