Hey everyone, long time no see. I've been having a lot of real life things happening that keeps me away from my computer altogether. I was thankfully on in time for the lifetime sub and have been dropping in enough to at least get the gear from the Aquaman DLC2. Since the new JLD DLC dropped, I decided to somewhat try it out with my limited time. So far, only have done the open world, duo, and alert... I've yet to try the raids, I'm going to try this Friday with the league. My opinion came in kind of low. I'm not a magic based fan and I feel that we've had a major unbalance of magic based DLCs. That when something isn't magic, (meta or tech) it's an afterthought or minimal at best. So when I saw JLD dark, I was like "yey" (intentionally spelled wrong). After trying out the content, I'm not a fan of it. The story didn't make a whole lot of sense. I felt it was a lot like the Joker vs Riddler one, where none of the story made sense to the lore that went with it. In the duo, we fight Captain Marvel (I refuse to call him Shazam.) He just comes in and attacks, of course Constantine is a word that ends with hole, but for someone with the wisdom of Solomon, he's terrible of judgement... And what is up with his model. He looks completely like a Dude Bro?! WHY?! Gameplay wise, the open world is kind of meh, but never been a fan of open world dailies. The duo is just filler long, especially the bar fight that you have to wait for the transformations by these people that mysteriously can't move from their spot when transforming... There is actually very little substance to something that doesn't have a lot of story to it. The alert... Etrigan was cool, but the fight reminded me of the Grodd fight, kind of just long. Overall, not a fan. Then loot... I don't understand why we are reinventing the wheel again that results in ANOTHER different method of acquiring something that will be outdated 6 months later? I actually didn't mind the collections, the problem was time capsules giving you the feat to drop them right away. Which removed replay-ability of content. So... Probably not going to be doing much of this DLC. Maybe attempt to be on during double mark events or something, but I've had terrible luck making those. Positive reviews? Constantine looks great. Zatanna looks good too, but her eyes are too "wide" and kind of makes me feel uncomfortable. Not a bad reskin of Gotham (though that area is bad on my framerate for some reason.) Thank you for reading. If you see me on randomly, say hi.
Hey man, I'm totally with you on the magic based content, I also subjectively dislike it, it's not my thing I'd rather tech and meta every day of the week and I agree it does feel like a disproportionate amount of content is magic themed, but someone could go through and have an actual count up, maybe I'll get to it at some point, either way I'm with you, not my thing. I agree regarding Shazam he does look like you describe lol. TBH I'm not finding the content particularly engaging myself, it seems for similar reasons. I agree Constantine does look good, but looks very similar to David Tennants Doctor Who, if only he had brown hair. I don't like Zatanna, Her face is weird, her breasts are half way down her chest like she forgot her bra for the day and perhaps the gravity is different in chaotic gotham and has taken a hold. Then her bottom half appears like almost an after thought and lacks real detail in comparison to the fabric patterns of the cloak, it was almost like, hell I guess I better chuck some legs on her. In saying that I do like the fact they're updating NPC's and I do really like Zatanna's cloak in general in terms of its art, just not those anatomical observations I don't know just my thoughts. And yea we agree on the loot.
Haven’t really spoken about the overall content. For general gameplay, there is more challenge as some have asked for; and I’ve seen many of those who wanted the challenge give a pug group two tries on a boss and then rage quit. It leaves the rest of the pug group trying to find replacement after replacement. I’ve finished each time, but the player shuffling can add anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. As far as characters and story, I’m just not much of a fan toward the DC magic side, so probably not fair for me to criticize. I think the mistake is that they should be painting with a broader brush. A straight up Shazam episode could have hit the magic side (with the old Wizard’s demon children Blaze and Satannus); and it could have hit the super-hero side with Dr. Sivanna and Mr. Mind. Doing things in that manner insert a little something for everybody. I know the resources are limited, but they should still be able to make the theme more dynamic in my opinion. An episode in DCUO should be like a big event in the comics. There’s a core story (Doomsday rampaging; the dead rising; Darkseid War), and then you slice it down into perspectives (Dr Fate is going to have a different experience than Batman - same story and same threat with different points of view). I think episodes like JLD are just being made a little too neat and tidy in a story sense - like that episode of DCUO is being collected for a trade paperback later. Instead, the game is more like the 100 different issues that crossed over with Crisis - lots of different perspectives shown as this bomb dropped into the middle of that story world. And lastly, I do really like the character designs, and I think great work is being done there. The one that does bother me a little is Zatanna’s chest for the reasons Proxy mentioned.
For a negative post, it's weird to see Shattered Gotham's platforming not getting a mention. Overall I'm on the meh side, it's like there are cool ideas but the execution isn't exactly on point. I don't see magic based content being overused: Hands of Fate (1), Trigon (1 + 0.5x4), Amazon Fury (3) and Atlantis (2? Deluge really only have magic as the final boss). With JLD added to the list (DoS counted), there are 10 out of 35 episodes that are magic based, so make your own judgement there. Trigon's storyline is stretched to 4 episodes during the slow-build era, so maybe that's why you feel like you're sick of his omnipresence, or tech/meta isn't used as the pulse of the story like magic is with its so it sticks out to you like a sore thumb when you don't have an affinity for it. I dig magic/arcane/mythology stuff so I like these storylines, though I wish there'd be a WW episode where she deals with man's world's troubles instead of another Gotham or Olympus. Female breasts are always kinda off in DCUO. Wonder Woman always has this problem with her low-cut bodice, it's probably because of Zee's new corset that you finally notice the shape. I'm kinda used to it though. Edit: Age of Justice also has a magical alert because of Doctor Fate. It's still 11/35 though.
