They say that you are never cured; that you will always be a recovering gamer. And so it is with me. Once upon a time I was an insatiable consumer of RPG’s and all things Nintendo. But life gets busy and I had to kick the habit. It took the patience of a saint to put off buying The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword until I have time to play it. And I dare not even glance in the direction of Skyrim, for fear of a relapse. That being said, an ex-gamer and DC fan like me simply couldn’t say no to DC Universe Online. That’d just be rude.
DC’s foray into the MMORPG genre has had a rocky first year. It was originally released in January 2011 as a pay-to-play game, costing £9.99 a month in the UK. I’m not keen on subscription games, which is why it barely registered on my radar. However, in November, DCU Online went free-to-play, and that was all the encouragement I needed to get started. There are of course premium options available for those who really want to part with their cash on a monthly basis to get the full experience, but so far, it doesn’t seem to be as restrictive as in other MMORPGs. The amount of items you can hold in your inventory is reduced, as it the amount of cash you can carry, and although I’ve heard rumours that free players can’t amass enough cash to properly repair their top level gear, I haven’t come across this myself yet.
To start you must first create your character. You can choose your alignment, be it hero or villain and then chose your mentor – Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman for the heroes; Joker, Circe and Lex Luthor for the villains. Character creation is relatively simple but with quite a few combinations to choose from. Some more experienced MMO players might find it restrictive, but I personally feel it struck the right balance. Spending hours perfecting my characters face or costume detail is not how I want to spend my time, but I was able to quickly create a character I was more than happy with. It is this aspect of the game which is its biggest success. It is perfect for casual players, and you don’t necessarily need to team up with other players to experience the game at its best. In fact, creating guilds is a benefit of having a paid subscription to the game and not available to free players.
Combat is especially satisfying. Fast and furious with a range of abilities and combo attacks, it really is the best aspect of the game and boasts enviable responsiveness. Missions and assignments are abundant, with none of the tedious waiting around to level up or such before new missions become available. And there’s no denying that the graphics are great, with fun cut scenes that use voice talent from the DC animated world (Mark Hamill as the Joker, for example.) This gives it a feeling of legitimate quality and proper attention to detail that’ll go a long way with comic book fans. The game environments are great too – Metropolis, Gotham, Watchtower and the Batcave to name just a few, and all are rendered in loving detail.
But there are flaws to be found, and the most glaring of these are the PC controls. Obviously designed primarily for consoles, the controls on the keyboard are clumsy and difficult to master. I would suggest hooking up a joypad if you’re playing this on your PC, because it’ll make the whole experience more enjoyable. Overall, the user interface is a horrible, poorly constructed mess and really does let down a game that, on the whole, is well designed. You also reach the level cap pretty quickly, and so the incentive of progression is lost, and DCU Online does not have enough engaging end game content to hold player attention. Also beware the long installation time. On my PC, which is less than a year old and has pretty good gaming specs and tons of space, it took approximately 6 hours to download the game. Luckily though, if you need to stop the download for any reason, it picks up where it left off when you restart and once it is up and running, it very rarely lags and menu pop-ups and other transitions are quite smooth.
So, DCU Online is a fun game, perfect for the casual gamer but maybe only a passing diversion for hardcore RPGers. It is definitely not worth parting with any real world cash though, and how much mileage you get out of it will vary depending on your specific tastes. It’s a game you’ll likely enjoy, but probably not love, and by no means become addicted to. Which is good news for me!
