The Furious Angels
FA Discussion => Off Topic => Topic started by: likwidtek on February 01, 2011, 11:56:02 am
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Created a new thread because I didn't like the SWTOR vs DCUO as I don't see it that way. I see it as DCUO *until* SWTOR for me.
Anywho. My villain just hit lvl 30 on Blood and Glory last night. I'd like to start doing some raiding and going through a lot of the end game content. I'll be rolling a few extra guys I'm sure but I wanted to see where you guys are all at so far. List your dudes! (I only have one at the moment)
Just post in this format: (I'll start)
Name: likwidtek
lvl: 30
Team: Villain
P/W/M: Sorcery/Dual Pistol/Flight
Specializations: Healing / DPS
Server: Death and Glory
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I think the only people playing are you and Venlar.
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Subb too I think. I thought there might be more.
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I also play it. I have both a hero and villain, and honestly, I think I might play my hero more. The villains have given me A LOT more trouble than the heroes ever did.
It's a great game, I think. And definitely gonna take up most of my time until SWTOR comes out.
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It's a great game, I think. And definitely gonna take up most of my time until SWTOR comes out.
Nice, Also.. You're in Phoenix too? Neat!
Anyways, Here's a pretty good read. Fairly accurate review that outlines it's flaws and strengths pretty well.
I'd say that DC Universe is built to provide about 40 to 50 hours of mostly forgiving action gameplay. But then it decides you're serious enough that you're ready to get your ass kicked with some seriously challenging endgame stuff. It's simultaneously daunting and thrilling.
"I don't want any part of PvP. Who wants to get ganked when he's just trying to do a quest? I mean, seriously, PvP is for people who just want to grief each other, right?"
That was me when I first started playing DC Universe. Here's me now:
"You're not playing DC Universe unless you're playing on a PvP server."
http://www.gamepro.com/article/reviews/218046/dc-universe-online-pc/
In other news: the first update for DCUO is pretty huge!
http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/114/1147019p1.html
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Name: Lotier
Team: Hero
Server: Zero Hero
Name: Sivir
Team: Hero
Server: Death and Glory
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Sweet! I don't have a Hero on Death and Glory though. Lazarus what server and what level are your dudes on?
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Just rolled Ashe FrostArcher (Villian) on Death and Glory.
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Nice, if you're on, I'll add you to the league when I get home.
You can /t likwidtek, Zamboney, Robot Rock or Sith Cylon and they'll invite you as well.
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That. Was completely accurate. :)
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Please. Oh look, he logged in... decided it wasn't WoW and hated it based on it not being like WoW. Gee.
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It's a bad game, lik. Champions Online has much better combat/UI and is FREE. SOE is simply riding the wave of the IP.
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I'll try Champions Online and give it a go to confirm whether or not what I've heard is true. But I totally do not agree with you that DCUO is a bad game. Obviously for me and my friend's that's not true because we are still having a blast playing. The combat is ridiculously fun and exciting, the PVP is great and I'm still not bored! I'm not sure what you think is bad about it. I enjoy the combat not being like WoW or other traditional MMOs (where it's autoattack and click button to execute power). It's action twitch fighting which is refreshing. I get to dodge, roll, block, counter and kick off neat combos. If I don't like my fighting style, no biggie, pick up a new weapon type, respec and totally new game play experience. Lots and lots of it reminds me of the good parts of MxO.
The character customization and style system needs to be copied into every future game. ever. It's genius. The initial creation is not as dynamic as something like CoH (It's still really good) but people think that's all there is. As you play you collect items which have styles. Like each head or shoulder piece or weapon has a style that you add to your collection. As you go through the game you can change each piece of your toon to look like any previous style that you've ever collected! I can totally change the look and image of my guy any time I want for giggles which is so rad. I swear if MXO had this we would have had so much fun with it.
