Spore - Did it deliver?

[Zephik]

So what did you guys think of Spore? Has anyone bought it or played it yet?

I bought it yesterday and played it all day long, made it to the space age, got bored of it and thats where I'm at now. I'm not really sure what I think at the moment. Its a fun game, but its almost like... not fun enough? or as fun as I thought it was going to be? I think all the hype about it might of somewhat ruined the game for me. But I also think that there just wasn't enough gameplay content. Not enough to do and not enough diversity of things to do.

What do you guys think?

[d_stilgar]

Most of the reviews I've read are saying that the game is great as an art piece, but that as a game it is so-so. I want to get it, but I'm going to wait until it's $20. My brother might get it though. I got bored with the creature creator really quick, and I never got hooked to The Sims, so I don't think this game will have me much better.

[Durrthock]

First 2 phases kick ass. 3 phase is eh. 4 phase im bogged down with texture issues so I stopped playing for a little while.

[d_stilgar]

My brother just got it. I'll tell you guys my thoughts in 24 hours.

[ShadowNyfe]

The marketing point of that game was the diversity and the open-endedness of the gameplay, watching your choices affect how the outcomes turn out. My impression was, just like any other RPG, there's an ideal set of stuff to use for each situation and no real variety. First phase, was pretty easy, there was no real reason to pick one over another or formation of body parts. I mean the way you could shape the bodies and still have them animate was awesome, but functionally I rarely saw any difference.

Second phase, you pretty much just went for the biggest attack power, because you want that as a carnivore, and as the other two, you can't stand up to the carnivores that aren't persuadable, so you end up going for highest attack also.

Civ phase, just build the car with the most guns on it possible, period. Get like a group of 5, and it doesnt matter if it takes you a year to get there, when you DO get there, they're fked. Speed is really no issue, since the shost are homing so you can't really run away once they shoot.

All in all, conceptually was great, but probably due to complexity of how hard it would be to live up to the hype, turned out pretty average.

[Zephik]

My main gripe: Its not realistic enough.

For example: A tank with 7 weapons does the same amount of damage as a tank with 1 weapon. Also, the tank with 7 weapons isn't slower than the 1 weapon tank as it would be in the real world. Theres no "give and take". Its purely visual. Nothing really does anything and items and abilities don't stack.

Another Example: A creature with a crazy amount of attack items can be beaten by a creature with just one attack item since the stats of items don't stack. I think 5 is the maximum stat amount you can get for anything and everything? So you could have a bunch of level 5 weapons and be on the same level as a creature with only one level 5 weapon.

Also, if you have a level 3 weapon and a level 2 weapon, that doesn't add up to 5 attack. It just takes the highest rated weapon, which would be 3, and thats your attack strength, thus making the 2 item useless aside from aesthetics.

The game is very visual overall. Kind of makes it a bit boring. Don't get me wrong, its fun to design stuff, but it does get old fairly quickly.

Spore: 5/10 - Great idea, poor follow through.

[rendermandan]

Interesting reviews. I was considering buying this game, but after reading the posts above, I think I'll save my $50 for some thing else.

Thanks!

[Zephik]

Interesting reviews. I was considering buying this game, but after reading the posts above, I think I'll save my $50 for some thing else.

Thanks!

If you can rent it or borrow it, go for it. Its worth playing, if only once, its just not worth paying.

Actually, thanks to EA's DRM, you might not even be able to borrow it? I _think_ Spore comes with a maximum of three installs, at least thats what I heard. Which also means that you probably can't rent it either. (not that you could rent PC games anyways lol) I would just Lazy Town it.

Also, I forgot to mention before, I read a few reviews about Spore being great if your a "Strategist".... I'm pretty sure they are wrong. I mean if your a young teenager, maybe. But there really is no strategy to this game. For the most part its pretty guided and there really aren't too many options to choose from.

