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Oh my... here we go again, what a letdown
Elikal
Member UncommonPosts: 7,912
Yeah, I am going to make my name as Negative Nancy honor here again. But still. After playing DCU intensley for three days, I am quite underwhelmed. Not that it an entirely bad game, but lacking in so many ways.
Let's start with the good. The world looks great and the quests and entertaining. Granted.
But essentially everything else that matters to me in a Superhero MMO is wanting.
1) PRICE
I must say, I find DCU *abhorrently* overpriced. The PC Version costs 52 Euro, which is roughly 20 Euro above the average PC game box. Breaking the "magical" 49 Euro barrier makes it look quite more costly, which looks like a really bad marketing move. Given how many MMOs are going F2P or offering F2P modes and seeing GW2 at the horizon with only a box fee, having 52 Euro PLUS monthly fee PLUS item shop, I can't help but feel robbed. Now sure, you may say, you don't need to go to the item shop. And in EQ2 it didn't matter to me. But in a Superhero game, where costume making is half the fun, it is a different tune. And DCU has quite few costume parts compared to CO and CoX. It just feels to be robbed blind to pay 50 Euro for the box, then 15 Euro per month AND then additionally for the item shop to make your hero look like you want. I am sure these days where many gamers don't pay monthly fees as a principle anymore, it will make a lot of my friends just laugh to hear this pricing. Wonder if the game is run by the Joker or Lex Luthor...
2) COSTUMES and BODY DESIGN
Bad. Sorry, but that is just bad. Having playing CoX and CO a considerable time, it's like you played Sims 2 and suddenly went back to Little Computer People or what. It feels like 80% of what you have in mind is not there. By and large you have an assortment of spandex, a few helmet, most of them ugly, a few gloves and boots and that's essentially it. I have to break it down:
a) At least 1/3rd of the stuff that is IN, is trash. Like the manimal skins. WHO THE HECK made this? It is one always same Teddy-Bear face with leopard or lion pattern and then called "Lion", "Wulf" and "Leopard". It looks so TERRIBLY lame. Same to most helmets. There is just so many inferior stuff. Or why does the jackets looks like filled with 200 gallons of hot air?
b) A lot of stuff you'd imagine just does not exist. Like robes for mages. There is just spandex and pants and that's it for men. No robes, nothing magical or mystical or tunic like or greek style or anything. Just spandex and street wear. There are no real animalistic heads, no animalistic claws/hands, none of these "backbend" demonic/beastial legs, no robot body parts (like a REALLY bad looking robot skin); if you experienced CO or CoX, 80% of what you knew just doesn't exist. You get muscular humans, that's it.
c) Body design is an outright joke. There is massive, muscular and children for men, and Super-Vixen, Uber-Vixen and children for women. I mean, ok, I can understand they don't NEED 200 sliders. But how a company like SOE, who made SWG and EQ2, 6 and 7 YEARS AGO with WAY more body sliders and a Superhero MMo gets ZERO, for a game released in 2011 is ENTIRELY BEYOND ME. There are ZERO sliders. No height, no muscularity, no fat/slim, no smaller or broader face, nada. As in "nothing". As male hero, you get that Bruce Wayne square face and that Bruce Wayne square body. No slim Joker body, or slim Sorcerer type. How can you be a more "intellectual" type of hero like a Sorcerer or villain like the Joker, when all adult male bodies are either muscular or SUPER muscular? When ALL males have the same face, same form and almost the same design? You can't chose to make a longer, smaller face or take some pointed elf ears, or chose a longer chin or ANYTHING. One face to rule them all. It is just SO twenty years back, given that even many years older MMos have at least SOME sliders. Really pissed me off. The result of this lack of "normal body types" is that a lot of people will just play the child body and Gotham and Metropolis will be filled with Super-Kids.
d) Hair and beards. There are FIVE haircuts and FIVE beards and they are combined in totally chaotic order and they are not seperated, but for some unfathomable reason hairs and beards are connected. And instead of calling the haircut in a simple discriptive way, like "shot parted" or "spiky" the hair has some odd names like "Commander" or "Jimmy", and it makes ZERO SENSE what is what. Can it be so difficult to make hair and beards seperate and then just offer more than FIVE?
