I'm in the Darkspore Beta. Wanna see it?

[Bells]

So, there is this event on Darkspore this weekend. Some beta players will have access to the Beta version of the game... i got lucky i got one of these keys. I'm downloading the client right now and my account is already registered.

So, i know what will take a chunk of my time this weekend...

First of all... is anybody else in this?

And secondly... would any of you be interested in see how the Beat plays? I can provide video and/or Screenshots from my Gameplay and even try to answer yours questions about the Beta as i play it.

Just trying to get a Heads up if any of you are looking forward to this game, this is a good shot to get a early look at it.

[Niveras]

What I've read so far is that it is Diablo meets Spore Creature Creator... except that's all it is. Basically trying to trade on the popularity of the creature creator, and screw having any kind of meaningful (or fun) gameplay. Apparently the creator isn't even really fully featured (on top of the limitations that the Spore creator had to begin with): you're only able to modify one of a selection of heroes, rather than create your own.

I wouldn't mind a Diablo In SPACE, but only if focused on the gameplay first. Maybe take it a step farther and go the Sacred route (larger open world, broader skills/ability/character progression, rewards for exploration), or an isometric Gothic (realistic-ish skill system, more developed story). Unfortunately, Maxis these days seems more concerned with minimal, and superficial, customization instead of enticing gameplay. Spore felt more like a tech demo for the creator engine, with four minigames to explore its functions, than a fully fledged game of its own.

Disclaimer: never played it, maybe watched a video once, have only heresay to go on. I'd welcome clarification if any of my views are outright wrong.

[Bells]

It's not Diablo... at all.

You know how people say that Torchlight is Diablo-Light? Well, this is Torchlight-Light.

I love the Spore Editor because it gave you enough Freedom to fly and explore what you could build out of Scratch.. this game has a crippled version of that. there are 100 heroes (which you can unlock 1 out of 3-4 every few levels) starting with 3 lvl 1 Creatures and going up to 3 Lvl 35 Creatures.

A weird choice to being with because it presents this Paradigm:

1- If you unlock these monsters as you level up, an d as you level up the missions get harder, it's only Logical that these later monsters are more powerfull so everything is kept in scale. So... everyone has access to 100 monsters, but by End game everyone will be using around the same 5-6.

2- Each monster levels up individually. So, if you keep using the same monsters over and over, by the time you unlock the Lvl 1 monster of the Lvl 35 tier, you might have a Lvl 30-40 Monster of the Lvl 1-5 Tier

Begging the question... If they are all balanced, why do i have to unlock them? Seems like arbitrary collection bullshit. And if the monsters i Lvl up are better than the ones i unlock due to the massive Lvl difference... why would i bother Player with them?

So, that's just for starters.

On the Editor... you can only change a few things... hands, Feet, eyes and Aceesories (horns, spikes, plates etc). Other than that, no changes are possible. It does allow a fair bit of customization... but in the end, it looks like everyone has the same character but in different clothing.

So, they actually managed to take a innovative concept and "elevate" it to the status of the most basic feature you expect to see from an MMO these days...

Coloring your character is no good either. You can only apply 2 layers of color, and it's like you just spray painted your monster instead of making him look like a unique Creature.

The gameplay itself is as basic and boring as it gets... move through corriders, destroy totems, collect loot, reach "area" (large open area) fight wave of monster, fight Bigger monster, return to base.

It's all there is to do.

Here is a fun catch... Loot is "first come, first serve", but the way it is right now, you are encouraged to leave your friends behind, fighting the monsters, so you can go around, collect the loot and flee. There is no sense of teamwork whatsoever. And you only get XP from finishing the missions and from monsters YOU killed. To KS'ing is a constant, even though you are playing as a TEAM.

Combat is done by clicking. Click once and you keep attacking untill the enemy is dead, then click on another enemy. here is the catch... sometimes enemies will teleport away, run away or go around you. Making you either A) follow, turning your back to 14 other enemies or B) Stop everything.

Thus the game turns into an atomatic click fest.

Each monster has a class, and each class has Skills. Your basic magic... and all fights work the same, click your enemies untill your Skill charge fills up, unleash skill attacks.

Problem: Skill bar takes too long to fill.
Other problem: Character movement speed is too slow, Diablo 1 Slow. and there is no running.

visual effects are bland and unimpressive.

Music is dull and unimpressive.

The story seems crapped out at best. A very basic excuse to make you play "Ben10"

The loading times and Map designs are much nicer, and those are the 2 best things about this game so far.

This beta is not going well. A lot could be changed before launch, but i can bet a lot will not... this will be Spore's Second Flop. If you have a pre-order, hear the wise words of your friend Bells... trade it for something else. NOW.

