Dipping a toe into I21

I’ve had near-zilcho time to take advantage of the VIP Head Start to City of Heroes I21 / Freedom / new-shiny-coolness. So some very few notes on it:

1. The new character creator is very nice. There are some bugs in how easy it is to browse through stuff, and there are still odd disconnects where it’s not clear why an option is or isn’t available for certain classes of costume parts.  But the overall looks is nice, and the mere fact that you can check and reserve your name while just starting off your character is truly awesome.
2. Splash screens, illustration style, and updated character creator music are all pretty spiffy.
3. The new Galaxy intro is fun, exercises basic combat skills and is overall a Good Thing — certainly more heroic than slugging Infected.  My main problem is that it is way too reminiscent of the intro setting for Champions Online — you’re in a city, devastated by an ongoing alien invasion, with voices telling you which way to go and what to do.  I was just waiting for someone to tell me to “Launch the Ironclad Defense!”
4. That said, the “morality mission” part of the intro is a bit … lame.
5. There’s now an Icon in the very attractively redressed Atlas Park.  Hurrah!
6. No email before level 10?  That’s weird.

And that’s about all I’ve done (thanks to a malfunctioning client that hadn’t been keeping me patched).  But I’m looking forward to more.