After a lengthy download I finally got the chance to have an early look at what Warner Brothers has been cooking up.

As you very well may know by now DC Universe Online is an online role-playing game that has been developed solely for the PC and PS3. It allows players to battle it out in a sprawling and thriving world with or against DC superheroes.

From the get go, the game provides you with the tools to fully customise your character and decide whether you want to be a hero or a villain. Once selected you’re provided with a choice from a variety of mentors depending on what side you pick. Hero’s get the likes of Batman and Superman, whilst villains can choose from a variety of baddies such as the Joker and Killer Croc.

After stunning and deep opening scene with a narrative from Lex Luthor to explain why so many superheroes are present in the same world you are thrown into the tutorial missions which provide all the information you will ever need about your character in terms of movement and combat.  You feel safe in the knowledge that when you finally reach the Justice League HQ after the tutorial that you have all the knowledge needed to survive in the game.

The first thing noticed about the game is that it does look incredible for an MMO; everything looks slick and colourful with great textures and shadings. Its also astonishing to see that a game that’s so large in scale can really have attractive environments and where all characters looked polished to a high degree.

This is your story and is evident that you’ll have to spend a great deal of time in building your legend. These are built around episodes where you get the chance to level up, doing so increases your powers and abilities thus allowing you to take on more difficult missions. What’s more you will need to prove yourself by saving or betraying the most iconic characters. To do so you better have the skill and experience by that time to make it work. It really is down to you and your character to see what path you take.

As you progress through the game you grow in power and skill. Choosing the power fire as example, with every level up would mean expressions become deeper and more elaborate. You can begin by setting someone on fire, then be able to detonate anything on fire and then spread fire etc. This will really give players an incentive that they are becoming more powerful and therefore continue to level up.

On other missions however you get to level up your skill based on your weapon or movement style.  Skills give your fighting combos that make for a more close hand-to-hand combat approach.

When coming into the world your character gets provided with simple choices, as you haven’t made your mark yet. Your options grow further and continue to grow as you progress further on. Depending on what choices you make this will have an overall effect on the story.

At beta stage the game does feel exceptionally smooth with animations and movement looking a great deal improved from what was seen at Gamescom 2009. Load times took a while and I encountered many freezing issues, this meant I had to turn-off and restart the PS3, losing a great deal of progress. If this was to continue in the final product, it could be a huge drawback to some consumers. However it’s best to wait and see what happens on launch before we make any pre- judgements.

Controls also work well, with PC looking to be a pretty standard setup like any other MMO. The Sixaxis on the other hand uses a typical 3D action setup. The left analog stick moves the character while pressing down L3 activates a special movement power such as superspeed or flight. The right analog controls the camera angle; where the face buttons provide the actions jump, grab, and launch attacks. Finally the shoulder buttons activate targeting and action modifiers. Where players can alternate their targeting options between enemies and objects. Bits of the environment can be grabbed such as barrels or cars and then launched back as weapons.

DC Universe Online is set to be a great, engaging game that is sure to have a large thriving community for anyone who’s ever wanted to be a superhero or villain. It’s scheduled for release on Jan.14.2011 with a 30-day subscription key and a £9.99 subscription fee with every month after that with the PC version providing yearly and lifetime subscriptions too.

Written by:- David Salman