When it was announced that DC Universe Online would be released free-to-play on the Playstation Network I was excited. I've only ever played World of Warcraft, and a little bit of Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, both of which are essentially the same game with different levels of polish (in WoW's case, a spit shine, in WAR's case, just spit). I've always been curious about Superhero MMO's, so this was the opportunity I've been waiting for.
Of course at 14GB, some sacrifices were still necessary. My PS3 has an old 80GB drive, so say goodbye to just about all of the utility data I had. The only fortunate side of this is I have a fantastic internet connection for my neck of the woods and got the download done in roughly 12 hours (give or take a few minutes).
The character building is a lot of fun. I've spent more time creating characters than I have actually playing the game, but that's part of the fun of games like these. Anyone who plays D&D knows that character building is part of the experience. So after a few hours of going back and forth between god-like metahumans the size of walking bulldozers, I took a step back and decided to play the Peter Parker card; a flawed kid who somehow gets it in his head that he needs to use his abilities for good. While young, he's not looking to be the next Robin, he thinks he's right up there with Batman, and I dressed him in a dark costume, domino mask and hood so he can be suitably ninja-like. He has gadgets and acrobatic skills, and prefers to fight with a bo staff (I would have preferred a cane for some bartitsu action but this was close enough).
Viola, Muckraker was born. An odd name I know, but in my daydreamed back-story he became a costumed vigilante not to beat up thugs, but to expose corporate and political crime. His mother died when he was very young and his father - a 9/11 first-responder - was crippled in that tragic event, only for his savings to be stolen by an investment scam. Going undercover he stole incriminating evidence, and in WikiLeaks fashion he and his girlfriend posted it on the internet for all to see. The company went under from government investigation but Wayne Enterprises bought it out, saving the employees. Believing that his method works, he started doing more to expose corruption, using internet resources to learn how to build his gadgets and taking on a costume to hide his identity. He doesn't want to be superhero, he's more like the guys from Anonymous who show up in Guy Fawkes masks.
Of course you don't get into the vigilante business without making a few enemies and the kid who was "just a Muckraker" has had to expand, taking on mobsters and occasionally small-time costumed villains who exploit the law. He's usually in over his head, but he's good at thinking on his feet and his girlfriend provides constant Oracle-style support.
Anyways, very little of that translates into an MMO without a lot of RP, which is something the PS3 just can't do without everyone using keyboards or headsets. I really don't count on seeing much of that anyways, not when such colorful characters as "Captain Manure" and "Psychogranny" are running around. One of the drawbacks of a game like DCUO is that it brings to light just how ridiculous the DC Universe is: with so many heroes running around a city, you'd fully expect to see five or six of them ganging up on a single mugger, and even though you're supposed to be a valued defender of the night, you spend more of your time running up and down the streets in hopes of finding a crime in progress.
When you do get into battle, you find that your options for combat and powers allow for a great deal of freedom and fun. You feel more unique not just for your costume, but for how you customize your character's combat style. Fists and fire, arrows and sorcery, etc. There's plenty to choose and while not all-inclusive it provides enough customizing to keep you from feeling too much like just another face in a herd of heroes (or villains).
That overpopulating brings up the game's biggest flaw, however. Loading times. There are a ton. A good long one just to bring up your character list (which for free-to-play players is a paltry 2 slots), and then another one to bring you into the game itself, which if the game world is crowded can take a long, long time. I literally left my game loading while I went out for lunch, came back an hour later and it was still showing off Powergirl's ridiculous costume. I've gotten crazy amounts of lag, more than a few server disconnects, and the game seriously slows down in hub zones like Gotham's police stations.
I realize this is, in part, due to the large number of players that were sure to come from the free-to-play option, and that since the game is technically free I can't complain too much, but shouldn't this possibility have been addressed during the decision to make the game free? And what about the players who do have paid accounts? Do they get special treatment or are they stuck with Wonder Woman's blank-eyed loading screen as well? Are the FTP servers different from the paid ones? If so how would I transfer a character to a non-FTP server? Or would I have to pay for that?
Well, in a month I suspect the number of players drawn by the FTP will thin out and things may quiet down. For the time being though, I can't rightly say it's worth the 14GB download, free or not. I can't play the game unhindered enough to give a reasonable answer.
