Welcome back future super heroes for our second hands on impressions of Sony Entertainment Online’s latest MMO creation, DC Universe Online. If you missed our first hands on of Levels 1-9 give it a read here. I’l try my best to not rehash anything I already covered, and I’ll try to cover a few things I overlooked.
While a majority of what your experience in the first 10 levels pretty much remains the same just that your fighting higher level villains, there are some
new parts of the game unlocked. The first thing you’ll unlock is the ability to spend Power Points on Iconic Powers. These are the badass powers that super heros have. One thing that is nice with DCUO is a lot of the Powers and SKills while split into “trees” aren’t all quite tree like, as in games like WoW. For instance the Iconic Powers don’t require you to spend a point on a low level power to unlock a higher level one, though you will have to wait till you hit a certain level to unlock the Power for purchase. I’m sure you’re wondering what some of the Iconic Powers are, the first 3 I decided to go with are Heat Vision, this is a power similar to Superman where you shoot a heat beam out of your eyes, very powerful and effective. The next one I went with is Batarang Triple Shot, this is a simple one that has you throwing out a barrage of batarangs that stun enemies. And the last one I purchased so far is Lightning which summons lightning to heal you and push back any near enemies. Now these Iconic Powers are very cool, but as I suspected, with the limited actionbar you can only have 6 skills active at any one time, which stinks cause I 9 skills. The obvious reason for this is the fact the game is being made for the console as well as PC controllers. I think this might deter hardcore MMO gamers who have become use to having lots of actionbars and using their full keyboards. You can have 2 loadouts and switch between them but you can’t switch in combat, I think having swappable loadouts in combat will go a long way, and keep the controls simple for a controller and still fairly balanced.
Speaking of Powers/Skills I didn’t really explain them in to much detail last time, so let me take a moment to talk about them. Firstly they fall into a category called “Traits”, this is then split into Powers and Skills. Skills then breakdown into 2 trees, Weapons and Movement. Powers break down into 3 trees, Traps, Tricks and Iconic Powers(for my power set selection of “gadgets”). As you level you’ll be awarded points automatically in either Skills or Powers or both. Each Skill or Power costs one point, there are some that can be purchased 3 times, these are mostly ones that increase stats in a certain area. I already covered Iconic Powers above, Traps are things like Taser Pull which throws out an electrified lasso pulling your enemy into you and stunning them. Tricks are things like Gun Turrets and Sticky Bombs. Weapons are new combo attacks for your weapons and you can learn multiple skill sets like my Dual Pistols or Bow or any of the other weapon types. Though since the points will be limited you’ll obviously want to focus on your main weapon, as you’ll be able to increase that weapons stats as you level through spending points. Movement is a mixed tree as some of the movement skills are action skills like a Swoop Attack or Stealth, as well as movement passive stat changes. But as with my issue with the actionbar these skills will go unused due to having a limited actionbar, I actually haven’t spent any points besides flight speed increase. Again this can be changed with a dynamic actionbar that when you are in flight changes, or at least a key to switch on the fly to another acitonbar.
Just like in the first 10 levels as you hit certain levels you’ll unlock new “Alerts” and Arenas. Alerts are PVE instances and are quite fun. They are a great place to gain XP and break out of Gotham and Metropolis. The new Arenas while are nice now that I can use my super hero are still very awkward, like I explained with the Legends PVP. I think it’s a mix of targeting being such a change from other MMOs and the fact I just can’t get a good skill loadout that gives me enough offense and defense. The arenas themselves are Capture and Hold matches that sees both teams trying to hold points on the maps. I think more playtime will help but for some reason the arenas still are my least favorite part of the game.
The last part of this hands on are “Deeds. This is where your “Feats”, “Headlines”, “Renown” and other achievement type things are displayed. Feats pretty much are the achievement system, get X kills, find X objects. Headlines give you an overview of them as well as info on bosses you’ve beaten. Renown is the most important section to check out in Deeds. Renown is your standing with the different faction in the game, and as you become more trusted you’ll have access to higher level gear from various faction gear dealers.
And quickly on gear, a mentioned there are many styles and it’s really nice once you start collecting these styles, makes the limited style choices in character creations, not an issue. By level 15ish you’ll have some decent styles to mix and match and create some badass outfits.
Overall I’m still enjoying DC Universe Online. The graphics and art of the game keep amazing me, seeing some of the other districts are quite awesome. One neat area is Jokers Amusement Park Hideout. This is by far the best looking MMO I’ve played. My biggest annoyance is the acitonbar. I want to use my powers and 6 at a time don’t cut it. And when some skills like Gun Turret have 2 skills, one place the turret and the other makes it blow-up then I’m down to 4 slots. I think skills like Gun Turret should take up one slot and when its deployed then the button changes to Self Destruct. Also I would love to use my movement skills but being ones I rarely use I can’t afford the actionbar space. I think a changeable action bar in and out of combat would be very welcomed and would work on both keyboard and controller. Getting to use Iconic Powers are also neat and let you create a super hero or villain with skills of your favorite comic book heros.
