Character creation & tutorial

DCUO has a far more limited character creator than Champions Online, but there are plenty of costume pieces to make a unique hero or villain. Important to note is that every character you create will have the same origin, one of the limitations of playing in an already established universe. You do get an immediate link to that universe by choosing a mentor, a famous character, like Superman, that will guide yours on his or her journey.

The amount of powersets is limited, but there are three types to choose from: superpowers, weapons and movement powers. Super powers like fire, ice, mental etc. determine your group role of tank/healer/dps, weapons (from bare hands to giant hammers to bows) determine your fighting style and movement powers (flight, superspeed, acrobatics) determine how you travel, but they also include several combat abilities. Contrary to Champions Online, your movement power is almost always active if you wish.

The tutorial is adequate and fast enough to get through for alts. It is the same for heroes and villains. It does a good job of introducing the plot of DCUO, powers, travel and combat.

Questing

After the tutorial you end up in either Gotham or Metropolis depending on your mentor. It is possible to travel to the other city by going through the Watchtower for heroes and the Hall of Doom for villains. The amount of quests to get to 30 seems a bit tight, so it is worth it to switch over about every five levels to ensure that quests do not get too low level to yield decent XP.

Quest lines have a set format. There is a main quest in the open world with some sidequests that you pick up next to the main questing area. The main quest line then leads to a scripted solo dungeon. The main quests are fully voiced and every dungeon ends with a voiced over comic that tells about the world. It feels a lot like the Cataclysm world of World of Warcraft, where quest areas combine ‘kill some’ and  ‘do some other activity like gathering stuff’, then go to the next area. The solo dungeons show up again at level 30 (scaled to 30) from Watchtower quests. The final challenge is to take down your mentor’s nemesis (so Lex Luthor for Superman, Joker for Batman, Circe for Wonder Woman).

There are named heroes/villains roaming parts of the world with massive amounts of health and serious damage, keep an eye out for them while questing.

Instances

There are several instances while leveling for groups of four people. Simple queue for them and a random team will be formed. There’s not much communication (partly because the chat system is horrible), but the instances do a good job of telling you where to go and what to do. There does seem to be a distinct lack of healers and I only had one other tank my group once. Still, most of the content seems doable with only dps provided there’s some selfhealing and a good sense of when to block. Instances are overfilled with trash, but they do yield good XP and worth doing at least once for entertainment.

In the Blüdhaven instance, the toxic monster Chemo is your target.

Bugs

DCUO still has a decent amount of bugs. Especially Oolong island (instance) seemed filled with them. I had to do that one at least eight times to get to the final boss.

Impression

DCUO is still a bit rough, but the core is solid (I remember saying that about Champions Online too). The amount of content,while short, and the entertainment value of that content is definitely worth the first (free) month.

Story

DC never interested me much. I did not like the iconic characters of Superman, Wonder Woman, and, to lesser extent, Batman, because they were so iconic. Marvel heroes, on the other hand, were much more human and that appealed to me more. I read a few of the classic trades (Crisis on Infinite Earths, Kingdom Comet etc).  A positive review of JSA made me pick it up and the wonderful writing of Geoff Johns pulled me in. In my opinion his run of JSA is one of the best written team books ever and since that time my DC/Marvel ratio is pretty much 50/50 (but still not reading the main Superman, Wonder Woman or Batman titles). When I read that he was one of the writers for DC Universe Online, my interest for that game suddenly increased.

That the ability to walk around in a world with a rich history gives a game extra flavor has already been proven by World of Warcraft and even more by Lord of the Rings Online. On the other hand, many main events are set and the heroes of the story cannot be overshadowed. The appeal of Champions Online as a superhero MMO to me was partly that the NPC heroes of CO are not that well known and thus could be overshadowed by the players. However, DC has a so-called multiverse, many alteration of possible realities and outside the main one, pretty much anything goes. Since DCUO seems to be playing in an alternative, it may be possible shove Superman aside and save the day yourself.

Small spoiler: in the parts of the game I have played so far, the team-ups with DC heroes have felt like real team-ups and not like me being a sidekick.

Action

Champions Online already took one step away from the pure hotkey setup of MMO’s by adding an active block button, DCUO is a pure action game. And that fits the superhero theme so well. Combo’s and targeting may not be perfect, but the idea to the combat system is sound. Where it lacks some polish, it makes up with fun.

Since it was both released on PC and PS3 the game can be played on PC as well with a game pad. I still have to give that a try myself, but it may be superior to mouse and keyboard.

