MMO Grinder: DC Universe Online
Chaos looks into the final Superhero MMO featured on his poll, DC Universe Online.
Posted By ChaosD1 about 8 months ago
MMO Grinder: DC Universe Online, 10.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a carbon copy clone of Superman… and there’s another one! Chaos looks into the final Superhero MMO featured on his poll, DC Universe Online. Was it worth the near year long wait, or will he have to bring in outside help to fend off the inevitable swarm of fanboys?
Need a second opinion? Check out Tyger’s look at DCUO on his show MUD2MMO: http://blip.tv/MUD2MMO/mud2mmo-dc-universe-online-review-6361779
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An avid MMO player (not expert. There's a difference) Jon "ChaosD1" Burkhardt is best known for MMO Grinder... Unless you're from TGWTG in which he's that guy who drinks Mountain Dew, collects Jigglypuff items and shows up to scream how things don't work that way in Phelous's videos.
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Chaos looks into the final Superhero MMO featured on his poll, DC Universe Online.
Sony and the team over at DC Universe Online have come through with their vow of Free to Play and announced this morning that their comic-book blockbuster is free to play for one and all! Click onward to see the all-important statements from their press release detailing their “Levels” of access… say huh?
One more major MMO is making the change to Free to Play and Blistered Thumbs has the breakdown of all the details you need about this upcoming transition.
Hot on the heals of the recently released Green Lantern Hollywood cash-in, DC Universe Online is setting up to release it’s new “Fight for the Light” DLC expansion. Wait… DLC, we’re going to have to pay for this in a subscription-based MMO?!
See you later John, good luck on that Frontierville…
I recently got a chance to play some DC Universe Online. Here is my experience with the game as I play through the first level in Metropolis with Superman as my mentor! Also, I managed to find a certain someone’s play through on the net and added it here to show you what it’s like to play as a villain. Check them both out!
In an alternate future, Brainiac defeats the forces of the world and assimilates the Earth and all its superpowered denizens. What will happen when Lex Luthor steals the powers of heroes deceased and gives them to a new age of heroes and villains in the past?
Well looks like things are up and off on a roll for SOE and DC
Mwwwahahah! Riddle me this, riddle me that… who’s afraid of the big, black, bat? If
DC Universe Online comes out in a couple weeks, So is the latest build close to being ready for the full release?
Posted By Nobunaga about 1 year, 6 months ago
Sony and the team over at DC Universe Online have come through with their vow of Free to Play and announced this morning that their comic-book blockbuster is free to play for one and all! Click onward to see the all-important statements from their press release detailing their “Levels” of access… say huh?
Posted By Shaun K. about 1 year, 8 months ago
One more major MMO is making the change to Free to Play and Blistered Thumbs has the breakdown of all the details you need about this upcoming transition.
Posted By Nobunaga about 1 year, 10 months ago
Hot on the heals of the recently released Green Lantern Hollywood cash-in, DC Universe Online is setting up to release it’s new “Fight for the Light” DLC expansion. Wait… DLC, we’re going to have to pay for this in a subscription-based MMO?!
Posted By Robert G. about 2 years ago
See you later John, good luck on that Frontierville…
Posted By AngryJoe about 2 years, 3 months ago
I recently got a chance to play some DC Universe Online. Here is my experience with the game as I play through the first level in Metropolis with Superman as my mentor! Also, I managed to find a certain someone’s play through on the net and added it here to show you what it’s like to play as a villain. Check them both out!
Posted By Nobunaga about 2 years, 4 months ago
Well looks like things are up and off on a roll for SOE and DC
Posted By Nobunaga about 2 years, 4 months ago
Mwwwahahah! Riddle me this, riddle me that… who’s afraid of the big, black, bat? If
Posted By Hopewithinchaos about 2 years, 4 months ago
DC Universe Online comes out in a couple weeks, So is the latest build close to being ready for the full release?
