31Jan 2011 |
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DC Universe Online (PS3): What you need to know |
| Posted By: chrislotts in Video Games | 2 comments. |
As an avid video gamer and superhero aficionado, I was beside myself when I heard rumours of an ultimate DC Universe game launching this year. Well, the wait is over, the game is out and…. well, to be honest, I was slightly underwhelmed – at first. (On that note, I’d like to point out, it takes a lot to knock me off my feet these days.. you know, seeing as we practically live in ‘the future’ – or what we dreamt the future to be when we were little).
Before making any rash decisions, I thought I would give the game a fair chance. It is an MMO (which I’m not usually a fan of playing – my last MMO attempt was with Final Fantasy XI – also on a console, not the PC version) and that means MASSIVE environments, EPIC story arcs, TOTAL character customizations, A LOT of levelling, etc. I couldn’t possibly make a ‘love it’ or ‘hate it’ decision after just a few (frustrating) hours. So here goes… Part 1 of my DC Universe Online gaming experience thus far (I’m only about 6 hours in and at Level 10).
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The Premise/Back Story:
The game starts with a pretty EPIC opening video sequence – Earth is about to be destroyed a la Brainiac’s invading armies – the heroes/villains are all that remains and it’s not going so well for either side. To everyone’s surprise, Lex Luthor ends up being captured and is Earth’s sole survivor. Fast forward to Lex arming his mecca-suit with Brainiac’s time travelling technology PLUUUUSSS ALL the powers of every superhero Brainiac has ‘stolen’ throughout time and space, conveniently packaged in tiny ‘power orbs’. —–> Lex travels back in time, just as the armies are starting to invade (why he didn’t go back a little further is beyond me / maybe I missed that part…) and spills the beans to the current Justice League (overseen by Superman, Batman and WonderWoman). Oh, and while this is happening, Lex devised a preplan to scatter the ‘power orbs’ all across the world, thus creating a new army of Superheroes – aka Me and You. Viola! Go save the Universe from Brainiac’s evil clutches!
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The beginning… or lack there of:
So here’s where it gets a little tricky… or more accurately, frustrating. The game just starts. No instruction, no real tutorial.. you start off picking a ‘World’. What this really means is.. the server in which you’ll be playing the game online. If you plan on joining friends, you better find out which server they’re on ahead of time (I’m on ‘Birthrite’), because as far as I can tell (again.. the details of doing ANYTHING are extremely vague) you’re stuck with what you pick up front.
Next up is character customization! I sat on the next few screens for about an hour going through every option, trying to find the perfect match for the ‘hero’ (or villain) I wanted to be. You get to make a few key choices (again with very vague instructions, or no instructions at all) which will determine A) your main storyline, B) your ‘guide’ or narrator, C) the type of powers you’ll have, and D) the core of your superhero persona. Kind of important stuff that oh I dunno.. you might want a little helping hand with before you start off on your epic quest… that you can’t change.. unless you create a whole new character… How was this even released to the public without some kind of test panel? Anyone?
So before you make any solid decisions, here are the basics (I’ve only followed the hero path, so that’s what I’ll use as an example – I’m assuming it’s the same setup for villains, but then again…):
A) Pick your mentor – This determines the main storyline you’ll follow AND the annoying voiceover guide – I picked WonderWoman who represents the ‘Magic’ storyline (Superman follows a genetics type storyline and Batman follows a human with cool gadgets storyline). Each of these lead you in your ‘levelling up’ path + minigames and all the side quests. The main Brainiac story remains the same and is spread out across your 30 stages of levelling up. Sidenote: Anyone else that picks WonderWoman – is it just me, or does it REALLY sound like they got a black woman to do the voiceover? …more specifically, someone who sounds like the Detective from the Carmen Sandiego TV show…
B) Pick your powers/weapon – there are quite a few options here, ranging from guns, to a staff, to psychic energy, etc. When you start playing you basically have 2 options – button smash A, and button smash B – DON’T FRET! As you level up (which happens quite quickly), you can add combos and enhancements to these powers and it makes things much more interesting/makes you much more powerful.
C) Pick your ‘super’ mode – This basically determines how you’ll ‘quickly’ get around the MASSIVE worlds.. and I mean MASSIVE. Your options are flight, acrobatics, or superspeed. I tried flight because.. well, who doesn’t want to fly? Sounds better on paper. Good luck with the controls, like how do you fly ‘down’? I abandoned that one pretty quickly and switched over to acrobatics, aka Spiderman. You can stick to walls/climb on ANYTHING, even upside down, ‘glide’ while you run / jump off high surfaces and fake flying. I think it’s the best of the all options.
D) Create your hero – Here’s the fun/annoying part. First off, I warn you, the controls/menus are extremely finicky! I got really frustrated just trying to move from one screen to the next. I think this mostly has to do with lag from the Internet as EVERYTHING is done online. There are TONS of options at this point.. costume (ranging from gloves, body, back, legs, feet, shoulders, etc.) + colour selections. Don’t worry if you don’t find that EXACT costume piece right away – you’ll earn/find/buy a whole bunch more as you play through the game. I would recommend equipping something for each option now as you can always choose ‘none’ later on, but you can’t add anything after this first step (unless you earn it later.. which is a little different than just finding add-ons.. confusing, I know).
You’re done! / Get ready for basic (and I mean baaaaaaaaasic training).
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To be continued in Part 2!
Check back shortly for more in depth coverage / any coverage as the instruction manual doesn’t even cover what I wrote about above.. just sayin’. / If Part 1 made the game sound more annoying than fun… it’ll pass. After working out the kinks / just reading my breakdown above will save you HOURS of frustration. More soon!
Comments:
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Update: I have since abandoned the game in search of something a little more entertaining. I’ll revisit Metropolis and Gotham City again one day… if they ever get the PS Network up again.
More posts coming.
Yeah, Jason’s been playing the PC version of that game and it definitely sounds like that Wonder Woman was voiced by the actress who played Zoe in Serenity (and evil god in Angel).
Sounds like much of your frustration is playing an MMO on a platform has limited controls, but then again you’re so into the future that you probably have a mind device as your controller.
Sprinkle hearts!