The trek to max level is the furthest thing from a grind that I've ever experienced in an MMO. It goes by pretty quick but long enough to make you work for it. It's hard to explain. I don't think it's too short but it's most definitely not too long. The missions do not suck at all. Incredible voice over work, great stories, lots and lots and lots of fun comic fan service. This is the only MMO where I've gotten to max level and been sad because I didn't get to do more quests. I'm actually going back and doign them just because there were so many fun missions. Plus I get feats for collecting items and completing content which give you more skill points to make your dude more powerful. Which brings me to all the down time content which is pretty rad. There are Feats (read: achievements) that you get for all kinds of stuff but for each 10 feats you accomplish you get you get a skill point which you can use to buy weapon or skill powers. Some feats are for simple stuff like exploring all of the districts of all of the cities, (which by the way, when ZP says the city is boring and dull he's out of his flippin mind. The cities are ridiculously amazingly well done. The art, time and attention to detail is mind boggling. ESPECIALLY if you have ever even remotely enjoyed the comics). Aside from all the feats, there are the Races which are fun. (single and multiplayer races). All of the collections, and investigations that you have to try and hunt down in the game add more story and lore and satisfy many of the collectors and completionists. Then there are PvP bounties, wanted bounties (you have to get with a bunch of friends to take down known characters like Bizarro, supergirl, the FLash etc..). These are fun because they're open world, pretty hard and you not only have to accomplish the task of taking down the hero or villain from the comics but you have to worry about PvP battles that break out during these as well as any mobs that are in the area. These are good fun and a pretty good way to level too. There are lots of PvP missions too. Even if you aren't on a PvP server there are PvP arenas that are pretty awesome. There are ones where you play as yourself or you can play as a well known hero or villain. You earn credits that allow you to purchase and unlock these guys and they are basically prebuilt new characters with maxed out everything that you can battle other people with similar toons. It's fun. So as far as the PvP goes, there's open world PvP which is my favorite as I'm on a PvP server, the "Legends" pvp where you get to play as batman or the joker or whatever... or Arena PvP where you and a bunch of others are dropped into an instance to either duke it out or compete to complete objectives. Personally I don't do the Arena or Legends PvP as the open world PvP is way more fun for me.
That's all stuff you can do while leveling and after. After... there's the raiding which I'm just starting to get into. The raiding is awesome. 2 man (Duos), Alerts (4 man) and Raids (8 man) are all super well done, super fun, easily accessible while still being extremely challenging. The whole journey to max level seemed like training to prepare me to get my ass handed to me in end game. Heh. In a good way though. I have spent more time in end game than I have pre-max level and have not come CLOSE to completing everything. There's so much to do and many awesome raids and loots to acquire. So far so good. I'm starting to finally get some really good gear and my guy is getting super awesomely powered. Pretty exciting. Again, still not bored, still exciting and fun every day.
I like that DCUO has tried something different and I really like that it's working. They haven't taken EQ and WoW and slapped on a DC Hero / Villain skin. From the ground up it's unique while still paying attention to what's worked in other blockbuster MMOs.
The game isn't flawless but it's not broken at all. My only complaint is the chat system and some of the bugs, most of which were fixed in the first patch. Honestly I hate SOE but if DCUO is a sign of their way of doing games from now on, from listening to the community to quality of release and swiftness of bug fixes then I have high hopes for them in the future.
I know I'm forgetting some stuff but yeah... well worth $10 a month for me. Super good game so far.
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Gonna play devil's advocate with you for a bit. Keep in mind I played during Beta, so maybe some of my comments refer to something that just wasn't working properly yet - I don't know.
The combat is ridiculously fun and exciting, the PVP is great and I'm still not bored! I'm not sure what you think is bad about it. I enjoy the combat not being like WoW or other traditional MMOs (where it's autoattack and click button to execute power). It's action twitch fighting which is refreshing. I get to dodge, roll, block, counter and kick off neat combos.
The combat was one of the worst parts of the game for me. You have two attack buttons - left and right click. By using a combination of these two buttons, you pull off combos (like in Street Fighter). The problem is that most of the combos amount to the same thing anyway. I was dual pistols and I would say half of my combos wouldn't even work (trying to follow the tap, hold, whatever guide wasn't working). Targeting was annoying as all fuck. There was no targeting...just whatever you were facing when the auto target decides to kick in, that's what you're fighting. Also, despite there being different "powers" you can use, they apparently all essentially do the same thing, making them more of a different look than a different type of combat. The combat belongs in a single player Spider-man game on the console - not an MMO on the PC.
