Learning SPORE

[Unicron]

Finally got around to installing my copy of SPORE the other night and I'm playing around with. I wish it was easier to make omnivorous creatures, as the impression I've gotten online is that it's somewhat easier to simply add two mouths to a cell than to find the right part. I've only been able to find half of the total parts in that phase so far anyway, but I'm learning.

 

[Jono]

Spores not a too bad game. The last stage is a real let down though compared to the fun of the early stages. It didn't go enough for me to get into the expansions though so that might have since changed.

 

[Unicron]

Yeah, I've seen some reviews praise some of the innovative designs of the game engine (at the time of release anyway) while commenting that the game doesn't do as well as an actual game. It's not too bad though.

 

[Da'an]

Escapistmagazine's "Zero Punctuation" review of Spore is fantastic.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/218-Spore

 

[Cain]

I loved the editors. Completely revolutionary. The rest of the game (or more accurately games) kind of suck. The cell stage is well done. But, they get progressively more and more repetitive and shallow. The tribal stage is especially bad. Spore runs a mile wide and an inch deep.

You can spend hours in the editors though. Which makes the game part even more annoying. You spend hours in the editors making these cool buildings and ships, but in the game, they are so tiny, you don't really see them. The creature editor is well integrated into that part of the game, but the rest are just window dressing.

 

[Canadave]

^ I think the problem is that every stage felt like a cheap version of some other game, and none of them really managed to stand on their own as something you could really call "Spore".

The editor is fantastic and addictive at first, but after a while you begin to realize that it doesn't matter all that much what you do, most of the changes are cosmetic and don't really change the way you play at all. It's unfortunate, because it could have been so much more...

 

[Da'an]

It would have been nice if there was some proper "evolution" mechanics to the gameplay, instead of the mix-n-match approach.

 

[Cain]

That was another annoying thing. When playing the Creature stage, you don't get parts fast enough. By the time you get enough parts to build a creature you like, the stage is over.

 

[ThunderAeroI]

No part of Spore was any fun at all. The entire game felt dumbed down and rushed with little point. The end game went on and on and on and on and on and on and on

 

[Unicron]

Yeah, it does take way too long to get parts in Spore, and the only way to use certain cheats (like the free DNA cheat) is in the creature editor, as opposed to the main stage. So while this cheat would allow you to buy parts you couldn't otherwise afford, you can't use it to increase your base DNA count and thus advance faster to the tribal stage. You have to go around attacking or pleasing creatures to get that DNA.

It also sucks that you need certain skills to win DNA by not killing creatures, but those skills only come from certain parts. If you haven't found the appropriate part or can't afford it (without cheating), then you're kind of screwed.

 

[Cutter John]

Man I hate Spore threads. What must the OP think after hearign all this griping? I wanted to love this game so damn much, but just wound up dissapointed. I still love the original premise, but unfortunately someone along the line decided the game needed to be more 'kid friendly' and ruined it.

Two biggest gripes.

* Almost impossible to play a Carnivore in the Creature segment, as all the other creatures are either stronger or as powerful as you, and tend to huddle in groups around their nests. Game needs more lone wandering herbivores to stalk and ambush.

* Needs to be more to the Village and City segments than just fending off non-stop atttacks from your neighbors. How about a little exploration, research, and deplomacy? (Guess they didn't want people to accuse them of copying the Civ games)

* Stop with the damn 'Missions' in the Space segment. Or at least add more variety. Consdtantly having to play errand boy, by either fetching bio samples for money, or killing off five creatures to save a planet gets old pretty damn fast. Especially galling when you're halfway across the galaxy trying to explore and they're still beaming you messages to come save their asses.


I still half hope that someday they're release and expansion or just do a Spore II that will go back to being a more scientifically accurate evolution sim.

 

[Canadave]

Man I hate Spore threads. What must the OP think after hearign all this griping? I wanted to love this game so damn much, but just wound up dissapointed. I still love the original premise, but unfortunately someone along the line decided the game needed to be more 'kid friendly' and ruined it.

I can't help but feel that it must have got away from Will Wright at some point. It just lacks the grace and balance his designs usually have, even if they aren't always good. Partly, I think it's the way things get shoehorned into stages with very rigid goals... there's something about that that just kills the sandbox feel.

 

[Jono]

* Almost impossible to play a Carnivore in the Creature segment, as all the other creatures are either stronger or as powerful as you, and tend to huddle in groups around their nests. Game needs more lone wandering herbivores to stalk and ambush.

I had the opposite experience when I first played the initial release version. I stormed through all the stages really, really quickly with a carnivore creature and it wasn't until I hit space that it came crashing down. Went through twice with the same thing happening, I get into space and 4 out of 5 other species I meet immediately go to war with me and just tie me up and make it close to impossible to really expand.

Herbivore I found it slower to get to space but once there space was easier as most races didn't immediately hate me.

* Stop with the damn 'Missions' in the Space segment. Or at least add more variety. Consdtantly having to play errand boy, by either fetching bio samples for money, or killing off five creatures to save a planet gets old pretty damn fast. Especially galling when you're halfway across the galaxy trying to explore and they're still beaming you messages to come save their asses.

Completely agree. It gets repetitive very quick and I felt very let down by the "reward" you get for getting to the centre of the galaxy, I didn't feel it was worth the hours I put into expanding my empire, getting my tech up so I could fight through those robots.

 

[TheGodBen]

I find that the biggest problem with Spore was how separate each of the stages are from one another. For example, when you move from the creature stage to the tribal stage none of the creatures who have nests near yours remain, the game just generates some random new creatures around your tribe. It is things like that which really make the game feel like five separate games rather than one cohesive whole.

Another big problem is how static the creature phase is, all the creatures just hang around their nests with one or two random predators walking around the place. When you look at the early build Wright showed off there was a great moment when his creature went onto land for the first time and a giant razor/eyeball creature attacked him out of the blue and he had to run away. That's what the creature stage should have been like, a dynamic, living world, not just nests of creatures standing around all day.

I still hope that there might be an expansion some day which fixes those two issues otherwise I can't see myself playing Spore again.

 

[Cutter John]

I don't have much faith though, since the latest expansion is trying to turn the game into some sort of spacegoing adventure/RPG. Guess the folks at EA have given up on the original premise.

I don't know. If I ever get back into Spore, or they manage to fix some of the issues, I may pick it up.