DC Universe Online

[Bmore]

I was actually looking forward to this game. But alas I can say it is shit... Can no one make a superhero MMO correctly or must I do it myself Minecraft style!

[killgod]

yeah well WoW is a great game and thats why people pay. This game is not on WoW's level at all.....therefore why would I pay the same fee for an inferior games? Just to play as super heroes?? Champions Online I believe is free now...it should be cheaper as they are trying to get people into this.....I dont know the finances behind this so I am really just talking out my ass but I dont see it suceeding....which sux b/c the game is decent to good.

Just shoveled the jeep out.....going to play some more.

I didn't mean just WoW, that's only a chunk of that market. There's the Final Fantasy 13 or whatever, there's a couple superhero ones, there's a buttload of fantasy themed jap MMO's that aren't even over here, Star Wars Old Republic.

All depends on the MMO'ers interest I think. If you love superheroes, you'll forgive the shortcomings of a game to play as one in a persistent virtual world. Lots of people do it, cause there's lots of MMO's that aren't as good but are still played....i mean take your pick...

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/show/all/sCol/rankHype/sOrder/desc

[padman59]

You guys totally clueless on what the first M in MMO means?

MASSIVELY.


Not that I would know, , but WoW takes up like 30+GB of HDD space. . There's no small way to put together just the textures for an entire massive world and it's items, let alone everything else. It's not that someone dropped the ball, it's simply not feasible to do it any other way.

Point is, if it's a shock to you that you'd have to d/l a asston of content to play an MMO, then you clearly don't know what you're getting into.

Although it's nice to see this genre reach consoles, there's good potential for what could be.

Lastly, those saying "I'd never pay monthly fees" to play a game, better quit their Call of Duty habits now, and likely EA Sports habits in the future. I don't think we're far off from additional monthly fees to play these kinds of titles.

I don't play MMOs, but a blu ray disc can hold at least 20 GB. I would have thought that most of that content would be held on the disc for the PS3 version, and you wouldn't have to wait 7 hours to download addition data and install the game. That's about the amount of time it took me to download and install the beta. It just seems like an absurd amount of time to me.

[killgod]

I don't play MMOs, but a blu ray disc can hold at least 20 GB. I would have thought that most of that content would be held on the disc for the PS3 version, and you wouldn't have to wait 7 hours to download addition data and install the game. That's about the amount of time it took me to download and install the beta. It just seems like an absurd amount of time to me.

Couple things to consider.

That disc likely has "play content" which is content that needs to be accessible on disc while playing. Then here's "install content" which is likely what you had to download. So you probably have a disc full of data you need while playing, but that's not what's needed for the game itself to run.

If you had ALL the content required to play the game, this opens the door for sharing the game. 10 people buy one copy, all get subs and off you go. This is preventative of that.

7 hours to download could be a number of factors. Yeah that's a real long time, but how much of that time has to do with your own network connection? Or it being their servers overloaded with people trying to access that content all at once?



I get it, it sucks, but there's lots of factors as to why things are the way they are and some are likely only temporary.

I've played PC games alot longer than Console games, large HDD installs are the norm where on consoles it's absurd that you can't put your disc in and kill something 5 seconds later. I'm used to and understand it I guess.

[Maynard]

i am not seeing a reason for this to be an MMO game. i assumed the point to MMO was to play the game with other players. or have your guild go up against other guilds. or do player v player.

it sounds like this just has people online while you are doing the missions....and maybe they can assist you. Where is the player interaction?

[KNUBB]

i am not seeing a reason for this to be an MMO game. i assumed the point to MMO was to play the game with other players. or have your guild go up against other guilds. or do player v player.

it sounds like this just has people online while you are doing the missions....and maybe they can assist you. Where is the player interaction?

Yeah they have all of that in the game. Heroes can go against villains in arenas and what not.

[jms493]

i am not seeing a reason for this to be an MMO game. i assumed the point to MMO was to play the game with other players. or have your guild go up against other guilds. or do player v player.

it sounds like this just has people online while you are doing the missions....and maybe they can assist you. Where is the player interaction?

you can play through by yourself or with a group. There are PVP and I imagine as you progress you will need a group to beat certain bosses.

Shit the first real boss for me "the huntress" was no walk in the park.

