Here's the breakdown:
Let's start with the controls. It does NOT play like an MMO. So much so that there are times I forget I'm even playing an MMO. It's 110% like a third person platform game. Controls are just like TRON: Evolution, Star Wars Clone Wars Republic Heroes, The Force Unleashed, Batman Arkham Asylum, and all the others. And just like them and most games these days it runs on the great Unreal game engine. Game is fully gamepad compatible. It seems to prefer you to use an xbox controller for windows. It by default mapped my analog sticks sideways and other strange things. However my gamepad has it's own fully customizable layout so the problem was easily fixed. I can control my toon in every aspect from fighting to movement to quests to grabbing items or using powers and skills all from just the control pad. Only using keyboard and mouse for in game chat and sorting through inventory, quest journals, assigning skill points, map and other actual MMO type functions. It's odd in that way, that it plays and controls like a third person platform, combat especially where you lock onto a target and have to perform combo moves like a fighting game. However, character development, questing, grouping, etc. all very much MMO style.
Graphics, great and simple at the same time. They've managed to make very highly detailed textures on very simple block frames. For example, you could be in a bar and see in the back of the bar a million super detailed bottles. But upon closer examination you'd come to realize it's super detailed pictures of bottles on a flat cardboard like cutout. The effect of this is highly detailed objects that are flat and blocky. Hence it looks great and runs smoothly and quickly cause it's not a lot that actually needs to be loaded into memory. It's a good idea and gives the game a unique and nice appearance that really does make it feel like the DC Universe.
Quests, this part is lacking still. They are releasing new content like chapters every few weeks or month or something so this shouldn't be a persisting problem just a problem for now till more stuff is rolled out. But, the quests are repetitive and all follow a basic pattern. You get a quest to start the quest line, basically sends you into the area where the story will unfold, say Otisburg, or Midtown Metropolis or Crime Alley. There's the main quest line that updates to new quest automatically when completing current quest. Each quest has it's own city block or two that it takes place in and each one has 1 to 3 side quests you pick up in that area once you get there. These quests usually consist of kill x amount of soandso, retrieve x amount of whatever, carry x amount of specific objects to designated location, and beat some mobs down till they become clickable for some reason then click them. After going through 2 or 3 areas like that with the side quests you get instance one. First instance is usually easy, contains a few "shiny" collectibles and usually a treasure chest or "sparkly box". Then there will be another one or two outdoor missions. Then the final instance where you assist classic DC heroes or villains against other classic heroes or villains, also usually has the last 1 to 3 shiny green collectibles that finish the set as well as possibly some hidden shiny blue ones. A treasure chest / sparkly box. Named boss fight. Get a comic book cut scene ending called a headline for finishing the story. And get feats for beating the final instance, not getting ko'd during it, not using consumables during the instance and finishing the one special task for that instance. Then it's just rinse and repeat the same thing for all the other stories.
Other stuff. Throughout the brief leveling process and again when you hit 30 various other quests or tasks or missions unlock. There's Legends PvP at level 6 which is what most games refer to as a monster mission. However the mission itself once in there is just an arena type battle 2 vs 2, 4 vs 4, capture the flag, kill all, etc. You get marks you can then spend to unlock other playable characters. Heroes get Robin at level 6 to play for free and villains get Harley Quinn. Huntress costs 10 as do Robin and Harley so that villains can buy Robin and heroes can buy Harley. Then there's higher up unlockables, Nightwing, Joker, Bane. Currently it's way unbalanced and I have yet to see anyone be able to beat Bane in PvP. Then there are Alert zones, Arena Zones, Invasions, Duos, etc. These basically amount to 2 player, group and raid missions. Some are just open combat PvP areas.
Costumes are cool. They have a unique style function. Where once you loot something and equip it you acquire the style for your appearance tab. That way you can wear any chest item for any stats but you have the option to make it look like any item for which you've collected the style. Once collected you can sell or destroy the original item and the style will always be there still in a drop down list to select on appearance tab. Very cool idea really. Wish there was a way to hotkey preset looks though. So I could hit a certain key and it would switch several slots at once to preset options. Hoping they add something like that down the road.
You get 12 character slots from what I know. Which is good because there's currently 3 hero mentors (Superman for meta humans, Wonder Woman for magic users, and Batman for tech) and 3 villain mentors (Lex Luthor for meta humans, Circe for magic, and The Joker for tech). And they're adding more.
As a hero at 30 you become a member of the JLA. I wish they had an option though for joining the other groups in game like the Justice Society of America, Green Lantern Corps, or the Titans (formerly known as the Teen Titans or New Teen Titans). Of course I would've chosen JLA anyhow for my main but would have liked the option for my alts.
Guilds are called Leagues for heroes and Legions for villains. /shrug just thought I'd throw that out there.
Overall it's a great game. Leaping across the rooftops of Gotham, not as Batman but as a hero or villain of your own creation, or soaring high above Metropolis, it's pretty awesome. Definitely worth getting this game to play if you even slightly like super heroes. Also the fact that it's so easy makes it a nice stress free relaxing casual game too that doesn't require tons of time unless you want too.
