Saturday, January 7, 2012

DC Universe Online Free To Play PC Review : Customization And Gameplay Mechanics


As many Free-To-Play(FTP) versions of games keep game-play, interaction with other players, customization of characters, or places you can travel to limited; DCUO doesn't. DCUO FTP did not make me feel like I needed to pay a subscription fee to enjoy the game.

          Let's put the story concept shortly: DC Universe Online is an MMO based on DC comic book universe and lets you fight along side or against DC superheroes. Sounds cool enough, right? Who doesn't want to fight as their similar as possible favourite superhero? Or, villain for that matter? When I say similar, I mean this... You aren't capable of playing as the actual comic book hero/villain, but you do have a set of choices for mentors. I can tell you- having The Joker as a mentor is definitely a ride on its own. The Joker is voiced by Mark Hamil and the way he reads his lines just makes me giddy inside. Here's a clip of The Joker's Vault, a mini-game, that for free-to-play players can open every 24 hours. The gist of the game is to open all the presents and you get miscellaneous items, some good, some awful  It's not a competitive game, but more of a "come here everyday and get rewarded for smashing presents!"




           DCUO has a lot of character customization. Not only in the way you can create your characters body type, height, weight, face, hair, skin even, etc, but also in their gear. Instead of wandering through the game from low levels in shabby, mismatched gear that no one would ever wear willingly, you can set your gear to look the way you want at the start of the game. When you receive new gear in game, you can either change to the appearance of the new gear or keep the appearance of the old gear but get the new stats. So for example, my hero (mentored by Wonder Woman) was designed to have big, white wings. But when I receive an item called "cloak" and equip it, I can still say that I want my wings to be the appearance of my back item.

"Who's that laaady? Sexy lady!"

          Another customization part of character creation is their personality and "stance" along with powers. The trifecta or "holy trinity": healer, tank, and damage dealers exist within the game, but aren't divided up into individual classes. Each character has options to execute one of those roles at any given time. So, my hero, focuses on healing, but when she's soloing, she's in damage mode otherwise...She wouldn't get very far. Because I typically roll healers in MMOs, I found myself constantly unable to play the game correctly because healing isn't the same in this game as I've experienced in the generic MMO. Instead of healing a targeted person, the character must be pointed in the direction of the targets in order to spread heals. The fact that you don't use the mouse (unless in chat window or quest logs) ensures that you won't be able to click on another player.
Apparently the designers of DCUO did not feel the need to add more tutorial-like information in game on how to execute the different roles. I had to browse the web in order to decipher the best way to not only heal others, but also which skills or powers would be more useful to the healing role. What makes this even more con-oliscious is that the power trees could use some streamlining because many of the power-types have similar abilities. If you're playing a co-op game, everyone wants to feel needed, so it would really help to have a few skills that are particular to the specific power-type.

          One more thing about customization of female models that really bugs me. Breast size. There, I've said it. I know that if you Google "DC comic book heroes small breasts" you have to scroll for forever to find a possibly, MAYBE hero or villain that has smaller breasts. I would really like to be able to adjust my villain's breast size. Because of her hunkered over stance (that being part of the Feral personality type), her already double D's become what..like F's? H's? J's? Who knows? They are absolutely massive! Maybe that's the real reason why she's hunched over.

          Oh and, your character doesn't have to be wearing any clothing at all! Shocking. My villain typically wears a bikini top, but to illustrate her ta-tas, she's in stripper mode for y'all.



Recommend? Yes.

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