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Spore game review

There’s been a lot of hype about Spore, the big new game from Will Wright and his hardworking crew at Electronic Arts. Wright is the creator of The Sims, and Spore took six years to make. It’s supposed to be the biggest thing he’ll ever do. But does Spore live up to the hype?

SPORE

Electronic Arts for Mac and PC

Graphics: 7.5

Sound: 9.0

Gameplay: 8.0

Replay Value: 9.5

Overall Score: 8.5

Pros: Completely immersive gameplay experience; Creature Creator rocks; share creatures and worlds online.

Cons: Takes time to install; some camera angle issues; graphics could be better.

FITS AND STARTS

Spore is a fascinating game in which you start out as a simple cell in the ocean. From there, you help grow your cell from a strange, alien land dweller to a civilized being to one with a spaceship who explores the galaxy.

The game takes about a half-hour or more to install. Then, when you first boot it up, it takes a while to load. It took so long, I clicked the swirly Spore icon a second time, and the game wouldn’t run. There should have been a popup screen that says “loading” or something.

UP AND RUNNING

But once it does run, it’s just beautiful and fun to be a young cell under the sea. You can choose to be an herbivore or carnivore cell. I chose to be an herbivore, a plant eater. Then, to the sound of trippy music by Brian Eno (who produced the latest Coldplay CD), I was swimming playfully in the sea. I used the keyboard’s arrow buttons to move around and explore. There are so many things growing here — weird-looking creatures that other people have made — I almost didn’t want to leave this wonderful sea.

It might be better to be a meat eater because I kept getting eaten by other cells early on. Just a veggie eater consuming bright green algae, I couldn’t bite them back. So my little purple cell yelped and eventually died. But the game started over again. After I explored the sea to unlock special body parts, I found a girlfriend, who showed me she liked me when hearts floated all around her.

Later, I was able to add a poison-puffing part to the cell’s body. When other cells would try to eat me, I had some means of defense. I survived!

MAKING A MOVE

It was time to make my move to land. The beach seemed vast, full of wonders and dangers. And the island to which it belonged was full of strange and awesome creatures. Some were small like me. Others were bigger but shy. Some were downright nasty and didn’t want to be pals. And one was two-legged and huge. It picked me up like Goliath picking up David, took a bite out of me and threw me down, nearly killing me. I quickly ate a lot of fruit to restore my health.

My goals were many: eating constantly to stay alive; finding hidden bones (usually near other beings) so I could alter my body with things like wings; and making pals with other creatures. I made friends first by calling them over and singing them a song. After talking to three of them, I received the reward of some DNA, which helped me transform and grow stronger.

While the graphics aren’t the most detailed in the world, they’re generally delightful, so much so that I had my creature traverse the whole island to see everything. You can adjust the graphics for more detail, but it might slow down your computer.

I did notice a few issues on the island. When I got too close to a hilly or mountainous area, the camera angle didn’t work very well. Briefly, I didn’t know where I was. Then, when feeding on orange fruit, sometimes the tree would just disappear. Often, I didn’t have to walk around plants; I was able to walk through them. That shouldn’t happen.

LEADING AND SHARING

In the next stage, you move on to create a tribe. I liked this the least, as the oohs and ahhs I found with my little island creature weren’t there. I was more of a leader controlling a group of beings as in any real-time strategy game. Plus, the camera issue grew to be a problem in this stage.

Eventually, you’ll travel through the universe exploring planets in a spaceship of your own making. You have a ton of choices throughout: make your own things, use Spore to create them or use the things that the vast Spore online community has made. The surprises that await you when you see a UFO or when you move through space are just astonishing. To know that so many other people in the Spore community are doing the same makes you feel a kinship.

When you’re done, you can upload your own creature or planet for people to play in. You can take pictures and record video of your progress, too.

FLAWED BUT FULL OF AWE

You can probably breeze through Spore in about 10 hours, maybe less. But the true enjoyment comes from exploring the worlds. Don’t rush Spore. Savor it. While Spore is sometimes flawed, one thing is clear: This is one of those discs that changes video games for all time.

Spore is nothing if not addicting. I started playing one morning and before I knew it, more than  four hours had passed in what seemed to be the blink of an eye. Play Spore in your spare time, after homework and chores, or you won’t get anything done.

Finally, the Spore manual says you’re allowed to have a few accounts when you buy one CD. Sadly, you can only have one account per household because EA is trying to cut down on piracy issues. But you can have multiple creatures so you and your whole family can make vehicles and planets, too. You just can’t play all together at once.

38 Comments on Spore game review

  1. This is my fav game, actually,. But the problem is that it’s not a great game, but the Editors are the biggest, indescribably awesomest part.

