I've played plenty of beta and I have a copy down for pre-order.  It is a pretty basic gameplay, I think, which is best suited for coop. I see it as a "play to relax" game, not necessarily that demanding but still fun enough to warrant playing.

https://forums.stardock.com/388781/ is a previous topic on the game.

Yeah, I've been trying the beta though I still favor Elemental which is more my style. Your mix description sounds about right.

That was my overall take from the beta as well.  I enjoyed goofing off one evening playing it, but not a huge amount of substance there and nothing super exciting to draw me in.  I'm glad to see spore put to better use, though, but I won't be picking this up. 

The game seems pretty good but ya,reviews already says : repetitive and it gets like 14/20 which is not that great and all players complained of the repetitiveness to Maxis and at the release, nothing has changed... Let's hope some addons or whatever will come into play quickly !

The problem with EA? It's that it's EA... I don't like them because they don't put any passion in their game ! And in 90% of the cases, the game is not supported at all or very few by the dev team because EA wants money, they are just money hungry, and EA would rather invest into a new game bringing new sales than supporting their titles, developping them, patching them, etc... That's my biggest complain with EA.

Online activation is something that's really annoying to me but I guess they're forced to do it that way with all the pirates around so ok, I'll forgive online activation, it's a bad thing to counter a bad thing ! Plus EA always sell their game at the maximum price between 50 and 60 bucks which is really expensive for a game of the quality they provide without any support ! I think it's really laughing in the face of your customers to act like that !

You know, SC2 was expensive around 60 if not more and it required online activation and all but there, I didn't bother because blizzard put time and effort in their game to bring something satisfying enough to the customer and they provide a constant support to the game, SC 1 and Diablo 2 received tons of patches and support even after many years they were already on the market.

Same with SOASE and Elemental... Another is Dungeons where devs are even a lot on forums and support players and their games because they like it ! They developped something fun ! Those games maybe did not get all the success they deserved but even though, they continue to support them.

EA games? Well, I don't say they don't love their games and want to support them (especially since EA is more than one or two company) but the politic of EA is money money money ! So they create 50 games during the year sold at full price and they provide support for a couple month maybe after their release and if EA decide that the game did not well, it won't get any addon, DLC, patch, support or whatever anymore !

I'm sorry, but EA is definitely not my cup of tea... While Maxis might be different, you can see that they fall under the politic of EA because they try to support their babies and make something great and fun with support, but if EA doesn't allow it, then there's nothing they can except pray that some smart players will create a "fan patch" or something ! And with EA activation and all the online craps they force you to do, it's not even sure players can develop anything for the game even with motivation and make the game live through the years without any support (I have a couple examples like Battlezone 2 and many others)

Well, I'm not following anybody opinion on EA, I just look at the fact and what happened to their games compared to what happened to other games and their support / community. EA knows perfectly well it's problem but they don't care because they sell a lot to any kind of players. They cannot be like blizzard (and don't want to I think) and develop one game with tons of support and love and take time ! For EA, time is money so they got to make more product and sell them quickly ! That's why you have 50 call of duty or other sport games 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008,... most of them being exactly the same with a few change, etc... No, I cannot support EA ! And the sims, they're always the same, with a few change (not that much) and a lot of features removed in the next one that will be added with addons eventually and a better engine !

Worse, EA has under it's control great licenses like all the bullfrog games ! Would they do anything with it? Would they listen to all the fans that are crying heart and souls after new games of their license? No ! But it's probably better because EA would ruin the games made by bullfrog ! Already Dungeon Keeper 2 is far inferior to Dungeon Keeper 1 because at the time DK 2 was developped it was already in the process of being sold to EA and most people who worked on DK1 already left bullfrog or were working on other projects... So DK 2 fell under the politic of EA at the time even if Bullfrog was still the owner of the game. And What happened to DK2 ? Almost no support, game released totally unstable, few support were given even though lots of last minute effort tried to be done to save the game. Luckily enough, the game found fans and is still supported by them with multiple patches because no online activation was necessary !

There, all my hatred for EA Games and their politic ! All those great companies absorbed by EA that are now forced to follow their politics !

Glad some poeple find it promising too, despite all those bad reviews

I tried it and I'm pretty glad I got it... Just not glad that it's EA... Well, I just hope we'll see some pretty addons coming because right now it's a bit empty, not of players but of Content ! [e digicons]:'([/e]

Though lots of players ask for new MP modes so hopefully the devs will listen

The game is really hard I have to admit ! Not on all the maps, but on some, my characters are dying and I end it with only one character alive and almost dead with that !

The challenge is real and really pleasant !

The heroes powers are really nice too, that one called Maldri has some nice moves

And I really like the ability to combine heroes and get a different gameplay with the different skills ! I'm in a hurry to see the beta, gamma and delta version of my heroes and the skills they have.

Now the official forum is really active, I try to participate a lot and hope Maxis will take care of this game and add all the request from players in the game because it has a great potentials rather to limit addons to new heroes, planets and equipments.

