Darkspore Reviews

The reviews we’ve seen for Maxis’ Darkspore up to this point have been semi-positive at best, and this latest batch seems to continue that trend.

NowGamer gives it a 7.2/10:

Darkspore proves no rival to Diablo, Dungeon Siege or Torchlight, but it’s still a canny enough application of the action-RPG formula to be addictive to those of a suitably loot-hungry disposition, and highly polished with it. Just don’t believe everything you read on the box.

Shacknews goes scoreless:

Playing through Darkspore makes me wonder if this is a precursor to a larger sequel, in which Maxis will expand on the concept. It feels like the linear level design is a kind of trial balloon that Maxis put up to help it gauge interest in a new game with more open worlds. Likewise, the limited customization options game me a sense of Maxis getting its feet wet in a Diablo-type game before bringing out a larger game that allows players to create Spore-like creatures from the ground up. Darkspore left me feeling like I’d had the appetizer for a grander main course. As excited as I may be for that to come out of the kitchen, I couldn’t quite fill up on Darkspore.

Destructoid gives it a 7/10:

Darkspore isn’t perfect, but it’s solid, and I’m really happy to see a game in this genre that takes some risks and introduces some new mechanics. I would love to see randomized maps, a less clunky inventory management system, and a way to progress through the game that isn’t quite so entirely luck based. But even with these issues Darkspore manages to be entertaining. I expect to see a people playing Darkspore for a long time, as long as they pace their gameplay and don’t burn themselves out with marathon sessions too early.

And then GameArena and GameTrailers do the video review thing, with the latter website giving it a 7.3/10.