Playing more like a beat-'em-up game than an MMO, DC Universe Online is much more an online action game where gamers who've played previous console-based superhero games will find themselves right at home. Attacks occur in real time directly in relation to button presses; there are no lengthy cool-downs or mana points to worry about; the game world is largely more interactive, with a full physics engine and a ton of environmental integration—aside from the experience points popping up and the odd bout of lag, the company has effectively built an action game.

That said, MMO players will find themselves at home pretty quickly—as was evident with Age of Conan, a more action-based approach to combat instead of auto-attack makes the drudgery of the grind slog much more interesting. Players can mix up different attack types and interweave various special attacks to tackle enemies. Mixing instance-based story sequences that feature the DC heroes with open world quests and a zone-based game world, DC Universe Online seems to borrow quite a bit from City of Heroes.