Posted By Nobunaga about 2 years, 5 months ago
DC Universe Online and Sony Online Entertainment have officially announced that the game will be
Posted By Nobunaga about 2 years, 5 months ago
“Riddle me this, riddle me that… what’s afraid of the big… black… bat?”
Posted By James C. about 2 years, 4 months ago
MMO Grinder: DC Universe Online, 10.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating
Action MMORPG’s are interesting creatures, especially those that feel like a port to the console you are playing it on, and I cannot deny the validity of that statement for the new undertaking from Sony Online Entertainment. DC Universe Online, a tale of the new age of heroes and villains to combat one of the greatest villains in the comic empire’s franchise, is an interesting addition to the MMO market. It would be a no-brainer to make this anything else but an action-based game, but can Sony Online deliver the goods like they did so long ago with the release of the titanic MMO franchise of Everquest and Everquest II?
And before I begin, let me make a public warning to those who enter here: This review is a monster. As much as my ‘talent’ as an editor goes, as well as aid from my peers here at Blistered Thumbs, this review is gigantic.
| PROS | Vivid worlds, Entertaining gameplay, Amazing production value |
| CONS | Poor design choices, Quick content, Developed for consoles on a PC dominant market |
| WTF?! | Super Speed geometry tethering is out of control |
In an alternate future to the one existing today, Lex Luthor, corporate overlord of LexCorp and archenemy to Superman, began a war against the heroes of earth. To maximise his chances of winning, Luthor waited until Superman had expended his powers to the point to where he had to leave Earth and recharge in closer proximity to the sun. The war raged for untold days, with the heroes and the villains of the universe clashing endlessly, until one remained. That individual was indeed Lex Luthor.
However, once the dust settled, a new challenger entered the arena: Brainiac, the extra-terrestrial android with an assimilated robotic army at his beck and call. With no superpeople left to oppose Brainiac, the assimilation of the earth was swift and with minimal resistance. The 12th level intellect cyborg had been helping himself to removing the superpowers and abilities of heroes and villains for ‘data retrieval’, and storing them in tiny machines called exobytes while cutting down on earth’s resistance without anyone’s knowledge. With that in mind, future Lex relieved Brainiac of the exobytes, and leapt back in time, to warn the heroes and villains of our time.
It comes as no surprise that the Justice League was hesitant to help any incarnation of Lex Luthor, but the time traveler did not care, and released the exobytes into the atmosphere. The robots were programmed to pass on their powers’ stored into whomever or whatever interacted with them first. With this action, Lex has given the Earth a fighting chance, breeding a new generation of heroes to uphold what’s right in the world, as well as a new generation of villains to assist in the unraveling of everything.
Even with a time-travel story, you have to give major props to the writers behind this game. If I were given the task to explain a massive influx of new heroes and villains into a comic empire already saturated with great characters, I would have given them back a blank sheet. Given the alternate universes popular with the DC universe paired with the cryptic powers of Brainiac, the back story to DC Universe Online is feasible AND well structured.
But man, that’s just the backstory. There’s still the inclusion of the multiple main stories to talk about.
I find this review very disconcerting.
There’s far too many failures to capitalize proper nouns, missing articles and prepositions, incorrectly used words (seriously, please look up “verbose” before ever using it again), and plain fluff for me to take it seriously. I understand the site is new, but that’s not an excuse for such a poorly edited review, especially for such a big-name game.
I really enjoyed the game up til level 30.
After that it became a typical MMO to me and I lost interest.
Nit Pick! Page 2 –
“…and then on TOP of that the Ultra-Humanite is ready to purge Metropolis of its filthy inhabitants via de-evolution weaponry.”
It’s actually Gorilla Grodd, not the Ultra-Humanite. UH is too busy trying to get Power Girls body (like oh so many…) to bother with messing with Metropolis ^_^
Regardless, great review! I’ts one of the most fun MMO’s I’ve played in a long time and I’ve played a bunch… Helps that I’m a DC fan though.
COUNTER!