The character customization and style system needs to be copied into every future game. ever. It's genius. The initial creation is not as dynamic as something like CoH (It's still really good) but people think that's all there is. As you play you collect items which have styles. Like each head or shoulder piece or weapon has a style that you add to your collection. As you go through the game you can change each piece of your toon to look like any previous style that you've ever collected! I can totally change the look and image of my guy any time I want for giggles which is so rad. I swear if MXO had this we would have had so much fun with it.
I feel like this is pretty standard in "Superhero" MMOs now. I found the beginning to be VERY limited in choices, which was surprising. Yes, I did realize that as I looted gear, I could equip the appearance at anytime. By level 10, though, I still hadn't looted anything worth changing to. Games like Champions has the exact same Unlocks, only with a lot more choices from the beginning as well.
The trek to max level is the furthest thing from a grind that I've ever experienced in an MMO. It goes by pretty quick but long enough to make you work for it. It's hard to explain. I don't think it's too short but it's most definitely not too long. The missions do not suck at all. Incredible voice over work, great stories, lots and lots and lots of fun comic fan service.
Ok, here's where I think we were playing two completely different games. I've never been so bored with the grind in my life. Every quest was EXACTLY the same. EXACTLY. There was absolutely no variation. Accept quest. Go to location. Kill 10 baddies. Go to next location. Collect 10 things from baddies. Go to third location. Kill 20 baddies. Go to instance. Kill more baddies until random Superhero X helps me defeat random Villain Y. Rinse and repeat until max level.
Seriously...that was the questing. It never varied from that. I had no idea what the stories were from quest chain to quest chain. I just knew there was a different bad guy at the end of them. The voice acting was RIDICULOUSLY AWFUL. AWFUL. It was the cheesiest stuff I've ever heard from a AAA game developer.
The only part of that entire process that I liked was the little cinematic once you beat the boss, but I had no idea how the cinematic tied into a story. It seemed more like a character analysis than the completion of a story arc. It certainly didn't seem to tie into the overall story (which has something to do with time travel and aliens, but even this I learned from the CGI trailers).
Plus I get feats for collecting items and completing content which give you more skill points to make your dude more powerful. Which brings me to all the down time content which is pretty rad. There are Feats (read: achievements) that you get for all kinds of stuff but for each 10 feats you accomplish you get you get a skill point which you can use to buy weapon or skill powers. Some feats are for simple stuff like exploring all of the districts of all of the cities, (which by the way, when ZP says the city is boring and dull he's out of his flippin mind.
Again, this feels like something that belongs in a single player Spider Man game on the console. It's just time killers to keep you jumping around the game. At least they are giving you a tangible reward for it, though, which is definitely the way achievements should be if they're going to be in a game.
The cities are ridiculously amazingly well done. The art, time and attention to detail is mind boggling. ESPECIALLY if you have ever even remotely enjoyed the comics).
Maybe it's because I've watched the movies more than I've read the comics, so I have more of a realistic, concrete vision of what the cities are supposed to look like instead of the cartoony version, but both cities had me very underwhelmed. I'm looking forward to Arkham City's Gotham, and though it is unfair to compare an MMO city to something like Arkham City, they are both trying to do Gotham, so there you have it.