[killgod]

Read this from the in progress review at IGN

"You can very easily make it through from level 1 to the game's level cap of 30 playing entirely solo, and the combat is way quicker. There's also less of an emphasis on ancillary activities like crafting. In fact, there is no crafting in DCUO yet. "

Seems very unlike an MMO, but I think the console crowd wouldn't be interested in having it any other way.

[TeflonDonny]

You could level up by yourself but there are some missions, mainly the alerts, that are impossible alone.

[killgod]

Review from someone who played 5 months of Beta, has 6 max level chars across both PC and PS3

Gameplay: The gameplay is very fun, at first anyways, and it does add a new twist to MMOs, the action gameplay isnt quite as action oriented as I would have liked, its actually more like 2 buttons are action oriented and the rest are traditional MMO. The combo's are waaay to easy to pull off and if they had took the time to add some complicated ones in there it would have given more action players something to look foward to. Plus the game plays awkward with the keyboard and mouse, much better and more natural with a controller. 5/10

Graphics: I never saw a problem with the graphics, if you dont have a great computer you might have to run it pretty low but the graphics are very good for any computer game. 9/10

Story: The story is a DC Universe comic story, it has many alternative story lines but basically you were given powers and now have to try and save the world from a super computer named Brainiac. 7/10

Tutorial: The tutorial is exciting to play through the first time because it really explains the story well, the problem is the tutorial takes about half an hour no matter how good of a player you are (because of cutscenes) and for every character you make you have to hear the same lines over and over again. The tutorial starts off promising but if they had taken the time to add in a skip option it would make this game alot better, by my second character I just didnt want to make anymore because of the tutorial. 2/10

Quests: The quests are called "episodes" in this game, and at first they are very exciting to do, but than I realized they are all the same. You will have to kill 15 of an enemy, than get 10 of an item and 5 of another item (so kill 15 more of a different enemy) than go to an inside mission and defeat a boss. EVERY SINGLE episode follows this formula, while its a good thing that you probably wont run out of episodes but once or twice the episodes are to much alike to be interesting. If they would have thrown in some get accross the city and disarm the bomb with a time limit or something like that it would have added variety, but its like they didnt even try when designing the episodes, the stories can be interesting but its the same objective on every single one. 2/10

Character Customization: This one is hard to write about....the initial character creation is not bad...but it isnt near what we have seen from City of Heroes, Champions Online, Aion and such. You cant customize height and there are only 6 powers to choose from! There are 10 weapons, but 4 of them are useless and most of them are ones you want on 1 character but wont want to try again. Any costume piece you pick up gets added to looks you can go back to again which is cool (i believe we saw a similar system in Everquest?) but from the beginning you cant get your character looking how you want most of the time. The lack of options initially and throughout the game make customization mediocre compared to other games. 4/10

Replay Value: Ok guys, let me warn anyone who has not played this game that even for casual players getting to lvl 30 (max level) takes only about a week or so, I have seen hardcore players get it in a day. 1/10

Verdict: Well guys, this game has many flaws and is not what I, or alot of people thought it would be. The tutorial is a pain to do after the first or second time and when you get to max level there is NOTHING to do. There are like 3 raids you can do, but you do the raids for armor so you can raid. And you PvP....for armor....so you can raid. But they dont give you hardly any raids to do...see the issue? This game will last probably anyone the free month, some people claim its the best game ever and they will play it forever, but in the MMO world if it takes a hardcore player a week to get to max level the game is considered easy, if it takes them a day it is considered laughable. I think the developers worked very hard on the city and getting the voice actors to do the voice's, but not on what players want. The gameplay is a little action, alot of what we have seen over and over again. If your looking for a new MMO home, you wont find it here, in fact after playing for a couple of months I am not getting it, and I could have concluded that after the first month. The developers when they do play the game leave as soon as you find out who they are, the gameplay is mediocre along with the character creation, episodes are repetative and there is a lack of any appeal unless you are a hardcore DC Comics fan (which I am a huuge fan of) but even than its hard to stay with this game. The first month people will probably give it 10/10, but in truth is more like a 4/10

