Darkspore Preview

EA and Maxis’ Darkspore is drawing ever closer to its April release date, so if a sci-fi action RPG is something you’d like to see in your gaming future, this preview on Player Affinity should provide you with a general idea of what to expect.

In your usual ARPG you would equip an item and it would appear on your character as part of their appearance. In Darkspore when you equip items you get to customize where they fall into your characters appearance. Rather than put the new horns you found on your alien creature’s head, you could perhaps mount them on his shoulders, or even his knees. It’s really quite cool to have so much control over your character’s appearance in an ARPG. There are 25 prebuilt heroes and each has three different genetic variants.

The texture detail has been massively improved since the first game and in Darkspore the alien creatures you play look less like playdough and more like unique and hostile alien creatures. The environments in it also look much better than its predecessors and the game takes place across several varied planets. It’s refreshing to see a space ARPG that works well, as the sci-fi RPG lineup is quite sparse.