DC Universe Online

Developer: Sony Online Entertainment
Platform: PC/PS3
Release Year: 2011
Stephen's Rating: 5/10



DCUO is a massively multiplayer online action game based around the DC Universe of superheroes.

Basic Plot

Lex Luthor from the future has come back and released nanobytes into Earth's atmosphere turning regular people into super heroes of varying abilities.

You play one of these people. Initially captured on one of Brainiac's ships, your goal is to escape. Depending on whether you chose to go hero or villain, your story branches out from this point.

You get to choose a mentor (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman for the heroes, Lex Luthor, The Joker, and Cerce for the villains). Depending on your mentor you will have a different starting location where you can obtain quests.


A player with the frost power set.

Gameplay

The first part of the game is creating your character. This is one of the most detailed parts of the game. You get to choose every aspect of your appearance, your powers, your movement style, your weapon style, etc.

Once the game starts it pans out a lot like a third person action game similar to Prototype. You have certain special moves which require key combinations to complete like a fighting game.

The game involves questing. You obtain quests from different characters in the DC Universe, and go about completing them in a similar fashion to other MMO's. Quests can be completed alone or you can bring companions along.

There are also instances and raids, as well as PvP instances to complete. Be completing these instances you obtain badges which in time unlock tier equipment (similar to World of Warcraft).


Some of the tier armour sets.

Positives

The character creation is very good and a lot of fun. I spent hours in this screen alone. I also like how on each server you can only have one character of each name. It means your name is unique.

I admire the idea of the game, mixing MMO idealogy with action and fighting game mechanics. They just didn't pull it off quite well enough.

Negatives

The "tier" gear you unlock by completing instances is very limited. There were 3 hero sets and 3 villain ones, so everyone who obtains them ends up looking the same. Not much to aspire to. On top of that, when the game first came out (at least) there were only a handful of instances you could complete. This meant doing the same instances over and over again to get enough badges to get better gear. It became very quickly tedious and meaningless. I didn't last a month before ending my subscription.

Additionally it was very easy to reach the level cap of 30. It only took me 3-4 days. Compared to World of Warcraft which took me a solid 3 months of playing to get to the max (at the time 85), this is somewhat ridiculous. It cheapened the whole growth aspect of your character and made the entire game about obtaining the same gear that everyone else has.

Finally, you got to choose one power and that was it. You had a tree of abilities, but they were often lacking important skills (such as self healing). It meant there was little or no creativity in character builds and soloing the game was unbalanced.


Combat

Memorable Moments

My personal trainer talked me into getting this game before it was released. We thought it would be the next big thing. We did play a few hours together, along with another friend of mine, but it was pretty much a big let down all round.