I have done the 3 raids available and they were just a collaberation of the missions, like in 1 raid Gorilla Grodd, The Joker and someone else (Riddler?) all teamed up so you had to stop them together instead of seperate. The raids werent bad, they just werent really good. They didnt take much time, and hour or 2 is all. You do the raids for armor, like on most MMOs, but unlike most MMO's there is nothing to do but raid more and PvP with your armor. The missions are the episodes that I went in detail saying "Quests: The quests are called "episodes" in this game, and at first they are very exciting to do, but than I realized they are all the same. You will have to kill 15 of an enemy, than get 10 of an item and 5 of another item (so kill 15 more of a different enemy) than go to an inside mission and defeat a boss. EVERY SINGLE episode follows this formula, while its a good thing that you probably wont run out of episodes but once or twice the episodes are to much alike to be interesting. If they would have thrown in some get accross the city and disarm the bomb with a time limit or something like that it would have added variety, but its like they didnt even try when designing the episodes, the stories can be interesting but its the same objective on every single one. 2/10"

The iconic armor looks very cool (most of them) but during most of the beta it wasnt available, you just do a set of missions for that contact to gain their reputation to get the armor. Though it does look cool it is only PvP/raid armor but you cant use it much. Just in certain areas.

The 20-30 content was the same as the 5-10 content, you fight a number of enemies, you get a number of items, you beat a boss on an inside mission. They do not change, EVER. First mission, Stop Gorilla Grodd, kill 10 of Gorilla Soldier, 5 Lieutenants, than deactivate some devices, de-evolve humans, team up with Flash, defeat Gorilla Grodd. Last mission I did to turn 30 on main Stop Aquaman: Kill 15 of 1 Sea Monster, 10 of another, get items from sea creature's, kill more sea creatures, Team up with Matian Manhunter to stop Aquaman.

[Raidersabc123]

I really wanted to like this game but sounds like a disappointment ill wait and buy it if the monthly price disappears

[Maynard]

it does sound very disappointing to anyone who waited for it.

[killgod]

I really wanted to like this game but sounds like a disappointment ill wait and buy it if the monthly price disappears

It'll never go away, a cost will always be involved. Free to Play models pretty much require you to buy content to really enjoy the game.

"Thank you hero from saving me from those wild hooligans! I would give you an award but you're a cheap ass free player! Let me know when you pay money and I'll give you this bad ass super power that is currently owning your ass in PvP!"

That's basically what it'll be like.

[Maynard]

a somewhat contradiction from this reviewer.

