Spore Review

While in the Creature phase the creature creator lets you do anything you want, even throwing millions of years of evolution straight out of the window. Maybe it could be considered yet another game flaw, but you can start over from scratch with your species whenever you want during this phase. Just delete all body parts until all you have left is a lump of clay with a spine in it. Although you can stretch the spine into pretty much any shape you want, there’s a limit to its length. From there on out you can widen the bones, making for a bigger or smaller body structure; think of a head, abdomen or a tail for example. It’s possible to make your creature walk upright, or you can give it 8 legs and a pair of wings instead. You can spray-paint it any color you want and you can virtually re-create anything you’ve ever thought of. I’ve seen screenshots of the alien in Alien vs. Predator, or Jar Jar Binks from Star-Wars. Name it, and someone has probably made it already, and that’s where another strong point from Spore kicks in – the sporepedia – a database that contains all creatures ever made by Spore players. At first you’ll encounter species made by Maxis, but in later stages you could encounter player-made species which gives a whole new twist to user created content. So tinkering around with your creature can be a lot of fun, especially when you make several species and later on ally with them, or just completely annihilate them in the last phase.

In the Creature phase you don’t only gain new and better body parts, you also grow a brain. What starts out as a peanut sized brain will grow bigger and bigger until you become smart enough to move into the Tribal Phase, which is subsequently another big letdown. In the Tribal phase you can control up to twelve creatures, which you can use as an attacking force, or a hippy force – subduing other species into compliance by playing music for them – lovely! The Tribal phase is a very small and limited kind of RTS, where your only resource is food, which is needed to gain more tribe members. You can equip your tribe with axes, spears or even torches if you build the right workshop for it. On the other hand, you can build a workshop for didgeridoos, flutes and samba balls. That it is all there is to it, and this phase can completed in 20 minutes or less. The devs could have at least added some more depth into this phase; right now it’s just a phase you rush through without really paying attention to it.

The next thing can be said of the Civilization stage, which is another small RTS, but instead of axes, spears or torches you can now build tanks, boats or airplanes. Throw enough of them at the enemy and their city will become yours. If you’re a more peace loving kind of player you can choose to build religious vehicles, which will spam the enemy with religious messages until they finally give in and join you, without you having to shed a drop of blood. In your city you can build 3 different kinds of buildings, including a recreation building that elevates the happiness of your citizens, making them less susceptible to religious attacks. Then there’s the factory, which will decrease your citizens happiness but will increase your income. In addition there’s the unit building with which you can build tanks and airplanes; boats are only available to cities with a harbor. Besides conquering your enemies through pure bloodshed or religious zeal you can also bestow another species with compliments and gifts, turning them into your ally. When you and your ally control the whole map you’re ready to adventure into the last frontier, space itself. This last phase also lacks all sense of a challenge and is too shallow for my liking. It almost feels like a chore, something you have to do because that’s how a species evolves, but it could just as well be left out.