DC: Unchained – First Look

DC UNCHAINED is the highly anticipated mobile game from FourThirtyThree Inc.  that is just now entering it’s pre-opening phase. This hack and slash adventure is available in couple of countries already, but the grand opening will be in few days, on March 29th. We made a quick testing to see what’s inside and what kind of game should you be expecting (when released).

 

DC: Unchained Overview

 

To make this simple, I am not going to reveal any part of the story as it will spoil the experience for certain players. The game starts off by informing you that Gotham and Metropolis are both invaded by Parademons. At the very beginning, you are also informed that there are two teams, the Super Heroes and the Super Villains. Each team follows a separate story-line and their own missions and your job is to complete and improve the teams by recruiting famous characters from the DC universe.

 

 

There may be two teams, but there are three types of characters. Good, Evil and Neutral. While Good and Evil characters can join their respective teams, Neutral ones can join either side. Teams are formed by selecting 3 main heroes (or villains) and additional helper heroes that you can call upon hard boss fights. Since neutral characters are more useful in the beginning, my suggestion is to focus your resources to gather at least 3 of them and use them in both Heroes and Villains team when necessary.

 

The Family System

 

The 30 available characters are divided in 6 families, Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Aquaman, Flash and Green Lantern. Each family tree has 5 characters and once you get them all, you also get the family tree bonus. For example, the Batman family characters are Catwoman, Robin, Batman, The Joker and Harley Quinn. Once you gather all the characters from a certain family, you will unlock the “Family Effect” bonus.

 

 

Each character has its own unique skill and level, which can be improved by playing and using Valorium, the precious rare currency that you occasionally get from completing challenges and achievements. Of course being free to play, DC UNCHAINED also offers Valorium and other in-game currencies, skins and characters as in-app purchases.

 

Gameplay

 

DC UNCHAINED is using the standard movement on the left, action on the right control scheme by default. This can be changed in the option menu and replaced with touch-optimized controls that offer less versatility, but can be easier for certain players. If that’s not enough, the game also offers full auto mode where all your character fight automatically, tag in when the active hero health is low etc. All you have to do is sit, watch them do their thing and heal them manually if you need to.

 

 

Stages are designed in a way that you can’t really get lost. Everything is pretty straight-forward, following a scripted story where you can’t go wrong. There is a boss waiting at the end of each stage, you should be looking around for hidden chests and little secrets to gather as many points as you can. After completing the stage, you will be ranked and receive experience and rewards accordingly. As you keep leveling (your account), more content will be unlocked, including the competitive game mode, quick play and AI battles.

 

 

The graphics and the animations in general are perfectly fine for a game of this type. The cartoonish looking characters are reminding the player that DC UNCHAINED is game born from the comic books and that is how it should be. Performance could be better, but this will most probably improve over time as the game is not yet fully released.

 

As a bottom line, like many other mobile games these days, DC UNCHAINED is by design a grinding adventure. If you are about to make a commitment, you will have to come back daily, check the stamina system (that is used per hero btw), level up your account a little more and so on. Most free to play games follow the same model and the decision how to spend your time is up to you. Is it DC UNCHAINED worthy? If you are a fan of DC Comics, probably yes.

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The game (for now) requires around 600 megabytes of local storage and Android device with at least 1.5GB of ram and decent CPU. The game is not officially launched everywhere, so if the link below doesn’t work for you check back in few days. There is a lot more to say about the game and this is just a short article. Online communities with guides and tips are forming around the net and this link is a good place to start looking for more info. Google Play Services are fully supported, including the cloud save option.

 

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Dejan Balalovski