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DC Universe Online General Article: A Basic Recap of DCUO
MMORPG.com columnist Angie Webb recently had the opportunity to sit in on a live demo of DC Universe Online. During the demo, she saw developers play through an area called Amusement Mile, the proverbial playground of The Joker and Harley Quinn. Find out what Angie thought of the demo and about some of the nifty small touches devs have included in the game (the Jester hat equip!).
By Angie Webb on September 01, 2010
Recently, I got a quick peek at DC Universe Online, which is being developed by Sony Online Entertainment at their Austin studio. If you’ve seen any E3 videos about this game, then this glancing overview will sound familiar. I would advise checking out the trailer for this game. It helps set the stage for the game and you can also see the handsome Superman’s lovely salt and pepper hair.
If you know anything about comics then you’ll understand that there’s a simple breakdown: superheroes or villains. Those are your sides. When you pick your side, you can then customize your character around the idea of a specific superhero or villain. You cannot play THE Batman, but you can select the Batman-type and add superpowers that fit what you’d like to play, such as super speed or flying. You can make your costume look similar to your hero/villain type as well.
Russell Shanks, COO of SOE, gave the presentation we saw. It was a single-player area of Gotham called Amusement Mile. This is Joker and Harley’s play area. The demo was played on the PS3. The controls are a little awkward to get used to at first if you’re used to the PC, but if you’re familiar with the PS3 controller then it should be no problem. The goal of the demo was to stop the Joker and Harley Quinn from releasing laughing gas into Gotham, and also to find Robin, who’d gone missing.
The scene opened up in a warehouse with festive blinking Christmas lights hanging from the ceiling, and many large colorful gift boxes and enormous striped bouncy balls placed around the room. The Batman-looking character made his way through the level, throwing presents and balls at the bad guys, while navigating using a map in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Half way through he ran into two of Harley Quinn’s henchman. “Batman” used an ability that froze one of the bad guys, encasing him in an icy bubble. Zap! “Holy freeze ray, Batman!” Then he used the ice bubble as a missile weapon by hurling it at the other bad guy. Boff! Finally, smashing the bubble on the ground knocked out the still-encased first henchman. Kapow!
At the end of the level, the Batman-ish character found Robin tied up with Harley dancing around him teasing and mocking you. A lot more fighting took place, with things, and people, being thrown around. Harley Quinn has fantastic sucker-punch ability; a huge red boxing glove that delivers a giant punch to the face. Sock! She also used a very large jackhammer that she sometimes bangs herself in the foot with, resulting in her hopping around in pain for a few seconds. Holy huge hammer, Batman! Zonk!
After the fight, the Batman character is able to free Robin, who responds “Thanks for the help. Not that I couldn’t have gotten out by myself … eventually.” You receive Harley’s jester hat, too. The character is able to equip this hat, but, instead of it being red and black when put in, it automatically adjusts colors to fit the owner. This seems like a great feature to have to ensure that outfits always match. No clown-suit heroes in DCUO! My concern with this game, and this is solely based on the demo and the amount of information given, is that it feels more like a single-player brawler than an MMO. I was unable to see how game play would function with multiple people in the world. However, the game looks fantastic and the action combat is great.
When I talked to John Smedley (president of SOE) about DCUO, I asked him what his favorite part of the game is, his reply was “the action combat”. He had this to say, “It’s never been done in an MMO before. I’m excited about the idea that you can pick up a bus, throw it, and hit somebody with it, and they can pick it back up and use it as a shield or hit you (back) with it.”
It’s very difficult to decide how a game (especially an MMORPG) feels and plays from such a short demo. We didn’t get to see any of the social aspects of the game, and we didn’t get to see any crafting either, although both are reported to appear in the game. There is a ton of focus on the IP and the ability to be a superhero, which is very cool. But I’m hoping that, at future upcoming conventions, we’ll get to see more about the other systems in the game, and the features that traditional MMO players will be intrigued about.
The release date is set for November 2, 2010.
Not a bad write up for such a limited experience with the demo.
But asking the President of SOE what he liked was a waste. I only say that because I can more or less promise his hands on with the game was something along the lines of him stopping by the DCUO offices and asking, "So whats the catch? What are you doing that no one else is?"
And one of the Devs says, "Were making it so someone can throw stuff at other people, like cars. And the other person can throw it back, we're calling it Action Combat!"
Smedly; "Action Comics?"
Dev: "No, ACTION COMBAT!"
To me its seems it just going to be another skinned over beat-em-up game.
Would'nt it be awesome if they used a little bit more dynamic thinking with game design.
Imagine if you're doing missions at the docks trying to find out why some shipping containers are missing. So you defeat the 1st low level boss, and the mission branches. You have the choice to go it as a caped crusader...or you can put on your everyday clothes and try to work your way into the organization that way.
