Wow, talk about a bit of thread necromancy. Anyway, the beta is up on Steam right now for everyone to play for the next couple of days. I have to admit, I am a bit mixed on the game.
I feel no real attachment to any of the "heroes" when they are all interchangeable. Each hero has three usable abilities, one of which is given to the entire squad, and one passive ability which is shared between other active heroes in multiplayer. With three squads total, thus far, you'll be taking care of a minimum of nine heroes. That is a bit of work when you get down to it. I found myself taking forever after a mission going through and checking armor and weapons on each hero on my active roster.
Something maddening about the item system is that while armor is shared between types of heroes, plasma heroes will be able to use the same armor for example, weapons aren't shared. Granted, this could change later on, I got fed up around level ten which took me about three hours to get to. But, if it doesn't change, it makes it so you need blind, stinking luck to get a weapon you can make use of on your active roster. There was nothing like finding a rare, only to find out that it was for a hero I didn't unlock. Since there isn't a way to trade -- as far as I figured out at least -- I was stuck either unlocking that hero and shifting squads around or selling it in the item shop for DNA which I already had plenty of for my level.
Also, customization is a bit limited. While you can always put extra little doodads onto a hero -- to a degree -- they are always that one hero with the same three moves. Maybe they are trying to make up for this by having one hundred heroes to toy around with. But, it is still the same problem. You will still see the same sets of heroes used time and time again.
While it is nice to see the Spore engine and creation tools made into a game instead of a 3D modeling program. It still feels like they are leaning far too much on the character creator to enthrall players. While this may work for some, those who are looking for Diablo, Torchlight, or Dungeon Siege will not find that level of gameplay here.
It is kind of a shame. I was looking forward to playing it before I played the beta. Maybe I would get it if it was around a fifteen to twenty dollar price point. But, not fifty.