Darkspore

 PC
User Score
6.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 135 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 58 out of 135
  2. Mixed: 32 out of 135
  3. Negative: 45 out of 135

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  1. JmacisI7
    Jun 21, 2011
    1
    Like most of the Sim and Spore fans out there, I had hoped that Maxis in their infinite wisdom would create a follow up to Spore, the fun simulation game where you design, evolve, and personalize your own creature, and help them take over as well as expand into the universe, encountering (as well as negotiating and declaring war upon) other worlds, empires, etc. Darkspore, sadly, isLike most of the Sim and Spore fans out there, I had hoped that Maxis in their infinite wisdom would create a follow up to Spore, the fun simulation game where you design, evolve, and personalize your own creature, and help them take over as well as expand into the universe, encountering (as well as negotiating and declaring war upon) other worlds, empires, etc. Darkspore, sadly, is declared the sequel to the fun little world simulation. Darkspore is similiar in a very small aspect to spore. As much as we may hate to admit it, lets face the music and admit Darkspore has pretty much a pointless plot, and it is no different than any other arcade game today. Spore offered the chance to create and live out the dream with a being of your own imagination along with its neighbors, allies, planet(s), cars, anything you can think of. Darkspore is nothing like that, and is a huge dissapointment.… Expand
  2. Todayshero
    Nov 24, 2012
    3
    I was really hoping for something new here, I was also hoping that the game itself would be more like the game it leads you to believe it's like, Spore. Though Spore was mostly forgettable the ability to create and customize was fun and I wanted to be able to do what I wanted to do with this dark spore game. I'd rather of been able to create my own character and gain new parts than toI was really hoping for something new here, I was also hoping that the game itself would be more like the game it leads you to believe it's like, Spore. Though Spore was mostly forgettable the ability to create and customize was fun and I wanted to be able to do what I wanted to do with this dark spore game. I'd rather of been able to create my own character and gain new parts than to unlock new characters as I go.

    Darkspore does have some of the familiar feelings of Spore in it's editor but it also limits you. The game is mediocre at best, same old action hack and slash, boring story, nothing new here.    … Expand
  3. GameReviews3388
    Apr 18, 2013
    2
    I played this in the massive boom after release. It was fine for a while. I genuinely enjoyed the concept. Nice worlds, decent *enough* combat system, which was a hashed out Spore creature phase.

    The flaw is repetitive nature and the ramping of difficulty. Whoever's behind it has absolutely no understanding of RPG hack and slash genre. I read with my own eyes people asking for account    I played this in the massive boom after release. It was fine for a while. I genuinely enjoyed the concept. Nice worlds, decent *enough* combat system, which was a hashed out Spore creature phase.

    The flaw is repetitive nature and the ramping of difficulty. Whoever's behind it has absolutely no understanding of RPG hack and slash genre. I read with my own eyes people asking for account resets in forums so they could start over.

    There is no 'winning' in this game. If you think simulators don't have win scenarios, fine. But this game literally can't be completed. You play as far as you're able to and then that's it. Let's say you walk to the grocery store every day. One day, the sidewalk is slippery from ice. The next day, the ice and then a fireball is flying across the sky. Then combine that with sirens going off. Eventually you're literally flaring your nostrils trying to take in more air to relax you while the 7th chain of enemies is coming in, praying to Jesus and Muhammed that nothing else will appear so you can finally complete the level. Then you retry the level and get a spawn so easy that makes you think you're playing dozens of levels below your difficulty.

    Your real life friends will get bored with this in a few hours, and then you're in trouble. There is no making friends in this game. You do everything you can and you don't know why levels can't be completed. You will always think it's the other person's fault if you're playing CO-OP. You can't logically comprehend a game being so impossible. Then when you try the level alone after that person disconnects, you're only able to keep your interest for so long before you decide you won't be returning to the game.

