Sony Online Entertainment and the DC Universe Online team have officially lifted the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for players gaming in the beta version of the game. We'd like to hear your impressions. Please comment below!
The game really makes me feel like I am in a DC comic book. It is fast-paced and action-oriented. The best way I can describe it is if Diablo was made into an MMO. It is a click-fest, however the combos seem to offset any cramping fingers. What combos, you ask? As you gain skill points, you will be able to "purchase" new skills, very much akin to every other MMO that has any sort of feat tree. These new skills will grant you new combos. A combo may be "tap left click twice then hold right click" or "hold right click and then tap right click".
The quests are very well formed but they are still the standard [object Window]kill X of these guys[object Window] or [object Window]interact with X of these things[object Window]. The one [object Window]new[object Window] quest objective may be where you have to pick up an object (captured person, bomb, etc.) and bring it to a certain location. You still have to pick up X number of objects, but you do have to run them a certain distance.
One nice thing is that it appears every quest is voiced. And the voice acting is probably the best I have seen in an MMO yet. But what can you expect when you get Mark Hamill to reprise his voice role as the Joker. Even the Penguin has his signature laugh that was made famous by Burgess Meredith.
Now this isn[object Window]t to say the game doesn[object Window]t have bugs. There are plenty of them, but I haven[object Window]t run into a game-breaking bug aside from the PvP flagging system on the PvE server. Haven[object Window]t tested to see if it was fixed, but before you could accidentally flag yourself for PvP by doing an AoE combo when enemies were near. So as you can imagine, people were jumping right in front of players from the opposing faction when they were beating on NPCs in the hopes of flagging them.
Other bugs were not so terrible, a missing voice over, the Russian nesting cars that make up Metropolis. I had one boss reset his health during a fight when he got shoved into a wall.
The boss fights are pretty interesting. Definitely a new take from a standard MMO. Most of the boss fights will pair you up with another, more notable hero / villian to assist you. For instance, when fighting PowerGirl as a villian, you will have the help of Parasite. Or rather, you will be helping Parasite while he fights her.
In this sense, the game doesn[object Window]t make you feel like the universe will end if your character fails his mission. There are plenty of others that can take your place and you are only a small part of the big picture.
The scenery is nice, very comic-bookish.
Character creation was okay for me. I have not played Champions Online or City of X, but I was able to create the character I had a vision for without any issues. Then, once in game, as you gather clothing items, you can choose to have them change your appearance or not. And to even add more to that, once you collect an item you gain its [object Window]style[object Window] and can then apply that style to whatever current item you have on. This mimics Aion[object Window]s option to change the way an item looks while retaining the stats of the item, only in DC Universe it is free (at least in the beta it is).
I did not get too involved in PvP. I was stun-locked during one PvP encounter, however, and that was quite annoying. Every player can hold down Shift to break crowd control, however that was not working at the time.
Anyway, I think it has a solid base and is very fun to play. The miniature comic cut scenes after a boss fight are fun to watch and add to the experience of the comic book adventure.
I can say that the models move and feel at times the same as Champions Online characters did. I would like to see some diversity in the added content. Thinking on this; Not sure it will happen. It would mean villians doing something where Superheros can't get to! As Maziken stated they need some creativity in the missions!
Sorry for double post. It just dawned on me what today is. ( I am not a WoW player so I noticed a post on facebook ) Nice going SoE! It should make a slight dent in the news of the day, LOL.
Disclaimer: I'm going to write about what I've seen in-game and give my OPINION of it. I will lay out facts about gameplay but I'll discuss my thoughts on those elements. This is going to get a little long but bear with me here.
First off, I'll start by saying there was no way in hell this game was going to be ready by it's initial launch date. They simply didn't have enough time to finish all the stuff they are putting in the game, and it will be a better game because of the push-back. I, like most, originally thought that the Cataclysm announcement was the cause of the delay, but after playing a month before the original launch date, I can say the game wasn't finished. If they had launched, it would have been a FFXIV-style disaster. The current beta build is still not launch ready, but it is much closer now than it was 2 months ago.
Now that that is out of the way, I'll say that, so far, this game is rather refreshing. It is not a typical MMORPG. It is not WoW with tights or COX in the DC universe. First and foremost, it is an action game with role playing elements.
Combat is the focus and it is fast-paced and tight. It plays great with an Xbox 360 controller, but I prefer my Belkin N52 and a trackball. The controls take some getting used to with a mouse, but once you get the hang of it, it plays great and feels natural.
There are some MMO staples like Feats (achievements), reputaion factions, loot drops, instanced dungeons for solo players, 4 and 8 man group content and organized PvP matches. All of the group content is auto-queued so you can put yourself in the queue and go about your business while you wait on the queue to pop or join as a group.
I'm not sure why SOE hasn't hyped this, but ALL of the characters that you deal with are fully voiced. Everything but your character is professionally voiced. This is very cool. Mark Hammil as the Joker, Adam Baldwin as Superman ect. This is a nice touch! The guy voicing Calculator is very good. They say he's not a big named star but he does wonderful work and nails the character.
Character create: It is more limited than CO or COX. That's just how it is. Most of the good looking styles are available as loot drops or as faction rewards. Having said that, I only have one character that I've changed my initial costume selecion on (besides the weapon style). There are some really good choices for costumes in CC, but they are limited on purpose; the game is loot-aquiring driven. The only time I was disapointed in CC was when I tried to create a character based on Hush. The color pallet allows for 3 different colors to be used on your costume, and you can change each piece's look based on only the three colors you've chosen.
There are several "inspired by" choices for those who want to get in quickly and play like an establised character. These include: Superman (yes the power set is ice), Wonder Woman (mental powers), Batman (very nice replication), Deathstroke, Lex, Catwoman, Joker, Circe, Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter, Bane, Beast Boy and some others that I can't remember off hand.
Powers: Every power type has a dps role. Fire and Ice have tanking roles. Gadgets and Mental have controller roles. Nature and Sorcery have healing roles. This is a bit of a departure from the standard dual-talent setup in that all of your chosen talents are available no matter whether you are in DPS mode or your other spec. The spec can be changed out of combat with a push of a button so for example: everyone usually goes dps for trash in groups then switches on the fly to tank, controller or healer for boss fights. Most of the talents say what they offer extra when you are in the non-dps spec. There are two talent trees in each power type and you get certain bonuses based on which one you have more talent slections in. You are free to place talent points in either tree as you see fit. It looks to me like one tree helps out your dps role while the other usually helps out your other spec more so. You can only have 6 of your powers on the hotbar at any given time. You can have a different power loadout for dps or other spec so that when you switch, your hotbar automatically updates to the talents that you want for the chosen spec.
I haven't tried all of the powers so far so I'm no expert on them. The ones I've liked are gadgets, ice and nature.