PvP

DCUO has both heroes and villains and is designed with PvP in mind. Conflict between heroes and villains drives almost every superhero comic, so an MMO should be filled with that as well. In DCUO heroes and villains come to the aid of their NPC allies and that generates reasons for PvP. It makes the world feel alive.

World PvP is never balanced, it cannot be in any game, but getting back into the fight after a defeat is fairly quick and there is no dead penalty. There are, of course, PvE servers for those who wish to avoid world PvP. Arena’s are instanced battleground of various sizes and Legend arena’s let you play as existing DC Heroes and Villains in different instanced scenarios.

In summary

DC Universe Online adds a true action aspect to the MMO genre, it builds on a rich history, while still having freedom of story and there are plenty of PvP opportunities. To me that was enough to give it a try and I will provide more in-depth reviews and impressions of different aspects of the game, like character creation, dungeons, quests, etc. in future posts.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

I love Metroid, so this is not going to be an unbiased review. And Other M is definitely a Metroid game, there’s Samus, of course, all signature weapons and abilities, a combination of fighting and puzzle gameplay, large boss monsters, Ridley,  scavenger hunt for items, basically all ingredients. A pity Team Ninja forgot that to cook the meal. They were clearly greatly inspired by Super Metroid, but where Retro took the formula and adapted it for a widescreen experience in the Metroid Prime series., the new Metroid copies most things while making also use of the Wii’s gimmicky controls. The visors and beam switching from Prime are gone.

While the Primes had some problems themselves they did innovate and turn the sidescroller in a 3D experience. Exploring and navigating through the huge world was not always easy and scanning occasionally got tedious, but it all added to the feeling of the lone explorer trying to figure out what was going on and then set things right. Samus never said anything, but who would have expected that she would be this uncertain and insecure now she is voiced in Other M? After slaughtering so many planets full of evil and vicious monsters one would expect she has some backbone, but even the sight of Ridley petrifies her now suddenly. Prime did fine in telling a story with bits of scans and visual storytelling, but Other M is just filled with fully voiced exposure, while reducing the exploring aspect of the game.

A pretty flimsy plot has you joining up with your old Galatic Federation commander and his squad to check out a military science facility. Commander Adam has some serious history with Samus and while he wants her on board, he forbids her from using most weapons before he authorizes it. Yes, where all other Metroid sequels have a convoluted crisis scene in which you lose all special abilities, this game, you got everything, you are just not allowed to use it up to the point that you are taking damage from heat for a section of the game while you have access to the protective Varia Suit. Where I can understand that caution should be used with using the extremely destructive items like the Power Bomb and the wall passing Wave Beam (there could be survivors on the other side), not using full protection and things like the grappling hook is just plain silly.

The story is also forced on you. There is no freedom of movement, all wrong routes are locked for most of the game and if there is something to scan, the game actually forces you to stand still until you have found the right pixel on the screen. If you cannot fight, you start moving very slowly suddenly.

The control scheme deserves its own paragraph, because it is a nice idea. You are normally in side view /3D oversight depending on the location, but by turning the Wii remote to the screen, you get a 3D view, but you cannot move, only turn. This is the only view from which you can shoot (super) missiles as well. And this is the only control scheme, meaning you have to use the horrible d-pad on the Wiimote to move. In a time of analog sticks on handhelds, a modern game forces you to use the worst controller possible, which is just baffling. One of the reasons I have not finished the game yet, is that the d-pad simply hurts my thumb after a while (yeah, it got soft from using analog sticks for the last years). The view switch is also pretty unresponsive making certain battles more difficult than they should have been (but Other M is easy anyway).

Perhaps the control scheme forced the creators to make the game easier, because this is an easy game both in terms of puzzles and boss battles. Compared to the Primes it is very easy.

First impression: Other M is with all its ugly parts still a pretty entertaining game, but it does not reach the quality standard we can expect of a Metroid game.

After not playing for just two weeks, my Starcraft II skills have rusted, which is faster than I would have expected. I still know what to do, of course, but everything just goes a bit slower.

I have also learned not to try new strategies at this point (I still follow SC2 news during the holiday and some ideas seem so nice to try myself), because that is not working out now!

Lots of practice to do next week!

5 points: Shrike Turret [BEST] vs Fortified Bunker

Adding life to a bunker with Fortified Bunker is nice, but adding damage regardless of load is better in many circumstances, especially since Shrike Turrets can also shoot air. You can break the food cap with Shrike Turret Bunkers.

