Who doesn’t want to be a superhero? From the earliest days of role playing games, options for playing a superhero began to crop up. Once hit fantasy-themed online role playing games appeared, it was only a matter of time before the superheroes arrived as well. First was City of Heroes, which was followed a few years later by Champions (which licensed the Champions name and background from my favorite pencil and paper RPG). The newest game on the block is DC Universe Online, which is the first Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) to boast a license from one of the superhero comic giants. Yes, you can play in the same sandbox as Superman, the Flash, Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor, and others all on your PC or PS3. I suspect catering to the PS3 resulted in fairly simple button-smashing styles of combat and a somewhat underwhelming ability to customize a character’s powers. While some games have issues at launch I found the PS3 version to be nearly unplayable, and can only recommend the PC version for superhero fans looking for a lighter-weight experience or simply have to be able to fight alongside Superman while saving the world.

I opted for the PS3 version of the title, thinking that the universal hardware of the PS3 would be a great way to evaluate the game without worrying about the many differences possible on PC hardware. What I didn’t take into account was the internet resource hog that is the PS3. (More on that later…) The game starts off with flying colors, helping you create a character (from scratch or based off many popular DC characters or villains – yes you can play the bad guy…) and plopping you down in the action on Braniac’s ship so you can fight your way out. Superman even makes an appearance in the final battle to give you a helping hand and fend off the attackers while you escape. From there, things start to go a bit downhill.

You start off in one of several specific starting areas and are quickly pointed toward your first quest. Unfortunately for me, my first quest was nearly unplayable due to game issues. I would attack and they would warp around, usually not even registering my damage. Running away wasn’t an option as villains could continue to do damage to me clear across the zone, even after I had regained consciousness next to the starting point after “dying”. The only solution was to warp out of and back into the zone to clear any lingering attacks. Since the primary source of experience in the game is completing quests, and I had only the one initially available, there was a very narrow and slow progression trying to find areas where warping and lag were not an issue. Once past those first few levels (which should normally be a breeze) options for instances and other exploration quests opened up to make things marginally better. I suspect the primary culprit here is the PS3 system itself (after several discussions with tech support and significant efforts on my part, read the appendix if you want the details) due to the PS3’s very high demands for internet throughput. After days of trying to fix things I was able to make some progress but I was reminded of the old Monty Python skit about Spam. After repeated efforts I was able to get the game running so that “it only had a little suck in it.”

Aside from the very major issue of lag and zoning issues, I had a couple of minor concerns – primarily the lack of customizability of character powers. It’s a tiny thing, but I was severely disappointed in not being able to play anything like a Green Lantern… (yes, my favorite color as always been green). There’s piles of weapon based characters (Green Arrow, anyone?) and even fire and ice based powers, how hard could it be to make green light come out of someone’s hands? I would have even settled for green colored fire, but unlike most other superhero MMORPGs, you can’t change the color effects of your powers. So, if there is a very particular style (energy blaster in this case) of character you want to play in the DC Universe you may want to check out the available options before diving in.

Aside from those two qualms, everything else points to a fairly entertaining and interesting MMORPG. The character voice acting is pretty good and I have to admit interacting with the various DC greats is pretty fun (Booster Gold’s tour of various sites is worth listening to…) The end game (level 30 is tops for now) seems to have quite a bit of variety for a new games, with options to play adventures with larger groups or even small 2-man groups called Duos. Unsurprisingly, the player vs player aspects of the game still need tuning but that sort of thing is expected for any new launch.

All in all I can’t recommend the PS3 version of the game to anyone unless they’re absolutely sure they have significant bandwidth (see my appendix below). However, I expect the PC version to run a bit better. The combat requirements of gamepad compatibility make the strategy/thinking part of the game a bit lighter than most and when combined with a superhero setting DC Universe Online makes for a fairly decent game for the younger set (watch those online interactions, though!) Fans of DC comics will also find plenty to enjoy. However, more “serious” online RPG gamers will probably want to give the game a pass for now.

Kid Factor: This is an online game so standard disclaimers apply about online interactions. Voice chat is possible, although it can also be turned off/ignored. The violence of the game is nothing bad and it adheres to a fairly tame side of comic books (no Dark Knight style storylines or anything…)

Troubleshooting Appendix: Lets set one thing straight, I know my way around a router and other Ethernet-type thingys. I have internet through our local cable company and get fairly decent upload and download speeds – I haven’t come across any real issues on this before. As I attributed many of the issues with the game to lag of some sort I set about trying to improve my internet speed. First, I went from a wireless to a wired internet connection on my PS3. Once it was hooked directly to the router things improved somewhat. I even went so far as to put my PS3 on the DMZ list for the router. When all was said an done, I was getting 6 to 9 Mbps download speeds and 2-3 Mbps upload speeds according to the PS3 internet test option on the PS3 menu. This did improve the game somewhat, but I was STILL experiencing nearly unplayable (as opposed to totally unplayable) lag when fighting those stupid gorillas – remember this was my only starting quest and quests are just about the only way to level up a character… As a comparison, I booted up the PS3’s web browser and ran a throughput test using THE PS3’s OWN BROWSER. On Speakeasy’s speed test (one of the easiest to use around), my PS3 was able to get 25.5 Mbps download speeds and 3.81 Mbps upload speeds. Not too shabby. Thus, my serious warning to all PS3 owners hoping to play DC Universe Online: be cautious and know that you have a VERY good connection or you will suffer some bad lag & loading issues. I don’t think DC Online is a bad game. There are some nice sparks of brilliance there. However, it has some technical issues that cannot justify my recommendation at this time. Any console player booting the game up for the first time, and has never had to deal with lag issues in a MMORPG before may very well end up throwing their controller across the room in frustration and walking away after the first hour or two of play.

Tags: Game Reviews