The last time we saw our intrepid tour group they were standing at the feet of Kalinda, an Arachnos Fortunata, over in the snake infested, proving grounds of Mercy Island.

Snake infested? Proving grounds? What is this madness you speak of? Well, let me tell you a tale about Mercy Island. It is the first place in the Rogue Isles that you experience, much like Atlas Park or Galaxy City are in CoH. But not nearly as pretty, bright and bustling. Mercy Island is none of those things. It's dirty, rotting, devoid of life - both spiritually and physically. But it was not always like that. See, long before Lord Recluse found it, Mercy was a quaint little fishing village. Oh sure, a few rascally pirates would drop anchor for the winter every so often, but for the most part it was quite and serene. With one exception: People kept disappearing, with nary an explanation. Over the centuries a legend sprang up to explain the disappearances... a legend about a race of snake-like creatures that would slither from subterranean den's at night and take them below to - God knows what.

When Lord Recluse eventually claimed this area he erected Fort Cerberus. Patrols were immediately sent out to discover the truth about the legend. As it turns out, a mysterious race of mutant "snake-men" did in fact exist underneath Mercy Island. Recluse's men found them in huge numbers, but their overwhelming firepower pushed them deep into the bowels of the earth - back into their pits to be erased from memory. As Mercy Island grew, the "Snakes" were once again relegated to legend. Lord Recluse knew they lived, but he left them alone because they were no longer an immediate threat. In truth, he had plans for them.

A year after the Rikti alien scum was tossed back to where they came from, the "Snakes" - who had been multiplying and readying themselves, rose from their forgotten pits and rampaged across the Island. In what culminated in an all out, bloody war, Arachnos troops eventually defeated the mutated snake-men. But in surprising move, Recluse gave the lower half of the island to them anyway, not just because they were powerful, but also because they would ultimately act as a test for super-powered beings. As a low ranking villain, you will fight the Snakes many times in order to prove that you have what it takes to become a part of Arachnos.

Today, Mercy Island is nothing more then a used and abused shell of its former self - dingy, ransacked and forsaken. All the dregs of society have overrun it. Heaped on top of that refuse, we have Arachnos and their Bad-Guy University at the top of the food chain. Underneath its desolate, ruined exterior is a struggling pulse of a city that will never reclaim its former glory no matter how loudly or strongly it beats.

During our last tour we showed you that the Mastermind archetype is all about summoning and buffing their henchmen. We now switch gears to show you an AT that can best be described as a "Ball of Unadulterated Fury." According to Dictionary.com a Brute is an animal or a beast. Characteristics of a Brute include someone, or something that is entirely physical (such as brute force); lacking or showing a lack of reason or intelligence, savage and/or cruel; unremittingly severe. If you choose to be the Brute archetype in City of Villains, you will be all those things... and more.
One could make an argument that the big, green guy from a certain marvelous comic company fits this description like OJ's glove, only better. In fact, his biggest asset is also your biggest asset - the longer you stay in a fight, and the more you get wailed on... the stronger you become. Much, much stronger. How? Read on.

Brutes live to fight. As such, you excel in hand-to-hand combat. You're the best there is at what you do: break skulls. You possess offensive power sets to inflict insane amounts of ass-whopping pain and extraordinary defenses to soak up beatings that most men/animals/innate objects would die from and/or be destroyed by. Drawn out battles only make you mad. And like a certain green skinned (sometimes grey) goliath... the madder you get, the more damage you can dish out.

Brutes have the same power sets as CoH Tanks, with a few major changes. In addition to all the familiar primary Tank sets (Super Strength, Fire/Stone/Energy Melee), you can also choose the CoH Scrapper primary, Dark Melee. Secondary power sets include Fiery Aura, Ice and Stone Armor, Invulnerability and the Scrapper's Dark Armor. Dark Melee is one of my favorite CoH powers, and is a perfect compliment to the Fury of a Brute. Ah yes... the big, inherent power that is simply a glorious thing to behold in action. You build up Fury as you attack and are attacked, multiplying your base damage potential dramatically. Thus, you quite literally get stronger the longer you remain in a fight.

By now you must be saying, "Brutes are Tanks." Nope. While CoH Tanks are there to draw agro from mobs and absorb massive amounts of pain while the rest of the team plays pin the pain on the baddie, Brutes have a completely different mentality. They are almost single minded in their passion - SMASH anything and everything in sight! Brutes can dish out more pain per square inch then any Tank. My highest-level toon in CoH, the AT that I have the most "knowledge" with (if you want to call it that since I play by feel instead of crunching numbers) - is a Stone/Stone Tank. With the limited play time I've had thus far in CoV with a Brute (Max Muscle, a centaur looking beastie), I can honestly say it doesn't play anything like a Tank, and is far and away more enjoyable then my beloved Rock Bottom (my Stone Tank, not a description of my posterior thank you very much!!) for one simple reason - Fury.

Once you've grown weary of smashing everything in Mercy Island, you can hop over to Port Oakes - the next stop on our whirlwind tour!

Now what would any self-respecting game of evil be, especially one released on Halloween, without a zone populated by nasty, vicious ghosts bent on eating your soul for a midnight snack?
Fort Hades and the Arachnos Watchtower dominate the Oakes. It's a weird mixture of skyscrapers, ghettos and questionable commerce. In effect, it's your typical hive of scum and villainy. Believe it or not, the famous pirate Blackbeard had a hand in fashioning this area. Seems ole Blacky wanted to test out a battleship he had just captured and the lucky target turned out to be a French fort that was not quite finished.

Realizing they were outgunned and outmanned, the French, as they're want to do, surrendered. Blackbeard wagged his finger, licked his chops and laid waste to the fort, killing virtually every soldier inside. If not for the courage of a fast approaching French frigate (say that ten times fast), the massacre surely would have continued. Despite the wholesale slaughter that had taken place, the fort was completed, opened and abandoned in record time. Why? The undead spirits of the butchered French soldiers materialized on that first night and attacked the garrison of marines that had been left to man the fort. Needless to say, they living pulled up stakes and never returned.

Over the years other pirates tried using the nameless fort for their own devices, each time falling victim to the ghastly ghosts within. In time, the original spirits have come to be called "Red Hands" because of the blood that stains their ethereal forms. Their servants are called the "Night Haunts."

It is here that I met my contact who introduced me to, of all things, reading the newspaper. Most of the characters you meet in the Rogue Isles are real schemers, and you're just a means to an end. The only way to prove yourself above the common minion is to be tougher and smarter than the rest. That means perusing the local headlines and seeing what's going on. You never know when a small article might catch your interest, as they often do. These little news inspired missions are generally pretty short and help pass the time between big missions, but they work toward something else too. Eventually, these little missions will lead up to a big caper, like a bank heist! Nothing like a good old bank heist to get the blood running! This is your chance to not only break heads, but scheme with the best of them.

Now are you starting to get the feel for the Rogue Isles? It's not a place that comes to mind when thinking about a vacation spot. As you'll see with each stop on our tour, every single zone is damned for one appalling reason or another. But it's a perfect spot for an Arch-Villain such as Lord Recluse and his not-so-merry band of Arachnos followers to set up shop.

Ah, bloody hell... the sun is starting to set again. If you thought Mercy Island was bad, Port Oakes is far, far worse. Those blasted night stalking ghosts are murder! HA! Ok, time to head indoors... now. Please be sure to join us here at GameDAILY next week - in the daylight, when we'll talk about Corruptors, and the lovely destination spot of Bloody Bay!