{"id":27,"date":"2008-10-23T13:30:34","date_gmt":"2008-10-23T13:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alienbabeltech.com\/?p=834"},"modified":"2013-04-26T06:37:48","modified_gmt":"2013-04-26T05:37:48","slug":"spore-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/spore-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Spore Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

A game that fails at being an actual game? I\u2019m talking about Spore<\/em>, a game that took years to develop and got hyped to hell and back. Is failing at being a game such a sin though? For those who don\u2019t know, Spore<\/em> is Will Wright\u2019s project, the guy who also created The Sims,<\/em> EA\u2019s cash cow. Just like The Sims, Spore<\/em> is aimed at a large audience, which might partially explain why it doesn\u2019t quite live up to the hype and fails at being a real game. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Spore\"
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In Spore <\/em>you get to play God, more or less. A meteor crashes into the planet of your choosing and you take control of a cellular organism, following the evolution theory road straight into space. Right from the start you have complete freedom regarding your creature, you can make it look like you want and you can make it eat what you want, be it flesh, vegetables or both. Your first choice will automatically determine if your creature becomes a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore in the next stages, so you have to choose carefully. The main thing you\u2019re doing is feeding; by feeding you gain DNA points which you can use to buy new body parts. New body parts will make your life a little easier, by allowing you to swim faster or to be more agile, enabling you to evade the predators that want to eat you, or to catch your own prey more quickely. As you gain more DNA you will grow in size, until you eventually sprout legs, ready to hop right into the next phase. The problem with the Cell phase<\/em> is that it\u2019s too short, and there\u2019s almost no challenge. If you get eaten you just get reborn –\u00a0there is no penalty or anything. To give you an idea, it will probably take 10 to 15 minutes to play through the first phase. In contrast, the Cell phase <\/em>is also available for the Ipod, which is a lot more challenging and has more depth to it then the PC version, easily taking five times longer to complete.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>\"Spore\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To keep the game straightforward and simple, EA divided Spore<\/em> into five different phases. From the Cell phase<\/em> you proceed to the Creature phase<\/em>, and here is where the game really starts to fail. Your new species sets foot on land and the quest for more DNA starts all over again. Instead of eating algae or another cellular organism, you eat real vegetables or other animals just like yourself. Once again after gaining enough DNA you look for a mate, so you can reproduce and set the next step into your evolution. With your new body parts you can improve your fighting characteristics or you can add body parts that let you recruit other species by impressing them with your new body features. By recruiting creatures you also gain DNA and the creatures will follow and assist you when fighting for example. Throughout the creature phase you can have more creatures follow you, and depending on how aggressive or peaceful you behave you will determine what kind of culture your species is developing. This doesn\u2019t sound too bad in theory, but in reality it\u2019s the shallowest mini-game you could possibly think of. You\u2019re simply button bashing the same two or three buttons until you can finally move onto the next phase. The challenge is, well, there is none, it\u2019s just too easy. The only fun part is messing around with your creature. Because that\u2019s the one thing Spore<\/em> does get right –\u00a0the creature creator which stands miles apart from everything you\u2019ve ever seen before.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>While in the Creature phase<\/em> 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019ve ever thought of. I\u2019ve seen screenshots of the alien in Alien vs. Predator<\/em>, or Jar Jar Binks from Star-Wars<\/em>. Name it, and someone has probably made it already, and that\u2019s where another strong point from Spore<\/em> kicks in – the sporepedia<\/em> – a database that contains all creatures ever made by Spore <\/em>players. At first you\u2019ll 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.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Spore\" \"Spore\"
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In the Creature phase <\/em>you don\u2019t 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<\/em>, 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\u00a0– subduing other species into compliance by playing music for them – lovely! The Tribal phase is <\/em>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\u2019s just a phase you rush through without really paying attention to it.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The next thing can be said of the Civilization stage,<\/em> 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. <\/span>If you\u2019re 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\u2019s the factory, which will decrease your citizens happiness but will increase your income. In addition there\u2019s 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\u2019re 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\u2019s how a species evolves, but it could just as well be left out.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Finally, <\/span>you will be prompted to build a spaceship, which you can design completely to your own tastes, the same way you could with your creature. The same creativity is possible for all other structures and vehicles, but if you\u2019re not in the mood to come up with something cool you can always pick a creation from sporepedia. Once you\u2019re accustomed to your spaceship you\u2019re ready to conquer the universe, but it\u2019s just another phase that feels like a RTS without any depth to it. There is more to it than in previous stages, but Spore<\/em> doesn\u2019t even come close to a real space RTS. In the Space phase<\/em> it\u2019s no longer about earning DNA or growing a bigger brain, it\u2019s about earning badges. Badges can be earned by accomplishing all kind of feats, and the more badges you have, the higher your rank becomes. With higher rank come new privileges and you gain access to new weapons and spaceship engines for example. <\/span>It basically comes down to this; planets produce resources, and planets have three tiers, the better the tier, the more they can produce. You can improve the tier of a planet by adding an atmosphere and some flora and fauna. Produced resources have to be picked up, and sold elsewhere. You\u2019re not the only space-faring species though, there are other species roaming the universe which you can annihilate or befriend. Befriending other species can be done by setting up a trade route with them. If the trade route remains intact long enough the species owning the star system might offer you an opportunity to buy it from them. Conquering the universe has never been so easy, were it not for the fact that there are 500.000 planets. Ouch.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Spore\"
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Not only are all those phases just not cutting it, there\u2019s also no story of significance in Spore<\/em>, so besides the gameplay that\u2019s lacking there\u2019s nothing else to keep you going. So maybe you want to try out that bomb called Planetbuster<\/em>, but then again, even blowing up complete worlds gets old fast. The goal is to defeat the Grox, a race that has been traveling through space for eons, or befriend them of course. The problem with doing that is that you have to get to the middle of the universe, and the closer to the middle you get, the less distance you can travel with your spaceship. This makes for a pretty repetitive and boring phase where you are basically repeating the same thing over and over again. That\u2019s why Spore<\/em> fails at being a game. There\u2019s no challenge and there\u2019s no story, so except for some badges there\u2019s not much reason to continue playing. That would be completely true if it weren\u2019t for the creature creator. Perhaps you will find it fun to explore new planets and look at its wildlife – personally, that too got old pretty fast. It probably has something to do with the audience EA is targeting with Spore.<\/em> So what kind of audience would that be? Well, the biggest audience they can possibly get, so they can make the most profit. Their audience is the casual gamer audience: moms, dads and their children. You know it\u2019s true by just looking at the graphics, everything has a happy vibe to it, ranging from the colors to all the cuddly looking creatures made by Maxis. The sound, which is actually pretty good, with distinct kinds of animal sounds for each creature, also feels a little bit too happy for my liking. Last but not least there is the difficulty level, which is so easy, it\u2019s just not made for real gamers.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Spore\" \"Spore\" \"Spore\"
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This brings me to only one conclusion, if you\u2019re a casual gamer that likes to tinker around, Spore<\/em> could be the next best thing to happen for you, after The Sims<\/em>. If you\u2019re looking for more of a challenge, and already had your fun with the Spore <\/em>Creature creator (which can be downloaded for free) then you might be best off just skipping this overhyped game. It is such a shame really, because this game had a lot more potential.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

3.5 Stars
\n <\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

-by Marc Rademaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

ABT Gaming Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

ED’s note: Make sure you are Spore’s target audience<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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