All of the collections, and investigations that you have to try and hunt down in the game add more story and lore and satisfy many of the collectors and completionists. Then there are PvP bounties, wanted bounties (you have to get with a bunch of friends to take down known characters like Bizarro, supergirl, the FLash etc..). These are fun because they're open world, pretty hard and you not only have to accomplish the task of taking down the hero or villain from the comics but you have to worry about PvP battles that break out during these as well as any mobs that are in the area. These are good fun and a pretty good way to level too. There are lots of PvP missions too. Even if you aren't on a PvP server there are PvP arenas that are pretty awesome. There are ones where you play as yourself or you can play as a well known hero or villain. You earn credits that allow you to purchase and unlock these guys and they are basically prebuilt new characters with maxed out everything that you can battle other people with similar toons. It's fun. So as far as the PvP goes, there's open world PvP which is my favorite as I'm on a PvP server, the "Legends" pvp where you get to play as batman or the joker or whatever... or Arena PvP where you and a bunch of others are dropped into an instance to either duke it out or compete to complete objectives. Personally I don't do the Arena or Legends PvP as the open world PvP is way more fun for me.
I don't think the bounties were working when I was playing. The PvP matches were very strange, with everyone playing the exact same character. I'm still not a fan of instanced PvP matches...I'm hoping SWTOR changes my mind on some of that. The open PvP (I beta tested in a PvP server) is hard for me to judge, because half of my combos weren't working...so I basically just got ganked by high level guys a couple of times.
The raiding is awesome. 2 man (Duos), Alerts (4 man) and Raids (8 man) are all super well done, super fun, easily accessible while still being extremely challenging.
The raids were very disappointing to me. It seemed the same as questing, only on a larger scale. Kill 100 baddies. Kill mini-boss. Kill 100 more baddies. Kill boss. There just wasn't anything to connect me to my tasks. Teamwork seemed nonexistent.
I can't say anything about the endgame, as I never got that far. My impression of the game was that it was trying to take a single-player generic console super hero game and convince people to pay monthly for it. The UI was meant for console, not PC. The combat was meant for console, not PC. Maybe it's a decent console game...I don't know...but I can't fathom paying monthly for the PC version.
Anyway, that's my opinion on it, but you've been playing longer than I have and who's to fault you if you like it. Many of the same problems I had with DCUO I also have with Champions. I just feel Champions was made for the PC and therefore has a much better UI and combat system. Plus it's free. And THAT is the real selling point...lol.
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Gonna play devil's advocate with you for a bit. Keep in mind I played during Beta, so maybe some of my comments refer to something that just wasn't working properly yet - I don't know.
The combat was one of the worst parts of the game for me. You have two attack buttons - left and right click. By using a combination of these two buttons, you pull off combos (like in Street Fighter). The problem is that most of the combos amount to the same thing anyway. I was dual pistols and I would say half of my combos wouldn't even work (trying to follow the tap, hold, whatever guide wasn't working). Targeting was annoying as all fuck. There was no targeting...just whatever you were facing when the auto target decides to kick in, that's what you're fighting. Also, despite there being different "powers" you can use, they apparently all essentially do the same thing, making them more of a different look than a different type of combat. The combat belongs in a single player Spider-man game on the console - not an MMO on the PC.
So, combat is real time and twitch based. I have heard many people say "It's not an MMORPG, it's a Action MMO". I agree. It is sort of like Spiderman or really more like Prototype or Wolverine Origins... as an MMO.
You have two ways that you can fight. Your weapons and your powers. You fight with both. Your weapon fighting is done with left (close attack) and right mouse buttons (ranged attacks). You unlock combos as you level that you use to fight. Think Wolverine Origins for xbox. Weapon attacks can be done by just spamming left or right but the good moves come from series of taps and holds. So like the standard lunge attack is usually tap then hold your LMB. Or tap LMB 5 times. Or tap RMB then Hold LMB. Each weapon style is different. Those examples were when I was more of a melee weapon. Honestly, It took me a while of practicing but I got pretty good. Then I got a really nice rifle and decided to respec rifle which was totally different. While was a lot more of Hold LMB then tap forward a couple times to do some cool rolling rifle shooting moves. Or tap back to shoot while rolling back. Each one is different but they all work really well. I do admit, it was frustrating to learn some of the combos as I think the combo instructions could be a little clearer. Chatting with some friends gave me some tips which gave me that AHA! moment. Now I love them. So that's your weapon attacks. Then you have powers which are very straight forward 1 - 6 attacks. These are always peppered in between your weapon attacks. Some are stuns, knock backs, buffs, heals, damage spells, all kinds of stuff. The coolest thing about the system to me is everyone creates two loadouts. One for your role mode (which is basically Tank, Healer or Controller) and one is you DPS loadout. You can switch this on the fly and you have a customized powerset and hotbar for each load out. I can switch between full my customized super healer mode to my wicked (still customized) damage mode simply by hitting T.
