DarkSpore - Previews @ G4TV, IGN

G4TV serves up a preview of Darkspore:

While there is a basic single-player campaign in DarkSpore, the heart of the title is a straightforward, action intensive 2-on-2 PvP game. We were shown this portion of the game in detail, although we were assured that the single-player portion will ultimately be robust enough to be well worth your time and will essentially serve as a basic training campaign for the PvP matches you’ll no doubt be engaging in on regular basis. In fact, the single-player game will even clue players into the challenges and enemies before beginning any given level, allowing you to choose the best heroes for the particular mission. Challenges completed and loot gathered in the SP mode will carry over into the PvP arena.

While the bulk of Darkspore is a cooperative or single player campaign based around killing a host of monsters and gathering genetic components to modify your heroes (this is a Spore game, after all), its multiplayer looks promising for players who long for a more competitive experience. PvP will focus around teams of one to four players and throw them into arenas where they do a "best of three" style match. Each level has been crafted so each round should only take between two and three minutes, meaning players won't get stuck in a match they're hating (read: losing terribly) for very long. Not that losing is the end of the world, as after each round the loser gets to pick a new set of heroes to take into battle.