I figured I need to update my ranged attacks so I got the pulsar eye beam from the iconic skill tree. That thing just shreds single targets, and coupled with a displacement defensive skill that evades most attacks for a few seconds I finally took Zoltana and her demon pet out.

~~~

I'm just short of the beta L20 cap for one of my three characters, and with 25+ hours under my belt I think I can comment on the PvE action understanding that the game hasn't gone gold (a lot of powers and missions aren't accessiable, and they are still tweaking the game play mechanics).

Overall I really, really like the action in this game. It is far more kinetic than most MMOs, which is the main draw outside of the licensed characters. The leveling system is smooth and doesn't feel like you have to grind out meaningless battles just to reach the next milestone.

The missions themselves are decently varied, but you do see some repeating themes in different parts of the games (take item X to this spot ten times, defeat enemy squad X five times, etc.). So far though, it doesn't get old because the actual fighting itself is very fun like all good beat 'em ups should be.

Boss fights in particular are really cool since they can be pretty challenging and often have special mechanics you perform to do to help you win. You don't only fight major characters at the end of missions. You can accept a bounty job to hunt them down (I've been destroyed each time I tried so far) or even randomly encounter one out in the open world.

It's even enjoyable to replay the story mode with different characters you make because you really can design them to be wholly different than your other ones. For instance, besides me speedy martial artist (villain), I have a flying fire burner (villain)and an acrobatic assault gunner (hero). All three have a unique feel to them because of the expansive skill/power trees.

With all the skills available for unlocking (and there are a ton of them since there are at least a dozen professions), you can only bring six to battle in addition to a healing item and a gadget buff enhancer. Some might think this is limiting, but it helps to make things more tactical and less spammy IMHO. I say this as a player who played 1,000+ hours with similar restraints in Guild Wars. You will be able to do a lot with a limited skill bar as long as you plan ahead properly (especially in Player vs Player battles).

You can switch them any time you are out of battle, and you can also have different skill builds based on your focused chosen role as a healer, damager or controller (this can be easily switched as well). In fact, choosing a role also changes the properties of most skills, i.e. deal damage in damager mode, but debuff in controller mode. There is a lot of versatility.

The graphics are above average considering you can be in the same area with a bunch of other players simultaneously. The world itself is pretty huge, and while you can run/fly/leap to wherever you want, the beta has a generous teleport system to let you easily hop back to a safe house to recharge, trade for new gear or complete missions objectives.

The story is classic comic book style in tone and presentation. Illustrated action panels tell a lot of what is going on between the characters you meet, and all of the in-game dialogue is voiced by fairly professional voices.

A couple of negative points I'd like to mention. For one, the PvE portion of the game feels like it is designed toomuch to be solo friendly. Guild Wars was all instanced, so when you hung out in an outpost ready to tackle an area, you were surrounded by a ton of random players in that outpost ready to group up to do the same. This was important because before you could get an A.I. companion you wouldn't want to go in alone except as a runner or with special solo grind builds.

In DCUO, most of the game is not instanced. It's mostly open world, and anyone on the server you are playing on can join or avoid any fight you are in (you all get credit for participating in any way, so griefing isn't a big deal). Most of the time, you end up just doing it yourself and the difficulty in the beta is easy in most areas to get away with that. There are extra play modes in the game that are designed for co-op battles (i.e. Alerts), but they aren't as plentiful right now as the story missions.

Another thing that should be improved is the lock-on targeting system. It doesn't always go to the enemy you want, and there is no easy way to cycle through to the next or previous one. It's not as big of a deal for melee fighting since you just manually attack someone near you (and it auto-tracks that pretty good), but for ranged attacks there should be a better way. Also, I don't believe it targets off-camera enemies even if they are close (i.e., when you are facing the camera or zoomed in near a corner).

I also wish there were a lot more random world stuff going on. It feels like a GTA open world but most of the action going on in real time is mission related. As a villain I once beat up a pedestrian withdrawing money at an ATM machine and then went on to loot the machine itself, and I found a man at the top of a tall building so I pushed him over to his death, but there aren't enough things like this in the beta.

Lastly, it feels like iconic powers are too easy to stock up on and these are skills tghat can be used by any character with no restriction (in the beta). I'm not sure if it is imbalanced, but it takes away from character uniqueness when everyone whether hero or villain can have batarangs, a golden lasso, and eye laser beams, etc. simultaneously on their character. Perhaps these skills could be made stronger than other skills, but a character can use only one at a time (like Elite skills in GW).

I haven't commented on PvP since I wanted to hit L20 first, but you can turn on/off your PvP flag during your adventuring if you want to be attacked by players or not. You also have dedicated PvP modes as well, which seem to be pretty well designed from what I can tell right now. It is a rock/papers/scissors approach in that you can block a lot of damage but can have your guard broken by certain moves. Those guard breakers in turn can be countered by other move types, etc. I'll play PvP this week to add more thoughts on it.

So, $12-$15 a month after purchase...

Is it worth it based on the incomplete beta? I can't say until after a lot of PvP play. That was my primary mode in Guild Wars, and it had no monthly fee. DCUO's PvE is already a lot better to me than GW because of the beat'em up play mechanics, but I'd have a hard time justifying monthly payments for a solo mode in any game. I'll also play the co-op modes a lot more to get a better feel for that as well.

[killgod]

There's a lot of different perspectives on all MMO games because there's many different things you can get out of them.

One thing to consider with "monthly fees" is the content associated. If you aren't familiar with these games, these fees help fund constant updates and additions to the game. So it's not as if you are paying just to play, but paying to play a game that's always being "developed".

BETA's are also generally alot easier because the devs want the testers to experience more content so they can find more issues and report on more, so I'm doubtful the game is as easy as it was for the review I posted.


My advice on those considering the game, you can either jump in right away when the low end population is high (which is key, an empty world is boring), or you can wait and see how the devs support the game with additions/content/patches and how the community accepts it.

Nothing worse than getting into an MMO and it failing a few months later, then you have a useless 60 dollar coaster. APB anyone? Although that's being restored, still counts for my point. :D