Those are just the basics though. You still have blocking (shift). Dodging or dodge rolling (Holding shift then tapping a direction to get out of the way of harm), breakouts (tapping shift to get out of roots and stuns) and Block breaking. (basically attacks that counter someone elses blocking".
OK targeting. Yeah. It's not a MMORPG targeting system. In my opinion there is good and bad to that. I was so used to WoW it was hard for me to get used to not being able to use my mouse to click a dude to target him. Basically targeting works like this. Your mouse controls what you you look at. It's in third person but there's still a reticle in the center of your screen. Everything is based on line of sight. If you reticle something like a bad guy you get a soft target. Tab then is used to lock that target. If you do not lock your target, and you just happen to look at a dude all the way across the room while still attacking, you will more than likely then start firing pew pew beams at that dude across the map, thus pulling him. You want to make sure you are aware whether or not you are locked on your target or not. If you're locked you can run around and look at what ever you want while attacking. It's very different but I'm very good at it now. It plays well with the action MMO thing. You can use Q to cycle through targets but I never use it. I look, lock, attack. I think you can turn off auto targeting but I don't recommend it. You get used to it and it's handy especially in heated busy battles. Sometimes I don't lock if I'm healing as I don't care what I'm hitting as long as I'm hitting something. If I'm DPSing, I use this focused attack style. I don't think it's worse than other games, it's just different. And it fits the game well.
I feel like this is pretty standard in "Superhero" MMOs now. I found the beginning to be VERY limited in choices, which was surprising. Yes, I did realize that as I looted gear, I could equip the appearance at anytime. By level 10, though, I still hadn't looted anything worth changing to. Games like Champions has the exact same Unlocks, only with a lot more choices from the beginning as well.
From what I've read CO has a much more elaborate database of choices. I haven't at all felt "robbed" of choices while making my guy and I like having to treadmill for more pieces to my costume. More to do I guess and more things to keep us from getting bored. It's sort of funny sometimes... for example my buddy has been trying his hardest to collect the "shielded robot boots" for his tank. He's been playing since launch and can't catch a break. They have a daily vault that you get to run through for prizes, styles and loot. That's a good way to open your choices for styles. Also they just opened the auction system which has everyone trading weapons, collectables and styles. It's kinda of a whole game unto itself.
But yeah, to be fair CO and CoX had way more freedom in the initial character creation but I like how DCUO makes you work for it and lets you evolve the look of your dude as you go.
Ok, here's where I think we were playing two completely different games. I've never been so bored with the grind in my life. Every quest was EXACTLY the same. EXACTLY. There was absolutely no variation. Accept quest. Go to location. Kill 10 baddies. Go to next location. Collect 10 things from baddies. Go to third location. Kill 20 baddies. Go to instance. Kill more baddies until random Superhero X helps me defeat random Villain Y. Rinse and repeat until max level.
Seriously...that was the questing. It never varied from that. I had no idea what the stories were from quest chain to quest chain. I just knew there was a different bad guy at the end of them. The voice acting was RIDICULOUSLY AWFUL. AWFUL. It was the cheesiest stuff I've ever heard from a AAA game developer.
The only part of that entire process that I liked was the little cinematic once you beat the boss, but I had no idea how the cinematic tied into a story. It seemed more like a character analysis than the completion of a story arc. It certainly didn't seem to tie into the overall story (which has something to do with time travel and aliens, but even this I learned from the CGI trailers).