    If you want RPG/ hack and slash meets Spore, play a hack and slash and then play Spore. You will get nothing from this game. It would be neat to try for a few levels if it were free, but I can't in good faith recommend this game to anybody. I would feel like I deserve to get punched in the face, which is just about the same feeling you're going to have while playing.    … Expand
  4. SystemParadox
    Jun 15, 2011
    0
    After sitting through a good 30-40 minutes of backstory which is dumped on you at the start, I endured a frustratingly slow tutorial and endured 20 minutes of already boring and repetitive gameplay before giving up as the RSI-inducing controls were making my hands hurt already. Not recommended.
  5. Wilde
    Aug 3, 2011
    3
    This game has so many bugs its reminiscence of Hellgate London when it was launched. I like this game, however there so many bugs that it gets frustrating at times. It disconnects fairly often when you get into teams and try to start a game. What it'll do is boot you and 3 other teammates have to abort their game and reform the team. But it doesn't happen only once, sometimes 3-4 times inThis game has so many bugs its reminiscence of Hellgate London when it was launched. I like this game, however there so many bugs that it gets frustrating at times. It disconnects fairly often when you get into teams and try to start a game. What it'll do is boot you and 3 other teammates have to abort their game and reform the team. But it doesn't happen only once, sometimes 3-4 times in a row, spoiling gameplay. sometimes you'll have problems logging in when the server's full. Not often though. Weapons shop do not sell any rare items at all. Its as if the developers left it out spefically so we'd continue to play the game at the end. It will become like a diablo game where all the players ever do is play the last chapter to farm the boss or roll for items at the end of a chain. For single player story line its great, albeit a little short. Good story telling, but lasts about maybe 6-12 hours depending on how you play it. Then its rinse and repeat. You have normal/hard/nightmare/ equivalent modes.… Expand
  6. steamSINCEbeta
    Jun 10, 2011
    4
    game is very fun diablo clone but the major problems are : you can only play multiplayer with people your level. this would be okay if many users played in the community, but you're lucky to log on and find more than 50 players active in the lobby at any moment in time. also you cant bind any keys. the whole game is played by the mouse other than using numbers 1-0 for binding which attack to use.
  7. syrik
    Sep 9, 2011
    3
    Well, the critics so far haven't been paid to laud this one. I'm marking it down because I want to like this game, but I just don't. It's fun, for a while, then it becomes repetitive and boring. The story is an afterthought and there is no difference between single and multiplayer. Game goes like this...Map>Mobs>You>Kill Mobs>Pick up Stuff>Back to Ship>Equip Stuff>Repeat
  8. Wilfogn
    Apr 30, 2011
    4
    Like many I wanted to love this game but just cant get over the glaring issues. The overall game play is tight and the controls work well. But, is Handicapped by the inconsistent difficulty system in two crucial ways. It is very common to have elite units be very hard to kill. Now I don't mind a challenge and the offensive elite mods work very well but the defensive mods slow the gameLike many I wanted to love this game but just cant get over the glaring issues. The overall game play is tight and the controls work well. But, is Handicapped by the inconsistent difficulty system in two crucial ways. It is very common to have elite units be very hard to kill. Now I don't mind a challenge and the offensive elite mods work very well but the defensive mods slow the game to a snails pace. Often you will run into levels where you can clear the level with a good challenge but when you get to the boss you do very little damage to him. Challenging yes, fun not so much. This leads to the second main issue with inconsistency. There is a clever system where if you group with lower level players on a lower level your loot is boosted and your stats are weakened. Great in concept but in practice you are weaker than the lower level players. The loot you receive is also just not worth the time. So not only can you not help your friends catch up to you… Expand
  9. Soulsofthepure
    May 1, 2011
    2
    I am a fan of MAXIS and their work but sadly in this case with Darkspore, they did not deliver... It was not long before i gave up on this game entirely as it repeats the same simple process of Start Mission>Mobs>Kill Mobs>Obtain Loot>Kill Horde>End Mission... Besides bashing things there is nothing else the game offers other than some pretty graphics...
  10. Mittay
    Apr 28, 2011
    4
    If you want an exciting game that's completely different, then don't buy darkspore. Darkspore is about exciting as a blank screen saver, which isn't that exciting by the way.
  11. TheCriticCritic
    Apr 26, 2011
    0
    I can hardly consider this a "game", or anything worth purchasing for retail price. It's indie at most, but it's worse than what you'd expect even then. It's very lazily built, as if the developers made it while they were half-awake and not sure what they were doing, but it definitely doesn't show anything that would differ from any normal RTS. It's the same thing over and over again,I can hardly consider this a "game", or anything worth purchasing for retail price. It's indie at most, but it's worse than what you'd expect even then. It's very lazily built, as if the developers made it while they were half-awake and not sure what they were doing, but it definitely doesn't show anything that would differ from any normal RTS. It's the same thing over and over again, rarely did I ever look forward to participating in another battle on this game. It just didn't hit the spot for me in any way, therefore I can't give this anything higher than what I am. It's sloppy, ugly, and old in style; the developers didn't even try. I would suggest avoiding it until it's price drops down quite a bit, or if there's a huge sale on Steam; otherwise you're only wasting your money.… Expand
  12. Doniazade
    Apr 27, 2011
    0
    Boring, tedious, samey and grindy. Nothing special, especially at the insane asking price of 40-50 euros. The game is worth 10 or maybe 15 euros, tops. It's not gonna hold your attention for very long because you will get bored with the identical levels pretty fast.
  13. MightyThor
    Jan 16, 2015
    4
    Ultimately Darkspore failed because of technical issues and EA abandoning it. First you can't even buy it anywhere now. Probably because EA doesn't want to support new keys and registration. For a while in 2013 and later you couldn't log on. And it's a persistently online game despite being able to play solo. Then there was a bug where you couldn't save changes to your heroes equipment.Ultimately Darkspore failed because of technical issues and EA abandoning it. First you can't even buy it anywhere now. Probably because EA doesn't want to support new keys and registration. For a while in 2013 and later you couldn't log on. And it's a persistently online game despite being able to play solo. Then there was a bug where you couldn't save changes to your heroes equipment. Basically there are tons of server bugs with this game and since it's pretty much abandonware there's very little chance of fixes and no estimate of when fixes will come.

