On December 22nd I finally received my beta key for DC Universe Online. Granted, by this point the full version of the game is about 2 weeks away, but it’s still nice to get this early preview and to get a chance to see what is coming on January 11th 2011!

My first impressions of the game:

• Load times are extremely quick. Of course this is to be expected when all 14 gigs of the beta are installed to the PS3 HDD. I am actually hoping that the bluray disc for the full release installs, fully or mostly, to the HDD as well. Everything loads so fast, and the cities rarely lag when loading up textures or other landmarks.
• Visually, my only other benchmark for this type of game (MMO) would be World of Warcraft, and DCUO has it beat in that department, IMO. Textures seem more intricate and detailed and I’m also noticing less “jaggies” than what I’d seen in WoW. The character models can get pretty complex as well. You can combine several different pieces of equipment to create your own unique look, complete with your own custom colour palette. You can even choose to equip new items, but keep the “old” look from your previous items should you want your characters outfit to stay consistent throughout the game – a nice touch.
• The AI can be a bit frustrating at times. I’ve had instances in Alerts (similar to Raids) where an entire group of enemies would only come after me and totally ignore the other three players on the team. I’m hoping that this is a bug and is confined to the beta. Otherwise, enemy encounters during “regular questing” seem fine on the whole. Ie: they attack if you get too close, but if you’re using a ranged character you can gain an advantage by attacking from afar.
• My favourite part of the game as to be the Hall of Doom. It’s kind of like DCUO’s version of Orzammar or the Underworld – for DC Villains (alternatively, the DC Heroes get the Watchtower). It’s at the bottom of a body of water and is HUGE. It contains teleporters to transport your character to various villain safe-houses within Gotham and Metropolis as well as a ton of vendors who want to sell you the latest in weapons and armor. I loved exploring this area and running into and having conversations with various villains such as Captain Cold, Zoom and Bizarro.
• As far as character builds go, you’re really given the go-ahead to create anything you could possibly think of, within reason (for instance, I believe that becoming a Green Lantern is something you have to work toward – you can’t just choose to be one from the get-go). For my villain, who is mentored by Lex Luthor, I went with a female archer with a look not unlike Green Arrow, except in blue – mainly to go with her meta-ability to control and produce ice. Movement style, instead of flight or super-speed, I chose acrobatics. You can literally scale any building and even glide across long areas – pretty much the same as having flight in the end. I was also going to create a hero, but I think I’m going to wait for the full release before I get into that. I need the full experience to create a student for the Dark Knight.

I could probably write much much more about how much I’m loving this game.. but I think you get the gist. The game retails for $59 (Canadian and US) and also requires a subscription which comes in at $15 per month – with discounts given for signing up for multiple months. The game also comes with a free month for new purchases.  I know that this has been a sticky point for a lot of games – but you have to realize that ALL MMO’s do this. This is just the first one on a console, so it feels new.. but these kind of subscription fees cover all sorts of things – from hardware, networks, employees/game-masters to enabling the developers to provide a steady stream of new content at no extra cost. So I’m cool with it. Sign me up.