On Gorilla Island, Ultra-Humanite actually has de-volution technology missiles aimed straight at Metropolis.
I know that Gorilla Grodd is there (hell, he’s the first villain you fight under superman’s tutelage) but he’s so small time he doesn’t even blip :p
Hell, im going to give this bad boy a try, good review sir.
I’m playing it on the PS3 and it is immensely fun and entertaining. This is the MMO I have been waiting for. Though there is a chance that Knights of the Republic may edge it out. ^_^
This was a good review and it paints DCUO in a much better light then I was expecting, so that makes me relieved to read and pulls me towards wanting to try the game out eventually. But there’s a bunch of fact checking problems and one other major issue I have to bring up that I feel is pertinent to the review and might even help the process in the future.
First things first, this game has been largely toted as a game that’s going to be played on the PC and the PS3, the gameplay is supposed to be played on a gamepad of some sort. While I understand that the game can be, and should be able to be, played with the the mouse and keyboard I have to wonder why it doesn’t seem like you even try to get one in order to play the game the way it was intended to, even on the PC. I seem to believe some control issues would have been cleared up this way and it would have been nice for us to be able to hear your ideas on the differences between the two.
Another thing is the length of the article. I didn’t mind it, its a review of a MASSIVE game -any MMO review should be large and this site shouldn’t be afraid of that. If people are going to complain that they have to read then.. I don’t know what they’re doing with most of the internet.. But if its really a worry of yours to anger people with long MMO reviews then one thing you may want to consider is breaking these reviews up in parts over many days, or even a few weeks, giving us more of your experiences over time. The thing about MMO’s is they’re about time and even though this one seems VERY short it wouldn’t hurt to spend a little while with it between review sections to get a better idea of how your feeling about the game, its gameplay, its bugs, and how Sony is handling things as a whole -which also would have given you more of a chance to get in on more of the endgame raids maybe- instead of just blurting out your entire review in one sitting.
Fact Checking is another thing. If you guys are at least marginally looking to be taken seriously -both with this site and as reviewers- your going to have to do even some minor fact checking on some of the references your making. I understand from a part later in your article that you don’t know much about the DCU, and that’s perfectly ok -not every one can sort through the BS of comics- but even though I know Bane is not Mexican I still spent all of 3 seconds searching him on google because you said he was and came up with the fact that his place of birth is some fictional island in the Caribbean -not Mexico.
Later in the article you claim that Gina Torres has a slight Jamaican accent when another 3 second search would have told you that shes from New York and both of her parents are Cuban and Puerto Rican decent -so does this mean Angry Joe’s slight accent is Jamaican too? .. lol.. It might not seem like a lot but see how a little thing like not fact checking could get you in some trouble?
Also in a more speculative note I want to call attention to the idea that modders might be allowed to add more bars for skills and such. I have very high doubts that Sony will allow this since the game will be played on a console as well as the PC and if Sony were to say “We’ll allow it for the PC” it’ll surely make the console crowd riot -which I’m positive isn’t in the companies best interests to do. It’d probably just be best not to get peoples hopes up on these things until some official statement gets made.
Like I said though, overall I liked the review and its done a good job to keep my interest in wanting to try the game out. and I look forward to more of your reviews
This game disappointed me deeply during the beta for various reasons, both gameplay and DC lore related (or lack of respect for the latter), so I think I’ll dust off either my City of Heroes or Champions Online account instead to get my superpowered MMO fix.
I’d love to try this game, but I couldn’t find any information about it being playable on Latin America. I always get left out of online gaming experiences I really want to try out, like the aforementioned Vindictus; and I guess with this one I will be, too.
