DC Universe Online Walkthrough Video Game Guide (PC PS3) Heroic Triumph or Villanous Flop?

DC UNIVERSE ONLINE WALKTHROUGH SCREENSHOT

FURTHER DETAILS CAN BE FOUND HERE: DC Universe Online Walkthrough video game guide

Along the way of doing my “due diligence” research for Sony Online Entertainment’s MMO, DC Universe Online, one can’t help but get the impression this is no average release for Sony, with the results having great influence over whether we’ll see more console based pay-for-play in the future. Fortunately, your game professor did get a chance to experience Sony’s world of heroics and villainy, the reason why I was so seemingly fortunate to be explained forthcoming. There’s been buzz about this game since ’09, with fans of DC’s mainstay comic book superheroes and their villainous counterparts eagerly awaiting it’s release in a couple weeks on Jan 11th of the new year. Done right, the gaming potential here is enormous, what kid hasn’t fantasized about what he would do superhuman abilities such as flight, superhuman speed and strength, or the ability to conjure fire/ice as will while he/she’s leafing through their favorite comic ? I know I sure have. So is ability to realize these daydream present in DCUO ? Well, sort of…

First off, character creation. This is in depth, and the choices available in creating your character are abundant. I could spend a paragraph just listing the variables you can manipulate; it’s impressive, but keeping in mind the intended scale of this adventure, also quite necessary unless the players involved don’t mind seeing various shades of Superman and Wonder Woman everywhere they look. Not to say this still may not happen, because templates of your familiar favorites are available for use, but creating your own custom creation should appeal to most. Character created,  the introduction does a decent job of setting up the storyline that cajoles you into wanting to see more. Jailed in Brainiac’s fortress, the your character pursues their freedom while learning the game’s basic mechanics at the same time. When this freedom is achieved the real wonder of the DC Universe Online begins to become apparent. Game lobby entered, the player will see various fellow player online creations busily get prepared to enter in to the DCUO world, by checking their mail, talking to various characters to choose what mission they will pursue and so on. The DCUO world is quite ample, think somewhere in the range of Grand Theft Auto 4, but definitely under that of San Andreas. Once the player is set with their evil or heroic goals outlined, the job traveling to these objectives begins. Early in the game, players will focus largely on succeeding on these solo mission to level up their character, as certain parts of the game are withheld from players until they reach level 9, and then level 30 respectively. Players can opt in or out of whether or not they can be attacked by other online players, a nice touch for those unfamiliar with the game looking to develop their skills and power before taking on their fellow combatants.

All sound fairly alluring so far ? It should, and it is, as DCUO is graphically attractive offering, with a lot of variety in how the hero or villain chooses to play, and in theory, I would wholeheartedly endorse this title except for one massively glaring “minute” detail, the most challenging aspect of playing DCUO, is, well, simply that, getting to play it in the first place. Think of any and all difficulties that go with online gaming; server down, invalid game state detected, serious lag, and outright locked up screen freeze, I encountered them all, and in pretty short order too. Your humble author is looking at a static screen right now in one of these states of non-play as I write this paragraph, which despite all of DCUO’s potential pluses, trumps all other factors unfortunately. I would liken it to finally getting that dream date with the head cheerleader, only to find out she’s a “born again bride of Christ” and never mind first base, you’re not even getting a single swing at bat, you’re benched pal ! For those wondering, this article was composed over several days, sometimes playing DCUO until frozen, and sometimes just trying to get it loaded, so my opinion was not formed in one bad day where a freak anomaly caused these problems. As I type, the last half hour spent trying to log in, unsuccessfully. When I write these articles I always try to be as objective as possible, but I’ll come clean, my primary allegiance is to you, the gamer, because it’s with you that I truly relate, and sometimes commiserate with over these issues. Once the beta is up, SOE, would like to have every purchaser, and this is to the best of my knowledge at the time this was written, pay a $15 a month subscription to play DC Universe Online. My research has led me to believe that during the development of the game, a belief was allowed to persist that DCUO would a free service extended to PSN players, and in that case I would be a lot more lenient, but when were talking about pay-for-play, I truly believe the subscriber deserves clean, uninterrupted play. The most common glitch I was hit with was the “invalid game state detected”, which suggests that the player isn’t properly signed in to begin with, but to test this I would immediately log in elsewhere and sure enough I was immediately recognized. DCUO is not a crossover title, therefore, SOE needs to find enough PSN players alone, willing to pay the ongoing fee and endure these issues. If it doesn’t, I fear that the purchaser of this title could be left with a pretty lonely, unsupported universe, which is a shame because DC Universe Online has a lot going for it…

- Prof. Benny Oblivion