Okay Geek Farm
PC - Darkspore Review
Jamie Donnelly
I have a conundrum; I have absolutely no idea how to talk about Darkspore in relation to Spore. Labelling Darkspore as a sequel to Will Wright’s Spore does not feel apt, but spin-off doesn’t sit right either. Spiritual Successor perhaps? No. The best way to describe Darkspore is to consider how an idea forms. Darkspore and Spore essentially come from the same spark of innovation, but the final outcomes play as if that initial idea had been developed in a parallel universe. Brief reminders exist; the creature creation and the aesthetics of the creatures for example, but it is an entirely different gaming experience. Can going to the dark-side ever result in success?
Story
The Crogenitors (just rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?) were a race of the most powerful scientists in the galaxy who created an army of mutated genetic heroes. These heroes were designed to be used as weapons, and the discovery of E-DNA seemed like the next step in human weapon evolution; it allowed rapid evolution that turned life itself into a weapon. However, the Crogenitors underestimated the power of E-DNA and it corrupted all those infected by it, turning them into “Darkspore”. The Darkspore attacked and wiped out nearly all of the Crogenitors and their genetic heroes; only six of the Crogenitors survived, frozen in cryogenesis. This is where you come in. You play the role of an unfrozen Crogenitor who must use the genetic heroes (or Living Weapons as they are otherwise known) and the E-DNA to rise up and fight back against the Darkspore by reclaiming the planets they have taken. In all honesty, the brief overview I’ve given actually makes the plot sound pretty damn interesting. Unfortunately, this brief overview covers just about everything you need to know and is about as deep as the in-game version gets. It is a lazy form of narrative that we see all too often in video games; it does npt add any extra emotion or intrigue to the experience, but simply helps it trot along so that we are not just needlessly killing in the same environment again and again.
Gameplay
At its core, Darkspore is a dungeon-crawling, hack ‘n’ slash RPG. You may not be crawling through actual dungeons, but you are crawling across the surfaces of planets which coincidently have the exact same layout as our generic earthly dungeons. You control a team of three heroes as you battle your way through these “dungeons”, and each hero falls into a different class and race. As you increase in level you unlock new heroes, and can create different squads comprised of these various heroes. There is a huge selection of heroes, but you soon realise the differences between many of them (aside from appearance) are minute. I tended to stick to my favourites, and once a hero had established itself in my mind I rarely dropped it from my squads.
It may sound strange, but the way you switch between heroes mid-combat is essentially a free-flowing version of the Pokemon formula – and it works extremely well. Certain heroes are better against certain enemies, and bring specific abilities to the table that you will need in order to succeed most efficiently. There are also team abilities; each hero has a specific ability that is shared between the entire team. At the end of each level you find yourself facing waves of incoming hordes, and sometimes a big boss at the end of these waves as well. These are the most frantic and intense parts of the game, and it strikes a good balance with the slower pacing that comes at the start of most levels.
Darkspore also allows you to team up with other players to take on these planets online. Not a lot changes when you take on the campaign multiplayer, apart from the fact you gain more experience for your troubles and it feels a lot more manic with four heroes spraying spells and abilities at once.
Graphics and Sound
I was far too quick to judge the appearance of Darkspore. I didn’t quite judge a game by its cover, but I had made my mind within the first few levels. My witty comment on the shabby environments was going to read “If dull rock, shiny metal and generic holographic portions is your fetish then you will be overjoyed with the way Darkspore looks”. While I stand by this comment for certain levels in the game, Darkspore redeems itself with the variety of planets it includes that feature a whole host of different alien plant life and geographical beauty.
Spore spoiled gamers with its creature creation tools, allowing us to create anything our imaginations could muster. Anthropomorphs or Phalluses, Spore allowed you to do it. This is where Darkspore falls a little short. Instead of having a fully customisable creature creation tool, you have pre-created races which you can edit by adding items and altering some detailing. This allows for an element of creation while also pandering to traditional RPG stat building, but means you feel very limited in your creational powers. I wanted to spend hours creating hideous monstrosities that Mary Shelley would be proud of, not simply adding a horn and making it a bigger. When you play online with other players your creatures will look subtly different from the rest, but not enough to make anyone want to copy or praise a unique design. It seems strange to lose most of what made Spore so unique and fascinating in the first place, but it all the more emphasises that this is not a true Spore sequel but a new IP in its own right.
Difficulty and Replayability
The squad mechanism and ability to switch between heroes mid-fight does cause the game to feel a tad on the easy side(at least on the first difficulty setting – you need to complete the game to unlock the next level up). Health and power (you need power to use special moves) pickups are shared between heroes, so you can continually sub people out and nurse them back to full health without ever really risking any deaths. Despite the ease, it provides an exciting experience and battling through the different planets with your customised teams of heroes can prove quite addictive.
Clicking like a lab-rat self-medicating in a drug addiction trial may get you through the single player campaign with relative ease, but the PvP portion of Darkspore will require a tad more tactical thinking. Going up against even slightly experienced players without any form of battle strategy will leave you on the losing side, and although the matches are only 1v1 or 2v2, you will need to use abilities that do more than just dish out damage. Stunning, snaring and healing will all be required to outwit your foes squad and conquer this competitive arena.
Darkspore has the potential to provide hours of gameplay. If the style of play is something you love, then you will be very tempted to jump straight back into the campaign with a new squad setup and try it all over again. On top of this, the hardcore players will find refuge in the PvP mode and spend hours perfecting and honing their strategies and skills.
Overall
Darkespore borrows a minimal amount from Spore, but unfortunately borrows too much from other established genres to be considered a great game. The dungeon crawling is nothing that fans of the genre have not seen before (To be fair to Maxis, it is difficult to make dungeon crawling unique), and the squad mechanic feels very similar to Pokemon. These two aspects may not be original when considered alone, but the way that Darkspore infuses the pokemon mechanic and dungeon crawling together makes it stand out as a unique experience that is worth checking out.
Pro’s
- Attractive environments
- Potential to get huge playtime out of it
- Fusion of squad-mechanic and dungeon crawling works well
Con’s
- Dungeon-crawling gets repetitive
- The campaign feels too easy
- Creature creation feels very limited in comparison to Spore
If a positive view of Spore has you interested in Darkspore, you may want to give it a miss and stick to the original. Fans of dungeon-crawling will find themselves at home with Darkspore, and the sci-fi settings makes it feel a bit more original than your traditional dim and dingy hack-n-slash affairs.
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