REVIEW: DC Universe fun, for a little while
The Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game landscape is as crowded as most clown cars, and most of the games are about half as recognizable as the passengers of said vehicle. So what do you get when the company that brings you Superman and Batman decides to toss its hat into the ring? You get “DC Universe Online” from Sony Online Entertainment, a game that is mostly fun to play, but suffers from a few design flaws.
The story begins with a future version of Superman’s archenemy, Lex Luthor, escaping from the game’s ultimate enemy. Brainiac, who seeks to absorb earth and it’s specialness with a multitude of little robots called exobytes, that just happen to give regular people a host of superpowers stolen from the heroes of Lex’s future.
Once the stage is set, however, the overarching story is given a backseat to a series of small, self-contained stories where your character, who can be a hero or a villain, fights against popular characters from the comic universe you inhabit. This ultimately works to its benefit, allowing players to divide their game time into smaller chapters if their time is limited.
Gameplay is where the game shows its strengths and weaknesses, with a couple of bizarre design decisions marring an otherwise exciting adventure of superheroes and villains. Character creation is streamlined compared to other super hero MMOs, letting you build the hero of your dreams with ease.
The game sets a few strange limits on choice, however, and your character can only choose from six very strange power sets, including fire powers, gadgets, and sorcery, one of three movement powers and a handful of weapons that will serve as your basic attacks for the rest of the game.
You can also only have three total colors for your outfit, which mostly just serves to keep everything aesthetically pleasing. After a quick tutorial, your character is teleported to your mentor-of-choice’s police station or night club, and you’re given tasks to beat up crooks as well as Batman and Wonder Woman.
As stated, each main quest is its own story, consisting of a couple simple tasks like gathering items dropped by various henchmen, and ending with an infiltration of the enemy’s stronghold to defeat a famous character from DC Comics.
These boss fights are a highlight of the game, teaming you up with one of your side heroes for a more strategic fight in lieu of the button mashing from the rest of the game. Aquaman, for example, summons a series of aquatic creatures for you to battle, while mad monkey Gorilla Grodd tries to mind control you and your buddy The Flash.
If you’re feeling friendly, you can team up with three friends or strangers and respond to the game’s alerts, fighting much more difficult enemies in exotic locales like Area 51 or the moon.
The game’s graphics are less than spectacular, with a considerable amount of textures taking minutes to load even after the game’s many, excruciatingly long load screens. Enemies more than 10 feet in front of you have their animation frames reduced to about a quarter of their total, resulting in giant menacing robots shambling at you like they’re stuck in some terrible stop-motion cinema.
The cities you inhabit, while enormous, seem like ghost towns you’re forced to sprint through to get to actual action zones, and are about as interesting as a third grader’s model of the solar system. Luckily, your various movement abilities let you bypass much of the vast emptiness quickly, and you’ll rarely care how barren the supposedly bustling metropolises are.
Also, barring a few performances like Adam Baldwin, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as Superman, Batman and The Joker, the voice acting in the game is simply terrible. Every hero and villain speaks stiffly, emotions are imperceptible or overacted, and the random remarks from citizens are hilarious in how utterly awful they are.
In contrast to this, the soundtrack to the game is fantastic, capturing the optimism of Metropolis and the crime-ridden streets of Gotham City in a few magnificent bars.
In the end, “DC Universe Online” is a game that’s fun for the first few hours, but becomes increasingly tedious as you reach the level 30 cap, which culminates in the game asking you to redo every single quest on hard mode to unlock the best gear.
It’s a blast to play with some friends, though, so if you’re interested, you’ll have to convince a group to take the dive with you. Just remember to figure out a good way to talk to each other, because the game’s text chat is pretty much impossible to work with on the PS3’s controller. “DC Universe online” is $60, and has a recurring $15 monthly fee.
– nathan.c@aggiemail.usu.edu