DCUO Review

     Yapping Freak here and its time to talk about DCUO brought to you by SOE. I have been playing this game for over a year now and DCUO has immensely impressed me for a free to play (F2P) game. You have a typical online shop for downloadable content, outfits items, and various other stuff. You also have a credit lock unless you sub. Any credit you make over the limit is kept in escrow until you sub or buy the option in the online shop.

     I happen to be a superhero MMO genre fan. I played Champions Online for quite awhile also and while you have more options for outfits in CO the options you have in DCUO look better (really the game looks better altogether). Now the character creation in DCUO doesn't have the body options I would prefer, at least they have different preset body options to choose from.

Quantum Powerset kicking butt.

     As for powers, which is really what it comes down to, you have a choice between 6. Fire (tank), Ice (tank), Tech (controller), Mental (controller), Nature (healer), and Magic (healer). These are flashy by themselves and the powers you get from DLC's are balanced so they don't outshine the first 6. The DLC powers are Light (controller), Earth (tank), Electricity (healer), and the newest Quantum (controller). I can tell you now that the trick to getting the most out of the powers is to find the combo powers with each set and then the clipping combo's. Clipping allows for a second power or action to go off before the first is done, either causing it to go off early or cancelling it (trust me both are wanted at times). You also have certain iconic powers like eyebeams that you gain access to around level 9. Lastly you will have weapon and travel powers. these add weapon attack patterns/combo's and special powers based on which travel power you choose. 

     Combat is done with a rock, paper, scissors concept. Block - Charge Attack - Block Breaker, this is the order of what beats what. You will need to understand this when playing the game at any level. Something I think everyone should know is that you can continue to gather skill points to use on weapon and travel powers even after you have maxed out your level at 30. I was thrilled when I found out about this since it meant I didn't have to have one character for every weapon class just to experience them.

Battle in the Fortress!

     Now I will admit its not difficult to be interested in a brand new game when it comes to missions. It usually takes a month or so of playing to find the problems and the patterns that start making things boring. With DCUO your game doesn't really start until you've reached the max level of 30. This is when everything picks up (very unusual for end game content to be this involved). You have many instance missions now to do (most repeatable), the story starts to get into world ending things you'd expect the JLA to deal with and this is when you really start to feel you're able to take chunks out of Brainiac's plans. Voice acting is moderate to decent (TSW is better IMO). but the stories are usually very cool on your first couple of play throughs. You even have categories like solo, 2 man, 4 man and full raid teams for instance missions. The devs also do a good job at implementing regular seasonal/holiday events.

   Did you want to play as Superman, Wonderwoman, or one of the many good or bad guys/girls or the DC Universe? Well you'll have that option if you want to play PVP Legends. In this you will enter various battles with various goals as you're favorite superheroes or villains as long as you paid either in game currency or bought them on the online shop. Want to take your created Hero/Villain into PVP and start crushing skulls, no problem, they have this option also, including a PVP option to fight in your personal Layer or some one elses.

     Ah layers. This is somewhat new to this game if not to others. This is your personal space that you are able to design yourself and place all sorts of furniture or other amenities you find in the game. You will also receive access to an extra item store inside your layer. These items allow for satellite bombardment, sidekicks and plenty more things to make the game even better in combat. As I said before, you also have the option of signing up for fights in these layers.

I haven't fought Doomsday here, but I'm looking forward to it!

     Now for the things I do want to see added. Vehicles are a big one I'm hoping for in the future, especially since Champions Online has done it. Next is something that has been talked about in the forums for a looooong time. A true strength power set or the equivalent. As it stands now, you dont usually feel like you got what you intended if you wanted to created someone inspired after the Kryptonians. Even creating a Bain-like character isn't always as satisfying as it could be.

     Other than the above mentioned gripes and the reduction in creds if you're not subbed (its severe), this game is one of the true greats for a F2P model. Tons of effort went into this game and it shows. I have a blast with this game and still play to this day. So yeah.... I recommend this game. Try it, get to 30 and see if you dont start subbing once you've hit the big leagues!