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Also Known As: DC Comics Universe Online
Also on: PS3
Genre: Persistent Online RPG
Publisher: Sony Online Entertainment
Developer: Sony Online Entertainment
RP for Rating Pending For more info visit the DC Universe Online Profile » Game Highlights Videos Images Guide Walkthroughs Cheats All Articles Message Boards #Layer1, #Layer1 IMG {position:absolute; visibility: hidden; z-index:10;}

DC Universe Online: Expert OpinionsAn MMO nerd and a comic dork played for a day. Here's what they think...showUSloc=(checkLocale('uk')||checkLocale('au'));document.writeln(showUSloc ? 'US, ' : ''); October 8, 2010by Nick Kolan and Greg MillerLATEST IMAGES

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While it might be true that good things come to those who wait, adages never make the waiting any easier. Underoo-wearing fans everywhere were dealt a blow this week when DC Universe Online was delayed from November until early next year. However, the news was coupled with the announcement that the DC Universe Online beta was finally going live so that fans could help make the game as rad as possible.

Still, that wasn't enough for IGN, so Sony Online Entertainment hosted MMO Editor Nick Kolan and PlayStation Executive Editor Greg Miller at its Texas studio so that the dynamic duo could kick the tires on the game and see how it's coming along.

Here's your first look at the creation mode.
Thing is, this pairing's a bit more interesting than you might think. Nick's a crazy hardcore MMO player but knows little about comics. Greg's a huge comic book fan but never plays MMOs. Thus, the goal of the visit became simple: is DC Universe Online good enough to satisfy two completely different gamers who are both attached to the same title.

Let's find out.

Nick knows MMOs.Now before I talk about DC Universe Online, I need to come clean about something: I know very, very little about the DC Universe. I know Batman and Superman, and that's about where it ends. I only saw The Dark Knight about a month ago after someone forced me, and while I genuinely enjoyed it, I didn't feel any more compelled to head down to the local comic repository and read the latest adventures of the Caped Crusader. In fact, as I typed this, I had to ask someone whether the Caped Crusader was Batman or Superman. It's Batman.

Anyway, my point is that this put me in an ideal position to take a look at DC Universe Online from the perspective of someone simply looking to play an MMO, with no true investment in the universe. I'll start with the basics of any game -- the controls. The creators of DC Universe Online, Sony Online Entertainment, are calling it an action MMO, and for the most part, that is a pretty accurate description. Most of your attacks are instant, triggered by your actions. You have combos and most depend on which way you're facing. Your abilities and many ranged attacks work on more standard MMO mechanics.

I had played this briefly on a PS3 at E3 this year and found it a little awkward. I'm primarily a mouse-and-keyboard guy, so having to hold a shoulder-button to toggle abilities felt overcomplicated, but for someone more controller-preferential, I can see that being a negligible issue (if an issue at all). As anyone who has played other action games on the PC might expect, your primary attacks are controlled with the left mouse button, while the right toggles an alternate attack.

The types of attacks these are depend on what weapon skill you chose at the start of the game. There's a bunch to choose from -- kung fu, brawler, swords, rifles, pistols etc. -- and each of these have a talent-style chain of moves you can slowly learn. Brawler, for example, has a leaping ability that closes the gap on your opponent and deals decent damage simply by holding down the left mouse button.

It's a simple system that will be familiar to anyone who has played an action game on the PC. The ranged mechanics, however, are less action-based as you can simply lock onto a target and mash the mouse-button to fire away. Don't expect it to feel like a third-person-shooter.

Nick has no idea who this is.Triggering abilities feels more like your usual MMO whereby pressing a hotkey uses your ability. As a villain following the path of traps and trickery, my earliest skill involved throwing explosives at the feet of a foe which would pop them in the air, damage them and stun them for a short while. Some abilities have cast-timers and most have cooldowns, both of which will feel familiar to most MMO players.

