Cinematic trailers have been a hot topic in recent years since many have been used at gaming press conferences and events to reveal games. The reason why they are controversial is because they lack any actual gameplay, and therefore it is impossible to know what fans are actually being shown in terms of the product they will receive. DC games are not the only games to have favored cinematic trailers that obscure actual gameplay or content, but their cinematic trailers in particular have stirred divisiveness in what they show versus what the game actually is.
Cinematic trailers are perhaps a great goal to strive toward, though many games fail to exceed those expectations and rarely ever look as immaculate as a cinematic trailer makes them out to be, and that can be highly disappointing. The same can arguably be said about Star Wars: The Old Republic’s cinematic trailers, which feature elaborate sequences that are nothing like the gameplay players experience. However, perhaps the worst case of this predicament is in the trailers that were put out for DC Universe Online in a comparison of what its gameplay actually entails and looks like.
DC Games Like to Talk a Big Game When It Comes to Cinematics
Batman: Arkham Origins set the stage for one of the most climactic boss fights imaginable when it aired its cinematic Deathstroke trailer. This trailer contained no in-game footage in its depiction of Batman fighting Deathstroke in a wintry, outdoor shipping yard, but it suggested that their fight would be what players could anticipate in-game.
That is the purpose of these sorts of trailers, after all, is to represent what players can expect from the product in terms of tone and gameplay. There are moves that Batman performs in the trailer that are indeed performable in-game, but Deathstroke’s boss fight in Batman: Arkham Origins is far less of a set piece spectacle and more of a button-mashing event with precise parries peppered throughout.
It obviously shouldn’t be expected that the game could have achieved what the cinematic did in a one-to-one replication. Unfortunately, that is what makes these cinematic trailers inevitably disappointing. If actual gameplay fails to live up to cinematics, then it makes a comparison of the two far more underwhelming in gameplay.
DC Universe Online’s Cinematics Far Outweigh Its Actual Gameplay
That is where DC Universe Online’s own cinematics come in. One sequence in particular depicts an epic bout between Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Green Lantern, and Superman against Lex Luthor, Deathstroke, Enchantress, Joker, Harley Quinn, Black Adam.
This is a wide-scale battle atop the ruins of a destroyed city that is meant to showcase how the MMORPG can house tons of characters at once, and the action is palpable in some of the most brutal and climactic encounters that have been seen in a DC game. Rather, despite how many fans may still enjoy DC Universe Online or find it to be exciting, it is nothing like the cinematic trailers portray it to be.
Some fans may be completely fine disassociating these trailers from the game, but it can be upsetting nonetheless when that may be the quality or scale that fans expect from it. It would be incredible to see a modern DC game with that kind of fidelity and scale, but until now it seems like that was only possible in CG-rendered cutscenes or cinematic trailers. In future DC games, though, it would be great to finally see gameplay match or exceed what a cinematic can offer.
DC Universe Online is available to download for free on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.