Darkspore

Darkspore is a sci-fi action-RPG with a heavy focus on multiplayer elements that features a much more advanced version of the award-winning real-time character creation and editing technology first seen in Spore. Darkspore is currently slated for release on PC. Although most places show it's ESRB rating as RP (Rating Pending), in checkout at the online EA store, it shows it's rating as T (13+).

Plot
The Crogenitors, a race of unrivaled, advanced beings, roamed the galaxy for eons. Long ago, they created the five Genesis types of DNA as well as a powerful type of DNA called E-DNA. A scientist on the planet Verdanth named Sage discovered how unstable the E-DNA was, and before he could warn the Crogenitors, mutated E-DNA had already spread across his homeworld like a plague, creating the first of the Darkspore race as he watched helplessly. Sage fled away on a Crogenitor refugee ship. He sought to one day return and free his world, reconstructing his weaponry to manipulate plant life, and became known as Sage: The Life Forester. The Darkspore soon spread and worked their way to the ruins of the planet Nakto, where a Crogenitor named Zelem and his partner Vex, who gained his title as Vex: The Chrono-shifter after an experiment granted him the ability to manipulate space-time, tried to fight back, but failed. The Darkspore had completely taken over the lab where they worked, but before his unexplained disappearance, Zelem built an artificial field of gravity that turned the ruins of his homeworld into a mass of orbiting isles, which is now known as Zelem's Nexus. A millennium after the Darkspore had conquered Zelem's Nexus and set up their base there, a supercomputer stationed aboard a Crogenitor ship was able to purify a strand of E-DNA after many years of calculations and research.

As the same Crogenitor awakening from his 1,000-year hibernation, the supercomputer, called the HELIX, informs you about what has happened to the galaxy. You must now assemble a team of heroes, and genetically enhance them with the power of the purified E-DNA. With this team, you will fight your way across many alien worlds, collecting tens of thousands of unique parts to upgrade your heroes with, while discovering hundreds of new heroes to join your cause. The first step in preventing the Darkspore from conquering the universe is to infiltrate their base on Zelem's Nexus and retrieve the advanced technology from Zelem's lab, which is believed will help pave the way to conquering the Darkspore, and granting the galaxy's freedom.

The official Darkspore website gives a small amount of information regarding the game's storyline.

''For eons the Crogenitors traversed the galaxy, genetically transforming and sculpting living matter to their will. In their unchecked arrogance they created something they could not control - the Darkspore. Now the galaxy is under siege.

''Using the powers of E-DNA, the Darkspore has transformed planetary populations into mutated hordes. Its sole purpose...to dominate life on all planets.''

''You are a fugitive, hidden for a millennium. Your mission...to reconstruct an arsenal of genetic heroes. And lead the battle against the Darkspore.''

The time to strike back is now!

Characters
In Darkspore, there are many characters. This is a list of all the known characters.

Heroes
'Heroes' are members of the Crogenitor Insurgency, a team of individuals fighting against the Darkspore under the command of the few remaining Crogenitors. Their unique powerful abilities, skills, and talents set them apart from others, and are singled out as prime candidates for certain enhancement through E-DNA, and incorporated into the prime class of the Crogenitor resistance force.

There will be a total of 100 heroes. 25 of these heroes will be completely unique, each having 3 "genetic variants" with different abilities, slightly-altered appearances, and with a greek letter representing their rank. Each hero has a Name and a Title.


 * Zrin
 * Vex
 * Sage
 * Goliath
 * Arakna
 * Blitz
 * Jinx
 * Meditron
 * Magnos
 * Tork
 * Titan
 * Andromeda
 * Wraith
 * Maldri
 * SRS-42
 * Krel
 * Viper
 * Orion
 * Lumin
 * Skar
 * Revenant
 * Arborus
 * Savage
 * Seraph-X5
 * Char

Enemies
In Darkspore, your hero will have to fight a series of enemies to complete a level. As they play, fighting these enemies will get increasingly harder, making it more important to upgrade heroes.