Movement: All of the three forms work very well. I've spent most of my time with the Acrobat style and it is a lot of fun to move around the city with rocket powered glide or pulling up the side of abuilding with the zipline. I havn't used any of the movement combat-powers yet so I can't give an opinion of them. You have your movement mode at level one with the first speed boosting choice available at level 10.
Weapons: All combat is based on your weapon moreso than your powers IMO. You can easily use powers along side your weapon attacks but I usually open with a power and then combo the mob until dead. During boss fights, I use my powers alot more because it only takes a second out of my weapon rotation to lauch a sticky bomb or drop a turret or poison bomb. All weapon types have a ranged attack. Yes even stuff like staff and brawling. Wierd, I know.
You'll hear people talk about the combos being hard to pull off, but once you have them down, it's rather easy in my opinion. For example: on my dual pistol character, I open combat by holding my melee attack (right mouse, because I swapped my default buttons) this causes me to launch at my target and pistol whip them. Then I *left click* *left click* *left hold*, this does a backward roll out of melee range. Then quicly *hold left* again to do Magnum Round which is a large burst range attack. There are others such as *Rclick* *Rclick* *Lclick* *Lclick* which does two melee strikes and then jumps in the air with both pistols blazing in the mob's face. Very cool but I don't do it often. You'll learn new combos as you spend talent points in your weapon tree.
You can choose later in the game to spec into a different weapon type than the one you initially chose. My main can use dual pistols, rifle and one-hand melee weapons. In live, I'll likely go with dual pistols, rifle and possibly bow.
Leveling: It's fast. If you thought STO was fast, this game take about half that time or less to reach max level. The main difference is that you won't have experienced all of the content when you hit max level. This is by design. DCUO's tagline is "You are the next legend". The devs want you to get to max level quickly so you can feel heroic. I personally don't like this but they've stated that this will be the leveling curve at launch. There is quite a bit of content to do at max level. I don't remember the exact numbers but there are several DUOs (2-man instances), Alerts (4-man) and Raids (8-man). Running these gives the currency needed to buy the end-game armor that you've seen in the videos. These are some sweet looking armor sets!
Due to feedback from the community, the devs have stated that they are adding more solo content for max-level players. This is one thing that is sorely missing right now as at max level, if you don't want to group, there is nothing for you to do but run around doing the collections (of which there are a ton) or racing (which I enjoy). SOE really stepped up on this and listened to feedback from the testers. Max-level solo-content will add another currency and rewards to go with them for solo players.
I could go on, but this has gotten way bigger than it should have been, so........
Nutshell: This game is not for everyone. No game is. Do you need to be a DC nerd like me? Not really, but that is the biggest draw of the game: playing with the DC heroes/villians. Combat is fast and fun. Metropolis and Gotham are huge and feel alive. It accomodates several playstyles from solo-casuals to hardcore raiders.
I'll post more as this thread progresses.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
A good game honnestly.. Feels more complete than most of the betas I've been in... Ran into some graphic issues but that's it.
Combat is great fun, you heard it over and over again, this game is designed like an action game. The combo system makes me think of God of War and the likes. You'll surprise yourself wanting more and more random mobs just to see your character moves and practice your combos.
Some little gripes : too few powers... I've been used to have tons of choice with CoX and CO.. DCUO seems to want to have a very narrow power choice at first and expand on it later on. A good choice for some, since the powers seems to be balanced and work properly.. A hit on customization though, I end up having some problems creating the toons I really want...
Also, DC is old school super heroes.. I'd like to see that reflect on our own costumes. All you see running around are player heroes in hi-tech suits and then you run into Superman, Batman.. with their underwear on top... Kinda break the mood, not a huge problem though.
I'll probably end up playing this game, but not at launch since I still need to make peace with the MMO genre. But so far, good job SOE !
I was late into the beta so I haven't really seen any growing pains or crazy bugs. What I have seen is a game that's fun to play, action-oriented, and a lot different from the other MMO's I've been playing.
If you don't mind spamming your mouse buttons, If you don't mind soloing to the top level, If you like comic book stories, If you occasionally enjoy grouping with random players to complete group events, you might like this game.
Having played other SOE games in the past, I had very low expectations for this one. I'm one of those people that played SWG and had the rug pulled out from under me, only to end up on my back, wondering why I ever stood on that rug in the first place. However, this game is refreshingly different and FUN! You heard me! FUN!
One of the major differences in this game is the action. Not only do you mouse click spam to fight, you have combos. For example, with the staff, there's a chain attack that works like this: left click (tap) x3, left click (hold), left click (tap). This combo hits three times, then slams the target and follows up the slam that knocked them down with another huge hit while they're still down.
Powers? Yeah, you have powers as well. I tend to use my powers as style to my combat and let me core combat do most of the work. Also, you have an energy bar that is used by your powers, so you can't completely spam powers all the time. You do get *potion* type items that can restore health and energy, but they do have cooldowns, so you can't spam them.
Character design is cool, but what happens in game is so much cooler. You can not only change your appearance when you get new gear, but if you've ever equipped a piece of gear that had a graphic you liked, you can always go back to that graphic, even if you no longer have that gear. ABOUT DAMN TIME, RIGHT?
The stories in this game are great. I wasn't a huge DC fan so I don't know all the characters and what their motivations are, but when doing quest chains, I learned a lot about the DCU. Cutscenes after boss fights are really done well. They're done in comic style, not live action, but the story telling is what makes it cool. Some aren't as cool as others, and some you'll already know, but overall, the experience adds to the game.
There are people that have had complaints about the game, and some of those people have been playing the game, so it's obviously not a game that everyone will enjoy. It's so different from traditional MMO's that it won't be a WoW killer. Also, comic book games don't usually sell as well as fantasy and sci-fi games. Strange that movies work so well but games don't. Anyway, I don't expect this to be "the next big thing in MMO gaming," but I do expect that people who enjoy action games might find this to be a subscription.
of all of the travel powers speed is way the worst, and acrobatics the best. I love my staff/fire guy. The costume creation has a bit to be desired, but I really like the building new costumes as you level and get drops. The end game is a little lacking, but they are promising some very cool imporvements for it.
I replied, but then my post didn't show up. Weird.
Anyway, what I said before was that I pretty much agree with WhiteLantern's post above. The only thing I'll add is that some of the weapon style combos are easier/harder to pull off than others. I'm not sure if it is me or the game. I've played four different weapon styles so far; martial arts, brawling, two handed, and hand blaster. Martial arts and brawling were easy for me with some practice, but two handed and hand blaster combos seem harder. I've still not been able to pull of some of the two handed combos that my character has.
Overall, I've wanted MMO's to have more action combat mechanics since I've been playing the genre and this game fills that role for me. Plus, my characters feel much more like a superhero than my City of Heroes characters did. I'll be playing at launch and if SOE manages the game right, will be playing for a long time to come.
How can anyone be in the end game yet findarato? From what I've heard there is a level cap on both betas.
