After two full weeks of DC Universe Online, I’ve decided that I’m likely to continue my subscription for another month. Most of the reasons are positive, but there are also some negative issues fueling this decision. Let’s break it down in my rolling review of DCUO.
Documentation — In my first two installments, I forgot to mention how poor DCUO’s documentation is. The manual helps you get started, but does sweet FA at explaining anything in detail. Even the in-game documentation is horrid. So many facets of the game are poorly explained or not explained at all, forcing gamers to search for answers on the Internet or do some trial-and-error learning.
My biggest annoyance was poor or inaccurate details on skills, abilities, and powers. Some of them sound cool or useful based on their text descriptions, but in practice aren’t very good. This makes character customization more difficult and expensive than in ought to be. I had to re-spec my character twice — at $500 a pop — to get his abilities to where I wanted them to be. This is mostly because powers I selected turned out to be different and/or less useful than they were described to be.
This is the negative reason for paying for another month. If the game’s instruction manual was worth a damn then I would have had a much better idea of how to manage powers and abilities from day one. Instead, it has taken me two weeks to understand how to optimally craft my hero. Starting another character with considerably different skills would take even more time to learn…but I’ll just find a “How to Build a DCUO Healer” guide on the Internet. Hell, one of my DCUO friends bought a strategy guide and said, “The strategy guide is what the manual should have been.”
No More Going Solo — I forget the exact level, but somewhere in the mid-20s going solo became a no-no. I could get through the initial stages of a quest by myself, but the boss fights were impossible. Keep in mind that my character isn’t a tank and can’t absorb the amount of damage these high-level bosses dole out. Thankfully my companions in the “Super Buddies” league — Complication and MarVol — and some random questers helped me vanquish these tough bosses.
The funny part is that while the bosses are tough when going solo, they’re a frickin’ joke with three or more characters.
Life After 30 — I hit level 30 — the game’s current cap — over the weekend and was surprised by how much content it unlocked. I knew that there were be raids and duo quests, but I was completely wrong in assuming that the game would completely change its focus to PvP activity. I was surprised and pleased by all the story-driven quests that become available when you hit the cap.
My next observation could be totally wrong, but I seem to be bumping into more DC heroes randomly fighting crime than I did prior to hitting the cap. This is cool since it makes the world seem more alive and I mark out when I bump into established DCU characters…though it is off-putting when their voice sounds nothing like the one I imagined it to be.
Una Mas — The level 30 content combined with finally understanding more about character creation makes me want to give the game another month. I’m going to keep tackling the high-level content with my first character, but I also plan to make a staff-wielding healer and adventure with one of my Sony friends on another server.
It’s interesting that so many people in DCUO focus on damage-per-second and want to play it like a pure action game. I’d bet that PC players generally do a better job crafting characters into specific roles like tanks, controllers, and healers. In my two weeks with DCUO, I haven’t encountered many healers. Hopefully my next character will be able to help others out…and hopefully some of you will start playing too! Anyone? Anyone?!?
