It doesn’t matter if it’s
“Roller Coaster Tycoon” or
“Diner Dash.” At some point,
everyone has played a strategic
game on the computer.
They can be long, boring and
almost as tedious as balancing
a checkbook or watching
grass grow.
What if, instead of building
premade buildings and using
premade characters, you
made your own species?
How about building your
own lifeform and nursing it
through the various stages of
evolution?
“Spore” uses an intuitive
design and an impressive
scale with simple controls to
make a fun and charming
game. While “Spore” itself
isn’t psychologically deep,
it’s broad in that one can create
anything they want.
The player can make a oneeyed
flying lizard or an eightlimbed
dinosaur with three
mouths, but in order to get to
that, the player must get
through the first stages of life.
“Spore” starts the player
out as a single-celled organism
that must avoid predatory
microbes and eat smaller
microbes in order to evolve.
However, before this phase
can begin, the player must
decide whether to be a carnivore
or an herbivore.
From this point on, it’s all
about building that microbe
up to a creature and evolving
its society into a space civilization.
There are so many elements
involved in this game that it’s
hard to keep track of them all.
One of the best things about
“Spore” is the colorful design
elements. It’s all so bright
and intriguing that anyone
would want to see what
everything looks like.
Because of the fact that
there are so many color
options and skin styles for the
creatures, it’s almost impossible
to make the same creature
twice.
Another part about the
game that’s so fantastic is the
phases the player goes
through. As previously stated,
its starts out as a cell, and
then evolves into a creature, a
tribal society, a civilization,
and then a space civilization.
The best part, that’s so different
from any other game
like this, is there is no time
limit for how long someone
can spend in each phase.
If you like hanging around
as a tribal society, you can.
And if you get bored, you can
even skip a phase.
As soon as the creation
stage is reached, elements can
be added.
The creature discovers a tail
to help it swim or a horn to
help it attack and defend.
Like all games when something
is this intuitive, there
are bound to be problems
with the game.
A main problem is that the
first parts of the game aren’t
very fun and engaging as
they could be.
Drifting around as a cell,
eating until it evolves, and
avoiding cells bigger than
you isn’t captivating.
It should take only 20 minutes
to complete this stage,
which then thankfully
changes into the creature
stage.
Another problem is that
while very broad in size and
scale, the game’s elements of
creation aren’t as deep as
they could be.
There are only so many
options for creatures.
But since the game can be
played online, EA is bound to
release a patch and an expansion
to help with these problems.
Overall, “Spore” is one of
the most interesting games of
2008. Despite some minor
problems, the game itself is
fun and immersive.
The player may spend
hours mixing and matching
parts in order to get the creature
they want.
Its creative gameplay
makes it a must-have for anyone.
It’s simple enough for a
novice to pick up, but interactive
enough to make any
strategy fan play for hours.