This is a list of the known enemies that will be encountered in Darkspore.

Common Enemies
These enemies are encountered on several planets, very often. This category forms the bulk of the enemies in the game.
 * Sapphire Scorpiod
 * Reparatron
 * Warp Spawner
 * Electron Burster
 * Ballistic Quadrakiller
 * Hydro Mantis
 * Shikoru
 * Caustic Stinger
 * Acid Shell
 * Terrasaur
 * Shade Drifter

(Unknown Darkspore Enemies)

Uncommon Enemies

 * The Darkspore
 * Darkspore Agent

Enemies from Maxis Challenges
This is a list of Spore.com template challenges. If an NPC from one of these challenges is confirmed to be in the game, it will be added to the list of enemies. Some of these NPCs have already been seen in some gameplay clips, but is yet unknown if they will all be used in the game.


 * Death Mollusk
 * Pterodyne
 * Tusked Lamprey
 * Clawed Spectre
 * Emerald Toxiraptor
 * Quadrakiller
 * Uklideon
 * Triocular Scorpiod
 * Space Barracuda
 * Lightning Stalker
 * Raktha
 * Stegavaar
 * Ray Shot
 * Laser Tank
 * Hypno Mantis
 * Arachno Striker

Bosses
At the end of every campaign mission, before it can be completed, a powerful Boss character must be fought. Each boss has its own name and title, and has a host of unique and dangerous abilities. There is only one per planet.
 * Merak: the Devastator, the Plasma Boss from Cryos
 * Polaris: the Gravity Manipulator, the Quantum Boss from Zelem's Nexus
 * Nashira: the Shadow Void, the Necro Boss from Nocturna

Unknown Bosses

 * The yet unnamed Bio Boss from Verdanth. It was seen breifly in the new Editor video released by Maxis.
 * A Cyber Boss for Infinity that has yet to be revealed, or even seen.

Crogenitors
This category refers to Crogenitors, those are neither Heroes, Common Enemies, Bosses, or Agents.


 * Zelem/The Corrupter
 * Ptyron
 * Astra
 * Suzu
 * Ingto

Character Classifications
The game features creatures of Five different DNA types. This means that the creatures that the players can play as are all split into 5 separate types: Bio, Cyber, Necro, Plasma, and Quantum.

The heroes that the player collects throughout the game are also split up into Three different classes: Ravager, Sentinel, and Tempest.

Each hero has its own specialized abilities, affected by its type and class.

For the full article, see: Darkspore Classification

Planets
As heroes increase in level, they will visit more and more planets and areas, of which there are a large variety, to engage in new missions. Each planet also have versions used specifically for Player versus Player arenas.

Planets are associated with some kind of character type, which is its "theme". Most minions will be of associated type.

(Unknown Darkspore Planets)
 * Zelem's Nexus - associated with Quantum
 * Nocturna - associated with Necro
 * Cryos - associated with Plasma
 * Verdanth - associated with Bio
 * Infinity - associated with Cyber
 * Scaldron - this desert planet has all the genesis types. It was revealed in a Maxis enemy spotlight video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC7waL4nhXM&feature=player_embedded

Gameplay
Darkspore gameplay is similar that of other action-RPG titles, such as Torchlight and Diablo, with a top-down third-person viewpoint, 'click-to-attack' and 'click-to-move' controls, and special abilities.

Darkspore has high-rendered modern graphics and textures, and visceral gameplay that moves at a slightly calmer pace than most other 'hack and slash' games to aid its strategic edge. The player will be able to collect up to 100 heroes, made up of 25 alpha heroes and 75 other variants, of which each player can choose a squad deck of three heroes of to take into every mission. Each of the heroes have 4 variants: Alpha, which is the original base hero, followed by variants Beta, Gamma and Delta, which are of the same type and class and wield the same weapons, but have their own unique look, attributes, and in addition to the 3 abilities which are universal across every variant of the same hero, each of the 4 variants have one separate ability of their own that is replicated from another hero of the same type. The right selection and combination of heroes is vital, as their abilities should compliment each others' combat effectiveness, and their types and classes should be selected so as to counter resistances according to the enemies being faced. The player may only control one of the deck at a time, though is able to swap freely between the three. Switching is useful for protecting heroes that are low on health or energy until they can be healed or re-energized. Every hero has its own 'squad ability', an ability which can be used by any of the heroes in the player's deck at any time without switching.

