Announced just this past Thursday at New York Comic Con 2016, Warner Brothers Interactive unveiled DC Legends, an action packed mobile RPG. The free to play game is scheduled to debut in November, allowing players to create teams of some of their favorite DC characters to battle the evil forces of Nekron in a story that’s a bit of a twist on the classic Blackest Night epic. I was able to get a few minutes of developer Sean Dugan’s time to talk about the new game.

One thing that immediately stood out to me was Sean’s overwhelming enthusiasm about the game. DC Legends is already in a soft beta (testing phase) in a few countries, and the development team is absolutely ecstatic with the data and feedback they’ve been getting. Nothing is falling on deaf ears here, as WB Interactive team are reviewing everything they can to ensure when the game launches globally in November, players will be getting an awesome experience. Sean went over some of the game concepts and gameplay to showcase where the game is now and some ideas of where it will be going.

GAMEPLAY

Sean was very much adamant about driving home the fact this is a game about teams! The developers want players to feel like they’ve really put together a force to be reckoned with, creating a cast of 40 or so characters to choose from (not all will be available at launch, many will need to be unlocked via game play) to ensure players can get that perfect team.

Team-building isn’t just as simple as “hey I like these characters” (although that is always an option), the strategy comes from the unique class types these characters representing. The characters will be a mixture of Striker, Tank, Healing classes which match up with categories like Magic Users, Energy Uses and Physical types. All of this works together in a paper, rock & scissor-type game play, where one class type can be stronger or weaker against another. This will make players need to double think of what characters they want to send on missions and how those characters mesh power wise with each other.

The best part is how this is just the beginning, Sean made sure to showcase how as characters are used and leveled up, their powers and abilities begin to evolve and which opens all new types of game play options for the player. Superman might not start off 100% invincible, but eventually he can get pretty close when it comes to defending his fellow teammates, Batman and Black Canary are physical brawlers at first, but soon they evolve into very different types of combatants with their own unique game play styles.

Another fun aspect is that there will be multiple variations of a character in the game. Meaning you can have classic style Batman who might be a striker focused more on stealth moves, and then get a modern “Dark Knight” version which isn’t just a re-skin, but a character that plays completely different from the classic style Batman. Right now, any player who pre-registers for the game will immediately get a Warrior-style Wonder Woman, who will play and act completely different from the standard Wonder Woman currently available in the game!

Yes, there will be some comparisons between this game and the recently closed Marvel Avengers Alliance mobile games, but between the game play shown, the amazing visuals of the game (the animations were super slick and even then, Sean mentioned the developers are going to be doing MORE for the visuals!) and the various nuances of character evolution, RPG leveling elements, special team up bonuses and the enthusiasm of the development team I can see DC Legends making a strong impact and staying relevant!

MODES

The initial storyline for the game will revolve around Super Heroes from the DC Universe needing to stop Nekron from unleashing the Blackest Night upon the world and thus turning everything into darkness and death. Sound a little familiar? Well that’s because it is loosely based off the now classic Geoff Johns story from Green Lantern.

In this version Nekron has taken over the Manhunters (robotic machines created by the Guardians before they developed the Green Lantern Corps), imbuing them with black energy and tasking them to kill and consume heroes, forcing them to serve Nekron! As the player guides his heroes through the story, they will take down Manhunters and evil “boss” versions of known heroes. When players defeat the boss, they then “cure” the character of the dark energy and now the character becomes usable by the player. It’s a fun way to incorporate the story and how to unlock characters.

Additionally to the main story mode, there will of course be PvP mode with standard matches and tournaments. Some characters (like Doomsday) will be exclusive to PvP, meaning these characters can only be unlocked from winning in Pvp. Don’t worry, Sean assured that as of now all characters either from Story or PvP are unlockable to Free to Play players, with paying players having earlier access to some characters. Match making is a huge deal to the development team and with the current soft beta they’ve been taking extra care to ensure the best competitive and fair game play possible.

FREEMIUM?

Yes, this is a freemium game. This means you can download the game for free, play for free and progress the same as a paying player. The big difference as described by Sean is paying players will simply unlock game aspects faster, but otherwise will not hold any extreme competitive edge. At the current moment no characters are unique to paying players, nor costumes or anything along those lines. So players should feel happy knowing WB INTERACTIVE isn’t out to just grab some money, they want players to enjoy the game and of course purchase in game currency when they are comfortable doing so.

DC Legends is definitely looking like an A -ist mobile game with a set release date of November, I’m definitely eagerly awaiting a chance to really dig deep into the story. You can get the game for any Android or iOS device (sorry Window Phone users).  If you’re still a bit on the fence or want to see more, check out the launch trailer above and some beta game play below. Be sure to register for the game here! To get your Wonder Woman character!

Interested in the new game? what are some characters you hope show up?!! Sound off in the comments below!

-Jeremy Scully

Follow me on twitter @LRM_JEREMY