It’s common knowledge that comic book games are generally crap. Sure, there have been some exceptions and many of these had the odd scrap of merit (I enjoyed Wolverine completely shamelessly), but ultimately these titles cater more for the dedicated fanboys rather than gamers in general.
DC Universe Online is the perfect embodiment of this sentiment: while there’s a lot of content for comic lovers and some definite plusses to running around with a group of strangers with your pants outside your underwear, the game is ultimately let down by countless bugs, repetitive action and its own teething problems.
It’s not all bad for DCUO though; I honestly had a good bit of fun for the first few hours, and I admit I spent a pathetically long amount of time fiddling with my two characters and their extensive customization options before sending them off to fight good/evil. However, before I even got even the faintest glimpse of a billowing cape I was forced to sit through a 140mb patch download, a 12gb install off the disc and then an excruciating 2.5gb patch download from what must officially be the world’s slowest server.
After finally creating my first superhero and choosing a mentor (Batman FTW) I set off to do some heroic stuff. Unfortunately I was met with a crash after only a few minutes of play, but, still determined to save the world and whatnot, I fired the game up again only to be disconnected from the server after another few minutes; the fact that I had to actually restart the entire game rather than just reconnect made this speedbump even more infuriating.
I fared slightly better on my third attempt, even managing to get through the entire training level without a single issue, and after some further character fiddling I was soon whizzing around in my carefully chosen wardrobe. Sadly my audio started clipping at this point and before I knew it I was completely soundless, necessitating the throwing of the controller across the room and a short break before trying yet again.
When I returned my experience wasn’t a whole lot better. Extended use of the very clunky menus made me wish for a keyboard, and when I did manage to navigate through everything I found a lot of the information to be overwhelming as DCUO offers almost zero hand-holding for those who aren’t hardcore MMO players. (How is your average gamer supposed to know the difference between Vitalization, Precision and Dominance?)
The crucial aspect of combat in DCUO was also a bit touch-and-go, and by that I mean “bash Square and Circle until stuff dies”, but overall I found the more arcade style of fighting with combos and actual button presses to be enjoyable for the most part. There’s a huge selection of superpowers to play with and some of the visual effects are downright sexy, and the cities of Gotham and Metropolis are no exception with their iconic locations and great design. Texture pop-in is very prevalent though as are clipping and some movement glitches, which are all a huge pity considering that the visuals are one of the game’s strong points.
“But what about the actual gameplay and the quests?” I hear you cry? Well, you and me both, as the repetitive nature of the actual missions made me long for something more substantial. It sounds awesome doing errands for Batman in theory (*cough*), but killing X number of Y enemies and grinding away with fetch quests is only tolerable for a time. Because of this repetition the novelty appeal of being a superhero quickly fades into drudgery, so much so that I honestly couldn’t see myself getting more than one character to the level 30 cap with all the rinsing and repeating.
I was impressed with the FMV sequences though and some of the artwork is amazing, but again there are too many niggles which let down the game’s better aspects. A perfect example is the voice work: some characters speak on par with the eloquently chatty pair of protagonists from Enslaved, while others sounds like the random stranger they pulled off the street to do the NPC voices for Just Cause 2. Mark Hamill is a brilliant Joker and Kevin Conroy an even better Batman, but good voice acting does not a great MMO make.
Overall, I found playing DCUO to be more of a chore than anything else. Combine a painful install with equally painful loading screens, then add in some repetitive questing and finish it all off with a whole ton of bugs, and you’re left with something that’s far from as exciting as it sounds.
I understand that DCUO is still in the early stages though and such an ambitious project will no doubt get better by leaps and bounds as things get balanced out and the laundry list of bugs get squashed (perhaps a re-review in the coming months might paint a different picture), but it’s difficult to currently recommend a title that’ll set you back $15 a month for what’s little more than a flawed port.
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