3) DIFFICULTY AND RESPAWN RATE
I must say the respawn rate was what REALLY made me mad. Mad in the bad way. I know, DCU is more for the 16 year old console hyper hyper kids. People who find it WAY too much of a hassle to actually SEEK the mobs. No you make the mobs for the quests respawn TWO seconds after you killed it, to not overburden those poor kids, so they just can stand there and farm the 20 Gorillas or Policemen they need in the same spot and they can finish the quest in 2 minutes doing so. This is SUCH a letdown, and it made a hectic feeling and stress I just hate. You know, I am one of these slow, old guys, who just likes to stand a moment. Look around, enjoy the scenery, make some short conversation, I dunno... SOMETHING that does NOT involve running around like crazy all the frigging time. The mobs are really INSTANTLY back, and that bugged the living hell outta me. The high respawn rate combined with the endless click-orgy, makes this game so stressful to play and so difficult, it is just that I feel quite unheroic and unrelaxed. Feels more like work.
4) ITEMS AND DURABILITY
Ok, it is one of these sacred rules: A Superhero MMo must not have item decay. Period. It was one of the great revelations why I have this shrine for CoX: I finally escaped the greed of items, loot and competitveness. It was so relaxing playing CoX (and mostly CO, too) and just ignore the item greed. What you had was limited by your imagination and creativity. I had made halfway some peace with the fact, DCU had items. But seeing them decay every time I die, just is a huge fun killer. It was part of the fun of a Superhero MMo, just to run around carefree and the only price to pay for failure was failure. After being killed by some instanced boss mob 20 times or so, while I tried various strategies to take him down, I found all my items had totally decayed and at some point I was out of money. And then what? Grind mobs to get money back. The LAST thing you really want to do in a MMO. I mean, can you imagine Superman or Wonder Woman spent their time sewing and repairing clothing? Yes, the spandex does get damaged in the comics. But who really want the hero to ponder this? He is super rich or otherwise supported and never gets out of armor. He just has his/her suit, and in the next battle it is magically repaired again. Maybe wondering to save money for damaged costumes is something a Marvel hero like Spiderman would exerience... but DC? Not really.
5) SIX POWERS?
Sorry, I know you can branch them out over time. But for a considerable time you have six. No more. When you have played CoX and CO, you can't help but feel sorely let down. No electricity, no force, no various magical powers just "Sorcery" (which at the start is no magic-like AT ALL.), not power armor, so many powers you would imagine are not there.
6) UI
I know it is the console influence to blame. But the UI is SO clunky. I can't resize or relocate any part of the UI or reconfigure it in any way I have seen. The UI is there is it is, and take it or leave it. Chat has a LARGE font, you can't resize the chat window, so all too soon the chat is gone out of the window. You can't preset channels, so EVERY time you want to chat in some channel, you have to type the channel prefix again. If you mistyped, the entire text is just lost, since you can't like return it with cursor up or anything. It just has a BAD console UI, and as some pointed out, playing on PC with the click-orgy this game is, my had hurt like hell after playing DCU a while.
When I think of the many limitations this game has, I can only wonder what possesed them to make this? Epecially as compared to other Superhero MMOs, DCU feels so much like falling back 10 years behind the accomplishments of other MMOs, which just have more of basically everything. If not for the cool setting and good quests, I might skip it altogether. But given how limited the game is, I find it horrendously overpriced.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Comments
There is a reason most people spell Sony Online Entertainment as $OE.
Just pre-ordered £29.99 on steam
Who could have thought that WOW could bring super power like USA to its knees?
Originally posted by Arcken
To put it in a nutshell, our society is about to hit the fan, grades are dropping, obesity is going up,childhood the USA is going to lose its super power status before too long, but hey, as long as we have a cheap method to babysit our kids, all will be well no?
Im picking on WoW btw because its the beast that made all of this possible
I agree with the OP - I got in to Beta and thought well it's still beta, then news came that the game is on the verge of being released. It's total crap.
I won't rehash what the OP posted, but they are 100% accurate. It's an EPIC fail!
This is another fine example of how developers want to develop games aimed at the console market, but want the PC gamers to pay for it. Age of Conan, Champions Online, and Final Fantasy XIV were a few recent high-profile titles that did this and look how well it worked out for them.
PC games for PC gamers or NO SALE!
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
Sliders: It's coming out on consoles as well. Hence, it has to be dumbed down tremendously for the people who can't figure out all these strange buttons on keyboards. Their alphabets consist of A, B, C, D, E, F, X, Y, and Z (and "Start").