10 points: Planetary Fortress [BEST] vs Perdition Turret

Even if Planetary Fortress was not great, Perdition Turret would still be redundant. As Terran player you already have access to Firebats (in bunkers) and Hellions to burn down melee weak melee units. The Planetary Fortress is the single most fortified structure you can build and a great stationary tank even against Kerrigan herself with repairs.

15 points: Predator versus Hercules [BEST?]

To be honest, I like neither choice. With a factory I prefer to be making Siege Tanks and if I get a Fusion Core up I might as well be making Battlecruisers. The Hercules does add in a level of mobility for large forces, but so will a group of Medivacs and those will heal organic units. The Predator does fair damage, but with greater risk to itself compared to the Siege Tank. Neither unit is necessary at all.

20 points: Cellular reactor [BEST] via Regenerative Bio-steel

Easy choice, the extra energy on specialist units (especially on Science Vessels) is much more beneficial than slow regeneration. Only take Bio-steel if you never ever make a specialist unit at all (which is silly).

25 points:  Psi Disruptor [BEST] vs Hive Mind Emulator [Specific use]

The key signature of Zerg is that they attack with many expendable units. That makes the Psi Disruptor seem more attractive on first sight. There is only one unit I would really like to take over and that is the Brood Lord. Even Ultralisks can be easily dealt with as Terran and a mind controlled Ultralisk would last only seconds against all the other Zerg it is attacking with. Slowing down a whole horde in a fairly large area on the other hand is much more useful in most of the missions.

However, if you face air in the final mission, having Brood Lords on your side makes dealing with all ground forces much easier.

5 points: Ultra-Capacitators [BEST] / Vanadium plating

Speed and Damage increase versus Health and Armor increase. 5% is not that much, however, it adds up over many units. The more units you have, the better the damage increase relatively gets compared to health and armor which only matter on a single unit with a large health pool like a Thor.

10 points: Orbital Depots / Micro Filtering [BEST]

Supply depots can be build instantly or refineries produce gas faster. With a bit of planning you should never get supply capped and there are several missions where you start with a large supply anyway. On the other hand, getting gas faster on timed missions is a great boon

15 points: Automated Refineries [BEST] / Command Center Reactor

Getting Automated refineries means you no longer need SCV’s on gas, but you still get the same amount of SCV’s to start with. At food cap, you save three food per refinery to use on armies. It also allows you to build refineries without a Command Center nearby. Command Center Reactor on the other hand is just nice at the start of the game to get some SCV’s up quicker, but it becomes mostly worthless quickly.

20 points: Raven / Science Vessel [BEST]

I love the Raven, but the Science Vessel is borderline overpowered. It can repair mechanical units with no cost except energy and that regenerates, which is a great on levels with little resources. Suddenly it is possible field a large air army that needs no repairs or backup. Banshees, normally quite fragile units, become a truly scary force if a few Science Vessels join them.

25 points: Teach Reactor [BEST] / Orbital Strike

Tech Reactor works both like a Tech lab and a Reactor and the double build ability also applies to high-tech buildings. So a Starport with Tech Reactor can build two Banshees at the same time. This gives both versatility and saves up resources that would otherwise be spent on additional buildings. Dropping barracks units anywhere on the field (with sight) by the Orbital Strike is fun, but units still have to build, so to drop a sizeable force anywhere, you will need many barracks and time the building of units. Putting a force in a Medivac is often more useful. Orbital Strike does shine on a single mission near the end though, but Tech Reactor outshines it everywhere else easily.

There are three choices during the Starcraft II campaign and one of those greatly impacts how the final mission plays. The ending, however, is not affected. It is possible, however, to still play the mission you did not choose through the Mission archive even after finishing the campaign. Interestingly enough, these are not choices like Mass Effect, but instead it seems like Raynor always made the right decision even if the consequences are not all good.

Safe Haven / Haven’s Fall

Dr Ariel Hanson’s colonists set on Haven after you rescued them earlier, but it turns out that some of them are infested and the Protoss wish to wipe them all out. Dr Hanson wants to save as many of them as possible while she looks for a cure to the infestation. Both mission are about using and defending against air units. Either mission gives you access to Vikings.

During Safe Haven you side with Hanson. The Protoss send a Mothership that is made completely invulnerable through the power of three Nexi. The goal of the mission is to help evacuate the colonists while the Mothership slowly flies from one site to another and then destroys it completely until it finally arrives at your base. Meanwhile, Protoss air forces attack the colonist settlements (saving them gives bonus resources), while there are occasionally ground forces that directly attack your base. This mission is timed more strictly than the alternative.

