This review was a long time in coming. I started this article on February 8th, soon after the game came out. One thing lead to another and by the time I was ready to sit down and give a real go at giving a solid review, SOE was hacker attacked, so that lead to another delay. Finally I'm ready to give a review.

I've played Everquest 2 for a long time, but I have to admit staying in the fantasy world of elves and blacksmiths can be repetitive. When I heard about the upcoming release of DC Universe, the thought of playing a superhero character in a modern world had it's appeal. Previously I had played City of Heroes, and while it was fun it was set in a generic city, had generic heroes and the concept, while solid, didn't do enough for me to continue playing. Honestly, there was no lore involved in the game for me.

Now, before DC Universe there was the release of the Star Trek online game. I thought about getting that game to play, but I thought about the concept of playing Star Trek. What exactly did they do on the Enterprise? Well, they explored new worlds, looked for new civilizations. OK, that might be fun for a few hours but there were no space battles at every turn on the show. It was a lot of diplomacy and exploration. Looking at the game you had to run a starship. That isn't an easy task, with all the power management, breakdowns and command decisions that had to be made. Finally the biggest flaw for me with the game, as described, was when you had to interact with other players. There was no clear explanation as to how different players would have roles. If you play as a single player you are captain of a ship. If you join a group, you could be a red shirt. How much fun would you have as a red shirt?

With that in mind, came to DCU with some excitement but with concerns about a licensed product and how much leeway you would have.

The surprise is DCU is enjoyable to play, depending on the type of player you are. My time has become a bit compressed in the past few months, which is one of the reasons this review has taken so long to complete, but I'm able to take my time with the game and enjoy it. I read reviews where professional players, as I like to call them, leveled so fast they felt cheated. Well, if you want to plow through the game on a long three day weekend, you definitely could if you played for 12 – 14 hours straight for three days. To be fair, this game just came out, so it would be foolish to figure it would have so much content initially that it would sustain a hardcore game player. This game is for someone like myself who would like to explore, maybe play an hour or five every couple of days and not feel they have to power through the game to get enjoyment.

I like that you have a vast ability to create your character from the start. A first time player could spend hours deciding the color and style of the costume. The initial game introduction is interesting enough to give you the basics of the controls. Now, this is where things can get tricky. The game has two versions; console and PC. The controls for both are different and if you have a PC and your friend has a console you won't be able to play together. Console and PC are on different servers.

I made a very rookie mistake when I first started playing DCU. By experience I should have known getting a magic based character would have low powers in the beginning but would be powerful later. Getting through the first couple of levels as a magic based character frustrated me, but when I finally created other characters I got accustomed to the pros and cons of each and I found game play pretty balanced. The exploring is nice in the game. It is so nice to explore a city, with traffic and people about. Some of the settings where the city has been battle damaged have been nice. You start off either in Gotham or Metropolis. Don't worry, you won't be restricted to either city because as you go up in levels you will have to travel from city to city.

I more of a solo player so I wasn't too happy to find to really advance in the game you had to get along with others. There are certain points of access, where you can get super weapons and skills, where you need to work with others. I wish that wasn't the case. For the time of the review I neglected playing Everquest 2, just to give this game the time it needed to grow on me. I have to admit, I like being able to drop in when I like to play, it doesn't make the game such an investment, but going back to Everquest 2 like I did a day ago, the complexity of that game impressed me. DCU is the game you want to give someone to introduce them to MMOs. It doesn't play like a traditional MMO but it isn't hindered by the stats and functions of those games. It takes some getting used to but it is fun, something nice to kill a few hours with. If you're looking for a hardcore MMO, this isn't the game for you yet. I suspect if the game survives it will grow in complexity.