I tend to agree with this.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Pft. This isn't drama. Trust me, when *I* make drama, you'll notice the difference.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Seeing as I've played AoC and CO I can definitely say that, from what I've heard, AoC and CO have better controls than DCUO. And DCUO not being all that great on the PC is making me laugh at the memories of people saying DCUO will trump CO and CoX hehehe funny stuff.
This is not a game.
1) Price has varied for the game depending on where you go. I was able to pick mine up for $40 for the PC.
2)
a) As you progress your character you get more costume pieces. Not all starting costume pieces are in at this time, if you payed close enough attention you'll see parts from other sets in the costume selection that don't have corresponding pieces to complete the set.
b)Robes and hoods and all that stuff, yeah they have it all, they just don't have it as a starting costume right now.
c) Not sure why they restricted body types, but there are tons of different body types in game they could have used, for some reason, they didn't.
d) Overexaggeration, they have more than 5 of each, as we told them, they need to make facial hair separate.
3) Yes the games difficult. The bosses are difficult. The mobs respawn because there are many players needing to do these missions at once. Some missions have a higher respawn rate then others. This isn't going to be the boring, walk around for a half hour to find your 2 barrels of wheat, you get a very densely populated area, and skilled players can get in, get what they need and get out. All others can group if they are having such a problem or can't grasp the game mechanics.
4) Pointless argument. You are going to die in DCUO, I'd rather have gear that can be repaired easily, then have debt that slows my leveling, that was a time sink and developer imposed griefing. Items get damaged, you get them repaired the next time you go sell unwanted items, its quick, easy, yet makes an impact on your character.
5) 6 Powers, a huge iconic set, and 3 movement trees to take powers from and you only get 6 on your bar. Sure some sets are missing but there are more than enough powers to get some good builds.
6) Chat needs help still, theres a setting in the options to resize chat boxes.
End result: The game just isn't for you and many other MMO players who just can't wrap their head around a game of this magnitude. You say its for the "console" gamers out there, but its more then that, there are plenty of PC action games that play similarly. Don't blame the console players, blame action games for making it too tough to compete when you can't click the skills on your bar.
The game has its share of problems, but much of what is represented here aren't them.
Do not mistake a few opinions to mean thats how the game actually is. The game has become widely popular even in Beta, and will trump CO and CoX. They would have to damage server stability and imbalance PvP immensely at this point for it to do terribly.
Don't you think it better to actually let the game launch and not out do those games to have your laugh? Not to rain on anyones parade but this particular post isn't some revelation or real indication of what is going to happen with this game, if you haven't been to the forums here much....just trust me on that.
Me personally I think the developers want to make a cross platform game that succeeds equally on both systems of course your assessment is that they have failed, well if they don't try no one will ever succeed at it. At any rate I highly doubt that they are having strategy meetings where that particular subject is brought up (having pc gamers pay for console development). the console development industry is doing just fine without the dollars of pc gamers don't believe me then ask all the pc developers bought up by console game producers.
DCUO has some problems but honestly nothing that can't be fixed, even most of the op's complaints are things that can be changed through simple balancing, and as others have mentioned before "I was there in COH when we didn't have capes" so I am not buying any talk of the robust costume options, these things are added all the time.
DCUO probably has a bigger battle than some anticipated after first seeing the game but I'm not so sure it's as much a fight as some of you may wish for.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
I would have to play the game to determine that myself but as of right now I think its quite funny.
This is not a game.
Wow so you haven't played the game yourself to see if the op is even blowing smoke or not?? as I said earlier the jokes on you then my friend.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
I think everyone should try the game, but as I posted previously, this game isn't meant for everyone. If you like action games, you'll like this game. Many people on this site just won't like it. The traditional MMO players won't like it. Those that can't string a combo to save their life, won't like it.
This game is niche, but it will rise in population all the same.
Its not like I'm basing my opinions on this one review, I've read several and from the different people explaining it they could make PC controls a little more PC centric. I don't know if going cross platform between the PC and consoles is the problem but not having PC centric controls can reduce the amount of potential customers willing to stick it out till they finish all the content in the game.
With that said, with all the reviews I have read, the game's controls don't seem as comfortable as CO's controls which I thought were good fun.
This is not a game.
Unless OP is just completely lying, this is not the game for me as it seems CoX is vastly superior. The stuff about character customization was the deal breaker.
