This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

We had a chance to sit in on a demonstration of City of Villians during E3 and it looks to be shaping up quite well. City of Villians is the follow up title to City of Heroes that was released last year. This time around you play as a villian instead of a superhero. Many graphical improvements were fixed such as reflectiveness, bumpmapping on water, and many other textures. The game will take use of the Ageia PhysX engine that can produce amazing particle effects.

City of Villains will now start in the island called, Rogue Isles, an archipelago in the 17th century where it is called the home of supervillians. At launch, gamers will be able to play in four PVP and seven PVE servers. According to the senior designer behind the title, there will be more launching after the title hits stores. Players will also be able to customize their costume in several ways.

Many of the missions will involve stealth, blowing up various targets, hijacking, and infiltration. Main of the trainers from City of Heroes will return and not only do players face heroes, but they will also face villains. So you could be in a villain versus villain battle.

To top it all off, base customization will play a big role for the guilds. NCSoft has done a great job so far of allowing the gamer to customize their base to their likings. You will be able to add furniture, the type of interior structure such as brick and the like, paintings, and you can even include turrets that sit at each entrance. The customization screen is very easy to use and the learning curve isn’t all that high.

The graphics were really improved compared to City of Heroes and the whole base customization is very interesting. Many gamers who are in guilds will love that aspect of the title. The game is due out later this year with the beta going live this July. Gaming Horizon will have more on this title as soon as we get in on the beta very soon.