The pre-order beta server started out with a level cap of 9 and is now 20. The regular beta servers are testing the entire game that will be launched. The current level cap set for launch is 30. If I understood the forum today, the next big patch will be released today.
What does findarato mean?
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
[*] Testing is currently capped at level 20 (30 levels at release) [*] Not all features are working yet (Auction House and Banks) [*] Combat is based on mouse clicking pattern combinations (video game combos) [*] Have experience a few (visual effect / power set / environment) bugs, along with a few crashes. [*] Most minor npc characters have poorly done (place holder) voice work. [*] Some iconic DC hero / villian npc still have poorly done (place holder) voice work
Good:
[*] Visually stunning (both chacters and environments) [*] Stories are interesting and engaging [*] Voice acting of the Joker, Catwoman and Batman are outstanding
Movement powers feel fresh and fun
Collected costume items can change the look of your character on the fly (no need for tailors)
You get to fight with or against famous DC heroes and villians
Runs really smooth on high settings for a mid-range PC
Bad
Very limited Character creation options (compared to COH and CO)
Very limited Power Sets and effects (compared to COH and CO)
Team (LFG) tools don't seem to be in place
Chat UI is confusing and may not be fully functioning yet
Lacks tutorials on finer points of the game (raids, pvp, iconic powers, renown, duos and epic armor)
Mostly that, exept that the Travel powers sucks balls! I have to say I was really looking forward to DCUO and that my troll post in the offical beta-forum was only created because my expectations got right smashed into my face... Go play CO or CoX, its way better then DC, why? Read my Quote... Beware, trolling ahead: "So, two months ago I made a choice i am starting to regret... I pre-ordered DCUO. Two months later i got into the CB, about 4 days ago and now I just have to troll. I know its just the beta but I need to share my disapointment about what I experienced. I started full of exitement, after I downloaded the client, I went straight to create my first character. So there it was, the char creation screen, and BAZINGA, the first disapointing thing: The lack of customization. The lack of body options (which I was aware of before) but the lack of power choices really hit me in the hard, ok i knew about the few powers but it was said that the different skill trees will function as a single power class. What? You are kiddin me... I tested all powersets and the lack of skills and the duplicated skills i experienced all over again... BIG JOKE. Only six powersets whith two different skill trees should equal 12. But on my opionion im just seeing about three to four different powersets at all with the same skills over and over again, just with other animations and effects...
So I chose a power and BAZINGA: Only three Travel Powers? The next joke... Ok i went with flight.
Finally I came to choose my costume, BAZINGA: The costume options really disapoints me and the fact that you gain addational gear and appearence options doesnt make up to it and where do I change my costume color after I created my toon? Because the newly gained gear looks rediculos with all the mixed up colors! What if I want to create a knight whith big metal armor? No you only get to wear shirts, nothing else above that layer...
Ok, next on, I wanted to choose my hairstyle, BAZINGA, next disapointment I experienced. I cant choose my hairstyle and my facial hair seperatly? What a joke...
So there was my toon, and every time I looked at him I get dissapointed again... Ingame, when I got to level 2 and got to choose my first power skill I saw the skill trees, Immolation and the other tree, so I went with Immolation. After I got dissapointed about reading what my skill options where I chose the first skill, let me say it better: I was forced to chose this skill, because there isnt really a choice when skilling my toon, is there? The next big joke!
Ok I got through the tutorial and got my first mission from superman. Go kill gorillas, I did, and
when I hit level 4 i experienced my next big dissapointment, again an aoe spell? that reads like the same and feels like the same, but only makes about 5 more damage? what the f**k is wrong here.. So I had to cope with this lack of everything and leveled my toon to level 10 until I decided to run another toon, with whom I got disapointed again, and after that one another one and another and another...
I played CoX and CO quite a long time over many years, and I am asking my self: "Why should I play something, two other MMOs have done better?"
Just because the combat system is awesome? Because of the genius DC Licence they got? (Oh I forgot, the ranged combat powers are a joke also...)
No, I dont wanna play DCUO in its current state with the lack of everything nor will I pay a monthly fee, it needs to change, if it doesnt, I can play something like CO which has done quite a few things better and is going to be f2p next year or i can go play CoX when i want to play a superhero game...
ps. my native language is not english, so turn a blind eye to it o_O and I know there are already some threads about this, but I never trolled before in my whole life, I just had to after wasting 50 bucks of my hard earned money... So thats about it." Yeah so Im not going to play DCUO
Playing: Global Agenda / Vindictus ----------------- Excited for: Guild Wars 2 / TERA / SWTOR ----------------- Have Played: Ultima Online, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, Vanguard, CoH/CoV, EverQuest 1+2, Tabula Rasa, DDO, The Chronical of Spellborn, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, Champions Online, Aion, FLYFF, ArchLord, Metin 2, DAoC, APB, CC, Darkfall and many many more ----------------- Favorite MMO: Ultima Online
How can anyone be in the end game yet findarato? From what I've heard there is a level cap on both betas.
I thought level 30 was the actual level cap its going to get in release. There are end game raids there already like smallville (by end game I mean level 30 which is the current cap)
Edit :
I just saw tht it says its capped at 20 but I never noticed that before. Got in beta a monthago and I couldve gone to 30 already.
''/\/\'' Posted using Iphone bunni ( o.o) (")(") **This bunny was cloned from bunnies belonging to Gobla and is part of the Quizzical Fanclub and the The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club**
Me I am playing and agree it is refressing compared to the ordinary MMo out now. I just joined another MMo besides DCUO and it seamed like same ol thing. I really like DCU so far since it has such a low cap and i have my toon figured out looks,powers, and weapon that i keep remaking him over and over again checking diffrent parts of game. Crafting,and banks and stuff arent working yet so cant coment on them, though the cotent that is open, i have found is nice am highly dislectic, and have prob reading and writing so voice that qwest do is a nice change for me.
they also have a cute since of humor the devs do i have noticed . I am liking the villian side.The way to make a chr in chr creation have not seen such good and open choices the only thing they dont have is body types u have choice of 3 small med or large, everything else u can choose from like 15-20 diffrent looks,like skin type i do undead myself, So my toon looks like a dead biker being a ol biker IRL couldnt resist haha.As far as color on anything ur cloths to skin everything u can pic almost any color from the spectum wheel,so even makes it more ur style.
Running toon is easy and smooth,though I wish i could rember combo's better, but in time. I use acrobatics for movement so i am alot like spiderman climing walls run fast too though not as fast as a speeder,and i get on top of a building i can jump off and glide around not as well as flying but i feel that acrobatics are a nice mixture of both speed and flying though not as good it a nice middle ground.
So far I really like game nice change from the basic MMO out there now,cant wait to see rest of it,I also feel PvP got a good way once they fix it on the pve srvr the pvp srvr anything bout anywere is fair game as should be.Since this is a reaction type game i fought a lvl 17 i was lvl 7 i lost of cource, but i put up a good fight against the other person. Since i am a ol man (IRL) my reaction time aint as great so picked brawling it slower but hits really hard.