Well anyways, the important thing is that Spore has paved a new road to travel upon in the gaming industry. I'm pretty positive that we'll see many more ripples in the pond from this one stone for quite some time before they finally die out, unless someone throws in another stone to keep the ripples going. :p

[crenn]

You won't be able to rent it for borrow Spore. My sister has it, but she needs to wait til a new computer before she can install it.

[xRyokenx]

Hopefully it will be massively improved with patches in the future. Thing is that EA doesn't seem to patch anything very well... like with CnC3, they totally screwed up the gameplay.

[d_stilgar]

Okay, so it's been 24 hours and I'm actually quite happy so far. Each new phase seems to offer a little more. It's pretty fun and worth the $50, especially over going to 5-7 movies at the same price. There is a lot of replay value. For how in depth the creature creator is, the gameplay is a little shallow, but whatever. It holds my attention so I give it a 4 out of 5.

[rendermandan]

Hey guys, I changed my mind and went ahead and bought it yesterday. I installed it last night and played for a few hours. The first stage was way to short and easy. I'm currently in the the second stage, about half way through. at this pace, I'll be in outerspace in no time. -I've read some reviews that say you spend most of your time in space, so hopefully this holds true. otherwise I will probably finish it in a few days.

[NightrainSrt4]

To be honest, I was quite disappointed. Each stage is really just doing the same thing over and over and over again to get to the next. There is always going to be a best way to do something, but in this game if you don't take that route, everything becomes far more difficult.

I've been watching the game far before the hyped was built. It had me hooked the first time I saw it, and now I am pretty disappointed. Huge sections of the original ideas for the game were chopped or "dumbed down". Originally EA stated there wouldn't be expansions as it wasn't the kind of game to do that with, and now it seems they are hoping to go that route. I guess it becomes easy to go the expansion route when you drop things from what the original game was supposed to be.

Making creatures, watching the evolution process, creating objects and such are all great fun, but the gameplay itself is nothing but a letdown, after the proofofconcept novelty of creating/evolving passes away.


And one bug to watch out for, you can only zoom out so far it seems in the creature phase (less theres a way to zoom out farther than the mouse scroll wheel), and if your creature is too tall, it turns invisible. I was making a humanoid type and by the end of that phase I evolved so they were standing straight up, and hatched, and they were invisible. Made them shorter and they went back to visible. Tried and tested several times. =(

[xRyokenx]

@NightrainSrt4: So it is pretty much just a new version of The Sims? Hopefully they improve it with patches but EA is notorious for not actually making their patches do anything useful...

[NightrainSrt4]

I don't think I would go as far as to say it was just a new version of The Sims, but it definitely is of a simplistic nature like The Sims.

I guess I was hoping for more of a reaction based on each choice you make, but many choices just lead to the same endpoint. Kind of hard to explain without having you play it. Its just simple, and each evolutionary choice doesn't really make much of a difference.

They will probably fix some of the bugs with patches, but I think the gameplay issue, if ever addressed, will be done through expansions.

[xRyokenx]

So it's kind of like living life, lol: you die but your path is what should be remembered.

And comparing it to The Sims was the only analogy I could think of.

[rendermandan]

Hey, I just found an easter Egg. When you start the game and are looking at the universe with the worlds to create a new game or select your home world. if you Spin really fast around and around, several pictures of What look like the game creators, or just random people appear and then float away. Try it!

[simon275]

I think it is a good title but the stacking thing annoyed me.

[caveman42]

I think Spore is a pretty solid game...but I don't think it can outlive The Sims franchise.

[xRyokenx]

They should have refined it a bit more and separated the bacteria and water creature phases. That would have really made it better. Another thing: Is it just me or does the creature phase really play like a simplified version of World of Warcraft?

[d_stilgar]

The space stage is pretty cool. It's the biggest and the most fun. You can really do whatever you want in it. That part I am enjoying. I'm also pretty good at making stuff in the creator, so I like that part too.