First Look: DC Universe Online
By Wired.com Staff July 28, 2008 | 12:06:00 PMCategories: MMO Gaming



By Lore Sjöberg

SAN DIEGO -- Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman will soon be major players in the world of massively multiplayer games, at least if Sony Online Entertainment has any say in the matter. The publisher showed a pre-alpha version of DC Universe Online, the upcoming superhero MMO for PC and PlayStation 3, at San Diego Comic-Con.

The section that was up and running was a simulated world event, a pitched battle with Brainiac's minions in the middle of Metropolis. The player's job as a pre-generated demo hero was to battle mind-controlled civilians and help Superman and Green Lantern take out Bizarro and Lex Luthor as they duke it out amidst the mayhem.

The gameplay involves real-time action rather than the "select and auto-attack" approach more common in MMOs, so it plays more like a traditional shooter. The landscape offers a nice selection of improvised weapons, and some powers even allow you to use one enemy as a bludgeon to take down another.

Further details were vague, but the game will allow you to play either a hero or a villain, and some servers will have PvP enabled, while others won't. The big names of the DC Universe, whether members of the Justice League or the Legion of Doom, will be an important part of your life, sending you on missions and asking you for help.

SOE is aiming to provide a more organic leveling experience for players. The game world isn't divided into level-appropriate zones. Instead, level-appropriate challenges will spawn wherever you find yourself. Powers will be selected a la carte instead of locking you down into a tank, dps or healer role from the start.

The game looked very shiny and larger than life, suitable for the demigods of the DC universe. It's way too early to tell what sort of experience the game will eventually provide, but it certainly captures the look and feel of a pitched battle among spandex-clad titans.


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