Spore Disappoints And Surprises All At The Same Time

First let's give credit to EA for pulling off one of the most aggressive and clever video game marketing campaigns of all time. Piggy backing off of Will Wright's genius and success with the Sim's they have created a franchise complete with a prequel and room for numerous expansions. However with such an ambitious title and so much hype does Spore meet expectations?

From The Heavens Comes The Seeds Of Life And Your Lucky Enough To Be Along For The Ride

Ground Breaking & Run Of The Mill
There are some ground breaking aspects to this game and then there are some tried and tested formulas in the mix as well. There are five playable phases ( cell, creature, tribal, civilization, and space faring ) with numerous opportunities to customize nearly every in game object. The scope of the game on paper seems huge but when actually played through one soon discovers there are hard limitations set for all but the space phase.

Cell Phase
Being a single cell organism is apparently just as difficult as having a big brain and paying taxes. The competition is brutal, swimming alongside you in the tide pool are numerous bad creatures mostly intent on making you lunch. As you race through the soup your confronted with lots of options to customize your creature. In this cell eating contest devouring others is the quickest way to gaining new parts for evolving. The only way out is to gobble your way to dominance, only then will you acquire a brain big enough to adapt to life on land.

It's An Orgy Of Carnage In This Single Cell Slaughter House, Big Fun!

Creature Phase
The creature phase is another unique concept which I thoroughly enjoyed. Stalking through the forest as your freshly minted critter searching for a plump random treat is just as entertaining as I imagined it would be after test driving Spore Creature Creator. Watching instant beasts attacking each other and feasting upon the spoils of a hunt is something thats hard to get tired off. As you evolve your able to recruit more creatures into your pack, your not limited to just your own species either. If your able to befriend others then they will join you too!

After Gobbling Up Enough Tidbits In The Gene Pool This Fella Is Ready For Dry Land.

Singing Dancing Carnivorious Beasts
In order to win over the loyalty of another species you have to perform for them. Dancing, singing, and posing are the order of the day. Using a simple rhythm gaming system similar to guitar hero you have to time your responses just right in order to win creatures over. However just like in polite society some dance better than others, and not everyone has a natural talent for song. If you perform poorly you will get rejected and ignored. But don't feel bad there are other options, you can always kill them and eat them!

Angry One Eyed Monsters
There are some animals that are just born angry so you can't avoid combat every time, I found it best to dance where possible and kill when necessary. Once establishing your species as successful pack animals your ready to move along to the tribal stage. Hunting and gathering is still the call of the day but now you get some neat crafted weapons to augment your natural offensive abilities. Spitting poison and throwing spears is the best of both worlds!

Not Known For Their Social Skills The Eyed Willie Is Built For Maximum Aggression

Going Tribal
Going tribal was not as fun for me as the creature phase and it's not as hard either once you figure out a working strategy. You still have to hunt and gather but now you can fish as well as domesticate animals for eggs. Socializing offers a few more options as well, now you can offer gifts to rivals and throw a big band dance party. The mechanics are nearly identical to those from the previous phase, rhythm is needed for socializing and a bit of planning is needed for attack. The overall feel equates to a stripped down real time strategy game with maracas.

Modest Beginings Are The Seeds Of Grandeur

Borderline Fun
The tribal phase is borderline fun but the lack of customization options is quite annoying. After being spoiled with endless options during the cell and creature phase the only thing to tweak here are tribal outfits! This wouldn't be so bad but the costumes are canned, every game it's the same costumes. In addition to this the technologies are canned too, it's always the same instruments and weapons again and again. The hype made it seem as if every phase was an in depth and detailed experience, creature creator gave us a glimpse of reality though. At it's heart Spore is a mash up of cute games that are easily approachable. The first two phases are the most unique after that it's down the slippery slope of familiarity to the pool of derivation at the bottom.

Get Me Out Of This Tunic!
The tribal portion whimpers to a close after you defeat rival tribes with your wicked wood flute skills, or impaling them on your spears. This phase is the weakest in the entire game, it's objective was clearly to blend the animal phase and the civilization phase. The transition is smooth but game play is shallow and customization is nearly non existent. In addition to this it's rather time consuming to finish on hard level if you have not evolved as an omnivore or know all the tricks to get around gathering food.

With The Other Tribes Subjugated It's Time To Get Civilized.

Welcome Back Customization Options!
The civilization phase is the natural progression of the tribal phase. Customization options are back but this time your confronted with global conflict. Obviously focusing on your creatures outfits has nil effect on the outcome, you will want to spend the bulk of your time creating war machines. Of equal uselessness is customizing every building available for construction. I guess it is a diversion from seizing spice deposits, deploying troops, and nuking enemy cities.

Customize Yes! – Tech Tree NO?!
Most gamers are used to having options forced down their throats in the form of a hierarchical tree which has options set in stone. Spore takes an alternative approach, in the customization of vehicles each part has a decisive influence on one of three traits; health, speed, and depending on your civs traits; military power, religious power, or economic power. This would mean something if not for one quirk. You can't have different versions of vehicles operating at the same time, and vehicle customizations happen instantly as well as being cost free. So you could for example load a model for a ground vehicle thats super fast. And once it arrives at the enemies doorstep change that model to something thats super powerful. Convenient Yes! Challenging NO!

Customize Your Ships As You See Fit As Often As You Need, Changes Are Instant.

