DC UNIVERSE ONLINE

[Max Payne]

For those of you unfamiliar with this, this is an online action game where you create your own hero or villain and fight alongside the DCU's famous characters in the world of DC announced about a year ago.

Combat is real-time with dynamic powers that work together. You can be a speedster like the flash, have super strength, be an acrobatic martial artist like Batman, an archer, a sword fighter, a gun toting maniac, just about any kind of character you like in the DCU.

All of the art in the game is being handled by Jim Lee, and it's looking pretty good. Character customization is incredibly robust, and all of the loot you pick up is automatically incorporated into your costume's design scheme.

There is a leveling system in place but before anyone whines about it, there's stuff in place to make it less "grind" and give you a chance at beating most enemies even if you're a lower level. The world is mostly shared public space with content dynamically generated by your who your character is and how you've designed him/her.

Players will participate in missions designed by comic book writers and centered around working together with other heroes, both famous and user generated. There's talk of joining the Justice League, Justice Society, the Legion of Doom, and he Secret Society of Villains. Hell they're even talking of giving folks Green Lantern rings as a possibility. There's going to be a rivalry system in play for users who've battle several times before too, or so I've heard.

To make things better, the game will be completely free to play after initial purchase, and the servers will be platform open, so PS3 users and PC users will be able to play together.

The game is still in active development, so a lot of the assets are still in the works, but here's a few screens:

Spoiler

There's going to be a variable ten shitloads of characters from the DCU in the game, from the most famous to the more obscure, so far these have all been confirmed(copied from wiki since they had already done the work).

Heroes

• Adam Strange
• Ambush Bug
• Aquaman
• Atom
• Azrael
• Batgirl
• Batman
• Bat-Mite
• Batwoman
• Beast Boy
• Black Canary

• Black Lightning
• Blue Beetle
• Booster Gold
• Brainiac 5
• Captain Atom
• Captain Marvel
• Congo Bill
• Creeper
• Cyborg
• Doctor Fate
• Etrigan the Demon

• Fire
• Firestorm
• Flash
• Grace
• Green Arrow
• Green Lantern
• Hawkgirl
• Hawkman
• Huntress
• Lobo
• Martian Manhunter

• Metamorpho
• Nightwing
• Plastic Man
• Power Girl
• Question
• Raven
• Ravager
• Red Tornado
• Robin
• Sgt. Rock
• Spectre

• Spy Smasher
• Starfire
• Supergirl
• Superman
• Swamp Thing
• Tasmanian Devil
• Vigilante
• Vixen
• Wildcat
• Wonder Woman
• Zatanna

Villains [3][4][13]

• Ares
• Bane
• Batzarro
• Bizarro
• Black Adam
• Black Manta
• Black Mask
• Blue Snowman
• Brainiac
• Captain Boomerang
• Captain Cold
• Catwoman
• Cheetah
• Cheshire
• Circe

• Clayface
• Clock King
• Cyborg Superman
• Darkseid
• Deathstroke
• Doctor Poison
• Doomsday
• Firefly
• General Zod
• Gentleman Ghost
• Gorilla Grodd
• Hades
• Harley Quinn
• Heat Wave
• Hush

• Joker
• Key
• Killer Croc
• Killer Frost
• King Shark
• Lex Luthor
• Livewire
• Mad Hatter
• Man-Bat
• Maxie Zeus
• Merlyn
• Metallo
• Mongul
• Mr. Freeze
• Mr. Mxyzptlk

• Mr. Zsasz
• Ocean Master
• Parasite
• Penguin
• Poison Ivy
• Prankster
• Prometheus
• Ra's al Ghul
• Riddler
• Scarecrow
• Silver Banshee
• Silver Swan
• Sinestro
• Solomon Grundy
• Tattooed Man

• Toyman
• Trickster
• Two-Face
• Ultra-Humanite
• Ultraman
• Ventriloquist
• Zoom

Here's a video with a peek at some of the custom characters that are possible plus some gameplay:

Combat still looks a little stiff, but I could live with it, and they may be doing some tweaks to the animations in the future, but it's not looking that bad for an MMO. Better than automated combat as far as I'm concerned.

Here's hoping it turns out pretty well, given that it's worth at least a shot given the lack of a monthly fee.

For a DCU fan like me this can either be a massive success, or a massive failure.

 

[Anatoliae]

It looks very impressive!

I hope this is successful, I'd love to get my hands on it.

 

[Alex]

Gotham City of Heroes?

 

[Max Payne]

Gotham City of Heroes?

No. Just no. Game's structured differently and designed different from the battle system to the missions. It's not just Gotham either, Metropolis, Coast City, and several other locations will be appearing too.

goddamn you alex.

Champions Online is more like City of Heroes.

 

[Interslicery]

Yeah, Champions Online is like City of Heroes 2.0

But I could have SWORE that DC Online got canceled a few months ago :/

 

[Max Payne]

The game didn't start getting any screenshots/gameplay videos until a few months ago.

The MARVEL online game got canceled a few months ago. That must be what you're thinking of.

 

[Interslicery]

Probly, I didnt even know there was a Marvel one in the works.

 

[Eerie]

Yeah the Marvel one was cancelled. I didn't know a DC was on though.

