DC Universe Online [PS3]

Another comic-con means another dose of DC Universe Online, the upcoming superhero/super-villain MMO from Sony Online Entertainment. Aside from demos on the show floor, SOE also hosted a DCUO panel Saturday afternoon to bring people up to speed on the game. Luckily for you, I was there to cover both events.

Set for the PlayStation 3 and PC, DCUO will allow users to create characters -- both good and evil -- and unleash them on each other in PVP DC locales such as Metropolis and Gotham City. The heroes will be trying to earn the favor of Superman as well as earn a place in the Justice League of America, while bad guys will be pulling off capers and trying to make a name for themselves in the Legion of Doom.

The demo SOE has running on the show floor is actually pretty cool -- one side of the booth is playing as the heroes and the other side is playing as the villains and they're all attacking each other in the same case/caper. See, a short time ago, Doomsday thundered through Metropolis and went toe-to-toe with Superman. Big Blue put him down, but that battle took a lot out of both of combatants. Seizing the opportunity, Lex Luthor has organized a team of villains (the evil half of the booth) to scour the city nabbing the random Kal-El and Doomsday's blood samples strewn on the street, and that mission eventually devolves into Luthor's squad heading to STAR Labs to take Doomsday for the bad guys.

It's up to the half playing as heroes to stop the snatch and grab by defeating the forces outside STAR as well as the chaos inside the building.

Aside from showcasing a slew of powers -- laser blasts from hands, dust whirlwinds that incapacitate foes, and freezing dudes in blocks of ice before knocking them off the top of buildings -- the demo also gave me my first chance to try out the newest DCUO HUD. Basically, a bar at the bottom of the screen is split in the middle and shows your ranged and close attacks. When you hold down L2, button icons pop up underneath the powers on the left side of the meter. When you hold R2, the same thing happens on the right side. It's an easy way to manage what the hell you're doing out there.

Playing as a hero, I threw busses, blasted bad guys, and beat on Lex Luthor's militia members. When I squared off against the human-controlled villains trying to break Doomsday out, we realized we were entering into a battle with an obvious end. See, when you get to brawling with another person in the world, the fight ends when one of you is knocked out. It wouldn't be fun for your character to get hauled off to jail or murdered or whatever, so this K.O. only incapacitates you for a short amount of time -- this is SOE's Rally System. The same rules apply to NPCs, but you can actually restrain them and leave the crooks for the police.

When I felt like I had cleaned enough clocks outside of STAR, I headed inside for the big fight. Now, outside of STAR Labs, anyone playing DCUO could show up and fight along with us, but when I went inside, the game became a single-player adventure. I could've taken on the challenge as a squad, but I didn't form a team before starting the event. Inside, Luthor had accidentally woken Doomsday, so when I entered the room, the spiked maniac was running roughshod through Superman, Luthor, and the folks helping each side. Eventually, the Last Son of Krypton and I got everything under control, restrained Doomsday, and I celebrated my newfound XP. However, when I went outside, my allies were still fighting the band of villains. See, even though I beat the mission, it didn't count as a win for my friends because we weren't an official team. I could continue fighting the good fight to help the heroes or be on my merry way.

Meanwhile, the panel for DCUO was a star-studded affair… well, "star-studded" if you're a DC Comic fanboy like me. Sitting beside the SOE team was DCUO executive creative director Jim Lee, DCUO writer Geoff Johns, and DCUO storyline cases and capers writer Marv Wolfman. The panel talked about the challenges in bringing a 2D art form to a living and breathing 3D world, showed a trailer of still frames from the demo on the floor, and had a video dedicated to Doomsday. Although the big question -- When's this game coming out? -- wasn't answered, the panel did touch on a number of points.

Here are the highlights…

• Factions are going to be a big part of the game -- both for you and NPCs. The panel named LexCorp and STAR Labs as factions (they popped up in the demo) but didn't really expand on the statement.
• Although we've only seen Metropolis and talked about Gotham, you'll be fighting all over the world.
• The team was split on Zatanna wearing fishnets.
• Although Jim Lee and WildStorm redid some character costumes for the game, nothing will be super extreme. "At the end of the day, you're going to get all the characters you're familiar with, but I think they're going to look really cool and unique to this game," Lee said.
• Wolfman said he was "blown away" by John's overview of the story for DCUO.
• This is an action game; don't expect to be reading lots of text.
• There still hasn't been a decision as to whether PS3 owners will be able to play PC owners and vice versa.
• Hints from the panel suggest telekinesis is a superpower in the game and that it is hard to program.
• The demo took place in Midtown Metropolis, which is 300 city blocks, and that's only one-eighth of the town. The Tomorrow District and Suicide Slum are in the game.
• A fan asked if you'll be able to shrink like the Atom, grow like the Atom Smasher, or wield powers like Plastic Man. The panel would only say that there are a lot of power systems to choose from when creating a character. If you don't feel like experimenting with the creation options, you'll be able to click "inspired by" and have your stats and powers set to be like Batman, Superman, or some other character.
• Civilian reactions will depend on what you're doing, what you've done, and where you are -- a villain walking down the street will garner different reactions based on where he or she is and what he or she has done.
• Pedestrians are not targets -- heroes don't have to worry about hurting bystanders when they hurl a bus or whatever.

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