Girls of Geek Game Review: "DC Universe Online"

Written by Scotty

Sometimes I just need to unwind and let go of watching movies for a day, a week and maybe even a month.  I have found that DC Universe Online has been able to free my mind just a little bit and I have really been enjoying the game thus far.  Having Lex Luthor coming back in time to try and save the planet is just a fun story to play with since he has all of the technology that anyone will ever need and with Brainiac knocking on the door to take over the earth, there is only one way to stop him, a superhero or supervillain to defeat him.

I just jumped onto the bandwagon a couple of weeks ago and for a game that is basically free, I will admit it is fantastic.  Being able to build up your own character with powers, weapons, fighting type and even adding a mentor, the story changes with every choice you make.  I have only been able to put in about twenty hours on this game thus far and have changed my characters several times.  I like it, each story line has its ups and downs and now that I am comfortable with my characters, I am sure I will be able to take on some of the more difficult missions.

Playing as a hero is kind of lame, I will admit and it was not my first choice.  Making it more difficult to make extra money to buy goodies seems to be the downfall of taking the bright side, but overall you have the opportunity to take on some of the greatest villains in DC’s history.  Once you arrest them, you are awarded skill points that you get to upgrade your weapons and tactics with and overall, you should never die, even though there are several baddies looking to take you out.  You even get paired up with some of your favorite heroes to take out the villain bosses, so that is a plus as well.

I have never thought of myself as a hero, so I first tried to play with a villain patterned after the Joker and I will tell you it is a hoot.  Now, with this story, you never get a dull second while scouring the city.  Needing to battle against the heroes, you also have to take out the competition to make your bones.  Even though after you hit level ten, the some of the missions start to run together, you still have a ton of work to do to make sure the Hall of Doom recognizes your feats.  You also get to rob citizens along with making a little bank back knocking out ATM machines.  The villain’s life is for me for sure since I want to get as many upgrades as possible before being challenged in a Hero vs. Villain challenge that always leaves me battered on the sidewalk of Gotham.

This is just a fun game to kill some time with and I have found out a couple of critical things if you are just starting to play.  Do not hold on to your skill or power points that you earn.  You really need to upgrade them as soon as you get them or you will not be strong enough to make it through your missions alive.  Check your inventory often and see if you have picked up anything that can help you through battle.  You can equip yourself from head to toe with items that will make you stronger, more powerful and even increase your health while wearing them, make sure you do this to stay alive in the city since you never know who will be around the next corner.  With basic controls and not too difficult combos to learn, this is just a fun game to get into and if you have other friends online, you will need to enlist their help for some of the more advanced missions.  I hope to see everyone on there one day and please don’t try to beat me up too bad, I am still pretty new to this.

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