With Money Comes Power
Theres no way to succeed in the civ phase without an ample supply of hard currency. This takes the form of a precious resource called spice. Just as in Dune the spice must flow, luckily for us though there is no need to build a spice harvester and there are no sand worms. Resource points are capturable, just roll your land shark over to one and start bombarding it. But don't get suckered into fighting endlessly for these nodes, the real money comes from controlling cities. With enough spice you gain access to powerful attacks which are determined by the traits you have acquired while evolving.

Land Sea And Air
In order to polish off this portion of the game you will need to dominate the entire planet either through brute force, fanatical zeal, or economic prowess. You are given three vehicle types to accomplish this with; land, sea, and air. As in the previous phases you must subjugate rivals by any means necessary. Unlike other phases there is no dancing ( thank GOD for that!) Alliances are accomplished through lining the coffers of enemy states with as many spore bucks as you can afford to ply them with. It's much more satisfying crushing all of them and watching their cities burn to the ground while their citizens jump out of windows but to each his/her own.

Boldly Go Where No Critter Has Gone Before
Boldly Go Where All The Rest Of The Critters Are Already!
The fifth and final phase is what I consider to be the most polished yet bug ridden portion of Spore. I have numerous gripes from random crashes to gimped AI aggressiveness from the 1.1 patch. Along with those I bring to the table the new complaint of loosing 100% of the meaningful customization options! This is the only part of the game where everything you customize receives no benefit from the various options available to you!

Galactic Civilization With A Twist
The influence of galciv is overly apparent in this stage of the game, the galactic map seems to have been pinched or at least influenced by Eve Online. Everything about this phase of the game is familiar. However Spore is a great chameleon and although it borrows heavily from existing paradigms it manages to shift them all just enough to keep an edge. Never mind managing fleets of ships, you will be spending all your time scooting across the cosmos in a single craft of your choosing. This is a huge departure from space conquest games. Although you still have to wield military might against those predisposed to aggression it's not as much micromanagement as the previous phase, at least not where units are concerned.

Shes Shiney And Ready To Meet New Friends To Try Her Missiles Out On

The Biggest Problem
Perhaps the single biggest problem with the space faring stage are the limitations encountered when interacting with computer opponents. You have the usual options, pave the way to mutual understanding with deep pockets, or bashing them to pieces with mega bombs and lasers. Spice is still the heart of the economy and without enough of it your in for a piss poor and frustrating experience. New flavors of spice are discovered and different types fetch better prices than others. This makes trade viable, and you will be doing a lot of it in order to fund your space program. But no matter how rich you end up, your still stuck with just one ship! If you acquire enough allies you can have a small fleet but they fly crafts so flimsy the only reason to take them along is to watch them explode ( on hard mode ).

It's Not A Big Deal After A While
In the beginning when your fiddling around in your space bucket you have to juggle tasks like nuts. If your not into doing two things at once you might get overwhelmed but thats not a big deal unless your playing with the hard difficulty setting activated. The sense of impending doom and the entire galaxy being held together with a shoestring and a stick of gum is felt throughout. At one moment I found myself swamped with numerous missions and requests from pesky aliens to take out their laundry and deliver their mail (well that's what it felt like anyway.) The only moment you get to relax is after unlocking enough equipment to help your colonies better take care of themselves. And this doesn't happen until you have repeated the different tasks available for X amount of times. So the repetition is there but it comes with free biscuits.

It's A Routine Garbage Collection Mission For My Alien Bosses.

Grox And The Center Of The Galaxy
What galactic exploration game would be complete without a mysterious anti social race of beings with vastly superior firepower bent on enslaving all existing species? Exactly! So to satisfy this cliché Spore gives us the Grox. Every other civ fears them and their empire is the largest in the game spanning hundreds and hundreds of stars. They are protecting the center of the galaxy and you must travel there in order to achieve victory. Without any sort of strategy tips this can be a tricky feat to accomplish but it's the only way to unlock the end game sequence.

These Little Cyborg Kobolds Only Respond To A Foot In The Ass.

All In All
Spore starts off strong but ends with a spiral of repetition thats severe enough to make me want to chew off my right hand in order to avoid playing the games final phase. At the same time I have fond memories of the unique cell and animal phases, my biggest regret is that those two parts of the game do not last longer, especially the cell phase.

Hardcore Warning
If you are a veteran gamer Spore is not something you want to approach at an easy difficulty setting. Taking on the challenges in hard mode is probably the most excitement you will wring out of game. I had the most fun struggling through a few of the phases while the computer kicked my face in at random. However mastery of the game is achieved easier this way, the AI is a great teacher in a sense that it keeps coming after you when you make mistakes.

Nothing Says Loving Like A Fanatical Uprising Causing A Global Revolution.

Approachable And Cute
The overall goal for EA and Maxis with Spore is unclear. But it seems as if Will Wright is going after the casual gaming market with all of his teeth. On easy and normal mode just about anyone without a severe mental handicap can pickup the game and whiz through its phases in no time. The overall value of the game is excellent considering the replay ability of the game is quite high. If ever there was a gateway drug for more serious games this is it. After a few rounds of spore, you have essentially experienced just about every genre in gaming.

Does It Live Up To The Hype?
NO, but it is a great game! It's not meant for the most hardcore game fans but instead geared towards a mass audience. Minimum system specs are light and just about any computer bought in the last few years can run it. Is it ground breaking and revolutionary? That remains to be seen, but it is worthy of a slot in any gamers collection.