I think its going to be all POW! BANG! ZONK! ...sigh
Two months to launch......
Closed beta not underway........
Don't get me wrong, I'm hyped up and ready for this, but I'm getting kinda worried that the projected release date is going to hit them on the head like Harley's hammer. I'm thinking it'll get pushed back to Christmas at least; if not Q1 '11. Maybe they have a ton of internal testing going on and they think everything will come out fine. /shrug
So far all the Demos have been heavy action things. I understand that at Conventions where you can only play for 1/2 an hour or so that this is all there is time for; but I am beginning to wonder about the more social MMO type of things-crafting, housing, hobbies, etc.
This close to release the game should not be limited to scripted demos that the developers play through for the media in a short timeset. They should be letting people play and experience the games features instead of promising that they are in game and talking about how awesome they are.
Who cares about the "Social" aspect of the game, I don't buy games to say "Hi how was your day today?" I buy these games to beat you to a pulp and then rinse and repeat =)
Leave the "Cyber chatting" to games like Second life etc, games like DCUO are about tearing the place apart and then some.
Can't wait to slip into some spandex once again and prowl the streets of Gotham.
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By social aspect the poster probably meant grouping, player interactions, questing and such... more of the traditional MMO characteristics. Obviously there will be PVP but so far all they have shown is PVP on the PS3. Someone show me one demo done on PC that shows and type of group or solo content in the PVE realm. As I've posted many times... and I hope I'm wrong... I think we may be looking at an arcade style, button mashing console port on the PC. They have to bring a lot more than fancy graphics and PVP to the table if they want to compete with CoH.
I can do all the "action" stuff in games that do not cost me a monthly fee. With an MMO I expect depth and lots of it. If the game only has "action based combat" going for it at release then it will not have any longevity with the average MMO player. Sure, it will be fun in the short term but, will the average MMO player still be interested a few months down the road?
Nerd..
Pretty much why i think DCUO isnt really going to be all that good, its all very well having a halfway decent single player experience - which for the moment is assuming a hell of a lot, but the MMO part of the game has to be developed too, at the moment it doesnt even seem to have that element, and to be successful this game has to be at least as good as COH/COV, which im just not seeing at all, at the moment i dont see this game even being as good as CO.. its good that their putting the game on console too - though if its a vapid PC port, it will only hinder the games takeup even more. overall, i'd say this game has very little to offer - based on what has been shown so far that is, perhaps its because the game is being optimised for the PS3... not exactly a solid platform to build an MMO on, or at least, a bit of a 'wobbly one' at the moment i have every reason to believe that the only Epic part of this game will be the rate of failure... hopefully they will prove me wrong.. just dont hold your breath.
I can see where so many are coming from when they have not shown the story elements in game or how players will interact with one another. I know that some of you aren't saying there won't be a story for a game based around an IP like DC comics the story will be there but hard to show for game show floors and conventions where people only get limited interaction with the game so it is best to show the combat mechanics and look of the game.
I am wondering how they will handle chat on the PS3 version will it be headset majority or will a keypad be required. I am still interested in this game because I love comics not just DC or Marvel and have hopes for this game considering how poorly a game CO is right now (although they are changing things to get the game a bit better). I've played City of Heroes since it's early beta and it is rather long in the tooth although the expansion has brought new life into that game.
STO comes to mind... Devs need to realise that MMORPGs are not just a single player game with multiplayer options. You need persistance, crafting, raiding/PvP etc to make it worth paying a monthly fee.
Action combat for sure is not enough to make people subscribe...
The minute I see Spider Jerusalem in a screenshot is the minute I preorder the game.
yeah dude...why not move our WC in the room and the fridge and never get out of the house :). It's a game ffs...you want hobbies? Go play a sport or something. Social MMO? get out of the house and socialize :).
I would advise not coming on an MMO forum to tell others to get out of the house and socialize, or go play a sport...
I think what he meant by hobbies was more so mini-games. Not like, superhero scrap-booking or anything. Social interaction is also very important in an MMO where one of the main ideas (right there in the name) is multiplayer.
Do you want a hands on idea of DCUO?
I did this demo at Fan Faire 2010. I like this game. All the mechanics are there for what John stated. What makes the combat different is (taking advantage of the console element) you earn your special combat Combos through out your progression. Those combos are in the form of patterned key strokes much like a fight game such as Streetfighter. It still plays like MMO combat but you have choices and those choices have special moves and animations. At the time, there was no indication of any of the non-combat actions (I asked) or crafting but they have not ignored this. To make it a MMO they have to consider what side things to add. DCUO guys, however, were totally focused on combat and making it a new experiance to MMO players.