There will six classes available at launch which fall into three categories. There will be two tanking classes, designed to grab and hold an enemy's attention, two healing classes, and two control classes designed to disable enemies and keep them out of the fight. Each of these three classes has a damage-mode, meaning there is no need for a pure damage class. Players will be able to toggle between their class modes when they're out of combat with zero penalty, which provides a lot of flexibility when grouping. The importance of the classes, the developers at SOE told us, won't really become apparent until players begin doing raids.

Why so late in the game? Most games, you're looking at 200-plus hours on your first character before you're into even the most basic raid instances. To understand what's going on here, you have to look at the way SOE are structuring the game. There are large open-world areas like Gotham City and Metropolis, and these serve as your questing locations for about three-quarters of your way to max level (which is 30). The other quarter takes place in instanced indoor locations like the lair of a crime boss. Typically, the open-area quests lead to the instance as a sort of climax, with a boss at the end. We played through a quest chain as henchmen of the Joker and that led us to a boss fight against the Huntress, with Catwoman aiding us. DCUO is designed so that players can hit the max level entirely solo.

There is group content, though, and it starts around level 10 or so. These are called Alerts and, although they're more difficult than your standard solo-instance by design, they're not the sort of place that requires precise cooperation. If you're looking for the kind of tank/healer/damage dealer group scenario where one false move spells death, you'll have to hit level 30 and start raiding. The wait won't be all that long though -- about 60-70 hours from level 1 to 30, give or take -- which is why SOE is happy to leave the class-role kind of grouping until the end of the game. Plus, as I'm sure many can attest, that kind of ultra-organized group play isn't for everyone.

If you're turned off by meticulous cooperation, you're probably into the player-versus-player bit. PvP is another core part of the MMO experience for most, and DCUO has a couple different options. The standard kind where you take your character into an arena or battlefield or some sort of map and blast the faces off of dudes will be there, but we didn't get to try that.

I hear he's pretty good with that crowbar.Here I have to voice one of my concerns, as PvP balance is a tricky thing, and the class system that DCUO has implemented leads me to worry that a control class will have a very obvious advantage in PvP, without the disadvantage of a lack of damage that normally comes with control classes. That is why I believe they've implemented Legends mode, in which players may don the capes and spandex of their most beloved heroes and villains and have it out. Players unlock iconic characters to play as within legendary mode on their way to level 30, starting with Harley Quinn for the villains and Robin for those who've taken the namby-pamby hero path. Legends mode allows devs to build characters with mixed powersets without having to worry about the PvE side of things, and allows them to balance the characters within a sort of PvP bubble.

What I played was a pretty basic king-of-the-hill scenario within a chemical plant that I'm sure has some significance within the DC universe but, to me, was "green and filled with vats." (Greg Note: It's Ace Chemicals; where the Joker was born.) I was playing as the Joker you know from screenshots and Greg was playing as an Arkham Asylum version of the Joker who was clad in the inmate uniform. The two Jokers were actually different characters with different (although similar) skill sets. This alternate-versions thing is something SOE is likely to do more of in the future, which ought to provide interesting PvP scenarios in addition to lots of balance complaints (even if they're perfectly balanced). The map itself had some interactivity in that we could jump into the vats and be damaged or mutated by them.

We also saw a lot on character creation, and although I personally have never much cared for creating a pretty character, the combination of the number of customization options available, mixed with the three-color-limit in choosing your character's color scheme resulted in interesting and not entirely ugly looks. Some would even say they looked pretty neat.

There's no crafting system in the game which might deter some, but SOE haven't ruled out adding a crafting system in the future. Their only condition is that it has to fit the superhero theme of the game, so knitting bat-wings together won't cut it.

What I came away with from the whole experience was this: If you're used to sword-and-sorcery, super complex MMOs, you might find DCUO to be pretty simple. Likewise, if you're expecting a fast-paced, action-packed God of War-type game, you might find DCUO to be a little slow. The game fits somewhere in the middle and feels like it will reach a much broader audience than some of SOE's last online outings. Most importantly, DCUO is going to be on a console, meaning its audience will be broader still.