Reviving a few of the things I worked on previously with this blog, I’m going to try to start reviewing things some more. I’ve said it before but I’ll repeat myself, I am not a professional reviewer, and I really have no formula on how I check out games. I’m just an average user so my perspective if that of, did I have fun, did I enjoy it, would I keep enjoying it? Hrm, maybe I do have a formula?
Spore Review (Part 1)
I’ve been playing this game since it came out. Now this game has had a lot of hype over the past few years. So many promises, hopes, dreams, etc. Well, to tell you the truth, the game delivers on almost all of them. The game is a lot of fun for a casual game. I stress CASUAL GAME because that’s what spore is. Well, actually it’s like 4 casual games and 1 potentially complex but typically casual game.
Let me take a step back and explain what Spore is and what it relates to. Spore is created by Will Wright, one of the fore fathers of gaming and the creator of the SIM series of games (Simcity 1, 2000, 3000, The Sims, SimEarth, SimAnt, etc). Well, spore takes that and jams it all together into a massive scale. You start your game off as a single celled organism that gradually evolves into a larger sea creature, then a land creature. From here, you evolve intelligence and start a society in the form of a tribe. Your tribe eventually grows up and becomes civilized and makes big cities. Eventually your civilization unifies and you ascend to the stars.
Step back number two, let’s go over these stages an explain just how fun or not fun each stage is.
Cell Stage: Okay, this one is a simple 2D free form Pac-Mac game. Your goal is either to A) eat plants and evolve or B) kill animals and eat them to survive. You can, optionally, do both. Whichever you choose to do, it will determine if you’re a herbivore, a carnivore, or an omnivore in the creature stage. You can also hunt down parts in cell stage, although there aren’t many. Eventually, you’ll be one of the biggest fish in the pond and you’ll move on from the aquatic landscape and onto land and the creature stage.
Cell Stage Pros: Simple, fun, and pretty intuitive. Cell stage is about as easy as it gets and it’s enjoyable all around.
Cell Stage Cons: For one, they took out the suggested aquatic stage they were going to have and replaced it with part of the cell stage. A pity but we’ll live. There also isn’t much detail in Cell stage. We also see one of my biggest complaints of the games start here. For much of the game you’ll encounter gigantic creatures with features and abilities you’ll never be able to get. It’s annoying when you’re at a certain stage and the biggest predators have so many parts you could never afford until the end of the cell stage yet when you have enough points to look like that creature, you’re huge compared to that creature. It’s distracting and kinda makes me grumble.
Cell Stage Verdict: Fun, and I do replay it often, but never by itself.
Creature Stage: In this stage, you add legs to your fishy and move onto land. You’re now part of a small herd. You don’t have to work together, but as you grow more intelligent, you can choose to team up with herd members or members of other races you befriend. You have one goal at this time, get enough points to become self-aware/intelligent. There are a number of ways to do this, from killing, eating, and eliminating other species to befriending and allying with other creatures. There are some minor quests that mostly involve being nice or killing your neighbors (you choose based on your stance). You’ll also be digging around for more parts to add to your creature. You can find these either by finding bones of dead creatures (not the ones you kill though) or killing or befriending alpha members of other animals. Make sure your creature looks how you want because after creature stage ends, you don’t get to evolve anymore.
Creature Stage Pros: This is the best stage in the game, IMO. It’s fun, neat, and you get to move around as an individual creature. The creature manipulator is so much fun as you find more parts and in general I love playing in this stage.
Creature Stage Cons: EPIC CREATURES SUCK! Again you cannot become these giants. At Least I haven’t found a way yet to become one of these one-hit wonders. I’ve tried making my creature as large as possible in game and the creature manipulator just doesn’t seem to let you become any bigger. I understand they are mostly user created content turned giant, but I’d rather play these creatures and crush cities than fight them. Maybe a future expansion would allow this… Think of it as another evolutionary path.
Review of Tribal, Civilization, and Space stages coming in Spore Review Part 2
Justin Diehl
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