Darkspore taking open beta sign ups

Darkspore is the spiritual successor to the cutesy evolution sim Spore.

Darkspore is the spiritual successor to the cutesy evolution sim Spore. It's a Diablo style hack and slash game that lets you fight with a character customised using an enhanced version of Spore's fantastic creature creator, grafting living weapons and armour enhancements onto your creature as you find them. It's also launching and open beta, and is looking for people to sign up.

The mutated forces of Darkspore have overrun the galaxy, now it's down to you to save the universe by blasting the evil mutants back to their spawning pits. There's a four player co-op mode which asks players to mix and match their weapons and evolutionary traits to make the most devastating team possible. Each hero character has their own unique brace of special abilities, and can be customised in different ways as you level up, letting you take on even more powerful Darkspore and gain even more powerful weapons until you've successfully evolved into the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy.

If you fancy giving the game a shot, head over to the official Darkspore siteand click the 'Beta Sign Up' button on the right. You'll be asked to give your name and email address and EA will make contact later with first details of how to get onto the beta. Spore's amazing character creator always had tremendous potential, it'll be interesting to see how it's put to use in an action game. The game's due out in February 2011, here's a trailer showing some of the bug splattering action.