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Fellow Budgeteers! It is time for the one month review! For those of you who are new to the site, over the course of a month (four weeks, actually, but who’s counting), I review four games with Free-to-Play content, trying to help you know if they are worth your time. At the end of those reviews, the one that got the highest review score earns a second, month long review.
Now, normally the month review would have been awarded to League of Legends, as it had far and away the highest score of the first month. However, as I stated in last month’s wrap-up, I’ve been playing LoL for so long, that the review I posted for it was both a first blush and long review. So, the review was awarded to: DC Universe Online!
[cue applause]
Now, there will be two distinct differences between the weekly and monthly articles. First, I won’t be posting a score for the monthly ones. If I felt that the game deserved a change to its score in one area or another, I will let you know, but normally the scores will stay the same. The second major difference will be that I will allow myself a small budget to spend on the game. I figure that $20 is more than enough to try out some of the DLC content. But if it is only cosmetic offerings, chances are I will refrain from dropping any greenbacks. Now on to the game!
PREVIOUSLY ON FBGR…
When I left DC Online, I had two characters, the hero at level 15, and the villain at 17. They had both completed a number of quests, gathered some pretty good gear, and were a lot of fun to play. Now that I was going back, I wanted to not only push them all the way to the level cap, I also wanted to experiment with the other powers and weapon styles, and really see what I could come up with, both stylistically and actual gameplay development.
TO LEVEL THIRTY…
Getting to the level cap can be a race, a crawl, or simply an enjoyable stroll. It is possible, though I don’t know why you’d want to, to get to Level 30 in less than half a day. In order to get there that fast, you’re going to need a group to party with, and just tear through every major quest as they become available, ignoring all PVP matches, races, investigations, collections, etc., and anything else that isn’t a major XP gain. However, by so doing, you may have a less powerful character than someone who does all the “side quests” on their way to the cap. Now, you’re probably asking how that can possibly make sense, and here’s the answer: feat points. Accomplishing certain goals, like completing all the races of a certain challenge rating (Introductory, Rookie, Adept, Skilled and Expert), exploring the cities, completing quests without getting knocked out, etc, etc, etc, will net you 10, 25, or 50 Feat points, and each 100 points earns you an extra skill point. And there are over 500 feats to be completed, with more being added in the major updates. I stumbled onto this little fact, and started doing any little side thing I could find, expanding my skill points very quickly.
Several other items can be earned along the way as well. Investigations (marked with a green ? icon) give you gear that is about the same level as the quest you find them near to. Collections and briefings (blue and yellow ? icons, respectively) give you style tokens, many of which styles are not available at creation. So do platinum finishes in the races all over town. Exobits (marked with a glowing ring icon) can be gathered and then converted into Exobytes, used in the design of gear enhancers, consumables, and other useful equipment. PVP Arena and PVP Legends reward you with Marks and Influence that act as a secondary currency for style tokens, Legendary exobyte data, and Level 30 Tier 1 PVP Gear. Not to mention the fact that all these activities can be fun! I personally found that taking my time to complete investigations, running races, and just enjoying the process was not only rewarding, it let me learn my abilities and skills better.
AND BEYOND!
The question running around in the back of my little skull like a rabid ferret was “What is there to do after you hit the level cap?” The answer was, thankfully, quite a lot. There are a plethora of repeatable Quests that unlock at 30, as well as Duos (two player versions of some of the earlier quests on “hard mode”), harder Alerts, and Raids (the hardest PvE Quests available, and only at high CR levels).
At level 30, The focus shifts from leveling up to improving your Combat Rating (CR). Your CR is determined by the average level of your gear, and sets your access to the endgame content. In order to get better gear, you will have to earn not only cash, but some of the secondary currency types, called Marks. There are several types of Marks, each is earned by completing specific content that opened up at 30, and each is used for a specific type (PvP or PvE) and level of gear.
Marks are slow to earn, but Duos, Alerts, and Arena PVP each offer a Daily Challenge, marked with a star that earns you extra Marks. Occasional Marks can also be found in the Vault. Each earning event can be done once per day, so my suggestion is if you have a group, run them in order as a team. If, like me, you don't really have anyone to rely on, hang out in the Watchtower or Hall of Doom, and post a Looking For Group (LFG) request while watching for the opposite GLF requests that come by.
There have also been several updates and DLC packs added to the game, with more planned for later. Each of these has added playable areas, quests, alerts, and options, so it looks like no matter how long you play, there will be new things to try.
CHANGING YOUR LOOKS
In the original review I said that character design was somewhat limited, and so I gave the Atmospherics score of 3/5. After having played further, and designed several new characters, I have to say that I should adjust my score to a 4/5. the reason for this is that although the INITIAL options are somewhat limited, the options you can unlock are tremendous. There are Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Unique, Iconic, and Casual styles available for most of the gear you wear, so the chance to find something that fits the look you wanted is out there. One of my characters actually owns Batman Boxers! LOL!
VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE
With three mentors, three movement modes, nine powers, and ten weapon sets, finding your style of play is relatively easy. Just experimenting with each of them can be fun, but there are certain combinations that work better than others, and not just for individual preference. Movement Modes each have bonuses to your defence against certain crowd control effects. Superspeed can give you Knockback and Restraint resistance, Flight helps against Restraint and Stuns, and Acrobatics give you Stuns and Knockback resistance. Each has a variety of abilities that can be unlocked via skill points, and improve your ability to get around or are used as another power-based ability on your loadout for combat. My personal preference falls to Acrobatics, but really it is up to you and what you like.
The real synergy comes from the Weapon and Power interactions, and what role you want to play. Each of the weapons have innate bonuses that are unlocked either as a bonus when you pick up a certain attack, or as a straight bonus that can be bought up to three times, and are found in the last two levels of the skill tree. These bonuses are always on, even if you aren't using that weapon style, so picking up multiple weapon styles also means picking up additional stat bonuses that stack. When you look at your choice of Power and Weapon, as yourself if you are staying in the damage role, or if you ant to play one of the alternate roles: Tank, Healer, or Controller. Then look at what stats will help you the most for that role, and you'll find that one or two weapon styles will be the best choice for you to take because of the bonuses you get.
DROPPING CASH
It was with reluctance that I spent $15 of my budgeted $20 for some DLC on this game. I have to say that it was worth it. In spending money, ANY money, you move from the Free level of membership to Premium, and with that your character count goes up, your cash limit increases, and you get some great new options. I bought an extra character slot and the Lightning Strikes DLC pack, unlocking Lightning as a power option, opening up Central City as an endgame option for all of my characters, and adding some style options and bounties for some of the most famous heroes and villains of The Flash comic series. Each DLC pack is similar, and with the rate that they have released them, you could open up each of the DLC packs as they come out, and still spend less in a year than you would on one new game from the store. The major draw to getting a Legendary Membership that I can see is that all of the DLC, styles, etc. is unlocked, and you can create a League ( other games call this a Guild) with other players, but for me, I'm more than happy to stick with my frugality, and buy it piecemeal.
THE VERDICT
I stand by my initial review, and say that this game is WORTH IT. It is worth your time, and some of your money, depending on how much you play it. For me, I'll stick to the DLC packs and playing 7-10 hours a week, so if you're out there in Metropolis or Gotham, and need some help, just /Shout “Help me NoCashReq!” and if I'm on, I'll swoop in to save the day! (Or crush the fools, whichever is more appropriate.)
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