Darkspore Previews

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Written by Brother None on April 18th, 2011

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Darkspore's character editor is allegedly an advanced version of the one used in Spore, which will allow players to customize each hero with different body parts, colors, heads, weapons, and armor. However, within beta at least, dropped items were useless, as they couldn't be equipped until the current level had been completed and you had returned to the menu screen. To make the exercise even more pointless, they could not be utilized even then due to level requirement far above what my characters had achieved. Graphics and sound were not even particularly good despite Darkspore's looming release. Darkspore does have a player vs. player element, which will apparently take place only within arenas. Darkspore will also offer the ability to team up with your friends in a four-player cooperative mode.

Darkspore isn't about controlling a single character like most role-playing games, but rather a squad of three creatures that are interchangeable during battle. This makes the gameplay very tactical with their abundance of abilities at your fingertips. Our first instance of the game was in a cooperative scenario, where fast-paced thinking became standard after facing wave after wave of Darkspore. Even if you wanted to, sticking with a single hero is not a wise choice. Enemies can assume an identical class and deal double damage to your character, while adversely being immune to some of your special attacks.

On the surface, Darkspore is a loot-based, hack 'n' slash dungeon crawler in the vein of Diablo II. Darkspore's single-player campaign allows players to gather loot and unlock heroes, which can then be thrown into PvP combat. Those who don't want to go solo can team up with up to three friends in a game of co-op. Darkspore's inspirations don't end with Diablo II either.

Darkspore combines the aforementioned hack 'n' slash gameplay with Pokémon-esque hero collecting and customization, and this is where Darkspore might entice an entirely different sect of gamers. Out of 25 basic heroes, players select three for a single squad. Death comes only when all three heroes perish, and they can be switched at any moment, even in the midst of heavy combat. The switching mechanic is key to survival in any mode of gameplay, as each hero has unique abilities and properties, and each combination of three heroes has unique skills. Finding the right squad means finding heroes that work well together. Enter complexity.

The game centers around a race or organization called the Crogenitors, who manipulated DNA to create defenders for the galaxy. Unfortunately, some particularly ambitious Crogenitors created a new form of life called Darkspore which turned on their masters and drove them out of the galaxy. Years later, you return as one of those Crogenitors with an intent to undo the mistakes of the past.

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