It’s no secret in these parts that I’m personally a big comic book and superhero fan! I separated those into separate categories because there are “comic books” that aren’t based on superheroes and yes I read some of those as well. One of my favorite publishers is still DC Comics to this day. I still make a weekly trip to my local comic book shop (LCBS) and have an average weekly pull of ten DC Comics alone. So it was a no-brainer for me to buy into DC Universe Online (DCUO) ten+ years ago when the PC beta started. Just last week Dimensional Ink Games kicked off a 10-year celebration in-game that is to last for two more weeks. We got a chance to partake in the activities and thought we’d share our thoughts with you. Welcome to our DC Universe Online‘s 10th Anniversary Event impressions piece!
In My Day We Walked A Mile…
A true pack-rat still has his original strategy guide and DCUO Collector’s Edition complete with a still boxed Jim Lee inspired Batman statue.
It’s hard to believe that DCUO is 10-years old and still impressively active. In fact, 2020 was the game’s second-best year since they’ve been in service as you can find out later this week in an interview with Jack Emmert, Dimensional Ink CEO, over at mmorpg.com. Since its initial inception, the game has grown to run on five different gaming platforms.
The Festivities Begin As Soon As You Login!
One of the aura styles you can purchase with the event’s currency.
The anniversary event officially kicked off last Tuesday and runs through the end of January. Whether you’re an active player or not you might want to login purely to get your hands on the anniversary event’s SWAG (“Stuff We All Get”) or better known as “free gifts”.
The free gifts, just for logging in include, one free Character Advance token to Combat Rating 290 (CR290)! This token allows you to roll a new character and start at DCUO‘s Episode 37: Birds of Prey Content. You also receive 77 Skill Points consisting of General and other Feats not tied to PVP or specific Episodes. Bundled in with that skip is the Artifact Starter Pack to help you boost up your main stats. As a side note, this guide on DCUO‘s forums can help you make use of this skip token.
Visually speaking new items added to the game, such as this free Restored Shim’Tar Regalia style, look quite impressive nowadays.
You’ll also receive a complete gear suit with the new Restored Shim’Tar Regalia style. You’ll also receive the Paradox Gazer combat pet, two new celebratory fireworks trinkets, and two new 10th anniversary emblems!
The aforementioned pet, fireworks, and emblems.
DCUO Members, i.e. subscribers, get some additional love with a Member Appreciation Gift Box. This gift box includes the Anti-Matter Neon Chroma Pack, a collection of Nth Metal totaling 220,000 Artifact XP, 1 Artifact Cache (your choice of Artifact), 1 set of Artifact Catalysts, 1 Nth Metal Detector, and 4 Seals of Preservation. Additionally, the Members’ discount in the in-game store has been increased from 10% to 20% for the life of the event. This is appreciated, if like me, you buy stabilizers to open in-game capsules (DCUO‘s chest equivalent). This blog has excellent examples of all the gifts.
10th Year Celebration Activities
Flashpoint Cyborg is one of the Ant-Monitor Zone’s quest givers.
If you’re an avid DCUO player then the format of the activities in this celebration won’t come as a big surprise.
One of the new daily, open-world missions.
This celebration takes us to an updated Metropolis Anti-Matter Invasion Zone. You’ll enter the zone at the quest hub where you can pick-up the quests associated with brand new open-world missions consisting of daily, weekly, and bounty. All created just for this 10th Anniversary Event. The Invasion Zone missions range from solo to 4-player to 8-player for slaying some of the bigger threats.
All these missions were fairly straightforward to get through with the dailies being relatively quick. Flying around looking for mobs is still fun and defeating them is still rewarding as far as feeling like you’ve accomplished something.
All these missions reward you “Qwardian Crowns” which can be used to purchase new Speed Force styled gear inspired by The Flash and Professor Zoom. It’ll take you a while to get enough Qwardian Crowns stashed away to get the “best” and coolest looking rewards, e.g. that cool pink anti-matter aura pictured above. On the flip side, there are plenty of rewards to choose from in all “price” ranges that you should earn something based on how lofty your goal is. The zone vendor also allows you to purchase previous anniversary rewards, at a reduced cost, for those players newer to the game.
One example of the new Speed Force style pieces.
Quibbles And Bits
One thing that mildly bothers me is this updated Metropolis zone exhibits the same “end zone” characteristic that many of the newest episodes exhibit. The zone has invisible boundaries that seem to show up in mid-street blocks. Just when you think you can travel to “there”, you’ll run into an invisible wall and can’t proceed any further forward. It’s not a big issue, it just makes you feel like you’re playing in the bottle of Kandor.
This updated zone also seems to be missing the standard investigation and collections icons I’ve grown to love to hunt for and collect. The zone has several holographic Lois Lane terminals that appear to be briefings though.
New Event Raid and Elite Raid: Speed Force Flux
This is actually one of the open-world bounties in the updated Metropolis zone. Meant for a group of players.
The new “Speed Force Flux” raid is based on the vindictive Anti-Monitor. He is trying to free himself using one of the Multiverse’s most powerful and destructive paradoxes. This 8-player instance includes assistance by The Flash and Professor Zoom. The “Speed Force Flux Elite” is the elite version and is considered a full end-game difficulty raid. I participated in the normal event raid as part of a pickup group and it went quite well. Even going in not knowing the raid it was still a fun time and seasoned players should have little issue with it.
Lasting Impressions
Updated zone’s information terminal, one of several.
Bottom line, if you’re a fan of DCUO in general then this event will seem warm, cozy, and familiar and will keep you happy while we wait for the announcement of the next episode. If you weren’t a big DCUO fan before this then there is nothing here that will change your mind. Nevertheless, you should still log in for the free gifts and then reevaluate your stance. Here’s to the next 10 years!