I’ve seen the price and let me say: it’s garbage. 15 dollars a month may not be that much for someone on the us, but it is expensive for people outside the us and major european countries. In my opinion, the game would benefit in acquiring a payment model similar to GW: buy the game, get lifetime access to the servers; As it is mentioned, the DC universe is inmensely rich, thus, giving the producers and programmers the chance to introduce a lot of payable bonuses, such as extra outfits, hairdyes, and such, but not only avatar customization items, but a lot of gameplay changing products. In the long run, that’s what brings revenue to a lot of rpgs out there, a lot of F2P games survive on this, and some other do great (read the LoTRO article out there)
sorry for making a long post, and for making it look more like a rant rather than an opinion
I currently play WoW but once ToR is out I likely intend to jump over to that since I love the KotOR series so much and the concept of that as an entire MMO universe gets me pretty dam excited, I don’t plan on playing DCUO but nonetheless this was an excellent review and 6 page length wasn’t a problem for me in terms of content to read, its perfectly suited to covering such a large game so kudos to excellent writing, hopefully the game does well though, its great to see an MMO coming out that really changes the pace in terms of all the WoW clones these days, and hopefully this (and ToR as well) both are successful in a market dominated by Blizzards Juggernaut
In a nutshell, the play style of this game reminds me very much of the Phantasy Star Online/Universe engines. Not that that’s a bad thing. PSO is my most-played console game of all time and I’ve been looking for a new game with a similar feel (PSU disappointed me, unfortunately). I’m tired of point and click MMORPGs (I played Ragnarok Online for years) and I want a game where I have more control over my character in an action-oriented play style. What I want to know is exactly how similar this game is to PSO/U. Are there other games it can be better compared to other than City of Heroes/Villains or Champions Online?
I think the easiest way to describe it is City of Heroes combined with Dynasty Warriors. That’s what the combat feels like.
If you want to really feel like you control your character, I guess you oughta try Vindictus Online. It’s a Hack-and-Slash MMO with a great physics engine. I haven’t been able to play it (non-us residents can’t), but I’ve seen gameplay videos about it and this is one where strategy on party play is really important: I know that there’s a hughe spider boss that you need at least three people to take; one to tie its legs, another one to distract it up front, and the third to go from behind and actually damage the thing
Just so you know, this game becomes much easier to control if you simply plug a 360 controller into your PC. At least for me, it even mapped all the buttons for me automatically.
This is an awesome review. I love reviews like this that really get into detail. It was fun to read.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Blistered Thumbs, James Costanzo. James Costanzo said: DC Universe Online Review – Blistered Thumbs http://t.co/Ia52uBZ via @BT_Games [...]
Wow, shut up.
That’s just an automated comment showing who/when people tweet this article. Unfortunately, it can’t read.
We here at Blistered Thumbs value our automated tweet employee! Unfortunately, we also wish we had sprung for the ‘Hooked on Phonics: Interwebs Edition’.
One thing you missed is the problems many ps3 users have been having with this game from not being able to log on to the lag locking up the ps3 altogether,
I guess I didn’t specify this, but I tested this game on the PC. Any improvements/problems with the PS3 version will not be covered in this review.
Still a good thing to look into so as to keep people informed, where as you might not have tested the ps3 version its easy to find data on current issues that way people don’t feel burned that they didn’t hear about the issues before buying the game after reading reviews.
Chaos looks into the final Superhero MMO featured on his poll, DC Universe Online.
I recently got a chance to play some DC Universe Online. Here is my experience with the game as I play through the first level in Metropolis with Superman as my mentor! Also, I managed to find a certain someone’s play through on the net and added it here to show you what it’s like to play as a villain. Check them both out!
DC Universe Online comes out in a couple weeks, So is the latest build close to being ready for the full release?
Music Mondays revisits the band that brought us tunes from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Bit.Trip Runner.
I played this last year I think….and I spend about an hour doing missions.