I dunno man. I think that was just your experience in beta while they were still making the game. That's not how it is at all. I did a really big variety of the standard missions which were a lot of the mission lines that were "do a few missions, do a big mission, then do a huge instance with a big boss at the end and then a really neat motion comic at the end of the series as a reward. A lot of those followed the same format but they were all totally different. Some had you running around poising citizens, others had you stealing things from cops, some had you helping channel demons into this plane, others had you turn into monkeys and fight other dudes, some had you helping with the green lantern war, others were helping hold the line at a huge war zone where Brainiac's forces were invading. I dunno dude they were all totally different for me, and there were lots of them. And they were totally totally different if you were in Metropolis vs Gotham. I rolled another guy just to go do a bunch of the missions in gotham because I wanted more. Then there were missions telling me to do some of the Legends and Arena PVP, other missions telling me to group with friends to do alerts... and other ones having me kill players on the other faction or bounties for super heroes. Yes the missions in their most boiled down to objectives were go here, kill those guys, rescue these guys, move these things from here to here, find x number of these thingies... but they were done in a way that didn't suck for me. I mean if we're comparing them to other MMOs it's *WAY* less repetitive than MxO missions or SWG's missions but yeah. Typical MMO sort of stuff. But worlds different than WoW. Although I've heard that with the new expansion, WoWs quests are fun again. A lot of the stories of the new WoW quests remind me of DCUO missions. I just think they did it in a way that was waaaay more fun for me? I dunno maybe this is just personal preference. I'll let you know when I run my next dude through level 30 so I can see if I hate it or not still. If I ever got tired of running around doing regular missions, I'd do exploration missions. If I didn't want to do that, I did a bunch of races for experience. Or I'd see if some friends wanted to do an Alert (mini 4 man raids for newbs). Seriously max level is achievable in like 35 to 40 hours of gameplay so it all flew by. I really think your experience in beta is not what is in the game now.
As for the stories, there's one major story arc that's driving the game. Then there's lots of mini stories. Most of them are character focused independent of the overall story arc. So you'll do a set of missions where you're working for the Joker, and he needs you to help him sabotage Bane because he's moving in on his action or something. And between the mission stories that you're given when you pick up and turn them in, to the voice work peppered through out the missions, to the collectibles and investiagtiony thingies you pick up while doing them, they all tell the story. Then at then end of a mission's story arc you get a motion comic. Some of them very related to the overall game story, some of them just spotlighting a hero or villain. All really cool though.
So yes, some of the story is connected but some is independent. All of which were pretty neat for me though.
Again, this feels like something that belongs in a single player Spider Man game on the console. It's just time killers to keep you jumping around the game. At least they are giving you a tangible reward for it, though, which is definitely the way achievements should be if they're going to be in a game.
Maybe it's because I've watched the movies more than I've read the comics, so I have more of a realistic, concrete vision of what the cities are supposed to look like instead of the cartoony version, but both cities had me very underwhelmed. I'm looking forward to Arkham City's Gotham, and though it is unfair to compare an MMO city to something like Arkham City, they are both trying to do Gotham, so there you have it.
I really like the down time stuff. The races are fun, collectibles and daily stuff you get to do all give you some filler while you're getting your friends together or just want to kill some time. It's enjoyable but it's just fluff. You don't have to do it. It doesn't take away from the game at all and it's there if you want to do it. You can totally ignore it if you want but lots of people are enjoying it.
The city scape stuff is personal preference I guess. I really liked the city sprawl in MxO and I REALLY enjoy it in DCUO. DCUO's is just better though. Every single tiny piece of art is approved and vetoed by Jim Lee. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Lee and he is very. very. awesome. Personally I love Gotham more than metropolis but metro is still pretty epic. Sometimes I just stop in the city and look around and get boggled at how much time it must have taken to do it. They had 130 people and 5 years in making this game and it shows.
There aren't just two cities though... here are all of the locations:
Gotham City
Metropolis
Gateway City
Atlantis
Blüdhaven
Justice League Watchtower
Legion of Doom Headquarters
Oolong Island
Smallville
Area 51
Gorilla Island
Stryker's Island
Ace Chemical
Arkham Asylum
Khandaq
The Batcave
Each of them are totally different and ridiculously complex and detailed in my opinion.