First let me say that I agree with whitelantern above...this game was and is not ready to launch. WoW has very little or nothing to do with their delay. The game appears to be "feature complete" but it is still quite rough around the edges. Placeholder voiceover, MOB pop-in, etc.
I want to try to keep this post to a reasonable length and try not to echo what has already been said. Overall I have a positive impression of this game, and I went into it expecting to be underwhelmed. So it was a very pleasant surprise. FYI I am playing a level 12 villain with Brawling/Fire powers. Some addditional thoughts below.
1. File size. The initial download was 15G, which seems ridiculous. All that mission voicework comes at a cost. I guess they are hoping to sell this in a traditional way to a more mainstream audience. I don't know too many "average gamers" who would suffer through a giant download like that.
2. Visuals. The game really looks amazing. They managed to do something that (IMHO) CoH and Champions failed to do, which is to make a downtown urban environment interesting. Also, the glossy graphics do a nice job of evoking the feel of the "neo-futurist" DC comics. Additional details like visual blur when flying, impressive power effects, etc round out the package. However:
3. Enemies and Animations. NPC and monster animations are rather wooden, particularly in the "marquee" NPC category. And many of the enemies are a total snoozefest. I started out beating up on Metropolis University students and then moved on to...wait for it...hospital patients. Not impressive.
4. Vendor trash. One of my main problems with the superhero genre is that equipment becomes a nuisance and destroys the fiction. Unless I am Batman (or a some kind of gadget-based hero/villain), why the hell do I need legwraps and other crap? The game throws a lot of this indistinguishable garbage at you, and even though some of it (impressively) changes your appearance, the majoraity leaves no impression other than making you feel a lot less heroic.
5. UI. The menus are very clunky and confusing at times. They get the job done, but they are not very elegant. You have to open up your journal to close out a quest AFTER you check it in with the NPC. Annoyances like that.
6. Combat and powers. The combat is fun and fast, which I like, but may not be your cup of tea. The combos work and actually feel a bit like you are playing a console brawler in an MMO world, which is what I think they are going for. They succeeded. Unlike some other opinions above, I actually thought the mix of powers was impressive, with lots of different combinations to tinker with...although once you go down a path there seems to be very little further customization. All the powers seem to have cool animations associated with them.
7. I guess leveling may feel fast for some, but I felt the grind settle in at around level 10. I want to experience the hero path and other power varieties, but I don't know if I could deal with replaying these missions over and over. My patience runs out early so others may have a higher threshhold for this. However if Sony thinks that console players are going to max out more than one character if it takes 100 hours to get there, they may need to rethink their strategy.
8. Multiplayer. I did one co-op mission with a bunch of other players in an instance, and this was REALLY fun. Lots of cool checkpoints and rewarding. The PvP, not so much. Okay, I don't ordinarily go for PvP. You use iconic characters in the PvP arenas, not your own hero. And there are only so many models opened up at each level. So what ended up happening is a brawl between four identical Robins and four identical Harley Quinns. It was a confusing, button-mashing chaos-fest. I don't know how we scored points, but the villains won.
Okay, maybe that wasn't so short...but those are some of my thoughts. A solid game that does justice to the license, looks great, and feels slightly different than other games out there. But I think Sony needs to mix a little more of a console feel into this MMO, or "mainstream" players won't pony up the monthly fee.
It was fun. the joker made the hair on the back of my neck stand up when he talked. the communicators for giveing quests and info was great. fun game play.
The only think i didnt like was powers, choices and depth.
I did want to add that I agree with those that felt that the UI was awkward or lacking. On that, you are only allowed to slot any 6 powers at a time. That means many of your powers sit on the sidelines at any given time.
On combat... besides powers, you have skills. Unfortunately, in order to use them, you need to remember in what order to mash controler buttons (or L and R mouse keys).
An interesting discovery, (for now) if you have a hero and a villian character on the server, they can send each other in-game currency via in-game email.
"Don't corpse-camp that idea. Its never gonna rez" Bladezz (The Guild)
It should be pointed out that the game is set up for use by both Keyboard / Mouse, and Gamepad. This is part of the UI/ chat issue. There is no cursor in the game. At this time you can't resize the chatbox. As for the grouping issue, most all betas I have been in were the same. I am hopeful they will fix this.
The game is simply awesome. Takes abit of getting used to the controls coming from CoH and other MMOs. Once u do it feels good and smooth, I'm starting to prefer it to other MMO control set-ups. The enviroments are incredibly sweet and detailed like u stepped into a comic. The combat is fast and fun, I like the combos and occasional use of powers set-up. All in all when it is released I will be there the first day. With the way powers/speacials/combos/movement powers are done u can create ur hero/villian lots and lots of differnent ways, enough to make me happy and I'm a long time comic reader and CoH player.
EDIT: I'd also like to add I am playing with a mouse/keyboard and like it. Never used a controller.
Like others have said, I had no high hopes for this game becasue of SOE. But, I think this game is going to be a big hit if SOE pushes the advertising before its launch. I really think it is an amazing change from the ho hum MMO's of today. I can't wait until it is released.
I think one unique perspective I could offer on this is: Playing a Villain actually feels villainous.
If you're interested in playing a cartoon villain, this is the best MMO yet to enable it and not just b/c Jim Lee was coincidentally on-hand to lend flavor... It's not like previous games where you're a villain in name only. The quality of Dialogs and tasks really supports and maybe even prefers villains. Unfortunately the rewards system doesn't but that's getting me off-track. Look, I'm a prick in general and a big fan of black comedy but there's been a few options available to me as a villain that even I hesitated to pull the trigger on.
Yeah you've got your "Aliens -> who are mutual Enemies of Both Side", aka Brainiac... but those encounters are so rare I'm actually finding myself wondering why I'm even doing all these other petty psychotic deeds just to troll the Heroes when there's clearly looming extinction for all mankind on the horizon. ...Then it dawns on me: this is total Nihilism... And suddenly I really do feel like the enforcer for an obsessed man who "just wants to watch the world burn".
I don't think a lot of concerned Parents are going to be happy about it. But who knows, maybe that'll actually make it MORE popular?
You know I must say I am a bit irritated. Many seem quite happy with DCU, but what I read sounds like something that usually would be highly critizised.
Like ony 6 powersets, or 3 travel modes or how fast you level and then only endgame raid. How can it be so great if this is all the case?? Sorry to sound SWTOR-ish, but MY hope as comic reader would have been to have "endless" story, via many levels and a long time to reach max level. I mean, isn't getting more powerful something of the most interesting things? I just can't imagine to enjoy gear raiding all too much tbh. (Read: I never cared about gear raiding ONE BIT.)
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Comments
First beta NDA break is: there was no beta.
Kidding
Cmmon people. Post your impressions !