The game's three primary pillars of gameplay are Collection, Customization and Combat. Players will have to rise to the challenge to collect new heroes and many special items, customize and improve those heroes in the editor using the collected items, and then take your selection of the best heroes for the job planet-side to engage in strategic combat and reap the spoils of victory. Darkspore boasts great replayability, and is designed to have much worth in being played over again several times. The game features a procedural AI Director that dynamically controls enemies, an assessment system that encourages players to redo missions to do better and earn better loot, and a 'Risk versus Reward' system that gives players the option to push their luck rather than cash out in a risky but exciting gamble, by choosing to decline taking the loot reward currently on offer right away and, instead voyaging straight on to the next mission for the chance of earning the loot reward currently offered, plus an assortment of new loot and a very special reward for successfully cracking the gambit. However, if the player chooses to push their luck but fails the following mission, all will be lost. Darkspore leaves plenty of room for experimentation.

The game emphasizes on its co-op elements, as the best campaign experience comes from playing as a team with a friend or two.

PvP Multiplayer Deathmatch
Darkspore features an online Player versus Player (or PvP) feature, a component that allows players to pit their customized heroes that they have collected in normal gameplay, against other player's heroes, in a multiplayer deathmatch arena. Like in the campaign, the player will have a deck of three heroes each that the player can swap control of using a universal ability to balance their health, energy and abilities. The game supports 1 vs. 1 and 2 vs. 2 battles, letting up to four players to join a match.

Deathmatch battles are much more challenging and tactical than that of certain other similar games, as defeating an opponent requires players to use all manner of heroes, abilities and techniques to eliminate all three of the opponent's heroes, which are likely just as powerful as their own three.

Online PvP will feature online matchmaking, ranking and leaderboards. Players may be able to bet parts and heroes they've unlocked on these PvP matches.

Co-operative Campaign
Darkspore's co-operative multiplayer campaign is the main focus of the game. Up to four players, each with their own squad deck of three customizable heroes, can join in on a campaign game, battling enemies together, forming team tactics, and trading loot.

Hero Editor
Darkspore features a specialized version of the renowned Spore Creature Creator for editing heroes.

Darkspore.com
The official Darkspore website, Darkspore.com, is up and running. It contains information about the game, including the heroes, planets, enemies, news announcements, pre-order and beta details, screenshots and videos, and an active forum.

Darkspore: Limited Edition
On /11/03/10/, the main Darkspore website was updated with new, drastically different graphics and layout, a Tumblr feed, and an offer to pre-order a limited edition of Darkspore that immediately unlocks a powerful Quantum character, Maldri, along with 3 exclusive stat-boosting armor parts.

This offer expired on January 31, 2011: http://eastore.ea.com/store/ea/html/pbPage.dark-spore?resid=LBhxdwoBAlcAAFflQ4EAAAAb&rests=1288825935781

The art for Maldri and the exclusive parts are found on Darkspore.com's Tumblr feed: http://darkspore.tumblr.com/post/1528512030/pre-order-darkspore

San Diego Comic-Con
6:00-7:00: Video Game Reveal: Maxis Studio— Maxis Studio (The Sims and Spore video games) has just announced their next project, a brand new, Sci-Fi Action-RPG based on the DNA of Spore. Join key leads from the dev team, Thomas Vu, Paul Sottosanti and Lauren McHugh, for the first game reveal to the public! Room 3" Darkspore was officially revealed at this place, time, and date.

