DC Unchained Preview – More Powerful than a Locomotive?

In the exasperated, saturated realm of Mobile Games sometimes it’s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, yet the mobile market doesn’t seem to be slowing anytime soon.  With more games available than can easily be played, competition among similar games has ramped up substantially, especially where titanic rivals such as DC and Marvel are concerned. Enter, DC Unchained, a direct DC competitor and slap-in-the-face answer to Marvels Future Fight.  Developed by 4:33 Creative Lab, DC Unchained isn’t simply a reskinned and rehashed Future Fight Clone, but to say there aren’t similarities would be flat out misleading.

In fact, it isn’t what is similar that may entice people to try DC Unchained, which as of yet hasn’t been released to the western markets, but the changes that DC Unchained managed to produce has made all the difference in the world in terms of visuals, playability, and dare I say, all around fun.  From the loading screen alone, one thing becomes apparent, for a mobile title, this game is beautiful.  Unlike the more stylized version of Marvel Future Fight, DC Unchained has pushed for more realistic character models.  While some character models still have kind of a goofy look to them, such as one of the newer skins for Larfleeze, they’ve held true to some of the most iconic looks, making them pleasing to look at as well as to play.

Another notable inclusion is that of base building. While the items you can build in your base are all static, and you can’t change very much, this time sink is a little more than just a meaningless addition to throw your time and in game cash into. Rather the rewards are very generous, especially when it comes to dispatch missions, where you can send your characters out on missions to obtain gold, upgrade cards, and other important currencies and experience trophies that will help you level your characters faster even if you aren’t playing.

In the most recent update, they’ve also added a number of different modes, way more modes than what Marvel Future Fight currently offers. Some notable additions are the competitive modes, like the Rank War, which will require you to build an all-inclusive team for the AI to play against other players AI enemies, and the Boss Battles where you can’t utilize the auto attack feature at all.  If you’re eye rolling, thinking that this game is just another “auto run, ai controlled, easy mode game” you aren’t entirely wrong, but the way they managed to do this in DC Unchained is substantially different than in other similar games.

For example, DC Unchained allows for players to purchase and earn tactics.  Tactics are instrumental for auto play, especially in modes like the Rank War, or for “Hell” rank unchained levels.  Tactics enable the player to essentially “program” what you want your heroes to do, for example, you can slot a tactic that will only use your skills 1 and 2 together, or swap out your character to another one with the lowest health if you happen upon a healing orb.  Slotting the right tactics based on your skills and characters is a fun way to interact with characters, even when you aren’t personally handling them.

You also have a very distinct upgrade system that is like a traditional gear scheme, but through the use of Valoriums. These are essentially slotted equipment pieces that are color coded and divided into different specifications to slot on your characters to make them more powerful.  The three colors are Red, Green and Blue, with bonuses given if you match the colors, such as blue Valoriums in a blue slot, red Valoriums in a red slot and so on. There are also specializations among the colors, Green Valoriums are better when they are defensive, while Red Valoriums are better for offensive stats. This gives players a multitude of ways to build their characters, who all have a different number of colored slots available to each of them.

DC Unchained is still in a developmental testing phase which is why it hasn’t released in North America and most of the western countries. Over the last patch, new Skins were added, as well as balance changes that altered the way players obtain those skins, upgrade their characters, and become more powerful.  These types of adaptations are things that would scare off a larger population, as balancing of that nature should be hammered out before going worldwide.  With that being said though, DC Unchained has been my most played game over the past several weeks, making it as addicting as it is enjoyable. With some mild trepidation, I wait at the edge of my seat to see what 4:33 Creative Lab comes up with next, and I absolutely cannot wait for their worldwide release announcement.