DC Universe Online Preview

Combat has a light, arcade-like feel.

You may not get the chance to play as the big names of the DC Universe, but you'll certainly be seeing a lot of them. At early levels you may find yourself working as a small cog within the larger plans of iconic heroes and villains, but later on you'll certainly wind up going on missions with them too - so you might eventually end up as Batman's wing man. In the demo I found myself playing as a melee-focused villain, smacking up mutants in Metropolis - one of the two confirmed cities in the game (the other is Gotham).

In this quest, a sinister virus has started turning Metropolitans into rabid mutants. Lex Luthor is somehow behind all the chaos, and the heroes are trying to put an end to his crazy schemes. On the other side of the fence, the DC villains are trying to make the most of the situation by mind-controlling the mutants and using them for their own ends. Throughout the quest I was given orders by The Calculator, but I also got a bit of help from The Joker and Harley Quinn. The latter were actually present in the game world as independent NPCs, and if left to their own devices they'd attack any mutants who came near them.

While I was only playing the game for a matter of minutes, it's already clear that Sony is aiming to keep things as accessible as possible. My fisticuffs-loving villain was easily able to put together combos by chaining her light and heavy attacks, while a third all-purpose button allowed her to grab scenery items to hurl at the nearest mutant; if this same button was then used to interact with a knocked-out monster, it would revive and act as an AI-controlled ally. Each of my super powers was triggered by holding a shoulder button and then tapping the corresponding face button, and after each of these attacks there was a brief cooldown period before that move can be used again. Since my villain used Earth power, her attacks were quite, well, earthy; my favourite move involved temporarily turning my arm into a concrete battering ram. You'll actually have 8 powers available at any given time: four active ones, and four passive abilities with a more defensive focus. Together these sets will allow the player to perform multiple roles within a given quest.

I'm no MMORPG veteran, but it's obvious that DCU Online has been designed with a mainstream audience in mind. All the genre's hallmark ingredients are here, but an effort is being made to present them in a way that won't scare off less hardcore gamers. There are both PvE and PvP areas, but I'm told that they'll be part of the same world, and that the latter will be designed with newcomers in mind. In other words, if you don't have a clue what those two terms mean, it's nothing to worry about. I did get to play around in a Player vs Player area for a while, but since my company consisted of one other human and a whole load of bots, it's hard to be too definitive about what the final experience will be like. It certainly has potential, though: this part of the demo descended into a DC Royal Rumble, wherein I kicked seven shades out of The Boy Wonder before getting hide whipped by Green Lantern.

Of course, the million dollar question is whether this kind of action will appeal to both PC and PS3 owners. The DC Universe is an undeniably strong brand to have on board, but Sony is in a tricky position. If it makes things too light, it'll be hard to attract a large PC fanbase; if it makes things too complicated, the console kids may shy away. Or then again, perhaps they won't. Console-based MMORPGs are something of an unknown quantity, so it'll be interesting to see how people eventually react to this. The game still has some way to go, and there's no confirmed release date yet, so we'll keep you posted as more info comes to light.

DC Universe Online will be released on PC and PS3 at some point next year.