Fighting mobs with the combo system tired me out quickly, and I pretty much gave up on missions and just ran around and glided with my upgraded infinite glide skill
I went to the top of the highest building (Lex’s building I believe) and found another player there. We hung out and ran races to see if his super speed or my glide was faster. lol
Then I played a couple more hours…and the fights just got too hard. Took forever to fight 1vs1 mob, and I die pretty fast against 3 at a time. I eventually just gave up and quit the game =(
As someone who played the game originally for a while, and has recently come back, the one big thing with the game is that it does do a big change when you hit the level cap. It’s very easy to go through the first 30 levels on free to play, without doing much in the way of interacting with other players, but then upon hitting 30 it changes into a very different game, as you are now chasing after equipment to improve your CR (combat rating) which is basically the ‘secondary’ leveling system. More content is unlocked as your CR increases. They have recently changed the gear system so that nearly all of the high level purchasable gear uses the same currency, so that you can do easier missions and get a small ammount or hard missions and get alot, but you can spend it on whatever you need (either the gear to improve your CR, or to finish style collections to get feats).
That’s another late game thing … feat collection gets you more skill points. And the skill points, in addition to giving you movement and weapon options, are also used for static bonuses. The weapon skill trees contain a bunch of static bonuses to stats, crit percentages, etc … so accumulating a ton of skill points can get you those static bonuses to increase your abilities even more.
As far as subcription or cash shop go … once you hit level 30 is when you’d want to start considering subscription. The DLC provides some great missions, new power sets, but more importantly, there are gear sets that help fill the gap. [i.e. for Lightning Strikes, the Flash/Reverse Flash gear is considered Tier 2.5, and provides a lot of solo and group missions that are easier to coordinate and pull off than the T3 raids].
This is a pretty solid review, but the game does change a lot at the ‘end game’, probably comparable to WoW where you can get through a chunk of the levels on your own, but in the end becomes all about raiding, etc. The only difference is that the level cap comes pretty early, and there is a second leveling system through CR that covers the second half of the game.
Well done review! I want to add some things still…The thing is: The game itself and the presentation is not that bad. But the problem is that SOE has noe clue about what they are doing… I played this game for over a year and after that..i feel pretty cheated. SOE has this weird habbit of throwing stuff at you nobody asked for or, in an even worse case flat out lie to you! Good example fo that is the Crafting system. They worked on that for a year…Let that sink people. The overall gameplay is pretty good and you will realize that there is a lot of depth into it. Specially when you found a decet League that is willing to teach you. The raids and instances evolve pretty well to the point where you sitting there going: OMG THIS IS AWSOME! whoever played The fortress knows what i mean. Overall this game has everything to be great but SOE keeps on screwing stuff up
I hope that in 1-2 years they got over that and it will be as great as it could be
It seems to me that DCUO wasn’t the big success that SOE hoped it would be. I think it’s popularity is less than CoH and CO. But then, there seems to be more choice in both character design and powers in those two, and your actions in game seem to have more meaning and impact to them.
Thankfully for SOE, it’s looking like they’ve got a potential hit on the horizon with Planetside 2, which is looking like it may make up for the disappointment that DCUO was for them. Any chance that you’ll be covering that when it’s released? I know it isn’t an MMORPG, but it IS an MMO, and free to play, so I think it should count.
Fantastic video! Great sequencing, humor, production and very in depth opinion. I look forward to watching more from you and hope you someday become the go-to guy for all MMO reviews.
This game. This game can be so annoying sometimes and kind of fun. Sometimes you do feel like an errand boy. Sometimes you don’t. It really depends on where you are in the game. I like it just the same. It’s easier to get higher tier gear at the end. The problem is that the dailies can be a bit hard if you don’t know what to do.
Plus, sometimes people aren’t inclined to help. It’s just as well. I really wish there was a Marvel MMO like this. That would be fun. Great review!
You’re gonna tell me that this isn’t a quality title, I mean comon some artist took the time to draw a smug bimbo with boobs that were individually bigger than here head, and many times bigger than here brain. Great review as always though Chaos.
I tried this game once! Spent over 6 hours downloading (USB Modems are NOT the way to go with huge downloads), only to find myself playing a boring, stale game that pits me against the exact same enemies with the exact same voices and exact same attacks, over and over again. It’s far more repetitive than 90% of the MMOs out there, at least in terms of enemy variety.