Consequences: Raynor’s actions during Starcraft I have given him enough respect from the Protoss. They take their loss sportsmanlike. Ariel Hanson leaves the ship, but not before making clear she has feelings for Raynor.

During Haven’s Fall it turns out the Protoss were right: Zerg are quickly infesting the whole colony. This is also a mission about air attack and base defense. Every colonist settlement that gets infested results in more Zerg forces attacking, which eventually leads you to being overrun, making it a timed mission as well. Your base has to deal with both air and ground forces, but not too many. If you have access to Banshees and or Science vessels, then the mission, even on Brutal, is trivial.

Consequences: Ariel locked herself up in the lab to work on a cure, but it turned out she was infected herself. Raynor is forced to kill the monster she’s become.

My verdict: I like the gameplay of Safe Haven more and the ending is a bit happy, at least.

Breakout / Ghost of a chance

Nova or Tosh? Is Tosh a dangerous psychopath that has been manipulating you or is it Nova who’s doing the manipulating? In either case, there follows a mission with no base building. Instead you control a cloaked unit that has to sneak through an enemy base. There’s a slight difference in the unit you get at the end, but neither is necessary to complete the campaign. Both can cloak and drop nukes.

Breakout shows how Raynor backs up Tosh in breaking out all rogue Spectres. While Tosh clears a path, there are endless waves of both friendly and enemy units that clash with eachother. It’s up to Tosh to make sure Raynor’s troops progress.

Consequences: the cinematic shows that Tosh is indeed a dangerous psychopath. You can now build Spectres who have an Area-of-Effect stun.

During Ghost of a Chance it turns out that Tosh has already freed a few Spectres and is preparing to create more of them. You guide Nova and a limited number of normal units throug three puzzle sequences to destroy three key parts of Tosh’s equipment.

Consequences: Nova does not join your cause. It turns out, again, that Tosh is indeed a dangerous psychopath. Nova assassinates him, but some hilarious things also happen during the cinematic (that I am not going spoil). You can now build ghosts have the Snipe special ability that allows them to do heavy damage regardless of armor.

My verdict: Tosh had been annoying me to no end because he sounds like a World of Warcraft Troll. The unit you get matters little and Nova’s cinematic is a lot more fun than Tosh’s.

Belly of the Beast / Shatter the Sky

This is the most important choice you will make during the game, because it completely changes how the final mission plays out. Either way keep a save game before you make the choice so you can play the other scenario of the final mission as well.

During Belly of the Beast you lead a team of heroes through the underground of Char to disable the Zerg’s Nydus network. Playing with Raynor, Tychus, Swann and Stettman, who each have special abilities, you navigate through the caves occasionally rescuing normal troops. There is no base building in this mission.

Consequences: There will be no Nydus worms during the final mission. There will still be Zerg ground forces attacking as well as Mutalisks and Brood Lords.

In Shatter the Sky you go back up into space to destroy a platform that houses most of the Zerg air force. This is a regular base building mission. There are some attacks on your base, but the mission is mainly about destroying several key points of the platform that will cause that whole part to be destroyed.

Consequences: There will be no Zerg air attacks during the mission, but Nydus worms will constantly spawn everywhere over the map that will result in heavier ground waves than in the other scenario. Note that the Overlord drop about halfway through the mission still happens.

My verdict: Shatter the Sky was a fun mission, but I liked Belly of the Beast better. There’s enough base building in the final mission and this is the only mission that you get to play with a group of Hero units. However, the choice of playing this mission comes down to what you want to fight against during the final mission. I played the Nydus variant on Brutal and the air variant on Hard. For either mission it seems quite hard until you place your defenses right and then it is quite easy. The Nydus variant seemed more frantic, because every one of them shows up on the mini map. but Brood Lords can really sneak up and destroy a large part of your base if you do not pay attention.

Starcraft 2 throws that out of the water. There are two sets of rules. Single player is allowed to go as crazy as it wants without bringing the precarious Multi player balance in jeopardy, while Multiplayer is not getting unbalanced by that craziness. Suddenly there can be a day/night cycle, rising and ebbing lava, even train robberies. It allows many more and different units in Single Player that do not need to be balanced. Base building and upgrading is interesting in Multi player, because you are (re)acting based on what your opponent is doing. Even in special Singe player scenario’s it is quite easy to figure out what the AI’s attack pattern is. So Single Player has several persistent upgrades. The same goes for mercenaries: these add an enormous amount of versatility to Single Player that would be impossible to balance against in Multi player.

