DCUO- will be out November 2. Can apply for beta on main site now.

[Rasix]

Played three characters to level ~10 yesterday.  All heros, through the 3 different areas. 

- The game is much more fun that I had guessed.

- The story writing isn't half bad.

- The UI gets in the way of the fun. 

- This is definitely a console game, but having access to a few keyboard commands helped. 

- The names of other human players ruins the immersion.

- The game still has too many bugs.  WTF were people doing in beta?

- Spawn rates are great for high population but will suck when the low levels become depopulated.  When playing late at night, I was overrun by respawns more times than I can count. 

- Balance seems pretty terribad for pvp.  It will take 6 months to sort out IF the game lasts that long.

- I'm interested in seeing what the endgame is like.  I'm playing duo with a friend and the game is almost too chaotic to really enjoy solid teamwork.  Perhaps I just need more practice.

   

Seems a little raw for my tastes.  Thanks for the write up.   I wonder if people will still be playing when they fix a majority of the bugs/imbalances.

[Morfiend]

I think its stunning that people are concidering "didn't fucking crash and burn at launch" a stellar success.

Considering releases seem to have gotten worse and worse (APB anyone?) over the last couple years, anything that seems to trend in the other direction is worth mentioning.

Honestly more than this, and the game not crashing and burning. Playing it is actually fun. Something that hasnt happened in a MMO for a while, especially right off the bat. It reminds me of Haemish's Horizons review where he said "I logged in with my new character and was confronted with a bunch of signs pointing me at stuff like crafting and vendors, but nowhere in the game did I find a sign pointing me to 'fun'".

DCUO throws you right in to fun.

On another note about character customization, I have noticed that you can get a bunch of item drops that have stats, and item drops that are just cosmetic. What I think they where going for was a basic "im a new super hero" look at creation, then evolving your character with drops and unlocks to a more finished concept. I actually like this. While it bummed me out I couldnt make a few of the concepts I wanted right off the bat (Power armor?), but evolving your characters look is something none of the other Superhero MMOs had at launch.

[HaemishM]

- The game still has too many bugs.  WTF were people doing in beta?

Reporting bugs that never got fixed or were ignored.

[Nebu]

Reporting bugs that never got fixed or were ignored.

Probably true.  

My biggest issue with the game is that the combat tends to be so fast and chaotic that I never feel like I was as efficient as I could have been.  The targeting doesn't help this at all... often you pull another group unintentionally due to the autotargeting system.  

Still, the game is fun.  I am really enjoying the game quite a lot more than I did CoH.  I'm not sure how long the fun will last, but it is definitely better than I expected.  It got even better when I started playing it with a game controller.

[Morfiend]

I'm going to ask again just in case.

Is anyone playing on any of the PVP servers and want someone to play with? I would love to have some people to group with that I knew at least somewhat.

[Nebu]

Is anyone playing on any of the PVP servers and want someone to play with? I would love to have some people to group with that I knew at least somewhat.

You're a brave soul.  I would love to join you on a pvp server, but I don't like being spawn camped by level 30's at every exit portal.  I may reroll once I learn the skill trees and mechanics better. 

[Ginaz]

If this is true, my enthusiasm for this game just took a nose dive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgHLHXAxLZ8

Seems true.  I noticed an increase in damage when I rerolled and flew through the first mission.  I'll see if I can test it empirically tonight with a friend that also has flight.

Its very true.  I made a brawler/flying character on a pvp server and beat down a lvl 12, lvl 13, two lvl 16s and almost beat a lvl 18 when I was lvl 6.  Thats not counting all the lvl 10 and below players I shit kicked in a matter of seconds.  Once again, soe Q&A= .

[squirrel]

I'm going to ask again just in case.

Is anyone playing on any of the PVP servers and want someone to play with? I would love to have some people to group with that I knew at least somewhat.

I'm playing with some folks from Qt3 on Cry for Blood - Villains. Although tbh Leagues haven't been much use yet, but it's a good server so far. There's ganking of course but neither side seems to outnumber the other too much and the higher levels have found other stuff to do at least that's been my experience. Shoot me a PM if you want more info.

[Khaldun]

I have one villain toon on a PvP server. Yes, pretty much what most people do is hover over the entrance/exit portals and gank like mad at every level-appropriate villain approaches.

There is a problem in every game of this kind that doesn't match PvP with the character or nature of the genre. Think of the times when gangs of Jedi in SWG went around gang-raping everybody they could--it really drops a smelly bomb right in the middle of anything approaching immersive play.

The speed of combat and the targeting also really really cuts into any sense that you're fighting someone with anything remotely like skill in either the twitchy or RPG sense. Feels just like "button mash + be of a higher level than your victim + travel in zerg packs".

