DC Universe Online Previews
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GamePro:
After a quick explanation from future-Luthor about humans becoming super heroes and villains to fight Brainiac, a screen prompt guides users through character creation. The game wisely walks you through basic choices like male/female and good/evil before asking you to pick a mentor figure - it turned out to be a heady nerd experience for me to pick a hero to follow. Also, the costume customization options are wide enough to be overwhelming even without all of the features live yet.
I created a small-statured magic-using archer named Artemissy. I had some drama around picking a Movement Mode type. Acrobatics, Flight, or Super-Speed all essentially do the same thing - help players get to new places on the map more quickly - but the animation styles are so different, it has a real impact on how you see your character. Acrobatics, as it turns out, are more primal and animal-like; flight is more graceful, but cumbersome (especially if you're trying to keep the camera clear of wings you may or may not have); Super-Speed makes you look like a normal human, only sped up three times over. I went with Acrobatics for Artemissy, but I kind of which I'd chosen Flight to back up the character I envisioned her to be.
Examiner:
Finally being able to jump into some action felt like a relief as I was eager to see how the PS3 controls worked with an MMO. The game acts much like a hack-and-slasher though with the square and triangle buttons keying attacks and the L2 and R2 buttons acting as modifiers to enable super-powered attacks with the press of the face buttons. Meanwhile, pressing down on the left thumbstick enables the super ability. In my case it was superspeed and having this ability was a wise choice as it took me three tries to get out of Brainiac's ship because the DCUO servers kept getting reset. After each reset, I was placed all the way back at the beginning.
After escaping Brainiac's ship with my mentor's help, I was dumped into a Metropolis Police Station along with dozens of other newly created characters and given a series of tasks to perform before being sent out to stop Gorilla Grodd's army of gorillas from attacking the city. This is where I finally felt like I was in the game with people running around, fighting and taking on multiple enemies while completing tasks to stop the invasion. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see this through all the way to the end though as the servers were again taken down for a patch just before I was to go after Grodd and none of the worlds came up again for the rest of the day that I had free.
PlayStation University:
The customization of this game is very deep. Unlike fantasy MMOs, superhero MMOs allow tons of customization. In a fantasy MMO, it's expected that the player will collect his own gear throughout the game. However, superhero MMOs don?t work like that, and they will have you customizing every aspect of your hero's look before you jump into the game. You will still find various items around the world that you can use to augment both your hero's aesthetics and abilities, but for the most part, everything will be done in the character creator. You can choose from a wide variety of skin colors (including special skins like plant, rock, and demon), tops, leggings, boots, belts, capes, emblems, masks and hairstyles. You have such a wide selection that you will probably find something that satisfies you. The only categories that could use improvements are the power/weapon selection, emblem and hairstyle categories.
The power selection is too small, to be blunt. Your only options are fire, gadgets, ice, nature, mental powers, and sorcery. How am I supposed to feel like I'm creating a unique character when at least one sixth of the userbase uses the same exact same powers as I do? It's especially irritating to see characters like Superman and Green Lantern have their own unique abilities when I'm stuck with generic powers. I chose fire abilities for my character, but none of the alternatives made me feel like more than a simple grunt.
And Game Rant:
One of the most challenging, but at the same time rewarding aspects of the beta, is the Arenas and Alerts. In the Legends PvP Arenas, if a player has unlocked an iconic character such as Batman or Harley Quinn, they can form a 4-man team to battle another team of players made up of characters that would otherwise never be playable during the game. The PvP Arenas are not for the faint of heart and should only be attempted once a player has leveled up a bit.
The first instance, or Alert as it is called in the game, is Area 51 and attempting the mission with up to four players has to be one of the greatest experiences in the beta if for no other reason than how challenging it is. DCUO really stresses the importance of having a well rounded and balanced team meaning a team that can cover the four primary roles: Damage, Tank, Healer, Controller. By working together, players can ensure that they will not be taken down easily.
