DC Universe first impressions

[Grable]

First off sorry for making another DCUO thread, but I think this deserves it's own thread. Those who are playing DC Universe Online, post your first impressions of the game, your rant/QQ, your tears of joy, your disappointement or how you were amazed by the game.

Here's my first impressions/review (have in mind this is all "imo" and subjective):

PART 1

Ok so I preordered this game and played it a few hours yesterday. Currently at lvl 10, but I have tried out PvP and dungeons already. I tried to be grammatically correct as much as possible but I'm not a native english speaker so cut me some slack.

Combat: Words cannot describe how good it feels to play such a different game than WoW. Combat is absolutely fantastic, no real click to select system or just simple skill spam. You start with your normal attacks and combos with mouse clicks (that can also deal nice damage, stun, knock down or kick the enemy in the air) and when you have enough power you unleash your power skills (by pressing a skill number 1-7) that do different stuff. I'm playing staff/fire so I have loads of stuns and knockdowns. It's all MUCH MUCH different than your standard generic MMO's and that's exactly why I love this. It really feels hack&slashy, kind of like God of War series.
Also a thing to mention is that you can pick up pretty much anything on the floor and throw it at your opponent dealing good damage. There's a lot of breakable enviroment too, meaning that you can kick your opponent in that and it will break.

Quests: Very dynamic. A lot of open world quests are kill x, but keeping the fantastic combat in mind it doesn't feel anything like grind. There's also more interesting quests like saving citizens by carrying them to a safe point, destroying spawn portals, etc... But inside buildings (solo instances) is where the good stuff really happens - destroying mechanisms to open doors, fighting minibosses, capturing criminals, "moving out of fire" - loads of interesting quest mechanics. Main quests are all chains and you usually follow one chain until you complete it and then move to the next quest chain (you can have more than one quest chain at a time). The chains usually end with rather interesting boss fights which are hard (and I love this) with very interesting boss mechanics. You also get rewarded with better loot and a cutscene to end (continue?) the story. Now I'm not much of a quest text reader but story so far was really good, you really get drawn in, you just want to keep playing, theres loads of cutscenes too and voiced speach.

Dungeons (called "Alerts" in DCUO): Have done just one lvl 10 dungeon - Area 51, so I can't really comment much on this but the boss fight was damn fun. The boss was constantly switching phases, spawning adds, using special attacks, using a lot of "move out of fire" mechanics and stuff. Was really fun and HARD (well we didn't really have a tank or a healer to be honest so we just kept running back when we died or if someone was still up he tried to rez the others) - we wiped (he's health went back up) a few times before we finally got him. Drops blue loot (the loot table is the same as WoWs, white<green<blue<purple<orange) and then theres need/greed/pass.
The dungeons have a "Dungeon Finder" like queue system, same goes for Raids and PvP Arenas.

Raids: Raids are 8 man at the moment. I haven't tried any raid yet as I'm not of sufficient level but I've seen tier 1 and 2 PvP and PvE sets (these are epic(purple)). So I guess there will be some sort of progress. Will comment more on this later.

PvP: This is the main reason I decided to give this game a go. Being a fan of open PvP I must say the PvP in DCUO is absolutely incredible. There's so much PvP going on in the streets, even in the lower level regions/districts... yes, this also brings a lot of ganking, but being a former AoC player (PvP server ofc) this presents no problem to me (compared to White Sands DCUO is low on ganking). I've seen big fights happen in DCUO, it starts with 2-3 players fighting and look at yourself now back at me - theres 20 players slapping, slamming, blasting, chopping eachother. The feeling this gives... I cannot describe it (once again, I'm an open PvP fan).
Arenas - I tried 2 arenas, the powers/weps seem balanced pretty much, the gameplay was fun - played some sort of Arathi Basin style arena (arena = WoW battleground, it's not like WoW arena) with capturing the points and keeping it. You can even build turrets to strengthen your defense over a captured point, which I find great.
Also a thing I really love about DCUO PvP - skill matters. I'm not really sure how much the power/wep sets are "rock/paper/scissored" but I'm 100% that skill matters. I got jumped by two villains (one lvl 8, one lvl 12) when I was lvl 8 and I destroyed them both. Then 5 minutes later a lvl 7 villain flies in and kicks the goddamn shit out of me with chaining stuns and knockdowns and just blocking everything I spam at him. So yeah, SKILL MATTERS! <3

Community: The "shout" channel is really active. Theres some rant about ganking but you can see the people are mature and you don't see texts like "omf what is this shit" or "ANAL [insert_skill_name]" or people calling others "nub" or stuff like that. People are also very helpful as there are a lot of rookies in the channel asking for help.

