DC Universe Online

Ok, first thing's first. DC Universe Online is my first MMORPG. I don't just mean the first I've reviewed, I mean my first EVER. With the possible exception of Runescape. So bear with me, while I muscle through my first MMORPG review. Hopefully it turns out ok, and tells you all exactly what you need to know. Lets get to it.

STORY
DCUO begins with an astonishing cinematic, detailing how exactly everyone gets superpowers. It starts with a bang as we see Villains fighting heroes in an all out war and as the fighting dies down, Lex Luthor gains the upper hand, effectively killing Superman. As the victory sinks in, Luthor looks to the skies, as a Braniac invasion fleet blacks out the sun. It's as epic as it sounds.
We then learn that this was a possible future, and that "Future Lex" travels back in time to give the Heroes and Villains of today a fighting chance, by delivering the exobytes; tiny bug-like machines that hold the superpowers of a destroyed future.

This basically sets us up for DC Universe Online. You're one of the many ordinary people infected by the super-power bestowing exobytes, and the game sends you on various missions to help save or enslave the world.
The story is fittingly comic-booky, with storylines that seem ripped right from the pages of the famous comics.

PRESENTATION
The art style of DCUO is far from the awesome that was Arkham Asylum, and has a nice comic book style for all its characters and locations. The superpowers all look pretty awesome, and they really help to personalize your character. On the subject of "your character", the creation/customization options aren't as varied as, say, City of Heroes/Villains. The trade off here is having licensed heroes in your game; and that's not to say the creation is lacking either. It's just not AS extensive as CoH.
The voice acting varies from outstanding (in the form of Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy as The Joker and Batman respectively) to annoying (mainly due to the NPC civillians who just keep saying the same 1 or 2 lines). The soundtrack is rather fitting, with the epic brass instruments everytime you exit a safehouse as a hero.

Accompanying all of this are little hand-drawn cutscenes to round off the end-quest instances. The voice acting in them is immaculate and the art is always interesting and cool in it's own way (seeing a gorilla-formed Flash, or Joker-toxin infected Batman in villains own thoughts).

Sometimes theres some graphical or sound hitches, but its early days yet, and if theres anything awesome about MMORPG's, its that they're constantly being updated.


GAMEPLAY
The gameplay of DCUO follows the usual MMORPG trend of "Go to mission start, go kill X amount of enemies, Collect x amount of Y, go to mission end". That's fine, its expected; but theres a strange shortage of missions between level 1 and level 30 (cap). The end-game content is all rather compelling, but most of it requires you to team up, and for some players, that's just not their style.

For those of whom that do like the social interaction part of MMO's, there are a variety of Alerts (group instances), Raids, Duos (2 man instances) and a range of PVP modes, including Legends, which allows you to take the role of a licensed DC character.

This seems all pretty standard to me, so what sets DCUO apart from the competition is the combat system. More suited towards a controller, the game takes a more Action RPG approach to combat. This means each button press equals an attack and theres a larger sense of involvement (for me at least).
I did notice something a bit off with the gameplay, however. Usual MMORPG's have you fit into a role; Healer, Damage dealer, Tank or what have you. While DCUO does feature these roles, the power sets for each of them seem too similar to make it feel as though your role is having a huge impact like it would in, say, WoW. You feel a bit less special, and a lot more interchangeable.

REPLAYABILTY
Once you reach the (somewhat low) level cap of 30, theres a buttload of end-game content to do in the form of instances, raids and duos. Along with that, theres a whole lot of exploration to do, with feats/milestones available to show off what random thing's you've done. Loot is always a big plus for games like this, and a big reason why people will be playing past the cap is for the Iconic armour sets. There are 3 for each mentor, and I gotta say, they are stunningly cool. Can't wait to get my House of El warsuit.

OVERVIEW
Are you a hardcore MMORPGer? DCUO may be missing alot of the detail that you're used to. If you're a fan of comics (DC in particular) you can't go wrong with this. Besides, it's not like you have to pay for more of a subscription than you want.

A side note, if you buy for the PC, you get the usual added bonuses such as faster loading times and better graphics, but at the cost of combat awesomeness. For PS3 users, loading times can get a bit tedious, but your controller will be your best friend in DCUO.
Oh, and I hope you have an HDTV... the chat text is so small, it strained my eyes like nothing else. The difference is absolutely huge. And voice chat seems to have some bugs. At the moment. Lets not forget that it's early days yet.

Side side note: Best move ever, crushing an enemy with a flaming meteor, then throwing it at a bunch of other enemies. Awesome.

Phew! that was a big one. And I doubt I covered alot of it anyway. But I believe that's more than enough for you guys to make an informed decision. See you next time!