Gallery: Darkspore

EA, EA Play and Maxis have been a little bit busy with their hugely popular Spore franchise, spreading the game to more than just PC users since its release. Darkspore is yet another interesting detour for the multi-million selling series that looks to capitalize on a few familiar genres while keeping the same level of creative freedom found in the source material. An isometric Action/RPG headed to PC gamers as an online MMO-style experience, the game is also set to hit "multiple platforms" according to the official press release.

From the screens below, it looks as if the familiar Spore character creation and customization options will be on board, but for me, the icing on the cake is that lovely isometric viewpoint and what looks like fast-paced gameplay packed with loot drops, level ups and big, bad bosses to take down with some effort. However, as much as I'm loving these screen shots, I have a wee bit of a problem with the game...



For someone who doesn't much care for MMO's these days, I'm HOPING that there's a decent single player campaign with a co-op component. Not that I'm antisocial or anything like that, i just haven't the time nor finances to commit to an online subscription model and meeting up fellow party members at prescribed hours. Given that the game looks like a hybrid of super fun smashes Diablo II, Torchlight and other hack and slash style RPG's, there's a guaranteed user base of grind-fest loving groupies that will be all over this one like hungry kitties at an unguarded fish market.

I may be in the minority on this, but I'd really love to see this game pop up on consoles and handhelds with focus on both single and multiplayer modes with offline and online modes as options. This way, more folks who'd normally ignore an online only game would be tempted to try it out. Memo to EA: we're not ALL connected (and some of use prefer NOT to be all the darn time), but our money is as good as the guy with the $3,000 gaming rig. Don't shut us out here - make Darkspore playable for anyone who wants it. As long as the game is tops, you'll get our money and we'll be happy whether we're online at some point or not.