I've had Darkspore since release. It's actually really fun. There are a lot of options: 100 heroes to choose from (25 heroesx4 variants of each). Item drops are plentiful and can be stacked in different ways. There is virtually no item trading, but items can be dropped to be picked up by someone else before the last level of the threat chain ends. "Threat chaining" is playing multiple consecutive levels in sequence, one after another, using the ship's engines to link them all. Monsters become more difficult using chaining, but the rewards get better, too. The endgame content still has a lot of quirks. A recent patch fixed most of these (monsters that could no longer be attacked, or were impossible to kill). The item drops are based on what level the items were found on, so... If you're stuck in endgame content and need a boost after filling up on gear from that level, you're just stuck. This eventually manifests into sheer impossibility as nobody, not one person (at least in North America) has beaten Darkspore yet. It's a fun game for about a week of continual playing, or a few weeks of on and off gameplay. Literally out of all the combinations of players and heroes, still nobody can beat this game.
that isnt necessarily a point in its favour. its certainly subjective, but there is a point where difficulty crosses from being a point in a games favour, to being a mark against. games like Demon's Souls are bloody hard, but through skill and perseverance, one can *earn* their victory. but if a game is flat impossible then thats just poor design isnt it?
In this case I agree. If nobody in the world can complete the game, it is flawed in that it may not be completed. I doubt it will stay that way, given the last patch softened things up a bit.
Looks like this game has been patched to 'beatable' now. It's prolly worth buyin', now that the price is down and the content is semi-normalized. Easily a week or two of fun gametime. The customization and multiplayer are great!