[squirrel]

I have one villain toon on a PvP server. Yes, pretty much what most people do is hover over the entrance/exit portals and gank like mad at every level-appropriate villain approaches.

There is a problem in every game of this kind that doesn't match PvP with the character or nature of the genre. Think of the times when gangs of Jedi in SWG went around gang-raping everybody they could--it really drops a smelly bomb right in the middle of anything approaching immersive play.

The speed of combat and the targeting also really really cuts into any sense that you're fighting someone with anything remotely like skill in either the twitchy or RPG sense. Feels just like "button mash + be of a higher level than your victim + travel in zerg packs".

Hrm. My experience has been different. Never had a NIghtclub entrance or respawn really camped in leveling two characters to the mid teens. Quest areas can certainly turn into battlegrounds/gank fields.

Also, in my experience if you know your powers and weapons and can use the block, interrupt and stun mechanics you can beat people 5+ levels above you. I can understand not liking the frantic twitch combat but I like the combo system and find it refreshing that I don't automatically lose because sOmeone has 5 levels on me. Ymmv.

[Nebu]

I can understand not liking the frantic twitch combat but I like the combo system and find it refreshing that I don't automatically lose because sOmeone has 5 levels on me. Ymmv.

I totally understand this.  I'm trying my best to understand the powers and how they enhance each other. I think that once I get the mechanics down, I may be more into trying a pvp server.

[Morfiend]

I have one villain toon on a PvP server. Yes, pretty much what most people do is hover over the entrance/exit portals and gank like mad at every level-appropriate villain approaches.

There is a problem in every game of this kind that doesn't match PvP with the character or nature of the genre. Think of the times when gangs of Jedi in SWG went around gang-raping everybody they could--it really drops a smelly bomb right in the middle of anything approaching immersive play.

The speed of combat and the targeting also really really cuts into any sense that you're fighting someone with anything remotely like skill in either the twitchy or RPG sense. Feels just like "button mash + be of a higher level than your victim + travel in zerg packs".

Hrm. My experience has been different. Never had a NIghtclub entrance or respawn really camped in leveling two characters to the mid teens. Quest areas can certainly turn into battlegrounds/gank fields.

Also, in my experience if you know your powers and weapons and can use the block, interrupt and stun mechanics you can beat people 5+ levels above you. I can understand not liking the frantic twitch combat but I like the combo system and find it refreshing that I don't automatically lose because sOmeone has 5 levels on me. Ymmv.

This is more my experience also. As long as there is nothing really lost from dying in PVP, I much prefer it. I like the feeling that others can have an effect on my world, and I on theirs.

Yeah, it gets frustrating when you are killed several times by a high level player while trying to quest, but I have found usually several mid level players will gang up and kill the high level player. Its not like I need to rush to max level, so what do I care if I spend an extra 5 to 10 minutes every hour or two running back from the respawn point? Small price to pay for the world feeling more alive and interactive.

[Strazos]

Currently rolling with a few buddies on Death and Glory, PvP server. Message me on Steam if you like.

Also, I find the ability to kill 30's to be pretty refreshing. Unfortunately, the UI tries really hard to get in your way. Also disliking the lack of feedback on what specifically abilities do, in an empirical sense.

[UnSub]

- The game still has too many bugs.  WTF were people doing in beta?

Reporting bugs that never got fixed or were ignored.

A pre-launch patch that fixed a number of exploits was promised (that I don't think quite arrived), while SOE is "aware of" how bad the chat system is.

I am interested to see how PS3 players react to their first character nerfing.

[Morfiend]

I am interested to see how PS3 players react to their first character nerfing.

Fire/Brawler/Flight.

Currently rolling with a few buddies on Death and Glory, PvP server. Message me on Steam if you like.

Invite sent, just realized we are not steam friends. Heroes or Villains?

[Margalis]

I thought this was going to be absolutely awful so I'll man up and eat crow on this one. From what I understand it's pretty decent. It looked like the worst game at E3 (or second-worst behind Crackdown 2) so they really must have busted their asses to get it into shape.

[UnSub]

Unless it was fixed between beta and launch, close up animations look good, but from a distance can look incredibly jerky. Someone in the beta described it as "looking like the NPCs all suffered from some kind of contagious epilepsy they are trying to infect others with" which was pretty accurate.

But yes, it is fun for a bit.

[Khaldun]

I really do like how it's fun from the outset, but not the kind of thing (a la Tortuga) where only the outset is fun and everything else horrible. That's good work.

The bugs, though, oh my god. Pet pathing is often completely borked. I kept trying to finish the Raven mission with one of my villains and he has that demon pet and it would just stop and not go anywhere inside the instance. Maybe you can desummon it and resummon it, I dunno, but I haven't been able to figure out how.