    That said the game itself is actually pretty fun. I played it a ton at first, trying to grind out all the gear to get further in. The game introduces a ton of great concepts to action rpg genre. First you command a squad of three heroes at a time and switch between them. Each brings unique skills to the table and compliment each other in various ways. This allows a ton of squad customization which is really interesting and fun.

    Second is the gear. There's tons of it but unlike a lot of games where you simply stack one stat only darkspore is all about balancing your gear to get the most out of it because there are a lot of unique bonuses and caps on your stats. So maybe dropping one piece for another isn't ideal but if you make two swaps now you come out ahead. You're constantly tinkering with your heroes.

    Where the game falls flat on its face though is randomness, story and co-op execution. First there's like zero incentive to do co-op when you can do most everything solo and the matchmaking is poor. Then the story is just bad and shallow and get this- the game doesn't end. Ever. Even after the last level you can do increasingly more difficult levels for no apparent reason. It's a cool concept I guess? But it kind of makes you feel unfulfilled. Beat the last numbered level at first is pretty neat but then you realize there's infinity levels. I guess it's kind of like regular Spore in that regard cus that game never ends either. But it's not very satisfying to a gamer.

    Finally I mentioned the randomness. Since some enemies are nearly invulnerable to certain dmg types if you randomly get a bunch of those on a level you're screwed, it doesn't matter how strong your heroes are. The game isn't hard per say but every now and then you just get a horrid combination of enemies and lose a level because of it.

    It's sad cus the game could've been epic with a better community and more campaigns but now it's just a footnote in the history of maxis and EA.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

70
#70 Most Discussed PC Game of 2011
100
#100 Most Shared PC Game of 2011

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
65

Mixed or average reviews - based on 52 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 52
  2. Mixed: 38 out of 52
  3. Negative: 1 out of 52
  1. games(TM)
    Jul 3, 2011
    70
    Just don't believe everything you read on the box. [Issue#110, p.130]
  2. CD-Action
    Jul 1, 2011
    70
    If you treat yourself to the PvE campaign – especially in co-op mode – in small portions, it's a good recipe for a couple of relaxing game sessions. In the beginning at least, because over time watching the experience bar grow simply gets boring. [June 2011, p. 62]
  3. PC PowerPlay
    Jun 9, 2011
    60
    Solid enough, if not a candidate for natural selection. [July 2011, p.68]
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