Spore Review - PC

8

Gameplay: 7
Graphics: 7
Audio: 8
Multiplayer: 9
Innovation: 8

Introduction

Will Wright’s latest project has gotten a lot of attention. Many were praising the title for its strongly creative gameplay and impressive creation system; some retailers even broke the game’s street date in their haste to get the game into people’s hands. As such, the question must be asked, is the game really that good? Read on to find out.

Gameplay

Spore is a sim game, much like the other games Will Wright has worked on, such as The Sims and Sim City. However, unlike the others, rather than building a city or creating virtual people, Spore puts you in charge of creating your own creature, and then helping that creature continually evolve over time. Fittingly, the game is broken up into five stages of evolution to accommodate for this. Each of these are significantly different to one another, a great idea theoretically, but when it comes to the practical applications, the results vary. To review a game like Spore accurately, all of the individual parts that make up the experience should be looked at; so first, let’s start at the beginning.

"The Cell" stage is the start of the game, and where you will be introduced to your creature. You are given a generic base model to start with (carnivore or herbivore), and gameplay begins almost immediately. There are also a couple of tutorials to guide you on your way and set your objectives. Things are simple, with everything displayed with a 2D perspective. All you have to do is click somewhere and your little creature will head there. Pieces of food drift through the water, and eating them partly fills your evolution gauge at the bottom of the screen. As it fills your creature will get bigger. Eating food also gains DNA points, which can be used on the creature creation screen, though you can only customise your creature to a limited extent at this point.

One of the things that has been done beautifully well in Spore is the creation/modification system. New parts can be placed anywhere on a creature, and as soon as you put them on, they will attach themselves seamlessly. Your creature then makes use of the new body part instantly. These parts will benefit your creature in various ways, for example, you can turn your creature into an omnivore by adding a herbivore mouth if they’ve been created as a carnivore. You can create all manner of insane, almost completely impossible creatures, and the creator will make sure that every one of them functions. All you have to do is make sure they have a mouth, otherwise they’ll starve to death. Once your creature is big enough and your evolution bar is full, the creature creator opens up, and you can add some legs to your aquatic creature, allowing it to venture onto land for the first time, and beginning the Creature stage.

The "Creature" stage is much more complex and lengthy than the Cell stage. The game switches to a (continued next page)