Bosses can get stuck in the scenery or otherwise just stop doing their moves--in that same instance, the first time I ran it, Cyborg went over to a wall and just kind of sat there, but was also unkillable. Time to start the whole thing over.

Chat. There is really no excuse for this. How can you launch a MMO at this point in time without an easily used /ignore feature? Without anticipating gold spammers? I'd think people with some live management experience in an MMO are pretty easy to hire at this point, given the numbers of MMOs that have failed or downsized.

I'm getting the hang of PvP more, but I guess the server I picked is more vicious (and there are more heroes than villains) because there really are people camped all the time outside of instance portals. I think if it was just about two millseconds less twitchy and targeting was less stupid, it would be a bit more fun because I'd be able to block/break stun a bit more effectively. But it is true that a single lone ganker can get swarmed and killed fast by characters much lower than he is. I've seen two level 9s take down a level 30 with good tactics. That's nice.

[squirrel]

The bug that caused some weapons to do 3x damage in melee when a character is flying is being fixed today. Thank god. That was getting annoying.

[Nebu]

The bug that caused some weapons to do 3x damage in melee when a character is flying is being fixed today. Thank god. That was getting annoying.

I was enjoying the fast killing in Pve while duo with a friend.  We made level 15 in a few hours.

Not that I'm in any rush to hit cap.  It was just fun to sit back and watch him blow stuff up with melee.

[stray]

Wait.. this must apply to brawling specifically....? I rolled a brawler and he kicked ass in just the tutorial section. I thought that my hand blaster/fire dude was overpowered, but now that I think about it, my tutorial wasn't like that. Maybe I'm just playing as intended after all (good thing, I don't want to be nerfed just yet!).

[Lucas]

Review on PC Gamer (final vote: 88  )

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/01/26/dc-universe-online-review/

Snippet:

I hit the level cap in just 30 hours, which might be discouraging except that, for a just-launched MMO, there’s already an absurdly high amount of endgame progression and content available. Specifically, there are six rewarding hard-mode dungeons, two extremely difficult eight-player raids and about 10 hours of diverse, fairly enjoyable repeatable daily content. The daily missions are made up of quests (mostly reworked solo instances), bounties on iconic characters like Bizarro and Flash and rotating “featured maps” in each PvE and PvP mode. I was disappointed that the quests that you’re asked to complete each day don’t automatically rotate, but there’s enough of it that I could delay the feeling of repetition by alternating which ones I played each day.

Most importantly, there’re plenty of ways to continue meaningfully advancing your character after the level cap. You can change your weapon type and respec your powers at any time (which drastically changes your playstyle) and even train in multiple weapons, which is made easier by the fact that collecting achievements awards you more points to spend on weapon skills.

[ghost]

I just don't understand any concerns with a low level cap.  If the end-game PvP  and raiding is fun, why bother with levels?  Of course this has been rehashed around here a million times already.

[Modern Angel]

This is really disorienting. I just don't know how to react to all the praise. It's making me feel a little nauseated and dizzy.

[Nebu]

This is really disorienting. I just don't know how to react to all the praise. It's making me feel a little nauseated and dizzy.

It's a superficial but fun experience.  If you expect anything that merits a subscription fee, you'll be disappointed. 

I fully expect this game to go F2P within a year.  The game has no real hook to it, which is both its charm and its curse.

[Ginaz]

This is really disorienting. I just don't know how to react to all the praise. It's making me feel a little nauseated and dizzy.

It's a superficial but fun experience.  If you expect anything that merits a subscription fee, you'll be disappointed. 

I fully expect this game to go F2P within a year.  The game has no real hook to it, which is both its charm and its curse.

This is how I feel.  It can be a fun game and seems fairly solidly built but its definately not worth a monthly sub, much like STO.  I would play past the first month if it was F2P or even B2P (same for STO).

[DLRiley]

Review on PC Gamer (final vote: 88  )

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/01/26/dc-universe-online-review/

Snippet:

I hit the level cap in just 30 hours, which might be discouraging except that, for a just-launched MMO, there’s already an absurdly high amount of endgame progression and content available. Specifically, there are six rewarding hard-mode dungeons, two extremely difficult eight-player raids and about 10 hours of diverse, fairly enjoyable repeatable daily content. The daily missions are made up of quests (mostly reworked solo instances), bounties on iconic characters like Bizarro and Flash and rotating “featured maps” in each PvE and PvP mode. I was disappointed that the quests that you’re asked to complete each day don’t automatically rotate, but there’s enough of it that I could delay the feeling of repetition by alternating which ones I played each day.