I'm not sure about any game made by Sony though. I simply don't trust them, look what they did with Star Wars. Ugh. A lot of gamers were really angry - and I know a lot ranted about EQ2 too.

Graphically speaking, they look like wax, but it's always been like that with Sony. The urban backgrounds definitely remind me of CoH/Champions. I'm not sure how they're going to interest people in this. It's all about the fun and the gameplay, and CoH/Champions are, for that, I admit, already very good. So while playing those characters can be a plus for them, if the gameplay doesn't follow, that's going to be hard on them. And if they copy too much on CoH/Champions, they're going to be criticized too.

I've left CoH for now and I'm having fun with LOTRO, but I basically switch between those two games. For me, those games and DDO bring out the best gameplays and the most fun. But who am I to talk. I'm a Turbine fangirl after all

 

[Max Payne]

The game is nothing like City of Heroes or Champions in terms of gameplay and structure, and those "urban backgrounds" are famous DCU cities.

This game isn't being handled anything like Star Wars Galaxies either, which was a shitty game all around. It's being worked on by DC's own people, and Jim Lee's been involved from the start.

The game already has a huge following thanks to the properties involved, and it has no issue when it comes to garner interest in it. The no monthly fee has already drawn more attention than there previously was.

 

[Eerie]

You'd be surprised - for a lot of gamers, the no monthy fees is a huge drawback. Basically, it means that to be able to compete with others, you're forced to pay much more than the usual fee - that and well... a lot of 'free' online games are rather shitty.

Just in my circle of friends, who all play online games, no one wants to play a free game.

Also, I have no worries for drawing the attention TO the game. It's to make people stay that it's much more difficult. I've seen many new MMOs killers be born and dead 3 months after. That's what I was saying - albeit not very coherently, I'll admit.

Up until now, the best gameplay is still UO after all. And AC.

 

[Max Payne]

You'd be surprised - for a lot of gamers, the no monthy fees is a huge drawback. Basically, it means that to be able to compete with others, you're forced to pay much more than the usual fee - that and well... a lot of 'free' online games are rather shitty.

Just in my circle of friends, who all play online games, no one wants to play a free game.

The game is not "free" you still have to pay 60 bucks to play the game unless you rent. They're looking to make more money off expansions as opposed to making money off items ingame.

I'm no n00b to online gaming, so I know what you're talking about. I doubt it's going to be an issue here.

Also, I have no worries for drawing the attention TO the game. It's to make people stay that it's much more difficult. I've seen many new MMOs killers be born and dead 3 months after. That's what I was saying - albeit not very coherently, I'll admit.

The game isn't meant to be an MMO killer, it's meant to appeal to the thousands of DCU fans out there, be it of the comics or cartoons. I'm sure the developers would like it to be a WoW killer, but I find it unlikely.

If it achieves what it sets out to do, it will keep the attention of a moderately large group of people for some time.

 

[Eerie]

If they develop the game with the niche idea, then they should be fine. Anything too grand might make take them down though :/ So I'm hoping they'll do everything as planned. I like those kind of games the most, after all XD

Also, paying fees for an online game is fine. Some updates are jokes alright, but I still remember that AC1/AC2 and CoH had major updates that some would have make players pay through expansions for 'free' just because they considered them as updates for their game.

 

[Max Payne]

Paying monthly fees for online games has always come off as incredibly stupid to me. Especially after paying to own the damn game. WoW makes millions of dollars off of people paying for that shit each month.

The only reason I'm buying this one is because it's going to be free, because I know there's going to be times I wouldn't be able to pay the fee if it wasn't.

 

[Max Payne]

Welp this one is going to be subscription after all. 15 bucks a month :/

Fail. I hope I can work out my life so I can play it.

Beta registration is available on the site now.

Also http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-gttv-dc-universe/701914 HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH EPIC INCOMING

 

[Interslicery]

are you fuckin serious? ugh.. thats the big hurdle for me for playing mmos, if there's a sub fee I'll barely look at it. tho if anything'd break me of that, it'll be this.

 

[Geostigma]

15$ is 2 hours of work, you can cut someones yard and probably get enough for 2 months of work.
Its not so hard to pay off sub fees.

 

[Interslicery]

I got no problem paying them off, I dont just want to pay 60$ for a copy of a game, then pay additional fees to actually play it. it's not the cost, it's the principle.

 

[Geostigma]

Fair enough but its DC :<

 

[Max Payne]

Last time voicing the joker my ass.

Hamil and Conroy confirmed for DCUNIVERSE online.

 

[Joker]

I learned over the weekend that one of my friends down in Austin works on this game. =/

 

[Super Mario]

Hamill should just accept his destiny.

 

[Interslicery]

Hamill should just accept his destiny.

 

[Cthulhu]

On the subscription fee: If it fails, it'll soon enough become free to play with microtransactions and things. See also: D&D Online, LotR Online (if i'm right), etc.

MMO's these days fail. They're either humongous grindfests that only Koreans and children enjoy, small-time niche MMO's made and maintained by one-game companies, or WoW.

 

[Interslicery]

Guy in the beta's doing playthroughs to give a sense of how the game plays.

Looks like it could be pretty good.

 

[Joe]

I have renewed hope in this game.