0

Big game, big promise, big concepts, big, big, big. You’ll never see a game with a larger scope than Spore. Maxis have an unholy ability to print money. Will Wright’s ‘The Sims’ ranks as the most popular PC franchise of all time. Sorry Euro Truck Simulator, it’s just the way it is. Not satisfied with controlling a family / town of miniature people, Will Wright set out to create a game that spans the history of the cosmos. From microbe to a space-faring god, Spore charts the evolution of life. Years in the making, a hype machine larger than Grand Theft Auto and the promise to create anything and everything are big shoes to fill. Spore’s finally arrived, but does it regenerate PC Gaming or condemn it to an eternity of broken promises?

You’re the smallest thing on the planet. You’re a single celled amoeba. You can swim, poke things with a spike and eat. Depending on your choice, it’s either other creatures or plant life. The cell stage has a simple aim; eat, survive and evolve. Once you’ve grown to a suitable size, you shed the gills and grow legs. It’s land time. The Cell Stage is the shortest and yet the sweetest. Its gameplay is as retro as it comes and the bright colours, background haze effects and ‘run away!’ tension all combine to start Spore off with a bang.

Then it gets a tad repetitive. Once you’re on land (and added various gubbins to improve your stats) the aim of the game is to (again); survive, eat and explore. You’ll come across other species, each with their own abilities, notions and aggression rates. You have a choice of two interactive processes. One: Be friendly, mimic their dancing, singing and posing with the result of peaceful alliance. Two: Eat / Destroy. Either way, you’ll get new parts for your creature and they accompany any that you find in fossils littered around the island. Repeat the above forty times and you’ll reach the tribal stage. The best part about the Creature Phase is the creation tools. They really show their worth as you meld parts, warp bits and create anything possible. There are plenty of laugh out loud moments as you experiment. The game does its best at bringing the creature to life through a wide range of motions.

As your brain increases in size you eventually discover the mystery of fire. The game then locks your creature’s physical appearance and lets you add a range of tribal clothing to civilise your race. The tribal stage is by far the worst of the five on offer. You’re free to ally with neighbouring tribes through food gifting or musical performances. Sadly the game attempts to place you down the violence path as new tribes are already hostile to you. This means a crude RTS game where you select your tribal members, equip them with hammers, spears and fire and you send them off on a rampage.  It’s completed in under an hour and there’s little need for it in the game.

The Civilisation Phase then ups the scale to a full planet and instead of villages, you have cities. There are three types; Religious, Economic or Military. Each produce different units (which you get to design from the ground up) and you can customize their buildings. There’s a simple balancing act between angering factories (for income), happy-inducing entertainment and population boosting housing. Hardcore gamers will fail to see the enjoyment as you grind through the same process eight times. There’s the odd special ability (depending on your actions in the past) and a basic diplomacy system (throw money at enemies to be liked).

Then it gets a bit deep. It’s obvious that up until the Space Stage, Spore is a welcome tool for the casual gaming audience. Encompassing many genres, but excelling at none, it’s a Gaming for Dummies. The game is bright, colourful and easy to use, both in its creation tools and sharing. The Sporepedia can be delved into at any point and you can download creations from gamers around the world. This is the first Massively Singleplayer Offline Game. Your creations don’t influence other games, they just populate worlds.

You’ll be visiting plenty of them as you traverse a gigantic galaxy with thousands of systems and even more planets. Movement is a simple click affair and the game has a smart zoom in system that is tied to the mouse wheel. You‘re tasked with colonising planets, interacting with other empires, undertaking missions and exploring the universe. The end game becomes a grind as you repeat the same tasks for cash, upgrades and mission badges. The tereforming is particularly complex and it’ll put off those with a casual gaming style.

Spore’s success all depends on what you expected. If you’re wanting a revolution then you’ve got it in the form of sharing content. If you’re expecting a life-lasting game then you’ll be bitterly disappointed.

Score: 8/10

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.6
AkoComment © Copyright 2004 by Arthur Konze - www.mamboportal.com
All right reserved