I just can’t see how anyone could truly enjoy this for longer than a couple of days, at most.
I really wanted to like it, but it bored me, & I’m still pissed with DC over the reboot.
I must respectfully disagree on players feeling like sidekicks and Errand Boys simply due to the fact that you do, in fact, fight big-named heroes and villains. Yes, you are being directed and ordered, but you do feel more important than a mere sidekick. My first hero-side boss fight was against Gorilla Grodd. I even found myself fighting against bigger-ticket villains like Giganta and Bane.
You take orders from JLA members because you aren’t as seasoned or as experienced as them at being a superhero, but as time goes on, you do indeed feel like your own hero. That is, at least, how I personally felt.
There are a lot of the boss fights (Scarecrow and Bane come to mind) that the DC hero (Batwoman and Nightwing) say to you after the fight “I’ll clean up here, you get back out on the streets.” It almost felt like they were saying “I’ll get my picture taken apprehending this criminal and bringing him to justice, you run along and play.” A little recognition, that’s all I’m askin. You do all the unsung hero work, someone else gets credit. Just like life.
I looked at the whole thing more in the aspect of “you have super powers, and SOMEONE has to teach you how to use them right.” And frankly, I didn’t find it “lackey” like either but I feel Jon’s sentiment in there about that. I didn’t feel like “The Pink Hostage” at any time. (and yes, I just referenced my age…)
I thought Plucky said “Pig Hostage” back then. *shrug* You do have a point nonetheless, Tyger.
Ahh! After having seen it hte first time in… years… PIG hostage. Cool!
Same here more or less. Heck if the other villain storylines go anything like Circe did, you toss your mentor on their rear end at the end of the game.
Yeah this game is not meant for a keyboard and mouse. Funny thing actually, if you use an X-Box 360 controllers all the in game prompts telling you what button to press actually will display the 360 buttons.
Alright, this was a great review, and you covered everything I did and didn’t like about this game, overall, loved the review, though I will say that you might have been a bit overzealous with the “fanboys”.
Ok, now for the elephant in the room, since everyone is thinking it, but nobody has asked yet.
Do you think you can please do a full MMO Grider for Guild Wars 2? I don’t care if you have to buy it first, it has no monthly fees, and it has a cash shop (A pretty kickass new take on a cash shop, but a cash shop none-the-less). The game counts.
And yeah, I know, Angry Joe talked about the game already, but I’d like the perspective of the other side. If Joe is the outsider playing his first MMO, then you’re the seasoned veteran hoping it will finally topple WoW. =)
Except that Joe isn’t playing his first MMO. If you’ve followed Angry Joe for a while, you’d know he has also played other MMO’s as well, including (but not limited to) The Old Republic, Star Trek Online, and World of Warcraft.
Alright, alright, first MMO that he’ll actually keep playing. =P
but even when you do the clone an other superhero when you make yours, it is a bad clone. Steel has ice? When I played it superman was Fire….
2 out of the 3 main superheros, Superman and wonder women use super strengt,and it is not even in the game…..
Seem more they where hoping just the name and fanboys to make them money without effort.
The reason for the “oh god damn it” at the end kinda flew over my head. Care to humor a bloke and elaborate?
In the conclusion, I state “At least I won’t have to look at another Superhero MMO again.” The image is of “Marvel Heroes” an upcoming free-to-play Superhero MMO (although I hear it plays like Diablo.)
I see. Kinda silly of me, I focused on the zoom to the part about Diablo and didn’t pay the slightest attention to the headline of the page.
When the game launched, it was bugged and exploitable as hell.. like.. APB levels of it. The costume system was pretty heavily condemned as well, especially when your competitors are CO and, may it rest in peace, CoH. Oh, and the controls are just abysmal for PC.
Flying through rings! Good thing we haven’t seen anything else like that in any video games lately. Who wants to waste time flying through a bunch of rings? By the way, how is that Arkham City Augmented Reality Training going?
The ring through Joker’s tunnel still gives me nightmares…