Graphics: Graphics are imo great. It's Unreal engine afterall, the effects are nice, characters are really detailed. Mobs look nice, so do the cities and the main space "station" - I think it's called the Watchtower.

Character looks/costumization/gear: First off there's a lot of costumization options (not as much as Champions Online but still loads). But what you see and create at your character creation screen is not what you will be looking at throughout the whole game (unless you decide so). Each piece of gear you get has it's own model and actually updates/upgrades your character looks (unlike CoH and Champions Online, correct me if i'm wrong). If you do not like the way that piece looks you can just change the looks of that part (but still keep that item equipped) to any look you discovered so far for that slot (or just put it back to default). So considering that DCUO offers loads of costumization and I have yet to see 2 characters look alike.

UI: User interface is in one word: simple. Just the way I like it. The only stuff that you see on your screen is HP/Power bar, Power shortcuts 1-8, XP bar and minimap. Rest is accessed by pressing "ESC".


If you're a fan of open PvP then this game is a must try. If you want to a game that plays different from that arsenal of generic select target spam skill MMOs then it's a must try. If you want a game that requires skill to PvP then it's also a must try.
Personally I think PvP will be the strong point of this game. If they keep adding content to this game it will become great, I'm sure.
As of now I have failed to find anything that I dislike about the game. The camera/character movement does feel a bit odd at the beginning, but I got used to it fast.

PART 2

Hello again, day 2 of gaming DCUO. Got about 12 hours played now and I believe I am lvl 17. The game is still awesome. The main difference I noticed is that I really am having fun, because to be honest WoW just felt like a chore... Combat is not getting old or boring, Quests are still amazing, good story. They don't feel anything like grind, even if they are kill/destroy/collect x.
I noticed quest chains all kind of end up in a singleplayer dungeon with a hard boss at the end that drops a blue item. The fights are getting harder and harder (even trash). The boss mechanics are still damn awesome (I was turned into this raging bull-like creature by this random boss and then Wonder Woman un-mind controled me but I was left in the bullrage form and smashed about a hundred adds that boss spawned with bull's OP abilities). Solo dungeons don't look alike, each has it's own design and theme - and they're all sooooo pretty.
I noticed a few bugs! For example the chat system in general is bloody terrible. Pretty much everything about chat is REALLY bad. For example: League chat is not working. At all. There is not shortcut for fast reply, you either have to type /reply or /tell <name>. The chat does not remember which channel you used when you typed the last line and hit enter - that means you have to type /shout <your message> every time you want to shout. That's a lot of typing *crack fingers*.
But nevertheless this game had a very stable launch. I have experienced no lag whatsoever, I haven't noticed any bugs or had any game crashes. Chat is pretty much everything that's wrong with this game atm.
Theres still a lot of PvP going on in the higher level regions, so you have to keep your eyes on your back at all times. This is still why I love this game so much.
I got some new fancy skills! Skills points are connected to your weapon/movement type. Power points are connected to your power (nature, fire, ice, mental etc.). I've invested some points in my flying tree and I got some fancy AoE DoT root skill - yes, all 3 combined for maximum OP! The skill animations look nice too, I'm impressed.


EDIT: Added the "Costumization" section.
EDIT: Added "Raid" and "UI".
EDIT: Added "Part 2".

Will post more when I have more hours played. If anyone wants to contact me in-game - EU PvP Server Bloodstorm , IGN: Firefall

Minitext: the same post on onRPG forums is also mine. If anyone ever goes there.

[Qhara]

I tried it as well and i really enjoyed the games a lot. It didn't bore me like, ever. Like OP stated i felt the same way.

I recommend to people who wants to breathe of fresh air. It's very different than WoW and its a moneys worth.

[Landfall]

See am i just being a tad special? It is out in the US but not out in the UK till Friday?

[Grable]

See am i just being a tad special? It is out in the US but not out in the UK till Friday?

It was released for US and Europe this tuesday at about 3-4 PM I believe.

[Landfall]

It was released for US and Europe this tuesday at about 3-4 PM I believe.

Release Date: 14/01/2011
Pre-order
1 day to go! From the Game Website

On the DCUO Website you get get the digital PC download or from Game the PS3 Version.
Digital download it is i guess

[Grable]

Release Date: 14/01/2011
Pre-order
1 day to go! From the Game Website

On the DCUO Website you get get the digital PC download or from Game the PS3 Version.
Digital download it is i guess

Well I bought it via Steam and when the launcher starts I selected EU servers. So I guess it is out
Perhaps this is for PS3 only, wouldn't know as I am playing the PC version.

