Titans in tights

GAME OF THE WEEK: DC Universe Online 16 cert, Sony Online Entertainment PS3 (also PC)* * * *

In this new comic book-inspired MMO, players fight alongside Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and other superheroes of the DC universe.

The plot revolves around the greatest threat to the world yet – Brainiac – who takes over in the future. He’s been slowly stealing powers from superheroes, unnoticed over time as they battled with regular foes. This prompts Lex Luthor to travel back in time to issue a warning and hatch a plan to prevent it happening.

The result is that ordinary people can now become heroes (or villains), with all the necessary powers. You get to set up your own character from scratch. Every attribute is controlled by you. Make them hero or villain. Dress them up in customary comic book garb – cape, mask – or hide in plain sight in a suit. Use an existing hero for inspiration for a quick set-up, or fine-tune every trait yourself.

You begin on Brainiac’s ship, which you must escape from with the help of Superman. Once out, the game really begins, with a variety of missions open to you.

The massive multiplayer online game differs slightly from other titles in that the emphasis is solely on combat. You progress through the game as you complete missions; it’s not dependent on experience points, and side missions can earn you some useful rewards. This works well on console format.

Although it was a bit slow to start, this got addictive pretty quickly. The constant levelling up provides the impetus to keep going. And the modifications you can make to your player mean you really get involved.

Although you can team up with other online players, the text-chat system is a little annoying, and this is one area that could use some tweaking. Luckily, the option to go solo is open to you, and I often reverted to this.

A few minor quibbles to note. The download for this took an age. There have also been some complaints of slowdowns, although none were experienced during the course of this review.

CIARA O’BRIEN

• DC Universe Onlinerequires a monthly subscription