Senior Staff Writer Chris "Pwyff" Tom got some extensive hands-on time with Darkspore, an action RPG based on the Spore Creature Creator. But is Darkspore more than just looks?

Speaking of equipment, Darkspore has it. A lot of it. I mentioned earlier that Darkspore is basically Diablo meets Pokemon, and that analogy works a lot better than you think. As you run through levels, not only are there little hidden areas for you to explore (and to get loot), there has also been a lot of talk about Darkspore's unique "rollover" concept, where players can choose to keep going through missions in order to chain them together to get better rewards at the end. You do need to level up and purchase engine upgrades in order to be able to "chain higher," so I was stuck at doing only three-chains when I had to leave, but it was a lot of fun being rewarded for taking more and more risks.

In terms of actual combat, Darkspore takes a very casual approach to its speeds. Controls in the game are done by point-click movement and keyboard-based hotkeys, and players can switch between their three creatures at any time. As another unique point of customization, every creature comes with three abilities but, after assembling a full team of three, all of your creatures have access to five abilities: three of their own and the last ability of the other two creatures. This gives your team a great deal of customization, especially if you pick and choose your extra abilities properly. While the combat isn't as fast as Diablo II, it's smooth enough to get the job done.

I also managed to get a little arena-based 1v1 PvP in, but I spent most of it troubleshooting the occasional bug and giving some balance feedback on specific units. As a hardcore PvPer, I would love to see some kind of competitive community spring from Darkspore, but it does feel as though this might be a game more suited for casual and social play, especially given how difficult it will be to balance the more powerful characters.

Overall, Darkspore is really a game about showing what that Spore Creature Creator is really capable of when Maxis sets out to create a focused game. The action RPG genre has always been a hotspot of immense character customization, and I doubt anybody will be able to beat Darkspore for its customization for a long, long time. With the rumors floating around that Diablo III might not even come out in 2011, Darkspore is a great action RPG experience that boasts a very balanced co-op and multiplayer game system. If you can get a few friends together to get the game, I can almost guarantee that you'll have a great time when it launches on March 29.