Comic-Con 08: Hands-on with DC Universe Online part 3
The other kind of travel power we played with was flight. The ice-based character that was our final hands-on demo was able to fly. One keystroke put you in the air and a tap of the spacebar sent you into superfast flight mode. However, travel isn't the only function of flight. Ranged attacks, getting to an enemy quickly who is sniping from a ledge (who you may have punted up there), or, my favorite, picking up a city bus and flying it over other debris to smash Bizarro. All the NPCs we encountered in this demo had a ranged attack so flying will not necessarily give you protection from those you are shooting from above.
The ice-based character had the usual mouse attacks. He also could shoot an ice boulder from his fist to knock down an opponent, encase an opponent in a block of ice temporarily, produce an ice weapon for a powerful melee attack with stun and knock opponents down with an AE attack. As you can imagine, I was able to pick up my ice boulder after it knocked down my opponent and use it as a thrown weapon before it melted. And enemies entrapped in ice could be thrown over sky scrapers or kicked down the street.
I wasn't always victorious however and the bad guys occasionally got the best of me. Fortunately, the death mechanic is simple. When your health is reduced to zero, you have to wait 10 seconds before respawning at full health. That's it. If you decide you have had enough, you can also choose to respawn safely far away.
That was the limit of the demo. I wasn't able to see non-combat gameplay or character creation screens. But the devs spoke of other scenarios they are developing that will immerse the player in the DC Universe such as the Batcave being overrun by villains. Whatever comes next, I was more impressed with this pre-Alpha build than I have been with final beta versions of other games.
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