I really do like Muckraker though. Is DC looking for new material? A young vigilante doing things Anonymous-style would make a good read.
Of course at 14GB, some sacrifices were still necessary. My PS3 has an old 80GB drive, so say goodbye to just about all of the utility data I had. The only fortunate side of this is I have a fantastic internet connection for my neck of the woods and got the download done in roughly 12 hours (give or take a few minutes).
The character building is a lot of fun. I've spent more time creating characters than I have actually playing the game, but that's part of the fun of games like these. Anyone who plays D&D knows that character building is part of the experience. So after a few hours of going back and forth between god-like metahumans the size of walking bulldozers, I took a step back and decided to play the Peter Parker card; a flawed kid who somehow gets it in his head that he needs to use his abilities for good. While young, he's not looking to be the next Robin, he thinks he's right up there with Batman, and I dressed him in a dark costume, domino mask and hood so he can be suitably ninja-like. He has gadgets and acrobatic skills, and prefers to fight with a bo staff (I would have preferred a cane for some bartitsu action but this was close enough).
Viola, Muckraker was born. An odd name I know, but in my daydreamed back-story he became a costumed vigilante not to beat up thugs, but to expose corporate and political crime. His mother died when he was very young and his father - a 9/11 first-responder - was crippled in that tragic event, only for his savings to be stolen by an investment scam. Going undercover he stole incriminating evidence, and in WikiLeaks fashion he and his girlfriend posted it on the internet for all to see. The company went under from government investigation but Wayne Enterprises bought it out, saving the employees. Believing that his method works, he started doing more to expose corruption, using internet resources to learn how to build his gadgets and taking on a costume to hide his identity. He doesn't want to be superhero, he's more like the guys from Anonymous who show up in Guy Fawkes masks.
Of course you don't get into the vigilante business without making a few enemies and the kid who was "just a Muckraker" has had to expand, taking on mobsters and occasionally small-time costumed villains who exploit the law. He's usually in over his head, but he's good at thinking on his feet and his girlfriend provides constant Oracle-style support.
Anyways, very little of that translates into an MMO without a lot of RP, which is something the PS3 just can't do without everyone using keyboards or headsets. I really don't count on seeing much of that anyways, not when such colorful characters as "Captain Manure" and "Psychogranny" are running around. One of the drawbacks of a game like DCUO is that it brings to light just how ridiculous the DC Universe is: with so many heroes running around a city, you'd fully expect to see five or six of them ganging up on a single mugger, and even though you're supposed to be a valued defender of the night, you spend more of your time running up and down the streets in hopes of finding a crime in progress.
When you do get into battle, you find that your options for combat and powers allow for a great deal of freedom and fun. You feel more unique not just for your costume, but for how you customize your character's combat style. Fists and fire, arrows and sorcery, etc. There's plenty to choose and while not all-inclusive it provides enough customizing to keep you from feeling too much like just another face in a herd of heroes (or villains).
That overpopulating brings up the game's biggest flaw, however. Loading times. There are a ton. A good long one just to bring up your character list (which for free-to-play players is a paltry 2 slots), and then another one to bring you into the game itself, which if the game world is crowded can take a long, long time. I literally left my game loading while I went out for lunch, came back an hour later and it was still showing off Powergirl's ridiculous costume. I've gotten crazy amounts of lag, more than a few server disconnects, and the game seriously slows down in hub zones like Gotham's police stations.
I realize this is, in part, due to the large number of players that were sure to come from the free-to-play option, and that since the game is technically free I can't complain too much, but shouldn't this possibility have been addressed during the decision to make the game free? And what about the players who do have paid accounts? Do they get special treatment or are they stuck with Wonder Woman's blank-eyed loading screen as well? Are the FTP servers different from the paid ones? If so how would I transfer a character to a non-FTP server? Or would I have to pay for that?
Well, in a month I suspect the number of players drawn by the FTP will thin out and things may quiet down. For the time being though, I can't rightly say it's worth the 14GB download, free or not. I can't play the game unhindered enough to give a reasonable answer.
I really do like Muckraker though. Is DC looking for new material? A young vigilante doing things Anonymous-style would make a good read.
