Review: Spore
So I spent the better half of the day on Sunday playing Spore. I have to say that I’m very impressed. I really didn’t know what to expect or how they would be able to compress billions of years of evolution into one game, but they’ve done it.
As most people know, you begin as a one-celled organism. From the get-go you get to choose what you want to be; herbivore or carnivore. I chose carnivore. This first stage has you swimming around eating little pieces of meat or little plants, depending on what you chose in the beginning. The more you eat the more you grow. Whenever you want to change your appearance you have to give out a mating call, find a mate and recreate. You then choose what new features to get on your spore by “purchasing” them with the DNA points you’ve accumulated.
The game continues on this pattern until you’ve evolved to be an out-of-water creature, then on to forming a tribe, then a civilization, world domination, and on to the universe.
The game is amazing. If I had to complain about one thing it would be the “kid” factor. The game is meant to be played by a wide range of audiences so I understand that some things need to be kid friendly. But there are a number of things that are too kid-oriented.
Besides that, the game is amazing and very addictive. Right now I’m in the civilization stage where different cities start to pop up around the planet and I have to be diplomatic and ally with them, or conquer them.
Random thought: A really cool thing, sometimes, even during the little creature stage, you’ll be walking around and all of a sudden a UFO flies in. I thought that was pretty cool.