  2. ITS A GOOD GAME!BUT GET PATCHES IT GLITCHES A LOT!!

  3. I’ve got some questions about it for anyone who has the game.
    1. Which game is better, regular Spore or Galactic adventures?

    2. I don’t know anything about Galactic adventures. What is it like?

    3.Is every creature on the game being controlled by someone? Are there any computer players?

    Thank you to anyone who can answer these questions.

  4. i agree 762634 it is nothing like the review on ds

  5. im probobly getting spore today and i have a few questions.
    1: do the actions you make in the game reflect on how you evolve or do you make the creture as you go?
    2:do you get to play with other people online?
    3:are there any extremely long video parts in this game?
    thank you if you can answer these questions 🙂 🙂

    • CoinCollector // May 27, 2010 at 11:07 am // Reply

      To answer your questions: Yes, your choices affect your abilities and the choices that you are able to make later in the game. No, you don’t play with people online, though you do share your creations and achievements with other people on the Spore website. You can also download other people’s creations. No, there are not any long video parts, though the game is organized in five stages, and you can easily take longer to achieve this stage than the other stages.

  6. GROUDON-

    To own galactic adventures you MUST already own Spore. GA is an expansion pack for the Space stage which lets you get out of your space ship. Everybody is controlled by the computer, because Spore is completely single-player, except for sharing creations.

    You should get Spore. My screen name is Grot0x so check out my creation.

    -Grot0x

  7. I want to known how to use hidden cell parts.

  8. you know, there is a much better spore patch out there

  9. kinda boring

  10. CoinCollector // January 19, 2010 at 10:21 am // Reply

    I’ve found that it’s better to be an omnivore during the creature stage. Then you can eat meat AND plants. In the space stage, I’ve also found that it’s easier to destroy another empire’s home planet by lowering the T stage (T0, T1, T2, T3) to T1 or T0, then you only have one city to deal with.

  11. I don’t have Spore but I know a lot about it.I want it though.

  12. CoinCollector // November 25, 2009 at 8:25 am // Reply

    You can also be an omnivore. I found that out when I put a carnivore mouth and herbivore mouth on my cell.

  13. To use cheats, press control-shift-c then type help in the box.
    It will give you all the cheats!! so cool
    Thy have a money cheat and weapons cheat too! Yay me

  14. the spice cannons in the creature stage are fun to jump into especially if you have wings

  15. THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE IS SO FUNNY! I wont give it away but those of you who have been there know what i mean.

  16. glactic spores a add on to the original spores game.Tgalactic spores only has to do with the space stage in the old spores,the spce stage is very boring so they created more for it.You can get out of your ship and exsplor the planet on foot and help the creatures on that planet evolve faster.

  17. Spore is one of the coolest games known to man-kind it’s totally fun and interactive although the the last stage in the game is pretty hard. Anyway, I have this on PC and It’s flippin’ cool you MUST buy this game if you have not already
    SPORE IS FLIPPIN’ AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  18. I’ve got some questions about it for anyone who has the game.
    1. Which game is better, regular Spore or Galactic adventures?

    2. I don’t know anything about Galactic adventures. What is it like?

    3.Is every creature on the game being controlled by someone? Are there any computer players?

    Thank you to anyone who can answer these questions. :mrgreen:

  19. i made godzilla on spore

  20. to make bones larger you use the scroller in the middle of the mouse.

  21. Sporefreak // July 7, 2009 at 6:36 pm // Reply

    The best game inthe world. Espesialy if you have galtic adventures

  22. captien 101 // June 29, 2009 at 6:52 pm // Reply

    i’ve got galactic adventures BEST GAME IN THE UNIVERESE!

  23. i used to have spore for pc but uninstaleed it after a while to get spore galactic adventures SPORE ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  24. hey guys tell me if you are friends with award99 on spore.also theres a new spore coming out.called “spore galactic advetures.SPORE IS THE BEST GAME IN THE WORLD.

  25. Spore Guy // May 16, 2009 at 5:54 am // Reply

    I love it! But i wish there was more epics.

  26. I have the game and it ROCKS!!!!!

  27. I am wondering(please answer) when you go to creature creater after the cell stage how do you make your bones larger in different spots or is it even possible.
    I would really appreciate your answer, have a nice day bye.

  28. cool

  29. the big creaters are called epic creaters.

  30. I got SPORE for the computer/pc and IPOD for my b day. Its fuuuuun!

  31. i have never played thjis befofe

  32. Give yourself something to fly with (in the creature stage) and jump and fly off of a tall hill it’s awesome! You can see half of the whole planet somtimes!

  33. the plant thing was really annoying but other than that it was AWESOME

  34. this is awsome

  35. ITS A GOOD GAME!BUT GET PATCHES IT GLITCHES A LOT!!

  36. i agree with 762634 it is nothing like the review on ds

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