You'd be comparing two extremely different combat types. The controls for DCUO are based off of the mouse buttons primarily, to string combos together, and then 1 - 6 for your powers.
You have melee attacks, ranged and blocks/rolls. You have target locks too. Your weapon skills and your powers are separate, and they aren't 1 hit wonders like in CO where there were no true combos to accomplish anything. Each combo or power is set to accomplish a goal, whether its to stun, knock down, heal, break a block, regain energy, poison, ignite, electrify, freeze, gain threat or lose threat, add defense.. etc. etc. -- every move has a purpose other then to just damage the opponent, and each of those effects has a profound difference on how you regulate and progress your combat.
When I speak about the combat system in DCUO being robust, half the people don't understand what that means, but quite literally a single character can build a number of different tactics and each of them are viable. Most people from this site figure the game is one note -- smash buttons -- and those people are neither good at the game nor understand the combat system.
Ok its when you say "the game is not for everyone" that you start making me right. Look I haven't said anything about it not appealing to the button mashers out there but when you hear things like "the targeting could be better", "I always end up wasting my combos on a crate" it really makes you wonder, is it the player or the controls but when you hear it 5 more times..... you can only come to one conclusion.
This is not a game.
I don't disagree that the controls have been mentioned as a problem with both the pc and ps3 to be honest but if you are reading the same reviews as me you'd also know no one until a few posts on here (this one should be discounted the hardest) have said it is a game breakingly bad issue.
I've seen a couple of "pc warriors" on here who have obviously shown an agenda in regards to the idea that pc gamers are better than console gamers or whatever point he was trying to make but those with an impartial view know that the game can't be dismissed so easily.
CO sucks and I assure you that DCUO will do better than that "tale from the cryptic" and while COH is a healthy stable game surpassing that wouldn't be too great a task for DCUO either, especially given that so many of it's issues are issues that can be fixed. If they release the game at an extremely high price point and it isn't selling they can and will lower the price, same for subscriptions. If there are pvp balancing issues *rolls eyes* every game has those at launch let alone beta.
Contrary to popular belief every pc gamer isn't at war with console game/developer/gamer, some of us will get the version that suits us or will just move on without trying to give the appearance that some nefarious plot is underway to fleece the pc gaming public into supporting the needs of the console gamers.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
You are totaly right.
If they dont fix all these at the release then prepare for another let down in mmo history.
First ffxiv then dcuo.I wonder who goes next.
Do we have to wait till blizzard's next gen mmo to have some good times in a mmo?
Obviously the game isn't for you. I personally think its a breath of fresh air to the mmo genre. It has its faults and isn't perfect but i can't remember the last time i had this much fun in an mmo.
Game is pretty good, played CoX and CO for a long time and I believe DCUO has a good stake at holding subs. Don't like it then CoX and CO is always there.
The red text is all I have had a gripe with so far.. the rest of it seems to be stuff that I could deal with.. but the lack of customization and the price (if it causes me to lose yet more money off of a P2P)..
Why can't these P2P games either do like Perpetuum and make the client free (just pay for the sub .. a TRUE P2P), or offer a F2P , F2T model (like EQ2X or LoTRO) so people won't have to take chances..
Well, ive been in the beta too and all op said is just about right. Haircuts are a joke, i dont mind them being chained with beards but hell, 85% of the hairstyles have beards. I dont want a beard! Anyway, the main problem of DCU is following:
Its coming out on PC and PS3 while its actually 80% made for PS3.
Thats the seed of the evil. DCUO is a decent mmo for a CONSOLE game. On PC ist subpar in every aspect! Clunky menus aside, the biggest insult is the engine they used. I have a fairly decent PC and should be able to run such a game with ease. But i do not! Why? Because the Unreal Engine, while it looks pwetty, scales like shit. Muddy textures, catastrophic shadows, framerate drops are common. Hell, during character creation the weaponsset wouldnt load! characters where just swining in the air. I know what youre thinking, 'Cant run the game? buy a better PC!' Now heres the catch, the first m in mmorpg stands for massively wich indicates a broad mass of people. Not everyone has a fat rig or the money to buy one! Those are left in the rain with such a poor excuse for an engine. Now, there has been another mmo with the same engine who died some time ago. Does APB ring any bells? Yep, same poor choice for a mmo-engine.