DarkSpore - Review @ IGN

IGN has the first review of DarkSpore we've seen, with the game not actually released yet. The result is modestly positive with praise for the customisation but criticism of "broken" multiplayer and more:

There are some really great things about Darkspore. The vast amount of customization options and the simple but fun battle system kept me interested enough to overlook the poor execution of story. However, a broken competitive multiplayer system and a single-player experience that forces you to excessively replay level after level in order to get powerful enough to continue make it obvious Maxis needs a little more practice developing games that aren’t simulations.

More information.

Just can't get excited about this one.

This game will sink.

Everything about this game sounds mediocre or worse. To me, at least.

It's a real shame that most of the rare PC exclusives we still get seem to suck.

It would be nice to have a game taking advantage of the platform, that's for sure.

At least we have The Witcher 2 coming out soon,

which isn't a PC exclusive ?

Originally Posted by DoctorNarrative
It's a real shame that most of the rare PC exclusives we still get seem to suck.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
It would be nice to have a game taking advantage of the platform, that's for sure.

It's because they're intended to be ported to consoles, eventually well at least the successfull titles.. Witcher 2 will undoubtedly be on consoles shortly after the PC release.

German magazine preview (?) about Darkspore :

"Great for multiplayers and item collectors,
disappointing for single-player gamers."

I played the beta, was pretty fun with some diversity in characters, but after about 2 hours the repetition becomes obvious.

Originally Posted by vurt
It's because they're intended to be ported to consoles, eventually well at least the successfull titles.. Witcher 2 will undoubtedly be on consoles shortly after the PC release.

Darkspore will never be on consoles and that's not really what I was saying anyway. There are a ton of great games coming out, amazingly good games, but they're all multiplatform. The few PC exclusives we get here and there from large companies tend to be crappy games, which doesn't promote more of them being made with higher budgets.

Originally Posted by vurt
Witcher 2 will undoubtedly be on consoles shortly after the PC release.

I wouldn't say "undoubtedly". A lot of people thought the first Witcher was a lock for a console port, and that never happened. If TW2 does get a port, it's not going to be in the immediate future.

Originally Posted by DoctorNarrative
The few PC exclusives we get here and there from large companies tend to be crappy games

Such as …?

Originally Posted by JDR13
Such as …?

Darkspore!

Originally Posted by DoctorNarrative
It's a real shame that most of the rare PC exclusives we still get seem to suck.

I'd say that's only true of certain genres (then again, maybe that was implied since you're posting on RPGWatch). Shogun 2, Starcraft 2, Civilization 5 and most other strategy games would seem to indicate that the PC still get some pretty sweet exclusives…

Originally Posted by Demiath
I'd say that's only true of certain genres (then again, maybe that was implied since you're posting on RPGWatch). Shogun 2, Starcraft 2, Civilization 5 and most other strategy games would seem to indicate that the PC still get some pretty sweet exclusives…

I'm not even sure what I meant honestly. I was thinking Darkspore plus CnC4, rare PC exclusive games from a multiplatform publisher (EA) and they end up sucking.