DarkSpore
ZAM’s hands on look with Maxis’ Darkspore
Feb 15th
To get right into the middle of things, Darkspore is basically what happens when you combine the easy to pick up game mechanics of Pokemon, and you mash it in with the dungeon-crawling, treasure hunting game mechanics of Diablo. The storyline of Darkspore is relatively straightforward, owing to its wide target audience: as a “Crogenitor,” your race went about the galaxy, modifying the DNA of specific creatures to grant them special powers and strength. Over time, your race also developed an experimental type of DNA (E-DNA) that promotes the growth of super-powerful creatures. Of course, this is where it all starts going bad, and the unstable E-DNA mutated your once friendly creatures into rampaging hordes of hostile aliens – the Darkspore. Your character wakes up on a ship, where HELIX, the ship’s A.I., has finally managed to stabilize the E-DNA and has now charged you with saving the galaxy, with the help of your powerful creatures.
MMORPG – Darkspore preview
Feb 14th
In a nutshell the game has many elements that MMOs should heavily factor in before they launch.
For me, Darkspore is a game that spans playerbases. Now, hear me out on this. I played the game with my son who is just about old enough to get into video games. He plays Torchlight and some of the iPad games, but nothing too in-depth yet. Darkspore was a great game for him to try because it dealt with monsters, DNA, mutations, and space. What kid now-a-days doesn’t like those topics. The game play was manageable for him and he mastered moving and fighting very quickly.
That is not to say the game is easy by any means. It is one of those, easy to play difficult to master titles. In playing through the campaign mode the environments are awesome ranging from destroyed planets held together by shield style technology to amazing colorful worlds full of life. Either way there was a lot to see on the environments created.
PC Gamer – Darkspore preview
Feb 14th
When I first started playing, I felt like I was reliving childhood memories of browsing through the Toys-R-Us action figure aisles. A hulking purple skeleton that smashes face with a giant axe? Awesome! Floating tentacle-teeth that shoot black holes which randomly teleport you? Cool! I even quickly grew attached to a favorite hero: Vex the Chrono Shifter, a DPS’er who could freeze and rewind time. Each member of your squad has two active abilities and one global ability that carries over between each hero. One of my favorite combos was having Blitz, the Storm Striker’s plasmaball shield combined with Vex’s time lapse burst damage. The UI is incredibly clean and easy to understand, and each level has bonus objectives for better chances of rare loot.
Digital Spy previews Darkspore
Feb 14th
I know I’ve been posting a number of previews for Darkspore. My time will come in terms of getting a preview up – just awaiting premission from Maxis before doing so – don’t want to step on anyone’s toes when it comes to breaking any NDAs!
While the genre is traditionally steeped in fantasy, Maxis’ latest takes a more contemporary approach in its setting. Akin to recent blockbuster sci-fi franchises, Darkspore arrives with a fully crafted universe filled with backstories and diverse planets, all fighting against relentless, mutated virus consuming its many alien races. The damage, however, is already done – you play a Crogenitor, a member of a long-dead race woken up from cryogenic sleep to discover that the Darkspore has practically taken over the galaxy. With the help of an on-board AI piloting your drifting spaceship, you construct heroes from the fragments of DNA remaining on board and send them on missions to stop the mutated army from total domination.
It’s comes with a dark, moody and strikingly different feel to the family friendly Spore that we all know, and compared to its peers in the genre, it’s structurally different too. While the likes of Diablo featured a familiar hub world and dungeons to return to, Darkspore adopts a simple arcade-like structure, with each planet featuring four missions that end in a boss battle. Each stage is perfectly suited for quick game sessions, lasting around 15 minutes in length with simple, linear layouts to abide to. The gameplay itself is also cheerfully straightforward, requiring players to reach the teleporter at the far end of the area once you’ve taken out enough enemies, and occasionally, sticking to a single zone to wipe out advancing hordes. Elsewhere there’s the standard co-operative play online – for up to four players – as well as two-on-two PvP to put their warriors to the test.
Darkspore may come to consoles – if you want it, that is
Feb 14th
See, this is where The Sims Team/EA can learn from Maxis – they care a whole lot about the community and knows that customers come first when making a great game. Darkspore Executive Producer Mike Perry told Now Gamer that a console version of Darkspore could hit consoles – if us, the customers, would want it. Mike and the rest of Maxis will be keeping a close eye on the community, commenting the following:
“We’ll definitely pay attention to our community as we launch the game, but this isn’t the kind of game we’ll ship and then move onto something else. Darkspore is going to be a community – when we launch the game in late March we’re going to continue to support the community as long as we can.”
He also touches base (and makes it clear) that there will be no restrictions on Darkspore like there was when Spore originally launched:
“We allow players to install the game client wherever they want to, on as many PCs as they want to,” added Perry.
Good for you Maxis, show the others how it’s done!
Kotaku – Darkspore Splices Fresh DNA Into Online Multiplayer
Feb 14th
After spending the better part of three hours reaching Crogenitor level seven it was finally time to put my newfound skills to the test in Darkspore’s 1-on-1 battle arena. While 2-on-2 battles will be the game’s primary focus, 1-on-1 battles give players a chance to test out their customized squads against other players in a more relaxed setting.
The setting wasn’t so relaxed for Darkspore’s lead producer, however.
Thomas Vu and senior systems designer Paul Sottosanti were the only two people left with me on the voice chat channel set up for our little beta test by the time I got around to trying PVP. Thomas walked me through gearing up my squad – I stuck with Sage, Blitz, and Goliath – and once he knew my Hero levels he set his up to match mine. It’s a nifty feature of the game, allowing even the most advanced players to bring their battlers down to earth to take on the little guy, should they feel the need.
Serious About Gaming – Darkspore beta impressions
Feb 14th
It seems that the development team is really doing a lot of things right. Not only is the beta quite playable and clearly close to being totally finished (unlike some recent games on release day), but they are making a lot of good design choices. Even if you start the campaign singleplayer, you can invite someone in at any time using matchmaking or by creating a party beforehand. You can even chat with other players while playing a singleplayer level, which I think is pretty cool. I never felt alone.
GameSpot – Darkspore Updated Hands-On: Band of Heroes
Feb 12th
The tale of Darkspore began with the Crogenitors. These intergalactic troublemakers were scientists and researchers who traveled the stars experimenting on whatever species they could find. Their ongoing mission: to breed the ultimate soldier. Naturally, this backfired on them pretty fast. After happening upon an unstable new strand of DNA, dubbed “exponential” DNA (E-DNA), the Crogenitors decided to juice up their warriors even more–making them harder, faster, and stronger–until they finally broke. From their remains came Darkspore, beings who kill fast and breed fast, and soon, they blanketed the entirety of known space. As one of the last remaining Crogenitors, it was our charge to team up with the AI, HELIX, and breed up a couple of heroes to go save the galaxy.
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