The game really makes me feel like I am in a DC comic book. It is fast-paced and action-oriented. The best way I can describe it is if Diablo was made into an MMO. It is a click-fest, however the combos seem to offset any cramping fingers. What combos, you ask? As you gain skill points, you will be able to "purchase" new skills, very much akin to every other MMO that has any sort of feat tree. These new skills will grant you new combos. A combo may be "tap left click twice then hold right click" or "hold right click and then tap right click".
The quests are very well formed but they are still the standard [object Window]kill X of these guys[object Window] or [object Window]interact with X of these things[object Window]. The one [object Window]new[object Window] quest objective may be where you have to pick up an object (captured person, bomb, etc.) and bring it to a certain location. You still have to pick up X number of objects, but you do have to run them a certain distance.
One nice thing is that it appears every quest is voiced. And the voice acting is probably the best I have seen in an MMO yet. But what can you expect when you get Mark Hamill to reprise his voice role as the Joker. Even the Penguin has his signature laugh that was made famous by Burgess Meredith.
Now this isn[object Window]t to say the game doesn[object Window]t have bugs. There are plenty of them, but I haven[object Window]t run into a game-breaking bug aside from the PvP flagging system on the PvE server. Haven[object Window]t tested to see if it was fixed, but before you could accidentally flag yourself for PvP by doing an AoE combo when enemies were near. So as you can imagine, people were jumping right in front of players from the opposing faction when they were beating on NPCs in the hopes of flagging them.
Other bugs were not so terrible, a missing voice over, the Russian nesting cars that make up Metropolis. I had one boss reset his health during a fight when he got shoved into a wall.
The boss fights are pretty interesting. Definitely a new take from a standard MMO. Most of the boss fights will pair you up with another, more notable hero / villian to assist you. For instance, when fighting PowerGirl as a villian, you will have the help of Parasite. Or rather, you will be helping Parasite while he fights her.
In this sense, the game doesn[object Window]t make you feel like the universe will end if your character fails his mission. There are plenty of others that can take your place and you are only a small part of the big picture.
The scenery is nice, very comic-bookish.
Character creation was okay for me. I have not played Champions Online or City of X, but I was able to create the character I had a vision for without any issues. Then, once in game, as you gather clothing items, you can choose to have them change your appearance or not. And to even add more to that, once you collect an item you gain its [object Window]style[object Window] and can then apply that style to whatever current item you have on. This mimics Aion[object Window]s option to change the way an item looks while retaining the stats of the item, only in DC Universe it is free (at least in the beta it is).
I did not get too involved in PvP. I was stun-locked during one PvP encounter, however, and that was quite annoying. Every player can hold down Shift to break crowd control, however that was not working at the time.
Anyway, I think it has a solid base and is very fun to play. The miniature comic cut scenes after a boss fight are fun to watch and add to the experience of the comic book adventure.
I can say that the models move and feel at times the same as Champions Online characters did. I would like to see some diversity in the added content. Thinking on this; Not sure it will happen. It would mean villians doing something where Superheros can't get to! As Maziken stated they need some creativity in the missions!
Sorry for double post. It just dawned on me what today is. ( I am not a WoW player so I noticed a post on facebook ) Nice going SoE! It should make a slight dent in the news of the day, LOL.
Awesome! No NDA! Now give me my beta key! I would like something to play before xmas.
Disclaimer: I'm going to write about what I've seen in-game and give my OPINION of it. I will lay out facts about gameplay but I'll discuss my thoughts on those elements. This is going to get a little long but bear with me here.
First off, I'll start by saying there was no way in hell this game was going to be ready by it's initial launch date. They simply didn't have enough time to finish all the stuff they are putting in the game, and it will be a better game because of the push-back. I, like most, originally thought that the Cataclysm announcement was the cause of the delay, but after playing a month before the original launch date, I can say the game wasn't finished. If they had launched, it would have been a FFXIV-style disaster. The current beta build is still not launch ready, but it is much closer now than it was 2 months ago.
Now that that is out of the way, I'll say that, so far, this game is rather refreshing. It is not a typical MMORPG. It is not WoW with tights or COX in the DC universe. First and foremost, it is an action game with role playing elements.
Combat is the focus and it is fast-paced and tight. It plays great with an Xbox 360 controller, but I prefer my Belkin N52 and a trackball. The controls take some getting used to with a mouse, but once you get the hang of it, it plays great and feels natural.
There are some MMO staples like Feats (achievements), reputaion factions, loot drops, instanced dungeons for solo players, 4 and 8 man group content and organized PvP matches. All of the group content is auto-queued so you can put yourself in the queue and go about your business while you wait on the queue to pop or join as a group.
I'm not sure why SOE hasn't hyped this, but ALL of the characters that you deal with are fully voiced. Everything but your character is professionally voiced. This is very cool. Mark Hammil as the Joker, Adam Baldwin as Superman ect. This is a nice touch! The guy voicing Calculator is very good. They say he's not a big named star but he does wonderful work and nails the character.
Character create: It is more limited than CO or COX. That's just how it is. Most of the good looking styles are available as loot drops or as faction rewards. Having said that, I only have one character that I've changed my initial costume selecion on (besides the weapon style). There are some really good choices for costumes in CC, but they are limited on purpose; the game is loot-aquiring driven. The only time I was disapointed in CC was when I tried to create a character based on Hush. The color pallet allows for 3 different colors to be used on your costume, and you can change each piece's look based on only the three colors you've chosen.
There are several "inspired by" choices for those who want to get in quickly and play like an establised character. These include: Superman (yes the power set is ice), Wonder Woman (mental powers), Batman (very nice replication), Deathstroke, Lex, Catwoman, Joker, Circe, Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter, Bane, Beast Boy and some others that I can't remember off hand.
Powers: Every power type has a dps role. Fire and Ice have tanking roles. Gadgets and Mental have controller roles. Nature and Sorcery have healing roles. This is a bit of a departure from the standard dual-talent setup in that all of your chosen talents are available no matter whether you are in DPS mode or your other spec. The spec can be changed out of combat with a push of a button so for example: everyone usually goes dps for trash in groups then switches on the fly to tank, controller or healer for boss fights. Most of the talents say what they offer extra when you are in the non-dps spec. There are two talent trees in each power type and you get certain bonuses based on which one you have more talent slections in. You are free to place talent points in either tree as you see fit. It looks to me like one tree helps out your dps role while the other usually helps out your other spec more so. You can only have 6 of your powers on the hotbar at any given time. You can have a different power loadout for dps or other spec so that when you switch, your hotbar automatically updates to the talents that you want for the chosen spec.
I haven't tried all of the powers so far so I'm no expert on them. The ones I've liked are gadgets, ice and nature.
Movement: All of the three forms work very well. I've spent most of my time with the Acrobat style and it is a lot of fun to move around the city with rocket powered glide or pulling up the side of abuilding with the zipline. I havn't used any of the movement combat-powers yet so I can't give an opinion of them. You have your movement mode at level one with the first speed boosting choice available at level 10.