Storywise, it was fun enough. I personally felt as though we needed a final encounter either at the end of Shattered Gotham or as a one-encounter Raid like Doomsday, where we fight against Stolen Powers John Constantine to defeat him and break up the powers back to their proper owners. There was just a noticeable lack of closure in the end here. The open world stuff is about as fun as dailies are going to be; not bad, but generally kinda boring and generic. Shogg/Podnormous are far superior to Trench Mother, however, because if you catch them towards the end of a group, you can still get credit, whereas Trent Mother had that stupid "Defeat the Waves" and then "Defeat the Trench Mother" steps, so if you missed the early trash, you got no credit for the boss. The duo is fair. The only real annoyance is the bar at the beginning. It's staggered out and slow, and for no general reason. It just feels like a tedious slog that serves no reason, doubly made annoying by a loading screen before entering the 'real' duo. If they wanted to do a 'several waves' encounter designed to put pressure on us, then dial it up another couple notches and grant rewards (like the turrets portion of the Alert). If they don't want to do that, then it serves no purpose and we need to be able to speed it up a bit more. The Alert is downright fun. I love how Tanks feel more useful again, instead of the typical Alert breakdown of DDDH. I think the challenge level on Etrigan and Facist Vampire is about spot on where a random queue can complete it, but only if all four players are actually paying attention. This is one of those rare Alerts that I wish there was an Elite version of, just because it's a blast. Fellowship is a really fun raid. Basically everything about the House of Mystery is well done. Klarion-Town is a bit more Meh, and the final fight seems downright awkward with Klarion arguing with Tala, but never actively opposing her in any way. I feel like the fight mechanics were intended to be for us to free Klarion and then have him fight against Tala while we fight Faust. But Shattered Gotham. This is the least enjoyable raid I've played since the days of the Hands of Fate operations. And I hate it for the exact same reason I hated those 8-man Ops: long, slow, pointless travel to waste time. If a boss fight is challenging, I'm cool with being there a long time to figure it out. This is not that. It is not hard, it is simply an artificial padding of the clock, making it take longer and go slower, even when everybody knows what they're doing, and making it painfully annoying to wait on that one last player when they join late or miss a moving platform. The whole thing ends up feeling very slow, compounded by the fact that the boss fights are ridiculously easy and generic, which only makes it feel very boring and annoying.
I feel you on disliking magic based content. Its exactly why I don't play 99% of MMOs. Honestly, this DLC caught me by surprise with the fact that these elite raids are more engaging than most...though, it could be that we just came from Atlantis and that was my least favourite DLC.
Scored myself a bonus night off. I'm very tempted to get a psn card and subbing up for a month just t waste some time but i can't. There a lot of stuff I miss in the game, fooling around with my girls styles and bases, running new players through my league hall via the Halls of Power content but when it comes to actual gameplay i feel beyond let down. A year and a half since they decimated my powerset and nothing has been done despite many threads and proof to the contrary. I just don't get that. Loyal player for since years, never glitched or cheated the system...all i wanted from the revamp was for them to not !@#$ up my powers and its the one thing they did and then they let it drop. I will never forgive these guys for taking my characters away from me. On the bright side the less time i send focused on gaming, any gaming, the better my real life gets. funny how that works. Since the revamp I've saved a couple of thousand dollars I would have otherwise spent on replays, keys and subbing. really not the worst trade off. Disgusting is what this game has become. Used to be a level of integrity around here that just doesn't exist anymore. The game has caught up to the player base. Sorry you wasted the cash on a lifetime sub.
I broke down and I'm poking around. Not breaking the budget by dropping one psn card. I also renewed Neverwinter for a month which I tried liking so much. Seems to be gaming in general for me. Nothing really catches my eye. All I really want is one good super hro mmo.
Yeah, I'm not a big fan of it either. Only 4 out of my 17 characters are magic, the rest are tech or meta, so yeah, I don't like it as much as the other two. Did the open world stuff with all my characters, but I don't really like the missions.
I'm not spending extra money on this Dlc. Period. Not one replay badge will be bought by me. Wont be buying hundreds of dollars of time capsules, wont be buying a few hundred dollars of marketplace items like seals, renown experience tokens, detectors, or even Replays. This Dlc was minimal for me. Other than a few skins, and only a few layouts in content, Seems very re ha sh ed to me again. Many Feats and the OP item hidden behind a massive paywall. Catalysts and essences hidden further behind a larger paywall. They pretty much trashed our Super charge cool downs and costs just so we would build up other artifacts, after we spent time and money to build the others to stay competitive in game, because they listened to a minority of players on test, and were not mindful of the negative feedback so many others were giving. The Rng rate for drops keeps getting worse and worse. Its one thing to monetize a game for decent profits, but its another thing to be unmindful of the expectations and feedback of long standing customers, and treat them this way. Thats my opinion. Im good. I'll play what my membership allots, as a comic fan, and not a cent more. There are plenty of other games out there that are not as excessive with their paywall/ rng rates, and seem more grateful of their customers spending their money with them, while being mindful of their customer's feedback.
To elaborate on my earlier comments about story, I believe the story goal of the devs should be reversed. A DCUO episode is not our character doing a guest appearance in a Superman story or Batman story or Justice League Dark story. The perspective is that these DC icons are guests in OUR story. Each of us essentially make our own comic book every day playing this game; we make our own team book with friends and leagues. The next Legend is us; what the devs produce should be tailored as a crossover with OUR comic book series. And given that we all have different powers and perspectives, the story has to consider that. But that’s just my opinion. Easy to say, but not necessarily easy to do. Aside from the earliest missions, I think the most successful version of this kind of thought was Origin Crisis. The only thing that would have put a cherry on top of that was a solo featuring our own Origin Crisis as a time traveling villain went back to day one on Brainiac’s ship and tried to stop us from ever getting a start.
