On 2nd Thought: DC Universe Online

I’ve continued playing DC Universe Online since my initial review of the game. I still enjoy it quite a bit.

Granted, the missions start to feel repetitive by the time you reach levels 20+, but I really like the fact that game is structured in such a way that you can sit down, play a mission/story arc and level once or twice (even when you’re in the 20-30 level range) in about an hour.

That said, I really wish they would expand upon the powers and make character creation centered upon character conception instead of weapon selection and “how you want to fight”.

I also wish they would allow you to respec your entire character.

No Love for Terrayne

Example: I created a “Magma” themed character. He’s big and rocky, dark-colored with veins of glowing read. I wanted him to have earth-like powers (creating walls of stone, earthquakes, etc.), be super strong, and maybe project fire or heat in some way.

Unfortunately, DC Universe Online has nothing to accommodate this idea. There are no earth powers the closest is Nature, which consists of Plants and (curiously) a shapeshifting subset.

I chose Plant powers, and for a weapon (initially – I might change this) I chose ‘Martial Arts’.  In retrospect, Brawling, a giant two-handed weapon, or Hand Blast might have been more appropriate. I might change it, but I’ve gotten so used to playing with it I’d be hesitant to change to an entirely different weapon.

Movement powers are also extremely limited: Flight, SuperSpeed, or Acrobatics. No teleporting, moving through the earth, etc.

So now I’ve got a vine-slinging character that looks like The Thing (sort of), fights like Batman, and flies like superman. The only truly appropriate powers he has based upon his conception are Super Strength and Heat Vision from the Iconic Powers (and you can’t even get those until levels 9 and 22 if I recall correctly).

He’s still plenty fun to play, but I hope Sony Online Entertainment plans to expand the power sets in the game. They also need an option to respec your entire character . I decided to do a respec  and maybe try Fire-based powers instead of plants. Unfortunately, you can only change skills in the respec—you can’t change your base power set.

Sony should add a total character respec at a steeper cost–$5000 vs. $500 in game currency perhaps. This will be even more important if they add new power sets and skills to the game. Not everyone wants to make a new character just to try new power sets, or if they discover by level 20 that their character just didn’t work out they way they’d hoped.