Most importantly, there’re plenty of ways to continue meaningfully advancing your character after the level cap. You can change your weapon type and respec your powers at any time (which drastically changes your playstyle) and even train in multiple weapons, which is made easier by the fact that collecting achievements awards you more points to spend on weapon skills.

And I'm sold. except for the monthly fee...

[jakonovski]

I can't understand why the fee is such an issue. If the game exhausts its content within a month, then you got a regular ass game that was fun while it lasted.

[Morfiend]

I can't understand why the fee is such an issue. If the game exhausts its content within a month, then you got a regular ass game that was fun while it lasted.

Your logic isn't welcome here!

 

[Malakili]

I can't understand why the fee is such an issue. If the game exhausts its content within a month, then you got a regular ass game that was fun while it lasted.

The long and short of it is that we have been trained over the years that a game with an MMO tag means that we should be able to play it exclusively for 3 years straight without wanting to play something else.  Any game that doesn't live up to this is marked a failure.  It isn't "logical" but I think even those of us who aren't doing it consciously are grasping at new MMOs and hoping one sticks like one did for us 5+ years ago. 

[squirrel]

Conversely as someone who just picked this up on a whim and had no expectations good or bad I'm surprised they didn't go box cost and F2P with a cash shop out of the box. It's perfect for that model. I suspect mgmt wanted predictable recurring revenue that subs bring. That said I've subbed for a month for the discount - I like the combat and leveling speed enough to give them another $15.

[Kageru]

An MMO is probably going to cost more in development and sell less than a single player game as lots of people detest the idea of paying a subscription fee. So if DCUO has been funded on the basis they'll get box sales plus a month or two, which was more or less the cryptic model, all power to them. The question is would they have made more going f2p and cash shop. Which honestly you'd think the DC license and super-hero genre are ideally suited for.

It's no surprise the players consider box + free month a good deal if they're consuming a heap of expensive to produce content in a short amount of time.

[Ratman_tf]

I can't understand why the fee is such an issue. If the game exhausts its content within a month, then you got a regular ass game that was fun while it lasted.

The long and short of it is that we have been trained over the years that a game with an MMO tag means that we should be able to play it exclusively for 3 years straight without wanting to play something else.  Any game that doesn't live up to this is marked a failure.  It isn't "logical" but I think even those of us who aren't doing it consciously are grasping at new MMOs and hoping one sticks like one did for us 5+ years ago. 

Or perhaps that a game that features a subscription service should justify that with content that lasts longer than the free trial?

In udda wurds, why not just make the goddamn game a regular old multiplayer game and skip all the MM nonsense?

[stray]

Why does this have to be another multiplayer rpg or some obviously/catassy/longterm virtual world affair? Why just those two choices? There's more possibility than that. As far as I'm concerned, this game's "possibility" is just to be fun in-the-moment and be massive at the same time. And when that wears off, I'll go somewhere else and not resent it. As far as it's future viability goes, I'll be happy as long as the servers don't get taken offline anytime soon and that the combat doesn't suddenly start sucking from some revamp patch or some shit. That's about it. Otherwise, it's just a game, meant to be played while I'm in it. I'd suggest to approach that way (or don't! Just play something that caters to your sense of longterm investment.).

EDIT: BTW, does anyone here play pistols or rifles? Do high level weapons/skills change animations from ballistic to laser or futuristic weaponry?

[Typhon]

I can't understand why the fee is such an issue. If the game exhausts its content within a month, then you got a regular ass game that was fun while it lasted.

The long and short of it is that we have been trained over the years that a game with an MMO tag means that we should be able to play it exclusively for 3 years straight without wanting to play something else.  Any game that doesn't live up to this is marked a failure.  It isn't "logical" but I think even those of us who aren't doing it consciously are grasping at new MMOs and hoping one sticks like one did for us 5+ years ago. 

Those of us you that are still hoping for another 3-to-5 year love affair need to realize that you've been through ringer a number of times now and YOU have changed... well, all except for the part where you are hoping to give yourself to a game 'for reals!'.  I think this is why I was perfectly happy to have the cheap affair that I had with CO, then move on, while (most) of the rest of you were disgusted with my willingness to have a month worth of booty calls with a cheap tramp.

News flash: Cheap tramps can be fun, just don't expect them to be 1) faithful 2) deliver on their promises 3) have a deep meta game 4) not be obvious about only wanting you for your money.  If you can't accept them for what they are, well, that leads to unhappiness.

News flash 2: You've been around the block so many times, all MMO games look like cheap tramps.  So who's the slut now, eh?  But that's ok, I'm a slut too.  Just don't be a bitter slut, it's unbecoming.