Anything can happen now and we still have two expansions to look forward to!

WARNING: This post contains major spoilers about Starcraft I & II’s story and campaign gameplay. This is a review, not a summary, check the great starcraft wikia site out for information about the full story and characters.

I remember the story of Starcraft as being pretty great. It started with Marshal James Raynor trying to protect his people against an unknown menace (Zerg) and thus joining the rebels led by Arcturus Mensk. The betrayal of Kerrigan by Mensk and her return as Zerg was a great plot twist (which lead Raynor to become a rebel again, this time against Mensk) and the end in which Protoss and Terran forces made a way for Tassadar’s final sacrifice was just epic in scale. Brood War was less memorable, but it did leave Kerrigan as the sole controller of the Zerg and set her up as the next major threat.

Some major points

Starcraft II starts immediately by painting a rich background. James Raynor, our hero since the very first mission of SCI, has visibly aged. Hanging around in beautifully created bar on the Mar Sara Colony he continues his campaign against Mensk right when the Zerg return. Also returning is a former comrade of Raynor’s named Tychus Findlay. Findlay is carrying a big sign saying “I’m going to totally betray you, Raynor”, which everyone except Raynor can see. Anyway, Findlay is being coerced in finding some Xel’Naga artefacts. The job is paying well, but he needs an army to perform it, while Raynor could use the cash to finance his rebellion.

Unfortunately, the artefacts are protected by Protoss fanatics and they are sought after as well by Mensk and Kerrigan herself. It turns out that Prince Arthas, correction: Prince Valerian, son of Arcturus Mensk, is doing everything he can to protect his people against the Zerg. Together the artefacts can be used to turn Kerrigan human again and so remove the ‘brain’ from the Zerg. During the campaign, Raynor is visited by Zeratul, who shows him visions of things to come: monstrous Zerg/Protoss hybrids led by some evil force called the Fallen One. And apparantly, only Kerrigan can save them, she is especially created by the Overmind for that purpose. This Fallen One is apparently also responsible for driving the Overmind to attack the Protoss in the first place. So the evil mastermind of the previous series was just an attack dog?

The crystal actually works, no plot twist, Kerrigan turns human, Findlay reveals that he has been working for Mensk all along and that he has to kill Kerrigan. Raynor shoots him in the face, because Findlay is too stupid to put his visor down. Raynor carries naked Kerrigan into the sunset. Happy end!?

Discussion

There is one thing to keep in mind while reviewing the story and that is the demand of the game that every faction is split in at least two sub-factions at any time, because we have to fight all three races during the campaign. Terran is easy: Raynor vs Mensk, Protoss has the ones that Raynor is friendly with, basically, Tassadar and Zeratul’s alliance, but there are plenty of fanatical Protoss as well and a group controlled by Zerg/Protoss Hybrids. The Zerg, however, are united under Kerrigan. So we know that something has to happen that will split the Zerg and it either happens during Wings of Liberty or early during the next chapter, Heart of the Swarm. I doubt that Kerrigan is really done with the Swarm, but it is easy now for the Big Bad to take control of most of it.

Blizzard has always been good at creating an atmosphere and they have done it again. While the characters are mostly one-dimensional and stereotypical, they stand in a rich background, while they also have enough personal dialog to give them some depth and create a bit of attachment to them. Clichés are not always bad. Starcraft II is full of them, but in a good way. Raynor excels at being the weathered, honorable leader, for example. It also helps that they are all voiced well (except one character who sounds exactly like a WoW Troll…)

The side stories contain some plot twists depending on your choices. This game is not Mass Effect. There are a few choices to make and some gave me pause. Whatever you do, you will always end at the same cut scene. However, there was no major twist in the main story at all: at first you knew that the fragments were important to everyone, but not why, then you learn that they can be used to save Kerrigan. Then you save Kerrigan with the assembled Crystal. Job done, pretty straightforward. Oh and there’s some dark, evil threat somewhere out there. The ending left me feeling ‘this is it?’, while it should have made me want to play the story of “Heart of the Swarm” right now!

Conclusion

Starcraft II has a straightforward story set against a rich background with some great cliché characters. It does pale, however, compared to the quality of the art, the missions and the gameplay. It does not detract from the fact that Starcraft II is simply a must-play game.

Finally, remember to check the TV after every single mission!