Music
Overview
There are few things in City of Heroes that set the mood more than the short pieces of music that play as you move about the city. Nearly every neighborhood in every zone has unique music that clearly identifies where you are, even without seeing what's on the screen.
The styles of music used vary widely, and range from soft pop and techno to hard rock and full orchestra. The music used for the original release of the game through Issue 5 consisted of fairly generic synthesized instruments and percussion, which makes it more difficult to maintain uniqueness without sounding amateurish. With the release of City of Villains and Issue 6, the palette of instruments and percussion was completely overhauled which allowed for more realistic and lush arrangements. All zones added or revamped (such as Faultline and Rikti War Zone) have made use of these updated sounds.
Reused Music
Although there is a large amount of unique music found throughout the game, there are several neighborhoods that use musical cues which have slight differences from or are exact duplicates of those used elsewhere. Listed below are examples of the neighborhoods that use identical or similar music. They are sorted by the earliest zone/neighborhood in which the music is used, or by the first zone that uses the most complete version. If there are no notes after a secondary listing then it uses the identical version as the primary one.
- Galaxy City / Freedom Court -- longer version
Atlas Park / Chiron Medical Center
- Skyway City / LaGrange Medical Center -- longer version
Galaxy City / Constellation Row
- Firebase Zulu / Point X-Ray -- longer version
Galaxy City / Cygnus Medical Center
- Kings Row / Crowne Memorial
- Steel Canyon / Steel Canyon Medical Center
- Faultline / Overbrook Medical Center
- Independence Port / Bell Medical Center -- shorter, similar version
- Talos Island / Phoenix Medical Center
- Founders' Falls / Harvey Medical Center -- similar version
- Peregrine Island / Aquarius Medical Center
Sewer Network / Atlas Park Sector
- Eden / The Utopia Complex
- Abandoned Sewer Network / Atlas Park Sector
Sewer Network / Kings Row Sector
- Abandoned Sewer Network / Kings Row Sector
Sewer Network / Skyway City Sector
- Abandoned Sewer Network / Skyway City Sector
- Perez Park / Hell's Highway
- Crey's Folly / The Blight
- Rikti War Zone / Bloody Lane
- Abandoned Sewer Network / Underworld
- The Chantry / Bastion of Pain
Sewer Network / Steel Canyon Sector
- Abandoned Sewer Network / Steel Canyon Sector
Sewer Network / Boomtown Sector
- Abandoned Sewer Network / Boomtown Sector
- Atlas Park / Downside -- shorter version
- Rikti War Zone / The Bulge
- Firebase Zulu / Point Victor -- similar version 1, added intro
- St. Martial / Turtle Spit -- similar version 2, added intro
- Talos Island / The Serpent's Teeth -- similar, shorter version
- Striga Isle / The Bogg -- same as Talos Island version
- Eden / Adeva Towers
- Peregrine Island / Curry Cove
- Firebase Zulu / Point Sierra
- Port Oakes / Villa Montrose -- extended version
- Dark Astoria / Romero Heights -- similar, shorter version
- Founders' Falls / Louis Forest -- omit rhythm, added animal sounds
Skyway City / Land of the Lost
- Terra Volta / Raysun Petroleum
- Sharkhead Isle / The Crush -- similar, longer version
Independence Port / Bell Point
- Perez Park / Gaiman Woods -- added animal sounds
- Dark Astoria / Barca Plaza -- longer, added background effects
- Brickstown / Dark Waters
- Founders' Falls / Hutchinson Park -- longer, added bird sounds
- The Chantry / Bastion of Shame -- same as Dark Astoria version
Independence Port / Industry Pier
- Brickstown / Prison Power Station
- The Chantry / Path of Rage -- longer version with intro
Independence Port / Liberty Quay
- Striga Isle / Council Base -- extended version
- Firebase Zulu / Firebase November
- Nerva Archipelago / Agincourt -- longer version
- The Hollows / Cherry Hills
- Independence Port / Power Island -- slower, shorter version
- Peregrine Island / Nelson Borough
- Striga Isle / Bonny Morass -- longer, added animal sounds
- Peregrine Island / Mera Heights
- The Storm Palace / Path of Madness -- longer version
- Rikti War Zone / Pavia -- added intro effect
- Cascade Archipelago / Tyrant's Rock -- slightly longer version
- The Storm Palace / Lock of Destruction -- extended version
- Breakout / The Yard -- longer version
- Pocket D / Hero Lobby 1 -- longer version
- Pocket D / Hero Lobby 2 -- muffled version of Hero Lobby 1
Crey's Folly / Paragon Water Works
- Peregrine Island / Cutlass Isles
- Monster Island / Cutlass Isles