Weapons: All combat is based on your weapon moreso than your powers IMO. You can easily use powers along side your weapon attacks but I usually open with a power and then combo the mob until dead. During boss fights, I use my powers alot more because it only takes a second out of my weapon rotation to lauch a sticky bomb or drop a turret or poison bomb. All weapon types have a ranged attack. Yes even stuff like staff and brawling. Wierd, I know.
You'll hear people talk about the combos being hard to pull off, but once you have them down, it's rather easy in my opinion. For example: on my dual pistol character, I open combat by holding my melee attack (right mouse, because I swapped my default buttons) this causes me to launch at my target and pistol whip them. Then I *left click* *left click* *left hold*, this does a backward roll out of melee range. Then quicly *hold left* again to do Magnum Round which is a large burst range attack. There are others such as *Rclick* *Rclick* *Lclick* *Lclick* which does two melee strikes and then jumps in the air with both pistols blazing in the mob's face. Very cool but I don't do it often. You'll learn new combos as you spend talent points in your weapon tree.
You can choose later in the game to spec into a different weapon type than the one you initially chose. My main can use dual pistols, rifle and one-hand melee weapons. In live, I'll likely go with dual pistols, rifle and possibly bow.
Leveling: It's fast. If you thought STO was fast, this game take about half that time or less to reach max level. The main difference is that you won't have experienced all of the content when you hit max level. This is by design. DCUO's tagline is "You are the next legend". The devs want you to get to max level quickly so you can feel heroic. I personally don't like this but they've stated that this will be the leveling curve at launch. There is quite a bit of content to do at max level. I don't remember the exact numbers but there are several DUOs (2-man instances), Alerts (4-man) and Raids (8-man). Running these gives the currency needed to buy the end-game armor that you've seen in the videos. These are some sweet looking armor sets!
Due to feedback from the community, the devs have stated that they are adding more solo content for max-level players. This is one thing that is sorely missing right now as at max level, if you don't want to group, there is nothing for you to do but run around doing the collections (of which there are a ton) or racing (which I enjoy). SOE really stepped up on this and listened to feedback from the testers. Max-level solo-content will add another currency and rewards to go with them for solo players.
I could go on, but this has gotten way bigger than it should have been, so........
Nutshell: This game is not for everyone. No game is. Do you need to be a DC nerd like me? Not really, but that is the biggest draw of the game: playing with the DC heroes/villians. Combat is fast and fun. Metropolis and Gotham are huge and feel alive. It accomodates several playstyles from solo-casuals to hardcore raiders.
I'll post more as this thread progresses.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
A good game honnestly.. Feels more complete than most of the betas I've been in... Ran into some graphic issues but that's it.
Combat is great fun, you heard it over and over again, this game is designed like an action game. The combo system makes me think of God of War and the likes. You'll surprise yourself wanting more and more random mobs just to see your character moves and practice your combos.
Some little gripes : too few powers... I've been used to have tons of choice with CoX and CO.. DCUO seems to want to have a very narrow power choice at first and expand on it later on. A good choice for some, since the powers seems to be balanced and work properly.. A hit on customization though, I end up having some problems creating the toons I really want...
Also, DC is old school super heroes.. I'd like to see that reflect on our own costumes. All you see running around are player heroes in hi-tech suits and then you run into Superman, Batman.. with their underwear on top... Kinda break the mood, not a huge problem though.
I'll probably end up playing this game, but not at launch since I still need to make peace with the MMO genre. But so far, good job SOE !
I was late into the beta so I haven't really seen any growing pains or crazy bugs. What I have seen is a game that's fun to play, action-oriented, and a lot different from the other MMO's I've been playing.
If you don't mind spamming your mouse buttons,
If you don't mind soloing to the top level,
If you like comic book stories,
If you occasionally enjoy grouping with random players to complete group events,
you might like this game.
Having played other SOE games in the past, I had very low expectations for this one. I'm one of those people that played SWG and had the rug pulled out from under me, only to end up on my back, wondering why I ever stood on that rug in the first place. However, this game is refreshingly different and FUN! You heard me! FUN!
One of the major differences in this game is the action. Not only do you mouse click spam to fight, you have combos. For example, with the staff, there's a chain attack that works like this: left click (tap) x3, left click (hold), left click (tap). This combo hits three times, then slams the target and follows up the slam that knocked them down with another huge hit while they're still down.
Powers? Yeah, you have powers as well. I tend to use my powers as style to my combat and let me core combat do most of the work. Also, you have an energy bar that is used by your powers, so you can't completely spam powers all the time. You do get *potion* type items that can restore health and energy, but they do have cooldowns, so you can't spam them.
Character design is cool, but what happens in game is so much cooler. You can not only change your appearance when you get new gear, but if you've ever equipped a piece of gear that had a graphic you liked, you can always go back to that graphic, even if you no longer have that gear. ABOUT DAMN TIME, RIGHT?
The stories in this game are great. I wasn't a huge DC fan so I don't know all the characters and what their motivations are, but when doing quest chains, I learned a lot about the DCU. Cutscenes after boss fights are really done well. They're done in comic style, not live action, but the story telling is what makes it cool. Some aren't as cool as others, and some you'll already know, but overall, the experience adds to the game.
There are people that have had complaints about the game, and some of those people have been playing the game, so it's obviously not a game that everyone will enjoy. It's so different from traditional MMO's that it won't be a WoW killer. Also, comic book games don't usually sell as well as fantasy and sci-fi games. Strange that movies work so well but games don't. Anyway, I don't expect this to be "the next big thing in MMO gaming," but I do expect that people who enjoy action games might find this to be a subscription.
Very fun experience.
so...
of all of the travel powers speed is way the worst, and acrobatics the best. I love my staff/fire guy. The costume creation has a bit to be desired, but I really like the building new costumes as you level and get drops. The end game is a little lacking, but they are promising some very cool imporvements for it.
I replied, but then my post didn't show up. Weird.
Anyway, what I said before was that I pretty much agree with WhiteLantern's post above. The only thing I'll add is that some of the weapon style combos are easier/harder to pull off than others. I'm not sure if it is me or the game. I've played four different weapon styles so far; martial arts, brawling, two handed, and hand blaster. Martial arts and brawling were easy for me with some practice, but two handed and hand blaster combos seem harder. I've still not been able to pull of some of the two handed combos that my character has.
Overall, I've wanted MMO's to have more action combat mechanics since I've been playing the genre and this game fills that role for me. Plus, my characters feel much more like a superhero than my City of Heroes characters did. I'll be playing at launch and if SOE manages the game right, will be playing for a long time to come.
How can anyone be in the end game yet findarato? From what I've heard there is a level cap on both betas.
The pre-order beta server started out with a level cap of 9 and is now 20. The regular beta servers are testing the entire game that will be launched. The current level cap set for launch is 30. If I understood the forum today, the next big patch will be released today.
