Yay, box art

DC Universe Online the most unique massively multi-player online game that has come out recently.  What makes DC Universe Online unique is that it spites the World of Warcraft formula in favor of Crackdown style game play.  DCUO apes Crackdown and other open world games by including mini-games like race challenges and collectible orbs.  The WoW formula is further shunned by the combat being more involved than hitting the 1 through 6 keys in the right order.  The combat is more exciting than the standard WoW fare because DCUO has introduced button combos and a dodge roll.  The addition of button combos and a dodge roll makes the combat more like Crackdown or Prototype than WoW or City of Heroes.  The unique style of combat makes DCUO play more like a brawler and keeps the combat from feeling like the repetitive grind that plagues most other massively multi-player online games.  The other thing that sets DCUO apart from other MMOs is that all of the quest givers are fully voiced, recognizable DC characters.  Having the Joker or Batman as your main quest giver gives DCUO a lot of character that other MMOs lack and is a huge improvement over getting quests from random faceless NPCs.  Using the DC license to create memorable quest givers really brings the universe to life and makes getting a new quest into a treat.  The combination of good voice acting, recognizable characters, brawler style combat, and sandbox style mini-games puts DC Universe Online head and shoulders above the other massively multi-player online games on the market.

In inclusion of fully voiced DC characters as mentors makes the choice of mentor one of the most important choices in DC Universe Online.  The mentors are the main quest givers and every mentor has its own quest line.  Because every mentor is a well realized character from the DC universe the choice of mentor flavors the whole experience.  For example, having the Joker as your mentor is a much different experience than having Batman as your mentor.  The Joker brings a fun, if psychotic, flavor to the game while Batman is, well, an asshole.  In movies and comics it is fun to watch Batman be an asshole, but having your quest giver be a cold, distrustful asshole gives the game a much different flavor.  With that being said, you should definitely make a character with Batman as your mentor at some point because half the fun of DCUO is seeing what each mentor has to offer.  Each mentor gives every play through a different flavor and those flavors complement the varied combat styles to make every character that you create a unique experience.

Every weapon and power offers a wildly different play style.  The weapons range from pistols to bare handed brawling and each weapon offers unique moves and button combos to give each weapon a unique play style.  The weapons alone give the player a lot of incentive to make multiple characters until you find a weapon and power combo suits your individual play style, and with the amount of options to choose from there is a weapon that suits your play style perfectly.  The combination of weapons and powers breaks DC Universe Online’s character creation out of the tired mage, priest, fighter, and rogue rigmarole that so many other MMOs are stuck in.  The fun and unique combat play styles are made even more fun by the bosses being recognizable DC characters.  Every dungeon has a boss like any other MMO, but in DCUO the bosses are characters like Batman and Robin.  After figuring out what an asshole Batman really is it was a joy to have a chance to stick a knife in his codpiece.  Making the bosses recognizable DC characters makes beating up bosses much more fun than it should be.  I found myself looking forward to the end of each quest line to see what character I would get to beat up next, but if beating up Supergirl or Scarecrow ever gets dull there is a lot more that DCUO has to offer.

Batman is so much fun to shank

Like every other massively multi-player online game, DC Universe Online has Player vs Player combat but it mixes up the PvP formula up in interesting ways.  In addition to the standard Player vs Player arenas that every MMO has, this game uses the DC license to let you plays as iconic figures like Batman and the Joker in PvP arenas.  Each iconic DC character uses a different weapon and power and playing as Harley Quinn or Robin is a good way to try out new weapons and powers without having to invest time and effort into making a new character.  The Player vs Player arenas with iconic DC characters are fun, but if Player vs Player combat is not your bag DCUO also offers group cooperative Player vs Environment  instances.  The cooperative Player vs Environment instances are fun and easy to get a group for, but at time of writing they still need some balancing and debugging.  Go figure.  No big surprise that a new MMO still needs some balancing and debugging the first week of its launch.  Even with bugs and balance issues the instances are still fun and will be even better when they get properly balanced and debugged.  There are endgame raid and duo events as well but they require a max level character, so I have not gotten to play them yet.  If the group instances are any indication then it is safe to say that the raids and duos are basically fun but they still have some balance and bug issues.  Even if group Player vs Environment instances, Player vs Player arenas, or the chance to shank Batman is not your thing DCUO still has something to offer.

In addition to everything else, DC Universe Online offers the same simple pleasures that a sandbox game like Crackdown offers.  Like Crackdown, there are collectibles to find and races to win.  Of course, there is always the simple joy of climbing the tallest building in the game, the Lex Corp Tower in this case, and jumping off.  It even has an achievement system in place to keep track of how many races you have one or how many collectibles you have collected.  The best part of the achievement system is that when you complete enough of the achievements you are rewarded with an extra skill point.  It is good to have a practical reward for the fun dicking around that is bound to happen in a sandbox game anyway.  DC Universe Online has managed to mesh a sandbox style world, MMORPG elements, and brawler style combat into one of the best sandbox games that has come out recently.

DC Universe Online is a massively multi-player sandbox game with brawler style combat that uses the DC license to create a sense of style and character that other massively multi-player games struggle to achieve.  DCUO makes full use of the DC characters with its impressive voice acting and solid script for the mentors, and by creating bosses that are more fun and memorable than the usual MMO fare.  The DC license is even used to turn Metropolis and Gotham City into riotously fun sandbox cities.  All in all, DC Universe Online is an impressively fun game that promises to get better once the balance issues and bugs are worked out.  On a more personal note, DC Universe Online is the most fun I have ever had playing an MMO style game.  If you want to know more, check out the preview article on this site for some links to actual game play footage.