Trademarked Applications

 * Internet/Multiplayer: Entertainment services, namely, providing on-line computer games; Motion picture film production; Provision of information relating to electronic computer games provided via the Internet
 * Collectibles/Trading Cards: Action figures; Board games; Hand held units for playing video games other than those adapted for use with an external display screen or monitor; Modeled plastic toy figurines; Playing cards
 * Gaming Software/Singleplayer: Computer game software; Downloadable computer game software via a global computer network and wireless devices; Video game software

Beta-testing Sign-up
On /11/03/10/, the Sign-up for the Darkspore newsletter feature on Darkspore.com changed into a Sign up for the Darkspore Beta application. This was first mentioned by Mike Perry at the PAX Expo. There is currently no known release date of the Darkspore Beta, which is causing many players to become anxious. On February 10, 2011, the first batch of invites to the beta server were sent. The beta downloader is only available through e-mail. Only a select are picked for the beta testing runs. Since this is only the first run-through, it is not known if the beta testing group is cumulative, meaning they invite the same testers over and over in addition to new ones, or if the previous group is wiped away and a new one is picked out.

Future of Darkspore
In a recent interview, Michael Perry, the Executive producer for Darkspore, announced that as time goes by, expansion packs for Darkspore will be released. The only confirmed content obtainable from these addons so far are new planets, and likely with these planets, new enemies to fight and new heroes to unlock.

Trivia

 * The Darkspore logo is similar to the Warhammer 40,000 'Imperial Aquila' logo.
 * A few NPCs found in the game, particularly enemies, are actually inspired by creatures from Spore that were submitted into online contests and won. Players who inspire NPCs in Darkspore will receive exclusive achievements.
 * An ARG called Help eDNA exists, in which players must solve puzzles given by a mysterious character in the events leading up to the game. The ARG's plotline is finished, but the domain is still running at: http://www.helpedna.com.
 * The whole game has similarities in gameplay with Ultimate Marvel Alliance.

System Requirements
The system requirements were released on the Darkspore forum and are as follows:

FOR WINDOWS XP
 * 3.0 GHz P4 or Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2GHz or equivalent or faster
 * 2 GB RAM
 * A 256 MB Video Card with support for Shader Model 3.0
 * The latest version of DirectX 9.0c
 * Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3
 * Up to 10 GB of hard drive space
 * Broadband Internet Connection Required

FOR WINDOWS VISTA
 * 3.0 GHz P4 or Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2GHz or equivalent or faster
 * 2 GB RAM
 * A 256 MB Video Card with support for Shader Model 3.0
 * Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 2
 * Up to 10 GB of hard drive space
 * Broadband Internet Connection Required

FOR WINDOWS 7
 * 3.0 GHz P4 or Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2GHz or equivalent or faster
 * 2 GB RAM
 * A 256 MB Video Card with support for Shader Model 3.0
 * Up to 10 GB of hard drive space
 * Broadband Internet Connection Required

Note that there are no system requirements for mac as the game has not been announced for mac yet.

Creation
Controversy regarding limitations within the Darkspore hero editor arose when it was announced that the system was totally rudimentary, which was far from the truth.

Blood and Gore
Shortly after gameplay videos and screenshots were revealed, players-to-be could see the relatively copious amounts of blood and gore that existed in the game. Many began to complain that the game contained "too much blood". Ironically, before Darkspore was announced, many Spore players complained about the near-complete lack of blood in the game, on grounds that the gameplay in Spore felt a bit lacking in accessibility to gamers with a taste for more realistic violence.

Senior systems designer Paul Sottosanti has stated that him and his team are looking into adding a "switch" feature that will regulate the amount of gore and blood in the game, giving the option to make it completely vanish for players who find it unfavorable.

Release Date
Multiple forum members were growing increasingly worried about Darkspore's release date, due to a seeming lack of response from Maxis. Multiple release dates had been found online; they ranged from February to March 29th/31st to even April and July. However Maxis has recently revealed the new official release dates. They are now, March 29, 2011 (PC - USA) / April 1, 2011 (PC - UK).