If anyone wants to play, we should plan a game   my Crogenitor level is only 5, nearly 6... I have to admit that I'm taking more pleasure in Darkspore than in League of Legends so I really hope Maxis will be smart on this (as well as EA)

I'm not surprised it got a mixed reception - it is an Action RPG, they don't tend to do well critically. Personally though, I was surprised with the Beta. After Spore I expected to hate it, but the game is pretty danm good. Hopefully we'll see some decent expansions.

I played a lot this weekend and I am more and more surprised by what the game has to offer as an editor, as an hack&slash and as strategy !

The game really expect you to use a fine strategy to pass the level and it's a pure pleasure !

Lots of heroes for which I didn't care just grew on me and are just amazing !

And you find very good items without too much difficulty as in Diablo so it makes the game less oriented towards the "quest to find the missing piece of equipment of your set"

With some decent expansion the game might just become the next league of legends with more possibilities if the devs are smart (and I hope they are) and find some fun competition gameplay to introduce !

Ya, Spore, despite a fantastic Creature Editor, was just 5mini games where nothing was really developped !

You just go through the cell phase really quick and after that you spend more time as a creature, then the strategy phases are just really quick... Like 10min each approximately, then you're in space mode where you go around blowing planets up and doing stupid timed quests ! Gosh, the phase I expecting the most out of it was just total **** !!! The time is totally annoying for quests !

But for Darkspore, they took time to develop a very solid hack&slash (which was the best part of spore, the creature phase) but with a more solid engine (it's truly nice) and more solid gameplay based on a frenetic DotA !

Fights can get really epic and the characters and powers are really original ! I hated spore but I was curious about it ! I watched the youtube video "WTF is Darkspore?" and it totally grew on me ! The comments were way favorable for the game and the gameplay is really responsive... It just made me want to buy it ! Result ? Not disapointed a single bit !

There isn't all the craft and stuff from diablo, but it's enjoyable enough and you can make truly distinctive heroes from anybody else !

In multi poeple don't talk much though, they rush through the action and chain levels as they can and then collect loot and so on... Still enjoyable a lot though ! And especially if you're not a hardcore gamer like me where the game is pretty quick.

Ya, the difficulty also isn't really what I would call progressive since it goes from quite easy to really hellish difficult !

You really have to fast think and make a good team following your playstyle, you've got to have a main DPS character and 2 that will serve as support.

There's 3 classes:

Tempest: You classic Mage / Healer, some heroes will be the DPS (like Lumin or SRS42) and other will just be support (Sage, Meditron, Jinx,...)

Ravager: That will be your DPS best one right now are Skar, Viper, Maldri, Vex

Sentinel: The tank of the team, will allow your team mates to breath while you replenish their health slowly, I have a preference for Wraith and Savage.

Now you've just got to switch between them at the right time and combine the skills correctly with the team abilities.

Now there's already some very nice combo shown in videos by the devs (is on youtube) but if you search more, a lil combination I like is

Sage (main character mage) healer and support, attack from a distance, has 2 pets that spawn freely

Savage, the tank, his team ability to summon a pet will nicely combine with Sage and help a lot.

Meditron, a tempest that is a very good healer to play solo (while sage is a healer for multi)

There, you always play with Sage and the pets, they will tank for you while you buff them and shoot everything from a distance (you've got to equip items boosting pets and boosting sage's critics / health / evasion and more than anything : Atk speed.

Another Team is : Wraith, Lumin and Vex, Wraith is just an amazing tank healing itself, Lumin is an amazing mage with his lightnings and will clean pretty much anything on the field helped by Vex ability to teleport / stun and the oh crap button of Wraith to become invincible for 6sec (team ability)

A pure support team: Meditron, Sage and Jinx, If you like to play multi and be a support player, they will just be plenty of fun !

That's some example of teams, There's just a lot of ways to play Solo or Coop (the items you equip heroes with are just way important and can change everything !) and there's a lot of different playstyle for this amazing game !

I'll be really mad if the game isn't developped further because it's just really amazing !

EA is also known for lying about  game DRM,  has rather poor customer support and as has been stated previously none of there games have any depth

also they are  running a monoply by  buying out companies, EA  really tis just a publisher with  many subdivisions, most of these subdivisions  previously independent companies that were boughout and slowly  were integrated into EA (i.e maxis westwood,bullfrog among others). EA also is notorious for their  track record on handling there subdividsiosn. while many of the company they buy out, many of these companies make contracts with them only to end up falling behing their rediculous development cycles,example bioware who is suppsed to publish a triple A title every year , and when this happen EA starts downsizing the companies layoffs,split up of devleopment teams etc...

for these reasions I dont buy any EA games,heck I did not by the command and conquar first generation, with the added reasion that westood devloped those games NOT EA. who closed and supsequntly liqudated the the company after failed  consumer and commerical expectations that EA had for Command and conquer renegade.

suffice to say I greatly dislike EA

haha   sorry   if the game is fun go ahead hows the campaign