Review by: Mike Thompson

Full disclosure: I've never been a huge fan of traditional MMOs; every time I play them, I eventually grow bored and fizzle out. Things tend to move too slowly at the beginning, the action quickly gets too repetitive, and there's way too much of an emphasis on team/guild/whatever raids to make up for a lack of story. I think I want to like them more than I actually do. However – I am a huge comic nerd. I learned how to read from comics. Instead of seeing Spot run, I witnessed Superman going toe-to-toe with Darkseid. As a result, I've been interested in DC Universe Online ever since it was announced and have the beta hours to prove it. Now, it's finally here, and I genuinely found myself enjoying the game more than I expected.

From the start, DC Universe Online had me hooked. The plot, introduced via an amazing intro movie, shows one of the darkest storylines to ever grace the DC's comics. In the near future, Lex Luthor leads a coalition of villains in a brutal war against the heroes. During an epic final battle, just about everyone –including Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, Black Adam, Circe, and Deathstroke– wind up getting killed in action. Soon after, though, Brainiac shows up and takes over the world, using powers he'd harvested from heroes and villains.

Luthor, realizing that his war against Superman wound up dooming the planet, manages to travel into the past and releases thousands of exobytes (Brainiac's machines that can steal or bestow superpowers) into the atmosphere. As a result, a new generation of heroes and villains rise up; at times, the groups still squabble between one another (or, with the villains, sometimes amongst themselves) but the battle against Brainiac takes precedent.

Of course, PS3 users will have to wait a bit before diving right in. Even with the console version, there's about 12-15 GB of data to be downloaded before the game officially starts. Once all this is done, the character creation begins. Selectable attributes include sex, power types, transportation mode (super-speed, flight, or acrobatics), hero/villain archetypes, and which major DC character will serve as a mentor. This last bit will determine one's basic character type: magic, metahuman, or tech-based. There's even an option to create characters modeled on specific DC characters. If this option is used, the character will be given a basic template and appearance that mimics the inspirational hero/villain.

Still, it’s always more fun coming up with your own ideas and the number of custom options is impressive. As the game progresses, new costume pieces can be purchased or picked up from defeated enemies. Also, costumes, skin/clothing colors, and styles can be changed at any point of the game. By default, new equipment will change the look of a character, but there's an option to equip gear without changing one's appearance, which is ideal for a game such as this.

When it comes to the fighting style, there are a lot of options, ranging from energy/magic attacks to bows and guns to melee weapons to straight-up brawling. After a few levels, you can unlock new combat styles and powers. Each of these power sets features a skill tree with different abilities to unlock. Pretty standard stuff.