Review by BlueLink57
"Pretty good, but disappointing, to say the least."
Spore is a game that was hyped up about for about 4 years. It is what you could say, a spin-off of The Sims, but it has it's own series. Like the Sims, the characters speak in gibberish, but this time there's a new twist. The Sims had people, Spore has creatures.
Though this is more of an interactive game, it still partially has it's own story. You are a cell that lands on a planet, and you and your species gradually evolve as it gets more advanced, all the way to having a space empire!
The game is mostly controlled with the mouse, but you can use buttons. To move, you left click and your creature or cell will move there. For tribes or civilizations, you click on a member or vehicle, or multiple members or vehicles, and right click where they should go. In space, you click on planets or on the map where to go, scroll to zoom in or out, and right click on planets to move. Sometimes I found the controls unresponsive and eventually might freeze up.
The graphics in the game are beautiful, at least if you have a card or high enough performance, if you don't, like me, then you have graphics close to the N64. I realize, though, that this is my fault for having a bad computer, not Spore's for having bad graphics.
There really isn't a lot of music in this game. In Cell, you have this awkward, repetitive underwater music, in Creature, there is barely any music besides mating and when you're at your own/allied nest. The first is a love song, and the second is just a repetitive unidentifiable (by me) instrument. In Tribal, there is only this stupid repetitive primitive drum noise. In Civilization, there is some faint music in cities, like their anthem, but also, they have songs for each type of nation: Military has this eerie song that sounds like a world is destroyed, Religious had some chanting, and Economic had this warm, happy song that I can't describe.
In this game you go through 5 stages of life: Cell, Creature, Tribal, Civilization, and Space. In Cell you roam around in the tidepool finding food. If you are a carnivore you eat meat pieces or kill other creatures for meat, if you are an herbivore, you eat plants, and omnivores eat both. In Creature, you rise from the sea, and live on land in a nest with your other family members. You have to roam around and get DNA from accomplishments like eating, killing other families, or befriending them. As a carnivore, there are no more meat pieces, so you solely have to kill other animals and eat their corpses, so finding food may get harder after you have extincted a lot of species. As an herbivore, you get food from trees, and it is easier to get. An omnivore can eat both. Also, if you think you can outsmart the game by being a carnivore and eating herbivore food, or vice versa, you can't, your creature will just get sick and will not get any hunger points filled up. There are also 2 other special creatures: Rouges and Epics. Rouges are like normal sized creatures, just a little bigger and have a lot more HP. You can get massive DNA for killing or befriending these. The Epics are giants, they have around 1,000 HP and can kill you in one or two hits, so if you want to kill them, do it from a safe distance. After you have enough DNA, you can advance to Tribal Stage, Your species will now be considered "Sentient" instead of "Wild," but you are still primitive. In Tribal, you use Food to buy houses, weapons, and feed your species. They starve a lot easier and faster in this, and if you're not careful and are not letting them eat in between work, they can die. You begin with a little tribe of 3. Your chieftain and his 2 helpers. You get food in 4 ways: Killing wild animals for meat, gathering fruit, fishing, or domesticating a wild animal for their eggs. With 10 food, a baby can be born, and will have a child stage for about 1 or 2 minutes, and will do their baby nonsense like running around in circles, and your members sometimes play things like Peekaboo with them. They will soon grow up and can help around. Soon, the first competing tribe will rise. Just like previous stages, you will either need to befriend or kill the tribes. To befriend, you get instruments and play for them, and to kill them you destroy your main hut. If their face is below Yellow, you need to bring them a gift for them to listen to your music. After 5 tribes have been conquered or allied with, you advance to civilization. You now have a city, and you can build a City Hall, Homes for your citizens, Entertainment so they don't get bored, and Factories for money, and can add yet cannot build Turrets. You control vehicles and take over all the other nations to be world dominant. In Space, you control a spaceship and do various missions for the other empires, expand your empire to over 300 planets, and deal with the Galaxy-Famous Grox Empire.
This game was really hyped up about 4 years ago, as stated in the intro, but the expectations were reduced when the game was released. Many were disappointed, as many features, like a 3-D underwater stage, were removed, however, you should still check this game out. Slowly but surely, the game is making up with some great expansion, like the Galactic Adventures Pack recently released, and even some new versions like Spore Hero and Spore Keeper, so just sit tight and wait for what future titles have to offer.
Reviewer's Score: 7/10 | Originally Posted: 07/15/09
Game Release: Spore (US, 09/07/08)
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