Darkspore (lost inaccessible action role-playing PC game; 2011-2016)

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250px-Darkspore.jpg

Cover art of Darkspore.

Status: Inaccessible


Darkspore was an action rpg PC game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It was an indirect sequel to 2008's Spore, a creature creation game also developed by Maxis. The game's graphical style was far different from its predecessor, taking on a more realistic and dark style. The game was infamous for its always-online DRM, requiring an internet connection even if someone wanted to play single player. This was put on top of already requiring Origin to run the game, which also required an internet connection at all times. On March 1st, 2016, Darkspore's servers were shut down, making the game entirely unplayable even with a physical copy of the game, as it still needs the servers to be up.

Gameplay

Electronic Arts' disclaimer for the Darkspore shutdown.

The gameplay of Darkspore was mostly single player, but it also featured online co-op and PvP (player vs. player) and was quite similar to Blizzard's Diablo series. Similar to Spore, it also had a "Hero Editor", which was the equivalent of Spore's "Creature Creator".

Shutdown

On March 1st, 2016, Electronic Arts announced that they were shutting down the game's servers. The closure was met negatively, with Mark Richard of TechRaptor stating that the shutdown of Darkspore was "banishing the title from gaming history"[1] and Clint Basinger of Lazy Game Reviews saying in a video review that, while he didn't like the game much, the game being shut down was "an assault on history". He also criticized the game's convoluted DRM system as well as DRM in general, stating that Darkspore was a reminder of the cons of DRM platforms such as Origin and Steam.

As previously stated, the game can't be played in any way currently, and unless EA/Maxis make an offline option available, bring back the servers, or another party somehow hacks the game to get past the DRM, it may never be playable again.

Gallery

LGR's video on Darkspore.

Ross's Game Dungeon's gameplay video.

The theme song for Darkspore, composed by Junkie XL.

References

  1. TechRaptor article on Darkspore shutdown. Last retrieved 02 Jan 2017.