What does findarato mean?
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
BETA Related Items:
Testing is currently capped at level 20 (30 levels at release)
Not all features are working yet (Auction House and Banks)
Combat is based on mouse clicking pattern combinations (video game combos)
Have experience a few (visual effect / power set / environment) bugs, along with a few crashes.
Most minor npc characters have poorly done (place holder) voice work.
Some iconic DC hero / villian npc still have poorly done (place holder) voice work
Good:
Visually stunning (both chacters and environments)
Stories are interesting and engaging
Voice acting of the Joker, Catwoman and Batman are outstanding
Movement powers feel fresh and fun
Collected costume items can change the look of your character on the fly (no need for tailors)
You get to fight with or against famous DC heroes and villians
Runs really smooth on high settings for a mid-range PC
Bad
Very limited Character creation options (compared to COH and CO)
Very limited Power Sets and effects (compared to COH and CO)
Team (LFG) tools don't seem to be in place
Chat UI is confusing and may not be fully functioning yet
Lacks tutorials on finer points of the game (raids, pvp, iconic powers, renown, duos and epic armor)
"Don't corpse-camp that idea. Its never gonna rez"
Bladezz (The Guild)
I have to say I was really looking forward to DCUO and that my troll post in the offical beta-forum was only created because my expectations got right smashed into my face... Go play CO or CoX, its way better then DC, why? Read my Quote...
Beware, trolling ahead:
"So, two months ago I made a choice i am starting to regret... I pre-ordered DCUO. Two months later
i got into the CB, about 4 days ago and now I just have to troll. I know its just the beta but I need to share my disapointment about what I experienced.
I started full of exitement, after I downloaded the client, I went straight to create my first character.
So there it was, the char creation screen, and BAZINGA, the first disapointing thing:
The lack of customization. The lack of body options (which I was aware of before) but the lack of
power choices really hit me in the hard, ok i knew about the few powers but it was said that the
different skill trees will function as a single power class. What? You are kiddin me... I tested
all powersets and the lack of skills and the duplicated skills i experienced all over again... BIG
JOKE. Only six powersets whith two different skill trees should equal 12. But on my opionion im
just seeing about three to four different powersets at all with the same skills over and over
again, just with other animations and effects...
So I chose a power and BAZINGA: Only three Travel Powers? The next joke... Ok i went with flight.
Finally I came to choose my costume, BAZINGA:
The costume options really disapoints me and the fact that you gain addational gear and appearence
options doesnt make up to it and where do I change my costume color after I created my toon?
Because the newly gained gear looks rediculos with all the mixed up colors! What if I want to
create a knight whith big metal armor? No you only get to wear shirts, nothing else above that
layer...
Ok, next on, I wanted to choose my hairstyle, BAZINGA, next disapointment I experienced. I cant
choose my hairstyle and my facial hair seperatly? What a joke...
So there was my toon, and every time I looked at him I get dissapointed again...
Ingame, when I got to level 2 and got to choose my first power skill I saw the skill trees,
Immolation and the other tree, so I went with Immolation. After I got dissapointed about reading
what my skill options where I chose the first skill, let me say it better: I was forced to chose
this skill, because there isnt really a choice when skilling my toon, is there? The next big joke!
Ok I got through the tutorial and got my first mission from superman. Go kill gorillas, I did, and
when I hit level 4 i experienced my next big dissapointment, again an aoe spell? that reads like
the same and feels like the same, but only makes about 5 more damage? what the f**k is wrong here..
So I had to cope with this lack of everything and leveled my toon to level 10 until I decided to
run another toon, with whom I got disapointed again, and after that one another one and another and
another...
I played CoX and CO quite a long time over many years, and I am asking my self: "Why should I play
something, two other MMOs have done better?"
Just because the combat system is awesome? Because of the genius DC Licence they got? (Oh I forgot,
the ranged combat powers are a joke also...)
No, I dont wanna play DCUO in its current state with the lack of everything nor will I pay a
monthly fee, it needs to change, if it doesnt, I can play something like CO which has done quite a
few things better and is going to be f2p next year or i can go play CoX when i want to play a
superhero game...
ps. my native language is not english, so turn a blind eye to it o_O and I know there are already
some threads about this, but I never trolled before in my whole life, I just had to after wasting
50 bucks of my hard earned money...
So thats about it."
Yeah so Im not going to play DCUO
Playing: Global Agenda / Vindictus
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Excited for: Guild Wars 2 / TERA / SWTOR
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Have Played: Ultima Online, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, Vanguard, CoH/CoV, EverQuest 1+2, Tabula Rasa, DDO, The Chronical of Spellborn, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, Champions Online, Aion, FLYFF, ArchLord, Metin 2, DAoC, APB, CC, Darkfall and many many more
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Favorite MMO: Ultima Online
I thought level 30 was the actual level cap its going to get in release. There are end game raids there already like smallville (by end game I mean level 30 which is the current cap)
Edit :
I just saw tht it says its capped at 20 but I never noticed that before. Got in beta a monthago and I couldve gone to 30 already.
''/\/\'' Posted using Iphone bunni
( o.o)
(")(")
**This bunny was cloned from bunnies belonging to Gobla and is part of the Quizzical Fanclub and the The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club**
Me I am playing and agree it is refressing compared to the ordinary MMo out now. I just joined another MMo besides DCUO and it seamed like same ol thing. I really like DCU so far since it has such a low cap and i have my toon figured out looks,powers, and weapon that i keep remaking him over and over again checking diffrent parts of game. Crafting,and banks and stuff arent working yet so cant coment on them, though the cotent that is open, i have found is nice am highly dislectic, and have prob reading and writing so voice that qwest do is a nice change for me.
they also have a cute since of humor the devs do i have noticed . I am liking the villian side.The way to make a chr in chr creation have not seen such good and open choices the only thing they dont have is body types u have choice of 3 small med or large, everything else u can choose from like 15-20 diffrent looks,like skin type i do undead myself, So my toon looks like a dead biker being a ol biker IRL couldnt resist haha.As far as color on anything ur cloths to skin everything u can pic almost any color from the spectum wheel,so even makes it more ur style.
Running toon is easy and smooth,though I wish i could rember combo's better, but in time. I use acrobatics for movement so i am alot like spiderman climing walls run fast too though not as fast as a speeder,and i get on top of a building i can jump off and glide around not as well as flying but i feel that acrobatics are a nice mixture of both speed and flying though not as good it a nice middle ground.
So far I really like game nice change from the basic MMO out there now,cant wait to see rest of it,I also feel PvP got a good way once they fix it on the pve srvr the pvp srvr anything bout anywere is fair game as should be.Since this is a reaction type game i fought a lvl 17 i was lvl 7 i lost of cource, but i put up a good fight against the other person. Since i am a ol man (IRL) my reaction time aint as great so picked brawling it slower but hits really hard.
So far my opion of game is thumbs up!!