My original goal was to rush to the endgame content... but the game is not interesting enough for me to actually do so. And as far as i can tell, there is no offline play. You are always stuck on Multiplayer with 3 other players for a mission (you CAN solo missions but it's harder and you still have to be online at all times.)

EDIT: UH! About difficulty...

There isn't any. Even in a party of 4 each still has 3 monsters that you can switch around all you want. The idea being that you can switch roles as you see fit, being a Healer, a tank or a buff as the situation calls. Each monster has it's own Health and mana bar. Quick thing... healing items heal ALL monsters not just your active one. So, difficulty is already low.

Enemies crap out Energy and Mana (power) all the time, and as a healer you can area-heal your team pretty constantly

As a result, the only way the game gets challenging is way you get surrounded alone by a wave of 20+ enemies. Something the game tries to do everytime you get near the end of a maze.

So there is just no difficulty at all.

[Azisien]

You still haven't shown me it.

You promised to in the thread title.

Are you under NDA?

Pictures or it didn't happen.

[Bells]

i'm trying, i honestly am trying... i have no idea why it's not working. I tried Video and Screenshots, i used 5 different softwares and simply pressing PrtScrn .... nothing works i only see my own Desktop. The game doesn't have a internal screenshot feature

This is rather annoying... but i'm on it. Now i can't stop until i figure this one out... lovely!

[Melfice]

I can imagine that this is intentional on EA's part.
Being in a beta, I am assuming you're under some form of NDA, so this would be a pretty effective way of enforcing that.

[Meister]

Are you under NDA?
Good question, Bells, are you?

[Bells]

Not that i'm aware of, nothing was made explicit but i don't think so. There is a Beta forum that is open to view for anyone, the game game pools my opinion of it's features every now and then, and there is a internal "feedback" option i've been using to tell them pretty much everything i'm telling you guys now. The Beta is made of about 3-5k people an d you can find gameplay videos on youtube so i don't think there is an NDS in place.

There is your basic EULA, but that is common fare of pretty much any game.

Here is a 37 min video of the Beta made by someone else (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVaMRSWD-ic)

And just to illustrate stuff better... for some reason Fraps is the only thing that works

http://i51.tinypic.com/5a517t.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/16ay0c0.jpg

http://i55.tinypic.com/20fbiw.jpg

http://i55.tinypic.com/2d5p9z.jpg

[Niveras]

A video review by some guy, if anyone was still interested in seeing it in action: http://www.zam.com/bffreport.html?bffreport=61

Disclaimer: unskippable 15 second ad at the start, and he geeked out while editing video from his new camera so when he's shooting himself there's some graphs and other analysis still present; just ignore it.

[Magic_Marker]

Does that last guy have two dicks?

[Bells]

Those were.. uhm..... sorta like... spikes? This guy had a few of these so i just stuck them whatever it fitted... so... yeah! Two dicks!

Also, the Beta is over and i got a message saying they were terminating the Beta and Delaying the game to work on the Feedback they got from the community. I don't think they will change that much, but they need to change it.

[Niveras]

It seems weird to terminate the beta then work on feedback. Do they not want feedback on the things they added after analyzing feedback?

[Bells]

they will probably roll out another Beta with the changes soon enough, at least that's what i'm expecting

[Arcanum]

Anyone and everyone can now play the beta through Steam. Here's a link (http://store.steampowered.com/app/99890/). I'll probably check this out when I get home.

[Bells]

this new beta is only online until Friday so RUSH if you want to try it, it's a BIG download

[Niveras]

After playing it for about four hours...

Darkspore sucks. It seems to have the same problem as Torchlight: by mission 2-4 (about eight missions in?) I am already repeating map layouts. The camera is so close I feel like I'm playing D2 in 640x480 (and this is while I'm on-off-again playing a D2 mod at 800x600). The limited viewpoint prevents the possibility of fighting more than maybe 10 mobs at a time (give or take depending on whether they're small "goddamn bats" or big "goddamn tanks" types), and completely eliminates any sense of epic scale that you'd get when steamrolling through legions of hell. Generic abilities limited by cooldowns forces you to rely on autoattack probably 30-50% of the time, further limiting your ability to feel powerful. I feel the item interface is also somewhat difficult to manage, it is hard keeping track of all the things that might be upgrades or that you might want to save.

Maybe if you frequently played with friends it would not be so bad, the same way Magicka can be fun even if the progression is a little shallow, but I don't foresee the possibility of any kind of epic accomplishment that you'd feel in mowing down the legions of hell. Titan Quest and Sacred 2 felt more epic than this.