Of the big three City of Heroes-inspired superhero MMOs, Valiance Online probably wasn’t the one most folks expected to be next in line for a beta, although given its big talk about launch earlier this year, maybe it should’ve been. In any case, open beta is now on the agenda for August, meaning the competition between it and Ship of Heroes and City of Titans – to say nothing of all the City of Heroes rogue servers unleashed in 2019 – just got real interesting.
“We will be launching an open beta to coincide with #PlayNYC!” Silverhelm Studios announced this afternoon on Twitter. “Beta will be live for the duration of the con (August 10-16) and will return to backers only afterward (it may open again though).” Play NYC is a New York City-based gaming con, though like many cons this year, it’ll be hosted entirely online.
MOP’s Into the Super-verse column hosted a detailed interview with the Valiance team last fall when it was considered in a “very late alpha state”; Producer Aaron Victoria stressed that the game would be more than just typical MMO combat, with alternative gameplay styles like jobs, careers, gathering, camping, and social standing. At the time, the studio included 14 core staff, who finance the game alongside crowdfunding from the fanbase.
Here’s the video from earlier in 2020, showcasing the game’s visuals:
And here’s a look at some of our coverage of the game since it hit alpha back in 2017:
Source: Official site