[Deleted]

UK people can get it on Steam right now I think.

I'm a bit OCD with having to own the gamebox so I ordered my copy from Play.com last night and it's dispatched already, so should be here tomorrow.

[Landfall]

Yeah Nabbing it on Steam See you in game.

[Deleted]

Im not really fond of hack and slash, staying at WOW sorry

[Deleted]

Official release is 14th. Steam users got it unlocked on the US release and they just happened to have EU servers on at the same time. Lucky steam users

My only concern about the game is that SoE need to get their act toegther and balance the powers (sup OP fire). They also need to keep ontop of endgame content, 2 raids and 2 tier sets (with an additional pvp tier set) should keep people entertained a while, but not forever. The overall feel however is great.

[Twisted Spirit]

Character looks/costumization/gear: First off there's a lot of costumization options (not as much as Champions Online but still loads). But what you see and create at your character creation screen is not what you will be looking at throughout the whole game (unless you decide so). Each piece of gear you get has it's own model and actually updates/upgrades your character looks (unlike CoH and Champions Online, correct me if i'm wrong). If you do not like the way that piece looks you can just change the looks of that part (but still keep that item equipped) to any look you discovered so far for that slot (or just put it back to default). So considering that DCUO offers loads of costumization and I have yet to see 2 characters look alike.

This is what i liked about the beta. I designed my character in the costume I wanted he to wear but when i equipped my first item I was quite annoyed. I was so happy when i found the option to lock what you look like.

I don't know how you can say combat is amazing. Its basically hack n slash.

[Ab-the-nab]

I've considered giving it a go hearing a lot of good things about the game. But for me I tend to only play 2 or 3 games at any one time. WoW has been my number one game for going on 5 years now, but when I need a break and need a taste for something different I play Call Of Duty II or Star Wars: Jedi Knight Acadamy, both games are completely different from WoW and both are awesome fun.

So I don't know, if the hype gets overwhelming and I can't go anywhere without people mentioning it, then maybe I'll try it :P

[Grable]

This is what i liked about the beta. I designed my character in the costume I wanted he to wear but when i equipped my first item I was quite annoyed. I was so happy when i found the option to lock what you look like.

I don't know how you can say combat is amazing. Its basically hack n slash.

Well for one it feels fresh considering we're coming from WoW. Also there's very few MMO's that use hack&slash and are decent. Most of them fail before they're launched.

---------- Post added 2011-01-13 at 11:53 AM ----------

My only concern about the game is that SoE need to get their act toegther and balance the powers (sup OP fire)

Yeah fire is quite OP atm. Sadly I didn't know that before I actually made the char. I tend to use staff more just to make the combat more challenging though.

[Hexxer]

Is this game available on Steam? I searched for it but found nothing.

[Grable]

Is this game available on Steam? I searched for it but found nothing.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/24200/

[Deleted]

I have a friend who got on beta via digital pre-order. As has been said Euro servers came up the same time or close to the US servers and he has been playing it since.

I'm happy to wait for my box, also from play.com due today/tomorrow hopefully else it's a wait til after the weekend for me

OP, thanks for the read. Mostly stuff I already knew but am looking forward to playing it more now

[Archillus]

Oh just a question i asked on the other post aswell. Do you actully get your Alter Ego's aswell? If so thats awesome..Not for the fact you wont do much as a normal person but for the whole point you can.

[Grable]

Oh just a question i asked on the other post aswell. Do you actully get your Alter Ego's aswell? If so thats awesome..Not for the fact you wont do much as a normal person but for the whole point you can.

Here:

5) In many old videos you talked about Secret Identities, is this still in?

The costume choices will let you change to someone resembling a civilian, but there's no specific separate mechanic for secret identity at launch due to lack of time.

Judging by some videos they have that planned.

[Apellosine]

gotta wait until the 20th out here in australia for my copy, but from what i've seen it will sit alongside wow as a different game that I play.

[Deleted]

Here:

5) In many old videos you talked about Secret Identities, is this still in?

The costume choices will let you change to someone resembling a civilian, but there's no specific separate mechanic for secret identity at launch due to lack of time.

Judging by some videos they have that planned.

Sounds like it will end up simply as multiple outfits with one being reserved for secret identity. This pretty much how many did it with CoH to be fair.