Darkspore Reviews

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Written by Brother None on April 28th, 2011

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The big idea is its best: instead of controlling a single hero, you can instantly swap between a team of three cartoony-looking heroes, each with its own set of powers and distinct health and energy pools, and each contributing one power that any team member can use. I quickly assembled a team of heroes with powers I liked, led by Arborus, the self-healing, plant-based tank who grows to several times his size as long as I maintained a steady stream of kills with his club. I even customized his accessories as best I could to make him my own.

Darkspore then goes out of its way to sabotage this by treating Arborus like a piece of walking loot, encouraging me to swap him out by unlocking new heroes as I leveled up. I wasn't forced to, but it's the only way to get new powers. Disposable heroes make customization feel futile, and I soon stopped bothering to learn their names they were just Robot Guy or Plasma Dog-Thing to me.

Speaking of harder levels, Maxis finally did something about the upping the risk and reward factor for longer play sessions. When you beat a mission and return to your ship, you get a small chance for a rare, but likely have to settle for one tier down, a "special" reward item. But if you risk it all and keep going, you get the option for more items, better items, and better chances at getting rare and epic items. You'll be unable to change your equipment at all, but the reward is a hefty one! But fail by losing all your heroes in the space of a match, and you'll be sent back to the ship with only the xp, DNA, and loot that you're carrying.

Campaign progression is broken into chapters that are 4 segments long, and every 4 has a formidable boss. EA has created some wonderful boss encounters that will have you seeing red by the time you're done with them. Mirror images, black holes, and more abilities that are designed to make your head hurt are what await you every 4 maps. You gain experience throughout each map for your Progenitor Level, which increments the new heroes you can unlock and try out.

Darkspore also features an annoying rock-paper-scissors system where each creature fits under one of five genetic types plasma, quantum, bio, cyber, or necro. Damage taken and dealt is doubled when facing creatures that are under the same classification, creating a risk/reward tradeoff when building your squad. More often than not, this mechanic leads to you dropping a preferred creature when levels are full of opponents of a matching type. Then again, learning how to best use new creatures keeps the game from getting stale, so the minor irritation is worth the trouble.

While it may not create the long-term allure of Diablo's gear grind, the variety of creatures makes mastering Darkspore a rewarding prospect. The game is seeded with clever hooks to encourage frequent play, such as increasing your chances of winning a rare item if you string multiple levels together and offering bonus rare item rolls on a daily basis.

Sadly, both the combat and looting are pretty much offset by a completely static mission structure coupled with some incredibly bland level design. By (bland,) we don't mean that the levels are boring to look at. On the contrary, each world is beautiful and manages to capture its own unique identity thanks to some truly gorgeous graphics and a bright color palette (the monsters aren't too bad, either). What we mean is that every level plays the same. You play three chapters that each consist of moving from point A to point B while slaughtering everything in your way and then you fight a boss monster at the end of chapter four. This scenario never changes.

Rather than level up your heroes, you instead level up yourself (the Crogenitor) to unlock other heroes as well as better weapons and detachable weaponised body parts. This clever conceit gives newly-unlocked heroes a fighting chance on the harder levels, and means you aren't penalised for experimenting with the game's many heroes as you unlock them.

The currency in Darkspore is DNA, which is handily dropped by vanquished enemies to be hastily spent fusing new appendages and weapons to your avatars. This is achieved via a much-streamlined version of Spore's creature creator, wherein you stick things to your frankenbeast and resize, rotate and colour them until you're satisfied that it looks as garish as possible. Vast amounts of loot are handily dropped by the slain or recovered from closet-like Obelisks hidden around levels, and these items can be welded onto your heroes as mentioned, used to temporarily boost certain attributes, or to replenish health or your special ability meter depending on their type.

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