The announcement panel of Darkspore was hampered slightly by the fact that EA had announced the game earlier this week. However, developer Maxis had plenty of fresh gameplay details to impart.
Darkspore is an action RPG with an isometric perspective. That, along with that four-player co-op and one-click combat, will result in endless Diablo comparisons. Coincidentally, a few members of the development team actually worked on Diablo III.
Over the course of Darkspore, you recruit heroes with unique abilities and then deploy them on missions across various planets. You can deploy up to three heroes on the same mission, and switch between them as needed. Each character you choose brings an ability that any current squadmate can use as well. Swapping characters can be done mid-combat, giving you essentially three lives. Healing and mana orbs will rejuvenate all the heroes at once.
Your heroes are belong to five genetic types: Bio, Necro, Plasma, Quantum, and Cyber. Bio is sort of like a druid, with healing and nature-based powers. Plasma specializes in tossing fire and lightning. Necro specs are comparable to warlocks, with the ability to make enemies run in fear and drain them of energy. Cyber encompasses a number of technological abilities such as summoning drones. Quantum allows for the manipulation of time and space, with teleport and time-slowing among other powers.
The heroes specialize further with character classes. The Ravager and Tempest classes specialize in melee and ranged damage, respectively. Sentinels, meanwhile, are the heavily armored folks who try to draw enemy fire. The heroes' body types reflect their roles, with Sentinels being more bulky and Ravagers looking leaner and more predatory.
The enemies you face will have unique A.I. and behaviors. They're split into four ranks. Minions have only one ability and are only dangerous in numbers. The lieutenants support minions with buffs and often have multiple powers. Agents are more elite units that can, for example, immobilize you. They're a reason why it's good to play with friends. Another reason are the Bosses, which are massive creatures that can often summon smaller enemies as well.
Enemies will drop various types of loot that your character can equip. Spikes, claws, body armor, and helmets were among the examples provided. There are hundreds of item "suffixes" (items with "of the ravager" suffix give a boost to dexterity) and there are dozens of different character stats. Subsequently, there are over a million combinations of traits that an item could possess.
While Spore allowed you to make creatures completely from scratch, in Darkspore you're provided detailed hero models that act as a foundation for customization. In the revamped Creature Editor, you'll still be able to change the hands and feet and scale them. You can also apply colors and textures to them as well, Your equipped items will dramatically change the appearance of the characters, too.
Toward the end of the panel, Maxis stated that Darkspore isn't a sequel or expansion pack to Spore. The point was already clear from their presentation, though. They've created something radically different from other titles in the Spore series that is too complex to be a mere add-on.
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