First let me say that I agree with whitelantern above...this game was and is not ready to launch. WoW has very little or nothing to do with their delay. The game appears to be "feature complete" but it is still quite rough around the edges. Placeholder voiceover, MOB pop-in, etc.
I want to try to keep this post to a reasonable length and try not to echo what has already been said. Overall I have a positive impression of this game, and I went into it expecting to be underwhelmed. So it was a very pleasant surprise. FYI I am playing a level 12 villain with Brawling/Fire powers. Some addditional thoughts below.
1. File size. The initial download was 15G, which seems ridiculous. All that mission voicework comes at a cost. I guess they are hoping to sell this in a traditional way to a more mainstream audience. I don't know too many "average gamers" who would suffer through a giant download like that.
2. Visuals. The game really looks amazing. They managed to do something that (IMHO) CoH and Champions failed to do, which is to make a downtown urban environment interesting. Also, the glossy graphics do a nice job of evoking the feel of the "neo-futurist" DC comics. Additional details like visual blur when flying, impressive power effects, etc round out the package. However:
3. Enemies and Animations. NPC and monster animations are rather wooden, particularly in the "marquee" NPC category. And many of the enemies are a total snoozefest. I started out beating up on Metropolis University students and then moved on to...wait for it...hospital patients. Not impressive.
4. Vendor trash. One of my main problems with the superhero genre is that equipment becomes a nuisance and destroys the fiction. Unless I am Batman (or a some kind of gadget-based hero/villain), why the hell do I need legwraps and other crap? The game throws a lot of this indistinguishable garbage at you, and even though some of it (impressively) changes your appearance, the majoraity leaves no impression other than making you feel a lot less heroic.
5. UI. The menus are very clunky and confusing at times. They get the job done, but they are not very elegant. You have to open up your journal to close out a quest AFTER you check it in with the NPC. Annoyances like that.
6. Combat and powers. The combat is fun and fast, which I like, but may not be your cup of tea. The combos work and actually feel a bit like you are playing a console brawler in an MMO world, which is what I think they are going for. They succeeded. Unlike some other opinions above, I actually thought the mix of powers was impressive, with lots of different combinations to tinker with...although once you go down a path there seems to be very little further customization. All the powers seem to have cool animations associated with them.
7. I guess leveling may feel fast for some, but I felt the grind settle in at around level 10. I want to experience the hero path and other power varieties, but I don't know if I could deal with replaying these missions over and over. My patience runs out early so others may have a higher threshhold for this. However if Sony thinks that console players are going to max out more than one character if it takes 100 hours to get there, they may need to rethink their strategy.
8. Multiplayer. I did one co-op mission with a bunch of other players in an instance, and this was REALLY fun. Lots of cool checkpoints and rewarding. The PvP, not so much. Okay, I don't ordinarily go for PvP. You use iconic characters in the PvP arenas, not your own hero. And there are only so many models opened up at each level. So what ended up happening is a brawl between four identical Robins and four identical Harley Quinns. It was a confusing, button-mashing chaos-fest. I don't know how we scored points, but the villains won.
Okay, maybe that wasn't so short...but those are some of my thoughts. A solid game that does justice to the license, looks great, and feels slightly different than other games out there. But I think Sony needs to mix a little more of a console feel into this MMO, or "mainstream" players won't pony up the monthly fee.
It was fun. the joker made the hair on the back of my neck stand up when he talked. the communicators for giveing quests and info was great. fun game play.
The only think i didnt like was powers, choices and depth.
i'll pass until the Sinestro corp expansion
I did want to add that I agree with those that felt that the UI was awkward or lacking. On that, you are only allowed to slot any 6 powers at a time. That means many of your powers sit on the sidelines at any given time.
On combat... besides powers, you have skills. Unfortunately, in order to use them, you need to remember in what order to mash controler buttons (or L and R mouse keys).
An interesting discovery, (for now) if you have a hero and a villian character on the server, they can send each other in-game currency via in-game email.
"Don't corpse-camp that idea. Its never gonna rez"
Bladezz (The Guild)
It should be pointed out that the game is set up for use by both Keyboard / Mouse, and Gamepad. This is part of the UI/ chat issue. There is no cursor in the game. At this time you can't resize the chatbox. As for the grouping issue, most all betas I have been in were the same. I am hopeful they will fix this.
I did a big write-up and posted here if ya want a gander: http://babo-monkey.blogspot.com/
The game is simply awesome. Takes abit of getting used to the controls coming from CoH and other MMOs. Once u do it feels good and smooth, I'm starting to prefer it to other MMO control set-ups. The enviroments are incredibly sweet and detailed like u stepped into a comic. The combat is fast and fun, I like the combos and occasional use of powers set-up. All in all when it is released I will be there the first day. With the way powers/speacials/combos/movement powers are done u can create ur hero/villian lots and lots of differnent ways, enough to make me happy and I'm a long time comic reader and CoH player.
EDIT: I'd also like to add I am playing with a mouse/keyboard and like it. Never used a controller.
playing:DCUO,GW2,WoW
played:SWG,LotRO,CoH,GW,FF14,ESO,AlbionOnline
Like others have said, I had no high hopes for this game becasue of SOE. But, I think this game is going to be a big hit if SOE pushes the advertising before its launch. I really think it is an amazing change from the ho hum MMO's of today. I can't wait until it is released.
I think one unique perspective I could offer on this is: Playing a Villain actually feels villainous.
If you're interested in playing a cartoon villain, this is the best MMO yet to enable it and not just b/c Jim Lee was coincidentally on-hand to lend flavor... It's not like previous games where you're a villain in name only. The quality of Dialogs and tasks really supports and maybe even prefers villains. Unfortunately the rewards system doesn't but that's getting me off-track. Look, I'm a prick in general and a big fan of black comedy but there's been a few options available to me as a villain that even I hesitated to pull the trigger on.
Yeah you've got your "Aliens -> who are mutual Enemies of Both Side", aka Brainiac... but those encounters are so rare I'm actually finding myself wondering why I'm even doing all these other petty psychotic deeds just to troll the Heroes when there's clearly looming extinction for all mankind on the horizon. ...Then it dawns on me: this is total Nihilism... And suddenly I really do feel like the enforcer for an obsessed man who "just wants to watch the world burn".
I don't think a lot of concerned Parents are going to be happy about it. But who knows, maybe that'll actually make it MORE popular?
You know I must say I am a bit irritated. Many seem quite happy with DCU, but what I read sounds like something that usually would be highly critizised.
Like ony 6 powersets, or 3 travel modes or how fast you level and then only endgame raid. How can it be so great if this is all the case?? Sorry to sound SWTOR-ish, but MY hope as comic reader would have been to have "endless" story, via many levels and a long time to reach max level. I mean, isn't getting more powerful something of the most interesting things? I just can't imagine to enjoy gear raiding all too much tbh. (Read: I never cared about gear raiding ONE BIT.)
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert