DC Universe Online Reviews and Impressions

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Written by BuckGB on January 17th, 2011

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One of my favorite aspects of the game is that you loot new gear and weapons, but you can choose whether or not those items should appear on your character when you equip them. This way, you can get the stat bonus without messing with your physical appearance. My flirty she-villain doesn't look so hot in a flouncy blouse, but I enjoy seeing different looks appear on her as I progress. On the other hand, I love the appearance of my mysterious gadgeteer so much that I refuse to change it. This was a smart way to allow players the satisfaction of collecting loot without forcing a new look on them. And speaking of looks, DC Universe has them. This isn't a technical stunner, but the game's art is colorful and captures the spirit of the source material, and DCUO has performed admirably on both my work and home machines. I've experienced some performance hitches on the PlayStation 3, but nothing particularly earth-shattering.

I have to end this review, as I do every MMO review, with a caveat: It's early yet, and the quality of an MMO depends on how well it can update its gameplay and maintain a solid player base. However, enough money has been sunk into this project ($50 million) that Sony won't abandon it easily, and the early signs are that it's a terrific game. If you're a fan of action, MMOs, or comic books, and if you're looking to commit a lot of time to a single game, DC Universe Online will not disappoint you.

DC Universe Online is a bold experiment in not only bringing MMOs onto consoles, but also giving it a shot of adrenaline and in this case, it works. If you have the time to spare, can ignore a user interface on the level of an Excel spreadsheet, and want to know how it feels to fight alongside Superman, I recommend DC Universe Online.

While I am having fun, and the initial experience of playing the game is great, there are still a number of areas for improvement. I've seen a number of reports regarding input lag for a number of gamers, but it's something that hasn't affected me that much during combat; it could be because the internet connection here at the office is pretty fast. However, I have noticed a lot of lag when navigating through the game menus, and the game automatically selects some of my superpowers when I'm not pressing down the corresponding button. Also, the targeting system is pretty irritating -- for whatever reason when fighting a crowd of enemies, the game likes to auto-target objects instead of the next corresponding enemy.

I have to confess I soon found the hours flying by, with plenty to achieve and lots of distractions to keep me hooked. Sony have been brave to bring this to the PS3, bringing the DC Universe into the MMO world with an almighty bang, if the game is half as good as good as the beta then I'm in serious trouble. I only scratched the surface of this MMO before the beta finally ended, but already this looks to do the DC Universe justice, pleasing many comic book lovers. This is one MMO that could make me part with my hard earned cash and the one to bring the MMO market a reality to console gamers the world over.

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