DC Universe Online Preview

IGN has an “MMO nerd” and a “comic dork” spend a day with upcoming superhero MMORPG DC Universe Online and they share their impressions with us.

There will six classes available at launch which fall into three categories. There will be two tanking classes, designed to grab and hold an enemy’s attention, two healing classes, and two control classes designed to disable enemies and keep them out of the fight. Each of these three classes has a damage-mode, meaning there is no need for a pure damage class. Players will be able to toggle between their class modes when they’re out of combat with zero penalty, which provides a lot of flexibility when grouping. The importance of the classes, the developers at SOE told us, won’t really become apparent until players begin doing raids.

Why so late in the game? Most games, you’re looking at 200-plus hours on your first character before you’re into even the most basic raid instances. To understand what’s going on here, you have to look at the way SOE are structuring the game. There are large open-world areas like Gotham City and Metropolis, and these serve as your questing locations for about three-quarters of your way to max level (which is 30). The other quarter takes place in instanced indoor locations like the lair of a crime boss. Typically, the open-area quests lead to the instance as a sort of climax, with a boss at the end. We played through a quest chain as henchmen of the Joker and that led us to a boss fight against the Huntress, with Catwoman aiding us. DCUO is designed so that players can hit the max level entirely solo.