Spore Series

Now this would make for an epic movie if it could be done like this.  Video created by Bloodrunsclear

Unlike most action-role-playing games, which are set in medieval fantasy worlds, Darkspore is nominally science fiction set in outer space. Of course bad guys are trying to take over the universe, and you have to stop them. There is more than a bit of Pokémon in Darkspore in that there are 100 different hero characters you can unlock over the course of the game, each with its own special abilities.

From your personal menagerie you assemble teams of three creatures. You control only one hero at a time, while the other two are “off the board.” But if, say, your quick, slashing guy is low on health, you can swap out tag-team-style for, say, a big, slow tank character (or a long-range “magic” character or whatever else).

review here

Progression gripes aside, the gameplay just doesn’t feel that great. Honestly, it all feels very dated and static – far from the “fast paced” tagline that’s been touted. Levels will, as with most games of a similar ilk, degenerate into spamming the attack button, but it’s not that satisfying in Darkspore because there’s no real oomph behind anything that’s happening in the game. The attacks are bland and hardly any of the special moves have a wow-factor about them.

Similar feelings can be applied to the Editor – one of the most exciting parts of Spore in general. But again, it all feels very simplified. Because all of the Living Weapons are set in stone, customisation isn’t that prevalent – there’s never an option to create your own Living Weapon from scratch. All you can do is attach items that you’ve picked up on your travels, and change the colours of things. So, if you go into the realm of PvP and someone has the same Living Weapons as you – there’s not that much that can distinguish yours from theirs. It can be seen as a good thing, as it allows attachment with certain characters and obviously, it makes balancing the game a lot easier. But it’s difficult not to feel disappointed when there’s so much potential which has been purposely stunted – it’s now rather similar to just changing a shield on a generic RPG character. The only difference is that you can change its colour, size and rotation.

review here

Even the genetic heroes, which you pilot through Darkspore’s plentiful but ultimately samey alien worlds, are a bit of a disappointment. Supposedly, these warrior-beasts are your own creations and the means by which you’ll reclaim the Crogenitor empire. As Darkspore’s title implies, an adapted version of Spore’s creature editor figures in prominently to the creation process.

Character creation is really more like character customisation, however. There are 100 genetic heroes for you to unlock, but each one comes with a base from which you’re only really able to build on by adding bits here and there, rather than build from scratch. You can add the bits on wherever you want, scaling their size and changing the skin tones of your entire creature, but it’s hard to feel any attachment or personality stem from this process. It’s like comparing an original watercolour to a painting-by-numbers.

55% out of 100%…read what they have to say here

Darkspore‘s stats aren’t particularly complex, however. There’s the standard health and power, which determine your hit points and “mana.” Strength, dexterity, and mind are the “primary” stats, and each carries its own small benefit. Their main function is to increase the power of your heroes’ skills — sentinels get a damage boost from increased strength, ravagers get a boost from dexterity, and tempests get boosts from mind. Finally, there are three ancillary skills — dodge rating, resist rating, and critical rating. As I said before, these stats are entirely determined by your equipment (aside from the base stats each character starts with, which are all reasonably similar), so your characters only get stronger as you find better equipment.

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