Spore is split into five distinct evolutionary stages and the easiest way to work through the review is by taking each one in turn. You’re got the cell, creature, tribal, civilization and space stage. Each rung in the ladder has an editor and creation options. You start at the bottom and that’s where we begin; the cell stage.
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| Celebration | Incoming |
You’re a microbe, nothing bigger than Bacteria. You’re main aim is to survive and eat. It’s a simple existence which is explored with equally simple controls. Depending on your choice of diet; carnivore, omnivore or herbivore, you swim around eating your way through several growth stages. The more you eat, the bigger you get. Eventually you’ll find nothing’s too big for your appetite and the sense of danger relaxes. You’re the predator opposed to the prey. Clicking a certain direction (or using the arrow keys) moves your creature among the currents. Along the way you’ll find new creature parts and you’ll be able to add simple defences and bits that increase your swimming speed. The best part? Seeing creatures in the background gradually getting bigger. It’s a gorgeous way of showing an impressive sense of scale.
Next comes legs and arms. In the creature stage you’re on land with one of two goals. You can either survive by befriending fellow creatures or destroy them in a flurry of cutesy violence. The former is undertaken through dance, singing, posing and the later through biting, spitting and poisoning. You can also dig for fossils, allowing you to improve your creature with more advanced parts. On occasion you’ll be asked to migrate to a new nest. That’s it. There’s nothing more to the creature stage. You’re stuck on a continent, surrounded by weird and wonderful creations. The gameplay quickly becomes repetitive and grinds into monotony. If it wasn’t for the shared content, you’d be forgiven for switching off.
The game continues the repetitiveness through the tribal stage. After you’ve garnished your creature with various tribal trinkets you’re posed with another two choices. You can conquer the surrounding tribes or charm them into submission with your musical skills. Your village can be upgraded with buildings which provide your tribes-people with upgrades. There’s the option to carry more food, fish more fish, turn them into axe warriors, spearmen, healer shamans. Whatever your choice, you’ll most likely find the stage a grind. There’s not much skill involved. You just churn out new tribe members to replace the old ones while keeping the food count in the plus.
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| Rain of Death | Through the worm hole |
Then the game becomes interesting again. The civilization stage takes place on a whole planet and lets you, again; wage war, conquer through religion or financially destroy the competition. You get to create your own vehicles (land, sea and air), buildings (factory, house and entertainment) and a city hall. Income is brought in through factories, which in turn need to be balanced with entertainment so the inhabitants stay happy. Capturing spice mines will give your coffers a tidy boost. The stage plays out like a watered down RTS. It’s a good stepping stone for those who may be interested in the genre, but aren’t ready for anything hardcore. It doesn’t take that long to get through once you’re on a certain path.
Space: The Final Frontier. It’s goodbye planet, hello universe. The final creator is unlocked and once you’ve got your ship ready for launch, it’s time to blast off into space. The space stage is by far the most complex and entertaining part of Spore. Playing out like a 4x Strategy game you move from star system to star system, conferring with other races, trading, setting up colonies, starting wars, earning badges, exploring and generally playing god. The game really shines. Navigation comes down to mouse wheeling in and out of planets. It’s a zoom system that works flawlessly. The scale is phenomenal and if you explore the whole of the galaxy you’ll be there for years.
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| Tribal | WMDs |
The real joy of Spore comes from its creation tools. You can create anything. It’s truly staggering. The editor is beyond simple and with practice you can churn out Maxis quality creations in no time. You can then upload videos of them directly to YouTube or add them to the Sporepedia, an online database searchable in game where you can instantly download anyone else’s creations. Your game world will be populated by them and theirs yours. You don’t influence their actual game, just provide them with content. It’s such a streamlined process that you’ll fail to appreciate what’s going on. It’s Spore’s saving grace.
Without the creation / sharing feature the game fails to hold much substance. It’s a broad scope of what could have been possible. For the hardcore gamer, you’ll find little to hold you. Spore is a game to delve into over an extended period of time. It’s a game to bring gamers together and while it doesn’t continue its strength throughout, it definitely shows what can be done.
SPORE VERDICT
Without the creation / sharing feature the game fails to hold much substance. It’s a broad scope of what could have been possible. For the hardcore gamer, you’ll find little to hold you. Spore is a game to delve into over an extended period of time. It’s a game to bring gamers together and while it doesn’t continue its strength throughout, it definitely shows what can be done.
TOP GAME MOMENT
Making Penis Monsters.