I don't think the bounties were working when I was playing. The PvP matches were very strange, with everyone playing the exact same character. I'm still not a fan of instanced PvP matches...I'm hoping SWTOR changes my mind on some of that. The open PvP (I beta tested in a PvP server) is hard for me to judge, because half of my combos weren't working...so I basically just got ganked by high level guys a couple of times.
The bounties work great. Good fun and a really good way to level if you don't want to do missions. The instanced PvP you're talking about is the Legends PvP. Where you get to fight as some of the headliners. In the very beginning and in beta everyone could basically only be Harley Quinn or Robin. As you progress you can unlock other dudes. But that's just Legends. There's Arena and Open World. Open World is where it's at but that's just personal preference. I don't like canned set at matched PvP.
The raids were very disappointing to me. It seemed the same as questing, only on a larger scale. Kill 100 baddies. Kill mini-boss. Kill 100 more baddies. Kill boss. There just wasn't anything to connect me to my tasks. Teamwork seemed nonexistent.
Sorta... yeah. The solo, duo and 4 man stuff has instances that you did while leveling turned on hard mode or crazy hard mode. But there are more mobs, harder mobs, more bosses, much harder bosses and waaaay better loot and rewards. Some stuff is the same or similar to what you did while leveling and some stuff is 100% new and unlocked only at end game. Teamwork becomes more and more crucial the harder the endgame content. The Hard Mode Alerts and Raids require people to know their roles and work together or you'll wipe. If one person is slacking or sucks at their job you'll wipe. It's fun and frustrating.
Admittedly the endgame will prolly get pretty grindy for some. At the first level of end game, you do the same 6 solo challenge modes and 5 or 6 duos each day (you can only do each once a day). There are some other daily missions that you can do daily as well. You do them for loot at "marks". The marks are used to be cashed in to buy your epic gear. There are several different levels of marks and gear and you progress through the end game to get all of the highest levels of gear from the highest level 8 man raids. I'm no where near that. I'm in the middle of the road end game and there is more than I can do in a day. I assume if you have no job and no life you would get sick of doing it all every day but I'm not at that level yet. There aren't as many high end 8 man raids but they take a ridiculously long time to complete and are extremely difficult. Most people might only be able to do a few of those a week. It's all very fun for me so far.
I can't say anything about the endgame, as I never got that far. My impression of the game was that it was trying to take a single-player generic console super hero game and convince people to pay monthly for it. The UI was meant for console, not PC. The combat was meant for console, not PC. Maybe it's a decent console game...I don't know...but I can't fathom paying monthly for the PC version.
Anyway, that's my opinion on it, but you've been playing longer than I have and who's to fault you if you like it. Many of the same problems I had with DCUO I also have with Champions. I just feel Champions was made for the PC and therefore has a much better UI and combat system. Plus it's free. And THAT is the real selling point...lol.
I think it's worth the money especially if they keep rolling out content updates like they did for Feb. They added holiday content as well as a new DUO and a new 8 man raid. If they keep that stuff up it's totally worth it. Every thing they have said as well as some insider info says their intention is to make sure they get new content to the players every single month if at all possible. Even if they only do 4 or 5 a year I think it's worth it. It's only $10 a month and I'm digging it. It wasn't a console game ported to PC at all. They designed it so you can play with a controller and I know a lot of guys on the PC who love playing it with a controller. I like the KB and mouse but yeah... it has some elements that were designed to be accessible from controller or PC. It's not horrible at all. It is different though. I personally hate the chat system, and some elements of the UI but it's not game breaking at all. It was just refreshed in the last update and they're working on it every patch. It's my biggest complaint with the game but again not a deal breaker.
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OOOH, I forgot to reply to your voice acting bit. Yeah what you heard in Beta was a lot of temporary audio while they were still recording the actors from what I hear. I mean not all of it is award winning and some of it is cheese (as in comic cheesy) but most of it is really. really. really good. I'm pretty sure this like a lot of your negative bits from beta aren't the case any more.
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Awesome review by PC Gamer. http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/01/26/dc-universe-online-review/