Darkspore

[Sheepherder]

Sunspots? 

Yes.  When you see plasma discharges rippling across the sky it usually accompanies a great deal of radio/wireless noise.

[Malakili]

PSA: Steam yelled at me that you can play this free until April 1 if you're interested.

[Hawkbit]

I made it about 35minutes before uninstalling.  It has a lot of great ideas, but I can't get the nasty Spore taste out of my mouth.  I made it to the creature creator and just became disinterested.  Plus, it's slow.

[K9]

I never played spore so came into this with everything being novel.

I'm finding the game fun; the controls and level play are all very tight. The game doesn't seem to open up most of the elements until you beat 2-1 (the 5th level) which is probably about right. Once you get your squad abilities usable by all squad members the gameplay becomes a lot more interesting and there's definitely good potential for some really interesting synergy between different heroes. The story is wank, and having to go back to the ship to play around in the editor to equip anything gets dull fairly quickly. Frankly the whole spore creature creator element of things feels shoehorned in to what is otherwise a well made and fun hack and slash game.

Worth a try, especially since it's free. I haven't played multiplayer, but having seen some of the abilities heroes get (that aren't wonderfully useful solo) I think there's good potential for fun in groups.

[Amaron]

I never played spore either so my impressions are newish.  The spore editor is stupid and retarded at first impression though.   Besides weapons I think I've had all of 2 upgrades where I felt like I could put them on the hero and not have them look dumb.    I can see where it might be neat at level 40 if you have enough interesting details to work with.    For now though it's just annoying trying to figure out where to add all this crap just to get some stats.

They need to increase the pace a bit too.   Increase the hero speed and add like x3 mobs and they might be getting somewhere.

[Ragnoros]

They need to increase the pace a bit too.   Increase the hero speed and add like x3 mobs and they might be getting somewhere.

Indeed. I'm hoping this will be the case farther into the game. Things do seem to be picking up now that I'm a few levels in. I shall do my best to forgo studying to play more and find out if this is the case.

[Amaron]

They need to increase the pace a bit too.   Increase the hero speed and add like x3 mobs and they might be getting somewhere.

Indeed. I'm hoping this will be the case farther into the game. Things do seem to be picking up now that I'm a few levels in. I shall do my best to forgo studying to play more and find out if this is the case.

Yes I'm getting swarmed more now that I'm a higher level.   The last couple missions I've done click spamming attack just doesn't even come close to cutting it anymore.  The editor is just getting more annoying though.   It's great on it's own but the fact that it's basically required just to equip gear is way over the top.  Not a big deal though as I expect they'll get so many complaints about this that it'll get changed soon.

At this point I'd definitely rate it as a must get when it goes on sale for 20 bucks or whatever.

[kildorn]

After futzing, I can see what the idea behind "always on" internet connectivity is. Every time you launch a mission, you instead have the option to hit matchmaker, and it'll find other people wanting to do that mission and toss you all together. And quadruple the loot and xp while it's at it. Still should be an option, but at least it's not idiotic, like an always single player game demanding a net connection at all times.

Overall, seemed fun if a little like a lower budget torchlight. If that was at all possible. I'd have personally preferred different weapon types per hero, but instead it's every hero gets their signature item, so you can't do anything neat or fancy, like a 2h weapon version of a dual blades dude. Also results in you getting 80% useless drops, since they'll be for characters you don't play.

[K9]

I'm finding that given the flexibility with items, and the implied mechanic to encourage you to reshuffle your party (later have multiple parties) that the amount of wasted items isn't as bas as it seems. The ramp up time is perhaps a bit long, but once you have two full squads plus subs, you'll be using most of the high-level gear you have. The game tries to encourage you to open up and equip as many heroes as you can, and rotate through them from mission to mission. I think this is a good thing and leads to a more varied game in the long run.

I think the most overlooked aspect of this game is the way you build squads and how those squads synergise within a level. Going into the game I was expecting a PC -> Avatar -> Gear type of relationship like Diablo, but this is much more like an old squad-based game ported into a hack and slash.

the big problem is that you have to sink a good couple of hours in before a lot of this stuff becomes workable. I appreciate that they are trying to set a learning curve, but perhaps it is a bit shallow.

[kildorn]

Oh, and the best of the "cut this before live" in darkspore is the first start intro.

A 10-15 minute-ish unskippable intro + tutorial mission that runs to completion before you can save and go do something else.

edit: oh, and you can't edit system settings before it's done, either. So it was 10-15 minutes of "wrong aspect ratio for my monitor resolution, damnit" low res crap <3

I like the game, but dear god give me a main freaking menu right off the bat.

[K9]

As far as I can tell opening the in-game menu with escape doesn't pause the game, and there's no obvious alternative means to do so. *gripe*

I hear you about the intro, it doesn't help that the story is dull as shit and incredibly generic.

[Amaron]

I feel myself sucked into this now a bit honestly.   It's too bad though that the game really doesn't make any of it's good points obvious till a bit later on.   I'm pretty sure it'll flop for that reason alone.

[Amaron]

There's going to be an open beta for 10 days starting on Tuesday.   I think you just have to go to the site and download the client.   I've changed my mind on it enough that I'm going to end up buying it.   It fails hard at selling itself in the first few hours which is a flaw but it's got all the good parts I need from a D2 style action rpg in the end.   Frankly if you don't think it looks worth 50 bucks I'd still say play the beta for 10 days and get your fun out of it so you aren't tempted later.

[K9]

I enjoyed playing the game, but not enough to justify dropping the full retail price. I'll probably wait for a steam sale or something. It is a fun game, but the opening pace is a bit slow to really thrill me, and the character editor is a cumbersome addition that needs to be de-emphasised

[Amaron]

I enjoyed playing the game, but not enough to justify dropping the full retail price. I'll probably wait for a steam sale or something. It is a fun game, but the opening pace is a bit slow to really thrill me, and the character editor is a cumbersome addition that needs to be de-emphasised

Pace seems pretty fast to me after getting to a bit higher level but that's a ymmv.  I can agree about the editor.   I saw a video that showed much more normal "gear" from pre-beta but I guess they chucked that for some reason.   The editor is just an irritation without that.

[Ragnoros]

Does anyone want to get in on a Four Pack on Steam? I posted over at CAG and didn't get much response. (Does not bode well.) Paypal payment, unless someone has an easier way.

Edit: For anyone to lazy to check, (on f13, NEVER!) it's 35USD per copy in the four pack.