Spore is not your little sister’s sims!

Prior to the release of Warhammer Online my roommate and I have been investing our time into Spore. All in all I have to say I am very pleased with the whole experience. It was a lot of what I imagined and a lot more of what I didn’t!

From the onset the first surprise the game brought me was that it wasn’t easy. I won’t say it is overly difficult but there is the real risk of dying. There is no consequence to this but it does add enjoyment to the whole experience. That was, mind you, at normal difficulty. I can only imagine the level of frustration that might accompany the hard difficulty level.

Beginning as a cell places you in a life that is both short and brutal. It is a species eat species world and a good introduction to how the game will work. Gobbling up parts allows you to evolve in new but limited (at this stage) ways. Ultimately be careful here. What you eat dictates a lot of how your later stages will play.

The creature stage comes next and tends to be one of the better aspects of the game. Now on land you get to go around the world making friends, driving species into extinction and collecting goodies to better customize yourself. The replay here can be tedious because it isn’t that exciting to find all the parts a second or third time. It is, however, a required part of the game. This is also another dangerous stage that will lock you into a certain path pretty quickly. It is, without a doubt, the most influential point of your existence.

The subsequent tribal and civilization stages are both short and almost pointless. Your choices matter but only to a minor degree. If you were a predator in the cell stage and a carnivore in the creature stage it will take all your effort not to be a “bad guy” in the tribal stage. I made more friends than enemies and I was still a deep red predator. This is where the game really starts limiting your choices. It also lacks in this area in other ways. If you choose to befriend tribes instead of killing them off it doesn’t matter. They won’t show up in the next stage even though you purposely spared them.

Once I hit civilization I really only had one option, subject the entire planet to my will. The planet was, of course, only populated by different versions of my species. The warrior versions quickly did well. The social and religious ones were gobbled up. When you have two big kids on the block they’re eventually going to fight. So, of course, we did! I the blues defeated the reds! The play here is like a bad RTS. You get one land unit, one sea unit (totally and utterly pointless) and one air unit (or as I call it, the raper of worlds). Air units can destroy anything with ease. Land units cannot be taken to another continent so they sit at home waiting for attacks that will not come. As I suggested with the tribal stage, the civilization era was somewhat lame and short.

The space stage is where the game really shines. The re-playability and sheer amount of things to do is wonderful! All your choices culminate here and lock you down to a final role. I was, not surprisingly, a warrior race. The ironic thing is that when you first begin going out and blowing up other species is a bad idea. Wars are both costly and annoying. Despite all my history most people love my species. I trade a lot and make friends. Little do they know that sooner or later I’ll start conquering the galaxy by force! The space simulation is very well done here. Combat is simplistic but everything else is stellar.

The Good:
-Cute! The game is absolutely adorable. Even when you make a mean and scary species they still sometimes come across as cute. My giant werewolves, for instance, wear a colonial tri-pointed hat! When baby creatures are involved people will always go awwww.
-Customization! The possibilities for character creation are pretty much endless. I’ve seen some really amazing work done.
-Open play. You decide what you do to begin with and it has consequences. You can stay in each stage as long as you like.
-Generally fun. The game just good fun. Its something different and ultimately ends up as a space sim.
-The space sim is very good.
-Expandability is built in even if Will Wright doesn’t suggest they plan to. New parts can be added, new quests, new badges and more!
-Truly random! If you allow all user content the potential for additional species is endless.

The Bad:
-Spore tries to lock you into one path (regardless of what the tag line says). It is very difficult to stay in the middle. You’re either a beefy warrior or a pretty socialite. It takes work and pre-planning to go in between.
-The tribal stage is short and largely pointless. There needed to be a whole lot more here. What happens to the animals you domesticate? What happens to the other tribes? What about those aliens that came and abducted your grandmother?
-The civilization stage is also short and largely pointless. See above.
-The game might be hard for certain demographics. This, to me, is not necessarily bad and there is an easy difficulty.
-Ridiculous DRM! You can install Spore three times before you have to call EA and explain why you want to do so again!

Is the game worth picking up? Oh yes! I have to give it 9.5 Gnolls out of 10!