Recently, I was invited as a member of BigShinyRobot to try the closed beta for the upcoming MMORPG, DC Universe Online. I’ve been enjoying it for about a week, but have been under a non-disclosure agreement. That’s been lifted today, so I am happy to share my impressions with all of you!
The bottom line is , I really like it, there are a few things that I hope are improved upon though. Some parts of character creation are kind of dicey. For instance, the hair options are very cluttered because hair and facial hair aren’t separate options. Another thing I would like is if you could actually use the established DC hero emblems, but from the forums it looks like those might be available as in game rewards. The naming conventions are kind of odd as well. Certain words don’t seem to be usable, which is the norm for vulgar or otherwise offensive words, but I actually didn’t seem to be able to use “bot”. My hero was going to be Shaz-Bot, but I had
to settle for Shazmotron, mashing my name along with Swank’s. On the other hand, when I finally made myself a villain, the system let me use Martian Deathhunter, so I don’t why they’d block some words and not others, especially ones so derivative.
One of the aspects of character creation I was looking forward to most was the ‘Inspired By’ system. If you want to emulate, or be inspired by a hero, you have that option. It gives you a similar power set and look to the hero or villain you choose for inspiration. The designs they give you are pretty generic and the number of characters you can be ‘inspired by’ was lacking. With Shaz-bot, I based the design on Captain Marvel. I had to do all of the heavy lifting as it were myself though, because Cap wasn’t one of the heroes you could be inspired by. I was also a bit surprised that there aren’t any lightning-based powers, as that is kind of a superhero MMORPG staple. I compromised and made my character shoot mystical energy instead. When I made the Martian Deathhunter on the other hand, I totally got to ape the Martian Manhunter’s look and power set. I just tweaked things a bit to make me look a bit more ‘evil’.
My character, before I added a cape and before I had to change my name.
Outside of character creation, my overall experience was positive. The actual gameplay is a nice mesh of a light action game and a traditional MMORPG. You have to take an active part in the battle, rather than just hitting a button and auto attacking. This makes the fighting fun rather than tedious and is a great way to go about it. Comparing it to another hero MMORPG, It’s kind of a polar opposite from Champions Online, where the character creation is ridiculously robust, but the actual gameplay is lacking. Another thing I was wondering about is how the game’s interface would work, being on both PC and PlayStation 3. I am happy to say playing this game with a gamepad is smooth as silk. It’s obvious that the game was built to be played with one rather than as an afterthought. Now, I am a dyed in the wool DC fan, so I can’t say this without being biased, but if you let yourself, you can totally get caught up in the role playing aspect. I felt like I was a part of the DC Universe. I even came up with a backstory in my mind for both of the characters I’m playing.
The missions are really awesome. It seems the missions you are assigned are based on the origin you pick for yourself. As Shazmotron, I was picked a magic-based origin, so my missions revolved around fighting Faust for the first main story, and then a Trigon possessed Raven for the second. There are plenty more, I am sure, but for the beta I was level at 9. I haven’t progressed far enough to talk too much about the villain missions yet, but if they measure up to the hero missions, no matter what you decide to do in game, you’re bound to find something you enjoy.
When it comes to in-game environments, I started in Metropolis, but I didn’t really explore it much, I was mainly confined to Chinatown because of the way my missions went. I have yet travel around the city, but I know familiar areas like Suicide Slum. When I got Shazmotron to level 9, I added a new flight power that lets my move a lot faster and that makes exploring much more fun, and to do that, I traveled to Gotham. Gotham City is awesome. I went to the East End, found the Bat-Signal, which really shines onto a far away cloud which was sweet. I found Arkham Asylum which was really cool too, I couldn’t find Wayne Manor, but I guess that’s supposed to be on the outskirts and I couldn’t leave the city in that way. There were invisible walls, which you would think would be disappointing, but the city is large enough that you won’t encounter any unless you’re deliberately exploring.
Speaking of large areas, the JLA watchtower is MASSIVE. There are 4 wings to it and they are quite extensive. There are familiar DCU Heroes all over it, and reminds me more of the JLU watchtower from the show rather than the original Morrison one. The villains get a Legion of Doom headquarters, but I haven’t been to it yet. In the attached gallery you can see screenshots of every hero I could find. I of course had to find Captain Marvel to prove to myself he was indeed even in the game, and he actually gets a cut scene in the Faust story.
Speaking of cutscenes, they are really something special. They aren’t CGI like the opening movie, but in my opinion, they are even better. It’s like an idealized version of a motion comic. They are very limited animation-wise, but they are so vivid and vibrant that they just kind of pop out at you. I assume it’s all Jim Lee art, but I can’t really tell as I am not terribly familiar with his DC work outside of the Batman side of things. And I certainly wouldn’t want to slight any of the fine people who’ve worked on this game.
I’ll admit that I didn’t play terribly much of the multiplayer content, but it’s a testament to the game that I didn’t really miss it all that much. What I did play very still very satisfying. I was able to play a 4 vs. 4 player vs. player arena. In the arenas, you can play as established DC characters. This arena we were limited to using Robin and Harley Quinn. It was very fast paced and fun, so much so, that I was too focused to actually take any screenshots of it! Later on, I was on a team task force type of multiplayer where we had a vast plain to fight back Brainiac’s opposing forces. It was a timed event, and I only got in at the tail end of it, but it was still very appealing. You have to use squad tactics, and communicate with your teammates, otherwise you’ll be lost! I look forward to more multiplayer gameplay once I dive back into the game.
So as not to gush too much, one thing I wanted to mention was the voice acting in the game. If you somehow find yourself playing the beta, I implore you not to be turned off by the voices. The game is in an early enough stage that the final voice work is not complete, and therefore placeholder voices are used, because the game does have rather extensive voice overs. This is not a knock on the game in any way, just an observation on the beta process.
All in all, when I judge a video game, there are obvious things that I look for, but above all it has to be fun. Trust me when I say: This game is very fun to play. Although I’ve been hyped for it since it was announced, I was kind of leery about it, because I didn’t want to play another “me too” MMORPG. After playing the beta for a week, those fears are completely gone. I decided right then and there to pre-order it. The hardest part was picking which store to go to, because every retailer has a different in game item![nggallery id=46]