Darkspore Previews

A few more previews for Maxis Software’s action RPG Spore spinoff Darkspore have appeared online over the past few days. GameRant.

In any Action-RPG, the loot mechanic is a pretty important. As you play through the game, your character levels up and you gain access to a range of new weapons, abilities, etc. If the loot mechanic is well-implemented, it’ll make you want to keep returning to the game you have to go back, in order to grab even more bad-ass gear. However, this is where Darkspore begins to differentiate itself from the competition collecting loot not only allows you to physically alter the look of your mostly aesthetically pre-determined character, but the loot itself levels your character.

Noobfeed.

Darkspore is partially the sequel to Maxis Software’s 2008 hit Spore, but without the cutesy and with a severe twist. More oriented on combat, a set story and character customization, this action RPG builds on its predecessor, but then leaves all the evolutionary build-up behind. Now, the goal is to eradicate the world of the dark threat and to aid you, you will get the help from legendary Crogenitor champions. Divided into 3 classes and then split again into 5 genetic types, these heroes scattered throughout the universe will help you in your quest, as you collect and change between them in a group of 3 beasts. Activated abilities create support or powerful suppressing attacks to aid the party. Also, each hero will have a passive ability to aid them with a specific trait, such as an advanced critical hit rate. And as you progress, the abilities of your team will become more in tune with each other and you’ll be able to combine some special feats together.

gamrReview.

Getting back to the equipment you pick up (or buy from the store in exchange for DNA), this, like your creatures, has a type, and only a creature of the same type can equip it. Each piece of equipment improves certain stats, and increases your creature’s Hero level; each piece also has a level of its own, which makes choosing between them much easier. They are equipped with a watered-down version of the Spore Creature Editor, which you can use to make your creature look all colourful and interesting, but won’t, because it provides no benefit and takes time. Perhaps if you were one of those people who spent hours designing buildings in Spore’s Civilization stage, you might enjoy this feature. However, other than the name, creature editor and possible story links, the games are nothing alike, which, in my humble opinion, is a good thing.

NowGamer.

There’s a satisfying feeling of progression to the proceedings and for what is essentially an isometric dungeon-crawler, the visuals are hugely impressive at points, but while newcomers to this particular subgenre may marvel at how gratifying such simple gameplay mechanics can be, action-RPG veterans may bemoan the pace, which plods in places. Conversely, in some areas, a couple of minor enemies can become a wave of considerable force in the blink of the eye, ramping up the tension but also the difficulty; if you lose individual heroes your chances against the end of level Darkspore will be greatly diminished.

We were also disappointed that we couldn’t create brand new heroes from scratch, rather just unlock new ones in the editor, and similarly customisation in the editor is only skin deep. There is depth there, we’re just not sure quite how innovative the included features are what is innovative though is the decision to make Darkspore a persistent online game, meaning your progress will be saved on the cloud, and you’ll be able to install the game on any number of PCs useful for those quick looting sessions at work, or a spot of PvP, which pits your party against another in online arena battles.