One of the most keenly anticipated content packs for DC Universe Online was released recently. Lightning Strikes is designed with the high-level player in mind and comes free to Legendary subscribers. But is Lightning Strikes worth the $10 price of admission for other subscriber types? Find out in our mini-review of DC Universe Online: Lightning Strikes. Let us know what you think in the comments.

As you all know, I’ve long been a fan of SOE’s DC Universe Online. I’m a comic book nerd, and a lover of action-based MMOs, and DCUO hit on all the right notes. Now, after a rough post-launch and a conversion to a Freemium model, it finally seems like Batman, Superman, et al are getting their feet back under them once more. The second batch of paid DLC for DCUO just launched. Called Lightning Strikes, it is as the name implies entirely centered around The Flash. There’s a ton of new stuff thrown into the mix, most notably a brand new healing power set in the form of Electricity and a huge new zone for level 30s to mix it up in, replete with all the goodies and items that such new content might entail.

Read more of Bill Murphy's DC Universe Online: Lightning Strikes Mini-Review.

That "meta-game" is exactly why I lost interest so quickly. I was mostly enjoying myself while playing with a friend to 30, but then I got there and for the most part it just became a game of finders keepers, in order to get stronger. I tried, I really did, but God that's boring.

So, eh. I might try a villain to 30 to experience their storyline, eventually. Otherwise it'll go back to one of those games I prefer reading about to actually playing.

Essentially, that's my biggest problem with DCUO.  The end-game is fit only for folks who like grinding gear, or like grinding feats.  Now it's entirely possible there are plenty of those people out there, but I like growing my character in other ways.  AA's make more sense to me, and have since their original SOE-born inception.  It always puzzles me why more companies don't try to offer them as a way to grow characters at the max level. 

It's still grinding, but for some reason it always seems more tolerable.  Maybe I'm crazy.

Having been playing DCUO as a free player for a month now, I can easily see why it was required to go FTP, and while I had every intention of buying one of the DLC packs from the store as a means to upgrade to Premium I simply can't fathom spending any money on this game in its current state.

I'm not a comic fanatic, so I'm not orgasmic over the capability to play a Lantern, and the new Electricity Healer seems really lackluster to me (and apparently doesn't do all that well as a healer anyway - better as a DPS).

It took me a month or so to get a Hero and a Villian to level 30 with most of the generic feats (the exploration ones, the solo ones, a handful of the others) and I enjoyed the trip with the various storylines and so on.  However, I'm now stuck looking at a really long grind (about two months of doing challenges at my current play time) just to qualify for a harder level of the same content with a few additions, which I would again run until my eyes bleed.

With that being pretty unpalletable to me, I looked into PvP - only to find out that cheating is rampant and apparently the rumour is that DCUO was coded to actually believe the input coming from the client, which if true means that cheating and hacks will never be stamped out.  Thus PvP is pointless too, and just as big a grind.

So after a month of casual play, on which I never spent a dime, I've effectively "finished" the game and can't think of anything else I'd care to do.  If my experience is at all common, DCUO isn't likely to survive long even as a FTP title.  It just seems to have been poorly conceived in the first place.

The feat grind is really what kept me playing. I finished the briefings, investigations and the majority of the collections (I ground out the Superboy Plaque for 3 friggin days nonstop). But once I had completed my laundry list and finished off the Steampunk set, I was left with running Duos over and over and over and over and......................

<-------------Steampunk set on The Boilerman (minus the shoulders which are hideous and the helmet which I only use for certain RP)

More open world feats will get me back in, but gating an entire DLC rubbed me way wrong.

I'm level30 Controller, in end-game raiding gear.

The new DLC, lacks EVERYTHING, (1) duo thats rather boring, new bountys which take forever to find and you dont even know if the person you're looking for is already dead or alive.

the daily quests are some of the boring I've come across in any game, I hate how they made the gear T2.5.

I'd say this DLC really isn't worth the purchase unless you want lightning powers.

I canceled my sub after this DLC was released, it's so bad, it's like a holiday event being called a DLC, reminds me of the Valentine event.

 

I like feats. Not the ones that expect you to do 500 instances but the ones that challenge you to finish an instance without dieing or beat a boss at his most difficult setting. It's just challenging and feels very rewarding when you accomplish it.

DCUO is to Level 30, as AoC is to post-Tortage.  And it sounds as though not only does this pack not fix that, it makes it worse.

Dude i totally agree with your review 100% of it! very nice!!!!

Im a new player, i bought the DLC Lighting Strikes and went premium. I didnt went legendary because i was afraid that if i cant legendary status next month my lightning character would get stucked or something that i might not be able to use it and i asked many times nobody answered me that question.

- BTW very hard to get queue sometimes to do that flash new duo, im a controller i can only do it with a tank or a healer.. other people dont want to do it with me they dont even give a chance they see controller and they leave... tanks they stay and do it with me we always finish good.

Have been playing DCUO on the PS3 since it went F2P. I really dig this game, been a long time fan of the DC Universe characters. The constant grind for briefings, collections and investigations give me a nice break from running those alerts, duos and raids over and over again. I don't mind grinding out to gear up, been doing that since before MMOs existed. I love the DLC packs and would certainly buy another when it's released. This game is barely a year old, even WoW had more than a few hiccups in it's early development. Given enough time, I'm sure SoE and DC could turn this game into a heavy competitor to those more established MMOs.