Remember that time that SOE added content to DCUO and it was comprehensible, easy to pick up, functional, and otherwise working as it should be? Well, neither do I.

If you’re a fan of DCUO, you may have heard that the new “DLC” has been released – Fight for the Light. If you’ve been living under a rock for the last several months, the news of this DLC would have escaped you up until your latest login (post Sept 6th).

I’ve been sitting on this article for about a week and a half now, struggling to find the words that would adequately portray just how frustrated I’ve become with SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) and/or the creative team behind the game. Sadly, those words have escaped me up until now.

Where do I start?

An almost 4gb download, Fight for the Light is hardly what I would call content for your casual gamer/player. Perhaps that’s why I’m so upset about this – why I feel so alienated as a player. Perhaps I’m asking too much, being a casual player, but when SOE advertises a new power set & content, I get a bit excited. I feel like I have a reason to come back to visit the game, which has otherwise become stagnant for myself and others. It’s a breath of fresh air, to hear that the game has new content. I digress.

Fight for the Light is mainly comprised of what is referred to as “endgame content”; instances, enemies, items, etc. are all designed for the fully “geared” player. In plain English, you will struggle to play any of the new in-game content unless you have been spending countless hours grinding to earn tokens, which you will then use to purchase various suits of armor. To put this in perspective, with a solid 4-8 player group, you’ll require about 20-minutes per run just to receive 2 tokens. A full suit of “Tier” armor costs ~300 tokens. That’s a minimum 50 hours of gameplay, doing the same instances/dungeons/raids/etc.

As a casual gamer, you’re doomed.

Now, the DLC does have some content for everyone – whether you want to start a new character, or use it on an “un-geared” level 30 hero/villain you’ve got in your arsenal. You can actually apply the new power set to an existing character, if you were lucky enough to not have the game bug-out & provide you with the power set token. Apparently you can contact SOE (PC only?) for assistance with missing tokens/etc.

With all of this being said, the game is just as buggy as ever. I’d like to think of myself as something of an advocate of DCUO, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to defend (let alone play).

Here’s a list of the issues with the DLC that I, and others, encountered when the DLC went live – just to put this into perspective for you:

1. Power-swap tokens MIA.
2. PC version’s Lifetime subscribers weren’t able to access the DLC
3. DLC wasn’t live in Europe 48+ hours after the launch in North America.
4. Very little in-game instruction regarding how to use/swap your new power set. What little instruction provided is rather abstact, and leaves much to be desired.
5. New power set does little/nothing for characters spec’ed for ranged combat; activating abilities causes you to lunge into combat.

With that being said, there’s also a small list of gripes that the community has, on a more opinion-based level. Specifically that Oa isn’t an in-game location, unless you’re a fully geared level 30 character. Or that Green Lantern & Sinestro aren’t new mentors, nor do they have any sort of presence in the role of brand new characters with the “Light” power. Not until they’re level 20-ish, from what I recall.

Long story short, DCUO needs more solo content. I’ve said this time & time again, but it’s one of the easiest ways to ensure you aren’t alienating your casual players. Give them a slew of content to play through on their own, not requiring them to group up with others. In my opinion, this is why World of Warcraft & other MMORPGs are so successful; there is so much to do, when you don’t feel like going on the monotonous grind for items/etc. DCUO falls incredibly short of the mark, when you want to do some solo content, unless it’s more solo instances you’re interested in. There’s no jobs, no crafting, etc.

With games like Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Uncharted 3, Battlefield 3, and Modern Warfare 3 just around the corner – it’s difficult to say what fate has in store for DCUO. One thing’s for certain, though; this speedster’s “Legend” plan has officially been cancelled.

R.I.P. Blynk. It was a good run. Pun intended.

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